You Can't Eat Your TV....

The hubby and I were having a discussion about our efforts to live a more frugal lifestyle.
In an attempt to do so, we have sacrificed a lot that our peers are doing. We don't go to movies more than maybe once or twice a year, if that. We don't buy gadgets much anymore. (I did buy a Kindle Touch the other day, which is quite wonderful, but I earned that money on the side by helping a family member with organizing a craft room.) We wear cheap clothing, and often find ourselves really pushing some items to their limits. Vacations? Nope. Randomly spending one or two hundred dollars at the mall "just because?" No. Shopping tends to have a very definite purpose, or it's purely window shopping.
Sometimes, I feel a little resentful at times because I feel like everyone else is out having fun, and we're paying down debt and trying to do and be better, which makes us feel a little awkward at times. It's easy to feel left out. It's hard when others don't understand what you are trying to accomplish and poke fun of your discretion.
One of the things we have been working on, as you have noticed, is food storage and emergency preparedness. We have sacrificed a lot of "fun" in order to build a small surplus of food, and now, to work on goals for our increased safety as a family. We have others asking us how we do it, and honestly, that's how--sacrifice. We refuse to go into more debt to accomplish these goals. It's not the point. The point is to simplify our lives and prepare for a rainy day, not to make our situation even worse by adding more debt onto the pile. It's not just about preparedness, or cutting costs, or having some extra food. We are working on changing our whole outlook on life.
And it's not easy. We stumble. We screw up. We splurge sometimes. We overspend. We get wasteful. But, as my hubby reminded me today, you can't eat your TV, or your cute clothes, or your iPods and iPads. Living frugally and becoming self reliant is learning to focus more on needs, rather than wants, and simplicity.
My husband is very wise. And he's provided me some food for thought on this warm, gray day.