USE it up. Wear it out. Make it do or do without.

This line on frugal living is one of my favourite mantras whenever I need to steer myself away from the retail playgrounds that dot the urban landscape.

My friends rib me about my frugal practices, but the escalating cost of living has made it necessary to adopt the practices of the previous gen eration who were raised in the post-war period. Back then, large families and small in comes made sure that people were careful with their money, and made sure they derived value from the things they owned and used.

Remember when it was com mon to see old clothes re-used as rags?

When new clothes were bought only once a year, which made the new threads on Chinese New Year, Hari Raya or Deepavali extra special?

Being frugal, however, will not make you popular.

When I was younger and had a salary that was far lower than my friends, I had to refuse social invitations to dinners in places where the main course alone cost more than my daily budget.

Frugal people get teased a lot too, and labelled as modern-day Scrooges un fairly when all we are doing is being careful about how and when we spend our money.

It’s tricky to adopt a frugal way of life, what with today’s culture of consumption urging everyone to pamper them selves, to upgrade constantly and to spend, spend, spend with easy credit facilities.

But think of this: the future will roll around sooner than you think, and this is where insurance companies have built up a campaign asking you to think about your retirement, or rather, your retirement ‘number’. How much will it take for you to fund your future?

Over a chat with a frugal friend recently, she did a simple calculation using my main source of income: my monthly paycheque.

She calculated the number of years till my retirement (which is 30, since I hope to be work ing till 60), and multiplied that with the number of months in a year. What she got was the number of paycheques I’d con tinue to receive: only 360.

“You’re only 360 paycheques away from retirement,” she said. When she put it that way, it didn’t sound like much, and it’s even a little alarming.

Perhaps you should do the same, and see when your regular stream of income will run out. That might spur you into re-thinking us frugal people differently.

Sujartha K
Assistant editor

Source: Malay Mail – January 10, 2008