10 Ways to Save Money Like You Enjoy It

I am not money motivated. I never have been. By the time I worked my first job (parking lot attendant to Hardy Boat Cruises) I had read enough Buddhist, Christian and self-help philosophy to believe that true happiness resides only in the moment (the present moment) and to work for money primarily is an unnecessary delay of gratification. I sought out small pleasures like my coworkers company, interesting conversations with strangers, the absorbing experience of playing a role–complete with a script (loose, albeit) and uniform.

I felt as if I was tricking the system. While others griped about the hours spent at work, I embraced them, wrenching from them as much pleasure as I could. I refused to waste so many hours from my day being miserable. My boss would pay me to be happy.

When I made the decision to pursue a writer’s life bereft a “real job,” I accepted a life of possible poverty. My writing–my freedom to write was of more importance to me than establishing a career that would lead to financial “stability” and “comfort.” I chose to welcome poverty along with the freedom it allowed.

I did not fully comprehend the consequences and stress of being “poor” until leaving college. When my boyfriend and I moved to a strange city with lofty plans but minimal cash, we learned what it meant to feel hungry. We dug through couch cushions to fund the purchase of plain rice. We pulled out our hair, scrambling to cover rent. Weeks passed where we could not afford the luxury of a cup of coffee.

I have since, over the years, perfected the art of poverty. With minimal responsibilities, I’ve moved from place to place, working menial jobs in order to fund the next destination, the next splurge, the next stretch of jobless days. But that was then–living as a single white and (I do not deny) privileged female in a pre-financial crisis America–and this is now–mid-global financial meltdown, married and expecting. My responsibilities have changed along with the world around me.

Today, when we talk about money, fear hovers like some smoggy pollution, building over our bent heads with malignant speed and size. Funny that fear so naturally cleaves to economic instability, yet fear is nothing but a catalyst for what we fear most: economic disaster. Panic is the fuel of bank runs and stock market crashes. It propels hurtful irrationality and compulsion: crime, suicide, mass hysteria, mobs.

Because this post is a response to the current economic crisis, my initial impulse was to explore the roots and relevancies behind the crises as relating to myself and people like me (i.e. average people) but I’ve decided against that route. There are enough resources of this kind explaining how we got here. (I’ve listed my favorite at the end of the post if you are interested.)

Instead of explaining and pointing, I’ve opted to attempt a guide-like explanation of bohemian culture. While Bohemia is actually a region in the Czech Republic, the bohemian lifestyle is not so specific. The title “Bohemian” has evolved to a disembodied state, pertaining to people of all countries and races in possession of a constellation of characteristics.

The flag of Bohemia--The actual Bohemia.

These characteristics vary from definer to definition, but largely include:

• An interest in arts and/or creativity
• Material poverty
• Unconventionality

My favorite definition comes from Ms. Ada Clare, the “Queen of Bohemia” who wrote:

The Bohemian is by nature, if not by habit, a cosmopolite, with a general sympathy for the fine arts, and for all things above and beyond convention. The Bohemian is not, like the creature of society, a victim of rules and customs; he steps over them with an easy, graceful, joyous unconsciousness, guided by the principals of good taste and feeling. Above all others, essentially, the Bohemian must not be narrow minded; if he be, he is degraded back to the position of near worlding.

I adore Ada Clare’s definition for fulfilling my own understanding of Bohemianism; which is, to put it plainly: Bohemian Culture= glorified poverty. In my world, Bohemia has been a euphemism, a glamorous spin on an empty bank account, and my affiliation with the Bohemian life style has been an indispensable, inspiring and ennobling lubricant for enjoying my life despite a depleted wallet.

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis says change your language change your life. Elisha Webster Emerson says, please enjoy my list of

10 Ways to Bohemian Happiness

or

How to Save Money Like You Enjoy It

1.Trade Convenience for Creativity

I was once troubled over a difficult decision–a should-I-stay-or-should-I-go sort of decision. I sat besides my friend Matt Banks, blathering on about my inability to reach a conclusion. Matt Banks was a quiet guy. He made gentle electronic music and fixed people’s plumbing. He said to me: “When faced with a hard decision I’ve found that the easy way to go is usually the wrong way to go.”

My initial reaction was to laugh; which I did. Surely, such a simple formula would prove lacking, but, I’ve been surprised to find Matt Banks’ wisdom resonant and pertaining to many situations.

Convenience is costly–literally. There is minimal space in the Bohemian lifestyle for convenience. The good news is that creativity and innovation can easily replace the need for convenience. More good news: Creativity and innovation foster benefits that far exceed those of convenience.

We are so concerned with saving energy and time. But why? What are we saving it for?

2. Get Unplugged!

In the book The Bohemians, Joanna Richardson writes:

They had all in a sense, been Bohemian; they had maintained the right of the poet and the man of letters to escape the social system, to follow a personal moral code, to create his own environment, and develop his originality. They had asserted the right of man to live as he chose…

The first step to escaping the social system and creating one’s environment is to cut off popular culture’s inundating influence. You can achieve this, simply: limit time with television and seriously reconsider the media (magazines, movies, books, etc.) to which you donate your energy. Trade in your Elle for The Believer or Ms. Elle made you feel like crap, anyway.

The less time you spend with socially homogenizing propaganda, the less pressure you will feel to be socially “normal”. Don’t get me wrong, social normalcy is fine and dandy, but like most things, it takes money. Conforming is an never ending financial endeavor because the standard will never stop changing.

Yesterday, keeping up with the Joneses required wearing these sneakers, toting this purse and driving that car. Today, it requires something totally different. However, if you stop paying attention to the Joneses, the need to keep up with them will disappear. I promise. The Joneses will fare just as well without you.

3. Know Thyself

Once you’ve unplugged from that socially mediating ticker tape that tells you who to be, what to wear, how to style your hair, what music to enjoy, who to admire, who to resent, you will have to answer these questions, yourself. These answers will not come immediately. They will come gradually and they will never stop coming.

Thrifter: You may be surprised to find yourself "hip". Here, Sienna Miller and Mary-Kate Olson don the latest of "Boho Chic" fashion.

Your answers for these questions will change just as much as the overriding cultures, except they will change on your time and based on your experiences and truths. I’m also pretty sure that you will find this process less costly than following trends.

I remember feeling lost the first time I wandered through a thrift store. Without the manikins there to show me how to assemble an outfit, I was at a loss. Over time, however, without the guidance of display windows and catalogs, I’ve developed a taste that is uniquely my own.

4. Embrace Your Inner Materialist

Yes, you read me correctly. About a year ago, I read an essay by Alan Watts that transformed my relationship with the word, “Materialist.” He wrote:

For it is strictly incorrect to think of the progressive cultures as materialistic, if the materialist is one who loves concrete materials. No modern city looks as if it were made by people who love materials.

I went from reacting to an overly consumerist society by swearing off possessions (at the time, I owned only what I could carry in a suitcase or two) to embracing my possessions with the utmost of care and attention. When you savor the objects you own (their design, quality, use) you find satisfaction more readily. Shop with attention and feigned expertise. Scour yard sales, antique stores and flea markets for gold. Treasure what you purchase. If you are a conscious consumer you will inevitably consume less. Guaranteed.

5. Cultivate Other Interests and Hobbies

Learning can be as cheap as free–if you know where to look. Tap into that curiosity you discarded as a jaded teen. Get to know wonder again, and for God’s sakes, dust off your library card.

6. Pursue the Process Not the Goal

If followed, this advice can save you a lot of money when it comes to food. Before my recent obsession with culinary art, our average weekly grocery bill flirted with the two hundred cap. Now, the average weekly cost hovers around the $90-$100 range. Whole foods (i.e. rice, beans, flour, oil, etc.) are typically more cost efficient than prepared, processed foods. Take cheese for example; If you are willing to slice your cheese yourself, you will save over twenty cents an ounce (which adds up).

Who’s got the time, you ask. Most of us have the time. I make some pretty elaborate meals (Tonight we dined on chic pea spinach curry over rice. Thirty minutes from scratch) and our average meal takes forty minutes to prepare (Most of that “averaged” time is cooking time).

7. DIY! DIY! DIY!

Here’s the truth: You can figure out how to do and make almost anything. If your main inhibition is I-Don’t-Know-How–fegget about it. Stop and desist regarding that trite adage as viable and roll up your sleeves. There exists a tutorial for just about anything these days. But like they say, you don’t have to take my word for it. Google it.

I cut my own hair. I’m not particularly visually gifted or blessed with good hand eye coordination. In fact, I’m generally clumsy and excessive, but so far, no one has laughed me out of a room, and a lot of the time I receive compliments. (Okay, sometimes I get a little help with the clean up from a friend)

Another example: I wanted a mobile for my future baby’s crib, so I looked online and found a decent tutorial for paper mache. One afternoon’s work plus three dollars (for newspaper and wire) and I had myself a cute, sheep mobile.

When you DIY you not only produce nice new things, but you save money and create entertainment.

8. Enough is Enough

Get to know the word “Enough.” Sit with it. Learn to recognize how it feels in your body, in your mind, in your heart.

Remember the feeling.

Apply the word freely.

9. Go! Dig for your Roots!

Thomas Merton said it best in his essay, “Rain and the Rhinoceros”:

Let me say this before rain becomes a utility that they can plan and distribute for money. by “they” I mean the people who cannot understand that rain is a festival, who do not appreciate its gratuity, who think that what has no price has no value, that what cannot be sold is not real, so that the only way to make something actual is to place it on the market. The time will come when they will sell you even your rain. At the moment it is still free, and I am in it. I celebrate its gratuity and its meaninglessness.

Relearn the pleasure of sunshine, rain, trees, grass. Hike. Cartwheel. Dance. Draw. Look. Taste. Smell. Breathe. Be grateful.

10. Acknowledge the Dark Side

I cannot close this post without acknowledging that fact that bohemianism is not all fun and games. Poverty is tough, there’s no two ways about it. When I read what Jerrold Siegel had to say in his book Bohemian Paris I could not help but agree:

They, too, thought of Bohemian existence as a temporary necessity imposed on young artists and writers, a form of life they would be only too willing to give up once their careers were launched.

If someone came along and offered me millions of dollars to write, I would take it without hesitation. I owe nothing to poverty and poverty owes me the same. It is difficult to survive without health insurance. It is stressful to worry about the status of a temperamental used vehicle and whether or not it will take you where you need to go. It is frustrating to have to say no-not-now to yourself and the members of your family when certain desires are expressed.

My father used to pressure me to get a “real job,” and I would argue back with the vigor of a young romantic.

“But why?!” I would holler.

“Because you’ll eventually want nice things. I mean, you’ll want things.” He gestured to his dishwasher, microwave, refrigerator, full cabinets.

“But why?” I asked again.

He sighed, his features briefly haggard. “Because you get tired, Leesh. You just get tired.”

And it’s true. He was right. You get tired. Cutting costs expends a lot of energy.

The trick is to create a money saving system and way of life that generates its own energy, and because pleasure generates energy, finding it in the small things, in the processes, in the moment is a wonderful place to start.

Links to Better Understanding the Economy

More information than you know what to do with can be found here, at the New York Times website.

This American Life offers a perhaps, more entertaining lesson on the many different aspects of the current financial crisis. Includes lessons on lingo and other basics. Check out episodes 355, 365, 377 and 375.

On the lighter side, Louis C.K.