Cheap and Happy?

In a recent article, Cheap, Jeff Yeager relates his cycling trip across country to visit self-proclaimed “cheapskates.” His conclusions and those of other cheapskates? “A true sign of wealth is free time.” And “spending less money creates more free time.” And we can invest our time in creating happiness if we spend less time making money and spending it and taking care of what we have spent it on. Given the challenges to ethics posed by financial decisions, it seems worthwhile to reconsider the notion that “more is always better” – more stuff, more money, more toys. After all, aren’t many of the ethical struggles that employees and company leaders face related to questions about whether the costs justify the results?

We have many current examples of attempts to get more money to spend to look at. For instance, isn’t the current BP Gulf crisis the result of decisions to cut corners and costs by not incorporating the optimal in safety and warning mechanisms, thus increasing profits? Isn’t the “profit at any cost” mentality of mortgage companies and financial institutions what resulted in our current economic meltdown and in the huge losses of people’s jobs and homes? In fact, might we see as evidence that such a mentality has permeated our society in the fact that we now have someone running for the U.S. Senate (Jeff Greene) who has made millions by betting during high mortgage times that people would become unable to pay their loans? If he is to be a leader in our country, shouldn’t he have helped people to make better decisions about what they could afford, rather that betting on their losses and failures? Although it may not be true that “money is the root of all evil,” certainly greed contributes substantially.

And yet, contrarily, we have many examples of companies (think Ben and Jerry’s, for instance) creating innovative and highly successful products while still maintaining optimal values – so clearly competition for greater and greater profits as the only value worth aiming for is not necessary to creativity and innovation.
So, what if we all got less greedy? What if we adopted frugality -- that has been necessary for many of us due to the economy – as a more permanent lifestyle? What if we invested in using only our share of the world’s resources, instead of using as much as we can get away with? What difference might it make? Might we be happier? Less stressed?

Can we all agree that from an ethical point of view, these are good ideas? For instance, can we agree that living within our means is responsible? Can we agree that living modestly and giving substantially is not only generous but compassionate, given that most of the world lives on less than $2 per day? Can we all agree that making decisions out of greed and unrestrained desire challenges the amount of time and energy that we might be spending in service or planning for the benefit of our children’s futures? I hope we can!

So, in the interest of taking my own medicine, I thought I would examine my “to do list” from this weekend to see if the cheapskates’ ideas bore consideration. Think about your own lists as you review mine.
1. Clean the pool filter, visit the pool store to have the chemicals in the water checked, buy and put in the chemicals, sweep the pool because the automatic cleaner doesn’t seem to be working right, figure out how and when I am going to get the automatic cleaner fixed. Of course, if I hadn’t spent the money on the pool, none of this would be necessary. And the joy, social events, and exercise that we get from the pool could be gotten from the pool right down the street in our development.
2. In the yard, pull weeds, trim the bushes, check and water the new grass that I had tried to put in due to drought conditions, haul weeds to the composter to make compost for plantings, call the yard service to find out when they are next coming because the grass is getting longer than usual. Make a note to talk with the homeowner’s association yard service about why they haven’t been trimming the bushes. Contact friend who’s been doing remodeling about giving her some of the plantings from my yard – partly a nice gift and partly that I have to keep trimming and reducing due to things growing so fast. If I didn’t have such a big yard, I wouldn’t have to do all of this. I can only think of one reason to have such a yard that contributes to my happiness: I live in a city, and I feel cramped and trapped without having a certain amount of space around me. However, my proposed move to Colorado aims to solve some of this: I will be able to have the space in the woods without having to do any yard care. (of course, a move costs money!)
3. Order health care supplies from health care provider. Probably a good idea, but still takes time and money.
4. Get medications for the dog. Take outside to potty regularly. Pick up poo. Take for a walk. Ahhh to not have a dog that I have to feed, pick up after, and arrange for care for when I travel! Of course, I love her and she does add to my happiness.
5. Clean up junk around the house and clean out the garage of excess junk. Clean the house. Obviously if I hadn’t bought so much stuff, it wouldn’t accumulate around the house and need picking up. And if the house was smaller and I had less stuff to dust, I wouldn’t need to spend as much time cleaning.
6. Make appointment to have mold cleaned off the roof (a Florida problem) – If the house wasn’t so big and two stories, it would not cost so much to have done, and I could do the roof myself. Or I could live somewhere where mold doesn’t accumulate, or where a homeowner’s association doesn’t require large monthly payments and require one to conform to appearance standards.

So, let’s consider the proposition – would I have been happier had I not had these things to do? What might I have done instead? What would you have done instead of your “to do” list? Would all of the things I would have chosen instead have cost less money?

Well, it definitely does not make me happy to do the things that I listed above. They fall under the “have to’s” that I would like to do less of. If I had not had these tasks to do, I can think of many activities that would have made me happier: I could have read a book, talked with friends, gotten together with friends, walked around the block and talked with neighbors, called my daughter to talk with her, done some crafts, cooked a gourmet meal, walked the beach in the evenings, gone dancing, watched a movie, or served a meal at the soup kitchen. Although there are some minimal costs to some of these, they don’t come anywhere near the costs of lawn services, mortgage payments, cleaning services, vet bills, and such. And while all of these alternative activities would have made me happier -- and I did do some of them -- I didn’t have much energy or time left to do many of them because of all of the house and pool and yard care that I felt obligated to do.

A great picture of the contrasts between my obligations and my happiness is my love of camping. There is nothing I like better than camping with my family and friends out in the woods, with nothing but the bare necessities. I immediately feel the stress lifting and the joy starting when I am away from my task-filled home, exploring the beauty of nature, with people that I like only a tent away, and the opportunity to sing and make s’mores around the campfire.

What about you? What is your picture of happiness? Is it hampered by lack of time and having so many “things” that you have bought and are responsible for? Ready to try spending less or divesting yourself of the material possessions that take up your time? How about trying a week without spending money on anything but absolute necessities or without taking care of those things that you have spent money on? How much empty time would you find? What would you really like to fill it with? What would make you truly happy? (Note: You might have to write a list of the things that make you happy so that you intentionally do these things rather than falling into habitual patterns).

Our current economy faces many of us with less money to spend. We may have found ourselves underwater in many ways, which may be creating great stress. In the interest of preserving our sanity and our family lives and keeping our children from feeling overly deprived, some of us have gotten very creative in coming up with cost-free or inexpensive fun and ways to create happiness – we have spent family dinners together, gotten out the cook books and enjoyed the fun of cooking something fancy together, dusted off the games that have been hiding away in our closets for years, pulled out the craft supplies to make gifts for birthdays and holidays, hung out with the neighbors on the front stoop, taken walks or bike rides through the woods, visited the beach, invited friends over to sit out on the patio to enjoy happy hour, visited the library or the local museum. We have shared resources with our friends and traded our services for those that others have to offer.

Sounds like great ways to create our own happiness without money!! Also sounds like great ways to build community and teach our children the value of time together playing and talking and creating. So, how ‘bout it – will you take the plunge? Will you take the challenge with me of spending less, saving more, and as a result, freeing up more time for creating happiness? Or will you at least think about the possibilities? Take a few steps and see how it works?