Trading one vice for another can be a tool to achieve frugal living.
When I speak of vice I’m not speaking about alcohol, or use of pornography or drug use, I’m writing about more pedestrian forms of pleasure.
Entertainment is a form of pleasure that many of us are willing to part with our hard earned dollars to partake in. We are accustomed to having constant input so boredom is always lurking in the shadows waiting to assail us with peace and quiet.
Recently I was chatting with a friend of mine. He mentioned that he was investigating a new streaming service because he couldn’t find anything good to watch, and he’d heard good things about the service he was looking into. It was affordable, certainly less than the other services he is subscribed to. Naturally, I encouraged him to drop all his subscriptions and find other ways to keep entertained.
I understand that this is not a popular opinion, but hear me out. There was a time when none of us had subscriptions. What did we do for entertainment then? When I was a kid we watched commercial television and I watched PBS as a child. Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street were favorites of mine. It was fine. We didn’t need constant noise and distraction. We had conversations. We played games. We read books. All these forms of entertainment are available today a low or no cost.
As we spoke about what he was looking for he mentioned that he was disappointed with one of his streaming services. That it no longer offered entertainment he enjoyed and in fact he wasn’t using it. That’s when I told him about my concept of trading one expense for another.
When I decide to buy something that will incur an ongoing cost, I typically look at other ongoing expenses I have and figure out what I can eliminate in order to keep my budget in line with my preference. For example, I volunteered to take one of my grandkids to a martial arts school. I figured out the cost, including the cost to make a one off trip to pick him up and the cost for club membership, then I eliminated another expense so that my financial output remained roughly the same.
I suggested to my friend he do the same. Eliminate the service he doesn’t use so he can add on a service he thinks he will use.
The other alternative I suggested is to only use free services. For example, I use my local library to check out books. They have an application called Libby, so I can get ebooks delivered to my reading device. The Libby application also offers audio books so I can enjoy listening while I am doing household tasks or driving. My library also offers two video streaming applications, “Kanopy” and “Hoopla”. Both streaming application have a massive collection of videos that include educational, documentary, foreign, and popular mainstream film.
If your library doesn’t offer an application for video streaming, ebooks, or audio books, not to worry there are plenty of services that offer free entertainment.
Project Gutenberg offers free books that are in the public domain. Their library has over 70,000 titles. LibVox offers free audio books that are in the public domain. Their library has over 18,000 audio books.
What I love about the public domain offerings is that there is a wide variety of interesting subjects. Fiction is widely available, but did you ever feel curious about what they used to teach women about sex and marriage? How about a 19th century book about diet and exercise? You can download Lewis Carroll, Mary Shelley, or Louisa May Alcott. Mark Twain is a popular author to download. Want to read to the kids? I’m not sure Grimm’s Fairy Tales is a great option, but their books are available. Beatrix Potter may be a less terrifying option.
You can find old time science fiction beyond Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus”. Project Guttenberg offers Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, and Edgar Rice Burroughs.
If you don’t have time to read, LibVox has some of the same authors available as audio books.
I enjoy watching YouTube, I look for history channels, and cooking channels.
There are several streaming services that offer streaming with ads. Yes it takes time to get used to the interruption, but get used to it you will -really fast if you are enjoying what you are watching.
Of course consuming entertainment is great, but having a hobby is even better. I’ve been interested in photography for ages. I took several black and white film photography classes where I learned about composition, lighting, film development, and printing. Today digital photography is way more affordable and accessible. Recently, I enjoyed an early morning sunrise photo outing a few blocks from my home with my spouse. We felt our photo skills were rusty and an early morning, capturing the clouds at sunrise in a quaint downtown area was just the ticket to amuse us and get us out of the house. Not only did we have a great time, we reignited out love for interesting angles, great lighting, and time spent together with little conversation, but mindful exploration of our hometown.
When I make a trade of one expense for another I feel great. I love the idea of sacrificing a little so I can live the life I want to live. I always come back to the idea of investing in myself instead of spending on myself. When I set out to take on a new expense I ask myself a couple of simple questions. Is this an investment of time, money, or effort? Investments increase my knowledge, earn me money, or make my life better in some way through effort. Spending time, money or effort does none of that. Spending time is watching television mindlessly, spending money reduces my wealth and spending effort has no tangible outcome.
That’s not to say I don’t waste time, money or effort. I do. But it’s seldom and mindfully done. I select how I spend time. Typically with people I love. I choose how I spend money, that is infrequently and inconsequentially, and I spend effort if it’s going to be highly entertaining. Being mindful is the key to feeling great about nominal waste. If you are on autopilot you’ll have much more waste and much more regret.
Ultimately I talked my friend into trading one service for another. I’ll learn in the coming months if he is happy about the change. If he isn’t he’ll end up adding back the service he dropped, no harm, no foul.
I have three books that might be helpful, “Your Future Self Workbook: A Time Travelers Manifestation Workbook for Intentional Well Being” which offer a companion podcast or YouTube channel, “Never Worry About Money Again: Gain Financial Freedom By Becoming Better At Managing The Money You Have” and my moist recent book, “Your Golden Ticket Years: Find Your Passion on a Post Career Entrepreneurial Ride”. All are available on Amazon.
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