Yesterday, after a lunch date at Jason’s Deli, my husband and I stopped by Best Buy to look into replacing my hanging-on-by-a-thread laptop that we’ve been saving up to replace over the last few months.
It’s been a long time since I’ve stepped foot in an electronics store and I was just a wee bit overwhelmed. Barely in the door, I was accosted by shiny gadgets promising to do just about everything but perform my morning workout routine (I’m still waiting for that to be invented!).
As I was browsing the aisles, seeing people paw excitedly over this blinking gadget and that flashing screen, and realizing you could spend your whole life savings in just one computer aisle alone, I was thinking about how this is just stuff.
Stuff that can serve a purpose, but can also suck your time and money.
Stuff that can bring some enjoyment, but which won’t make you happy long term.
Stuff that can aid you in your professional or personal life, but which won’t bring contentment.
Stuff that can clutter up your home, drain your energy and cost you an arm and a leg.
And right there in the middle of Best Buy, I had an epiphany: True frugality isn’t just about eating beans and rice and pinching pennies, it is recognizing that there is more to life than stuff. The quality of the life you live is much more important than the quantity of money or nice stuff you have.
I did buy a laptop (a Mac — believe it or not! — after being a PC girl all my life!), but I left the rest of the stuff on the shelves. Many of those other items might be useful, important or even necessary for other people in other situations, but, right now, I don’t need any of them. And I walked out completely free and content, paid-for laptop in hand.
photo by Moyan Brenn
Related: Get Rich Slowly has a thought-provoking post up today on quality of life versus quantity of stuff.
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Way to go on purchasing a MAC!!!! You won’t regret it! We love ours!
I was very recently convicted by the verse Timothy 6:6 “Godliness with contentment is great gain” I’ve known this for so long, but just yesterday I finally KNEW it with my heart and spirit and had to ask God for forgiveness. I’ve allowed “frugality” and getting deals and saving money and money in general to take far too much of my attention and energy. Thanks for your great thoughts, they definitely serve to reinforce to me that even though our family doesn’t have much money, we have all we NEED!
Preach it sista!
Thats the bad thing about “window shopping” or watching commercials or flipping through catalogs…stuff you never knew even existed is suddenly a “must have”. I’m not a gadget person and don’t understand people who are. There is always a bigger, better gadget just around the corner. (But, in all honesty, I never satisfy my fabric craving…I just try not to go without cash in hand!)
thanks, crystal. i needed this today. it is so true!
and you will love your mac.
good choice!
I’m a PC girl myself, who is waiting very patiently for this computer to die, then finally be able to justify buying a Macbook (shouldn’t be too long, given the average lifespan of a PC!). Our current computer was bought for us as a gift, so we will use it until it bites the dust. So for now I’m just dreaming…
I would have LOVED to have seen you at the counter, paying cash for your Mac, and seeing the salesperson count all those bills! I hope there was a “stuff” person behind you just oggling your frugalness
Enjoy your Mac! I love my MacBook Pro.
Such a great post! We recently moved (downsized) and realized as the movers were bringing in more and more boxes that we had too much stuff. It was truly eye opening to realize how much stuff we had that didn’t serve a purpose. After having a yard sale and donating lots of items to charity, we have settled into our new space without lots of stuff–and it feels great!
Amen to that!!! I recently had one of these epiphanies, and it is liberating. Stuff IS just stuff. Life is so much more than that. Great post, Crystal.
Thank you Crystal! We too have taken a step back and really tried to evaluate needs, wants, and absolutely ridiculous. One thing that always gets people is the barley basic service we keep on our cell phones. Calls & text thats it. It was freeing not having that Blackberry beeping every 2 minutes. It took me almost a year but I saved enough money to buy my first mac in 2008. The best decision I made. No extra money on antivirus software and no trial programs that I had to buy in 60 days. Takes some getting used to. I used the video tutorials a lot on the apple web site.
I’ve had that very same epiphany myself! Its freeing to realize that the desire for all that stuff doesn’t have to be something you feel… we can choose to be content with the stuff we have, and let go of desire for all that extraneous stuff!
Enjoy your new computer. Even though I don’t need one, I still have some computer-envy… my laptop is about the quit on me too!
Amen! It’s ALL gonna burn… I find it sad that people are lured into the fantasy that stuff is so important. Look what it’s doing to our country. Retailers love it, but the pursuit of stuff (and getting it with a minimum of effort or even not working) is sucking the life out of America.
I couldn’t agree more! I think you can pinch pennies and save money but still be “stuff focused.” Life is so much more than material things! I want to be rich in the things that really matter.
I think this is why we feel so good when we get rid of some “stuff.” There’s a small sense of a bit more freedom each time we go through the closets and fill up donation bags for Goodwill or the Salvation Army.
LOVE this story!! My husband and I just had a major blow out with his dad and step mom over me staying at home and not making enough money to buy expensive things that they have! It was so bad that they are no longer welcome in our lives because all they think about is money And we dont!! Thank you so much for sharing this story! It is nice to know that there are other people in the world who think there is more to life than having “stuff”!
Macs are the best (IMHO)! My husband and I both have a MacBook. They are SO user friendly, very dependable, customer service is great, etc. We use NeoOffice (OpenOffice for Mac) for text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, databases, drawings, etc. It is free, and I like it SO much better than MS Office. Have fun!
I have been thinking about this very thing lately… STUFF.
This hits it right on the mark! Thank you!
I love this post! I came to this realization by boycotting products made in China (for several reasons, which I won’t go into here). Once you take China out of the picture, let me tell you what, there’s not so much ‘stuff’ to buy. At first, I found it extremely difficult. Now I find it to be a blessing, because I’ve broken the stuff ‘addiction’, and it feels fantastic! My loved ones are learning too. I get calls from my Mom, saying she saw the cutest thing for me at the store, but she didn’t buy it because she knew I didn’t need or want more stuff. She tells me about it, we smile about it, and that’s good enough. No ‘stuff’ needed.
@Kristen McDonald,
I’ve been trying to take China out of the picture too! We’re not completely there yet, but I’ve been making a conscious effort to check the labels on things that I buy, including school supplies. We do buy a lot less stuff that way, since so many things are made in China, but it helps our family to be less greedy and to enjoy the things that we do have even more.
I totally agree, and it’s been a 180 journey for me. After college, I amassed a large collection of craft patterns and supplies. I rarely used them while working full time for 1.5 years because I was planning an OH wedding while living in IL, and applying to graduate school. Then I didn’t have time for it during grad school. Then we started looking for houses. Then we bought our house, lugged all that stuff to it. I used little of it because we were busy finishing wood furniture, doing landscaping and so forth. Then we had a baby. I also work full time. About two years ago, I started giving away all these things I wasn’t using, and it was hard at first but over time, it got easier and felt GOOD. Now we have two kids, I have two part time jobs and a full time job, and we’re hoping to move to a different home in a better school district in the next year before our oldest starts Kindergarten. I don’t want to lug a bunch of unused stuff to our next home, much less get a rental unit to store it while our house is on the market.
So, after attempting to have a yard sale (failure- no traffic in our neighborhood), and attempts to sell things to a consignment / resale store (apparently, Once Upon a Child buys *nothing*– I had excellent condition, clean, beautiful girl’s clothes and they bought just a hand full of things out of six large totes over three trips)…
I gave all the clothes away over freecycle and donated a bunch to Goodwill. I hope that by being a blessing to others, we will likewise be blessed when we are in need. Again, letting go of my daughter’s clothes was hard. I want more kids, so I might have to get a new wardrobe if we have another! But if and when that time comes, I know I’ll be more careful about buying too much. In the mean time, I blessed several foster families, families with out of work parents, and charities with my “stuff”. And God encouraged me in doing this, and it feels GOOD.
I’m surprised you bought it at Best Buy. Everyone knows, Best Buy has the highest prices on computers. As a deal shopper myself, I hardly ever shop at Best Buy. Also, there are many sites online you could have gotten a MUCH better deal on a Mac. We have 2 Macs and got awesome deals on them.
From what we priced online, the sale price we were able to get was better than what we could’ve gotten from a reputable site online (and we’re not familiar with Macs, so we were leery of ordering from any site we didn’t know to be 100% reputable). We rarely shop at Best Buy, either, but we decided to go for it since we were able to get such a great deal!
Wow, this is such a wonderful post. I totally agree. I’m just not getting into a frugal mind set, but I am honestly embarrassed about the way I used to view life and money. I’m also embarrassed for other people who still do. I know of 2 couples (same income level, same age group), very close to me, whom I will leave anonymous. One was frugal and saved; now owns 2 really nice homes(3,000+ sq. ft. each). One thought is was too little of an amount to save and has nothing to show for it. So you can see what a difference a frugal mind set has. For me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. I’ve pretty much given up on having nice things, we just have functional things that I try and make look nice for cheap. Stuff isn’t what life is all about, but you can be frugal to save and reach certain dreams and goals non-related to “stuff”. I would LOVE to bring my family to a third world country. My kids would be amazed.
Thank you so much for reinforcing what I totally believe. My daughter goes to a private school, and so we are always having discussions about “wants” versus “needs.” It’s hard in this world of instant gratification and gadgets that we live in to try to keep things simple and remember what’s really important — and what is important is not things.
I love this, and just added it to my favorite quotes on Facebook:
“True frugality isn’t just about eating beans and rice and pinching pennies, it is recognizing that there is more to life than stuff.” – Crystal Paine
SO TRUE!! Thank you!!
And, we just cleaned out our school/play room and have at least a dozen trash bags we added to our September yard sale pile in the basement. We want to have less stuff so we can more thoroughly enjoy the things that we do have.
Thanks for your constant inspiration!
Great post! I feel lately that we are overrun by stuff in our house! I have made a pledge to list 5 items for sale on EBAY every week. I have been going strong for about 6 weeks now and I am always finding stuff to sell we do not use in our house! Its not really about the money, it is just about getting rid of things. I did sell 2 items that sold for a lot more money than I thought they were ever worth, a cookbook I nevered used, and a kids DVD set that we never used. I was able to order my kids halloween costumes with the earnings!
I’m all for buying something new that you can’t get used on craigslist or Ebay. Especially if you have waited until demand has died down, done your research, and of course bought it on sale. My parents are very well off, but will be frugal to the finish. I say- why not?
To me, it depends on the stuff. Some things are more important to some than to others and I don’t know that quantity has anything to do with it unless there’s an unnatural mental attachment to it.
How’s the learning going on the new Mac?
Quantity does matter if your stuff (and your seeking to obtain stuff) is cluttering up your life and hindering your productivity, your peace, your joy, your finances and your relationships, right? That’s what I was *hopefully* attempting to communicate through the post.
We just bought a Mac Powerbook as well on Monday. Right now at the Apple Store they are running a special…buy a Mac desktop/laptop and receive a Ipod touch for free (this is for educators and students going back to school). They also have a rebate for $100 off a printer when you buy a Mac.
Congrats on the Mac! Sometimes frugality means spending more on something good quality. I hope you love it! Even though we are die-hard Mac fans, we don’t have iPhones, iPods, or i-anything-else because those are gadgets that we don’t need. (Not that those things are bad; some people really do put them to good use and get their mileage out of them, but they wouldn’t benefit us enough to be worth the cost).
I hope you love your Mac. We love them at our house. And, way to go on your epiphany.
Wonderful post Crystal.
I feel that way when I am in the mall and for that reason I have not been there in forever!
You will love your Mac. Well worth the price. It will last you for a very long time!
I had this same thought recently. We moved to a new area to be close to family and it is a much more well to do area. At first I felt a little…. of less value or class. Not sure if that’s the way to describe it. Everyone’s homes here are so nice and beautiful and my husband and I were visiting a new acquaintance and all they could talk about was this was just their starter home (which would be a dream home for us) and how their next one is going to be bigger and better. We live in a very humble place and when I came home I was so grateful to be home with my ugly couch I made a couch cover for, the end table we were given, the table we were given, the crib we picked up for $10… you get the picture. I was perfectly content with what I had and was perfectly happy with my family. They are what make me happy. No huge house will ever make me happy like they do. I don’t need to sit in a very beautiful home and dream of an even bigger and better home with this new friend. I can be content and happy with where I am now and what I have now.
Anyway… support the mac decision. I LOVE My mac. It has lasted so long! I had a Dell and it lasted two years and then died.
One frugal thing I do for my 5 year old with my mac is make books on tape. You can use the garage band application to record yourself reading a book (use a cell phone ring tone to indicate a page needs turned) and then burn it onto a CD, or you can export it to itunes with different chapters and burn that onto a CD. My son LOVES books on tape and loves when it is my husband or I who are the ones reading the book. We are doing it with the scriptures now and it’s wonderful because he has a new interest in the scriptures.
We too just bought a NEW laptop. It came in the mail last week. It is actually the first we bought. The past 2 we got from people who were just getting rid of them. My husband tweaked them to working probably.
I personally like Dell, but I haven’t had any issues. Just throwing this out there in case anyone is searching for a new computer. We went through the Dell Outlet. They have the same warranty as the regular ones. Many are refurbished or returned. Our laptop was not in the dent/scratch section. It was actually new and had never been removed from the box. It is a 17″ with the 9 cell battery. It was right around $600, but I found a 15% off code that saved over another $100. Shipped from the outlet is FREE as well. So, I encourage people to take the time to look through the outlet to see if they find something new still in the box like we did. We are well pleased. The same computer would have cost $800-$1,000 elsewhere or through the regular Dell site.
Hallelujah! Glad to see so many others agree about frugality! (and funny that so many of your comments are about the new Mac)
I of course have to weigh in on this subject.
My husband works in Technolgy and is a “heavy” user of technology. His has worked with both Mac’s and Pc’s and his feeling is that there is no difference. “A machine is a machine” as he says. They are the “popular purchase” at this time, however, now because of that they will be more of a target by hackers. Eventually they will have the same issues PC’s do in that regard.
As far as simplicity of life this is something we are dramitically working on. I was a single mother for a long time and to buy “stuff” was such a treat that I became a pack rat. We are going through all of our junk and donating to charity.
Neither my husband or myself has had cable in over well over 10 years. We have even simplified our dinner menu. Monday night is Beans/rice(with a nod to Dave Ramsey), tuesday night is Pasta, Wednesday leftovers, etc.
What we have learned is kids(and adults) need time with each other. The new Juicy Couture items means nothing if parents are not available to kiss boo boo’s and talk through an older kids problem.
Thanks for all your great articles Crystal!
@Marisa Stone O’Brien, We have both pc & mac in our household. Dh has a pc, mainly because he just likes the artsiness of them. I have a pc because I do a lot of stats & data stuff and there are more programs that are pc-only or cheaper for the pc for that. Definitely just a preference there.
You said it so perfectly!!!
I bought a Mac a couple months ago & I love it! I wasn’t so happy with the price but I now feel like it was well worth it. I haven’t had a single problem with it & I use it all the time for my blog! We also have a desktop but I love sitting on the couch blogging about my deals haha!
Wonderful post! I actually just bought a Mac a few days ago and am really trying not to feel buyer’s remorse. I too did a lot of research and based on my needs, it seemed that a Mac was the best option. So far my only frustration is with a blog editor. I was using Windows Live Writer on my PC and it was great and FREE! However, I haven’t been able to find anything comparable for the Mac. Do you use an editor? I’d love to find something even close to WLW that didn’t cost a thing.
I don’t; I just write my posts directly on WordPress. (Well, the lengthier and more in-depth ones I actually usually scribble them down in my notebook as I go throughout my day and then transfer them from that to WordPress. Writing a rough draft with pen and paper helps me better formulate my thoughts!)
Yes! You are right, dear Crystal. Just stuff. Way to go in “conquering Best Buy!” I conquered the semi-annual children’s consignment sale this week. Walked in. Looked at every rack for each of my 6 children’s sizes, looked at the toys and walked away. Prices were good. I could have gotten some cute things. However, the amount of stuff just overwhelmed my and I too had an epiphany… I didn’t need any of it!
I too left the world of PC and got a Mac book. LOVE IT!!! I’m never going back to PC.
Congrats on your Mac! I have been so happy with it! I love my One to One membership too. I love being able to pop into our local Mac Store and they are always willing to help me out. I have a PC netbook too and very rarely take it out. ( sometimes I take it on trips so I don’t risk losing or having my Mac stolen!
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