Image from ladolcevitra
Before having this blog, I have always been kuripot. When
the blog came to life, most of my friends and everyone who knows me label me as
such. I know being kuripot is a good thing however we often have that bad
reputation when it comes to money and finances. Most of the time, we are
accused of being stingy and controlling. And that hurts you know.
And in all honesty, frugality is not stingy.
Allow me to break it down.
Let me begin by defining the two words in the context of the
dictionary. According from the thefreedictionary.com, being frugal is
practicing or marked by economy, as in the expenditure of money or the use of
material resources. Stingy on the other hand is spending reluctantly and
unwilling to give.
Based from the dictionary definitions, frugality is way
different than being stingy. As such, kuripot individuals are practical and
have a goal in mind. They just don’t squander their money with just about
anything.
However, this does not mean that they are not generous. In fact they
are willing to assist in any way they can. I clearly remember an individual’s
remark that I should not be consulted with regards to money loan since I am
kuripot. I was taken aback by that! Is my being kuripot prohibits me from
consulting such? It seems that the kuripot label has a bad connotation. No wonder
most would take it negatively if you remark them as such.
Let me change your perspective.
Kuripot or frugality is a different mindset. Individuals who
are thrifty as previously stated have a goal when it comes to their money. Their
goal is not to accumulate money and wealth for the sake of collecting it. Most of
the time, their goal is to stretch their income to cover their necessities. They
also tend to save up to achieve something big like for education’s sake,
building a house, put up a business, pay
debts, build their emergency fund and invest.
The goal of such is not to make your life miserable and to
not make other life’s miserable too. You are just simply maximizing the use of
your money. A frugal person simply changes his spending habits. They splurge
yes however only a handful. They are keen towards spending their money to
things that matter to them like goal realization, for their family, friends and
others.
I am a frugal person. I know where to put my money and how
to use it. And even more, I am keen towards achieving my financial goals. However,
this does not prohibit me to help anyone financially. In spite of me being
kuripot, I am not at all stingy and selfish. I do people favors. Bottom line is, I’m proud being kuripot.
P.S. To those doing the 52 Week Money Challenge and 52 Week Money Challenge Version 2, it is Week 27 already! Did you deposit the next amount yet?
P.P.S Want to know more about investing, savings, stock market and more, check out my reference here. You can download free ebooks and resources too.