Scarcity, Abundance, and Balanced Frugal Living

When I first started writing again, after having little babies in the house, the topic was on frugal living mostly. Well, motherhood and frugal living. I would have balked at the concept of Abundance.

Why?

Survival Mode Scarcity Can’t See Abundance

Well, as I’ve written before regarding poverty, when you’re in the thick of it — survival mode — abundance is a concept that you can’t even begin to comprehend. Abundance is for rich folk. People of privilege. The lucky ones. The rest of us poor shrubs are down here in scarcity land.

I knew the topic of frugal living intimately at the time. I couldn’t wrap my head around abundance.

As many of you know the story, we were doing pretty well in our life until one day my husband, a skilled tradesman, went into work and work was boarded up. then the last few paychecks bounced. The lucrative trade we were in went overseas, where they could get away with paying slave wages instead of paying workers what they are worth.  I had five kids ages 6 and under at the time.

Life Changes. They’re adults now, and that time is a distant memory.

Revisiting Frugal Living in the Land of Abundance

I was thinking about many of these topics recently as I rehashed and updated the information in my book, “Shopping and Cooking Frugally”, which I’ve renamed “Grocery Savings Survival Guide: 12 Strategic Steps to Saving More at the Grocery Store”. I redid so much information in there and changed it so much, it needed a new title.

While working on this rewrite on frugal living, while experiencing a bit of abundance in my life (vs. the scarcity that birthed that original book), I realize how much I’ve changed.

I’m not rich. Actually, by the charts, we’re now lower middle class. It feels like abundance after being in poverty.

Abundance, Scarcity and Frugal Living Aren’t About your Bank Balance

But really, when I speak of the land of abundance (in a tongue-in-cheek sort of way), I’m not so much talking about what’s in my bank. We still have setbacks. We work more than 40 hours each most weeks. We’re hoping we’ll be able to retire one day. My jeep I drive cost only $500.

Instead, when I use the words scarcity and abundance, I’m talking about what’s in my head, not my bank.

When you’re in scarcity or poverty, you’re thinking, “I can’t afford that.”

When you’re in abundance thinking, you think, “Hmmm. How can I afford that? What can I do to get me some of that?”

Abundance Changes Your Approach to Frugal Living

Now, there are some idiots out there who, in their “abundance mindset” go out and get into debt (and encourage others to do the same) by claiming abundance. This is foolishness. You can’t go wrong with spending what you have, not what you hope to have.

But abundance does change my approach to frugal living in many ways. I hope to revisit this topic again shortly in more detail.

For one thing, I am no longer thinking about what I can’t have, and what I can’t afford. It’s not martyrdom or deprivation.

It’s no longer learning to be so content I grow complacent in the situation either.  I used to think, “Well, if I can’t afford this, then God must know I don’t really need it.”

When there’s something I feel like I need now, I start by praying about it. And then I ask God for wisdom. “If I need this, how do I make this happen? What do I need to do to afford this?”

It’s a subtle change, but it’s significant.

Now when I make cuts to my budget, it’s usually about moving things around to afford something else.  It’s about saving money so I can continue my education, pay for web hosting, buy advertising, pay for services I need online for my business, and otherwise start to work my side hustle.

I no longer am trying to grab my part of the limited pie (scarcity). I’m adding to the pie so we all have enough.

Grocery Savings Survival Guide

If you want to find out more about the Grocery Savings Survival Guide, you can find out more over here. The Grocery Savings Survival Guide is available over at Amazon.com both for Amazon Kindle and as a paperback book. It includes 12 strategic steps to help you save more at the grocery store.