Need vs Want

[Guest]

I’ve been thinking alot about need vs. want as my

budget has gotten tighter and tighter. I’m in graduate

school full-time, am doing an intense internship this

semester, and am a single mother to a toddler. I have

cut back almost entirely on things that used to give

me pleasure, due to both time and money constraints.

And what I’m finding is that I start to feel like I

have nothing to look forward to.

I used to do rubber-stamping, and would get

ridiculously excited about buying a new $8 stamp and

thinking of creative ways to use it. I love hot

chocolate and used to occasionally treat myself to it

at Dunkin Donuts. And when I bought thank you notes,

if the design I really liked was a couple dollars

more, I just got it. Occasionally there would be a

nice, soft sweater at Marshalls or TJ Maxx for $25

that I couldn’t resist. For the most part, my

indulgences were quite small. But, unless I want to go

into debt for them, they’re too big now. It’s just

kind of depressing.

Maybe we should start a thread suggesting cheaper

substitutes for the indulgences we enjoy. Sometimes

the cheaper version feels just that – cheap. And

sometimes doing things the frugal way takes time that

we don’t have. But I would still like to hear what

others have to say…maybe there are some tricks that

I don’t know!

Suzanne

Join this group to find out about local deals and bargains:

https://groups.yahoo.com/group/frugalinmassachusetts/

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