The à la Carte Budget: Why Frugality Isn't a Prix Fixe Menu

We talk a lot in this space about the different ways to cultivate a resilient, peaceful home. We share scratch recipes, garden updates, and household fixes. But I feel we need to acknowledge a frugality truth: being successfully frugal looks entirely different for every single person.

In our modern world, lifestyle media often tries to present thriftiness as a strict, all-or-nothing prix fixe menu. We are told that if we want to save money, we must accept the entire bundle: we have to bake every loaf of bread from scratch, grow all our own vegetables, thrift all of our clothes and furnishings, and feel compelled to do as many DIY jobs as humanly possible. It can make the frugal journey feel like a rigid set of rules where any shortcut is a failure.

Even the best of us would wear ourselves out with such a strict approach. A truly sustainable life can't possibly work that way. True resourcefulness isn't a fixed menu; it’s an à la carte cafeteria.

You get to choose what you do. You walk down the line with your tray, and you choose exactly what works for your unique household, your energy levels, and your specific season of life. You load up on the strategies that bring you joy or a massive financial win, and you politely skip the ones that cause you nothing but stress.

You don't have to have the peas, you can have green beans, or no vegetables at all. You don't have to bake everything from scratch. You can choose to bake some things, or you can choose to not bake at all. You may do some DIY stuff, but not all. Or you may choose to never do DIY and you can still be considered successfully frugal.

I enjoy baking, so I bake just about all of our breads and treats. I'm not skilled enough in some DIY, such as construction. I do minor repairs and refurbish furniture. I don't clip coupons, unless it's the only way to get a special price on an item I want, nor do I do special deals. I do cook from scratch, keep a vegetable garden, and shop for about half of my clothing second-hand.

Dropping the "Hard Way" Guilt

Being successfully frugal also doesn't mean we have to do everything the hard way. This came to mind today while I was stripping the rosemary off of the dried stems that I cut on Saturday and dehydrated. The most flavor-preserving way to save rosemary for winter-use is to strip the leaves off of fresh stems, chop and freeze. But I didn't have the time needed to do this. Stripping fresh leaves and chopping them takes longer than dehydrating the whole stems and stripping the leaves after they're dried. 

So it seemed that the expedient thing for me, in this moment, was to just dehydrate the stems. Otherwise, I might not preserve rosemary at all this summer. It's okay to take a shortcut, even when the result would fall short of ideal, if it means you preserve some time, energy, and bottom line -- get the job done!

I'll be making salsa next month. I use canned tomatoes instead of fresh to make salsa. I take the easier route, because that's how I get the job done. Meanwhile, I lovingly maintain a pumpkin patch, putting many extra hours into its care. Before planting, we dug up the entire bed of soil with a shovel and mixed in several amendments, all by hand. We could've rented a rototiller or left the soil as it was. Being a pumpkin-mama brings me so much joy, that I'm glad to do that the hard way. 

Taking the faster, simpler path in one area doesn't cancel out your hard work in another. It makes your life sustainable. When we stop viewing frugality as a test of endurance, it stops feeling like deprivation and starts feeling like immense creative power. We get to decide exactly where we pinch pennies, where we spend, and where we gladly take the shortcut.

So, bake the bread, or don't. Paint some free-pile furniture, or don't. Clip coupons and do deals, or don't. You decide where your energy and time will go. Bread can also be bought at a steep discount at bakery thrift stores. You can acquire some nice as-is furniture in the form of hand-me-downs when a good friend or relative downsizes. And you can shop for groceries along the perimeter of the store and avoid the inner aisles where most of the items with coupons are available.

Your Turn: I love how diverse of a group we are. In the comments today, share one traditional "frugal rule" or hard task that you happily skip or take a shortcut on to protect your time and peace of mind? And do you feel like you're successful at frugality even with choosing the à la carte menu?