Comments on: Frugality and the WOW Factor

By: Marla Fisher

Marla Fisher — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 23:23:06 +0000

Good post. I might add a third option to the movie idea, either finding a bargain theater where you can go for less, or what I did: Buying a home movie projector. Yes it cost me $1,000 to buy a quality projector at Costco three years ago, but we project the movies on our back wall so they’re as huge as in a small theatre, and we literally have not been inside a theater since. Home theater plus Netflix equals a big savings and a lot of fun!

By: My Boaz's Ruth

My Boaz's Ruth — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 15:35:12 +0000

interesting, I just realized my favorite freezer book has the same idea as the Tightwad Gazette, not just recipe but a lot of the talk of HOW it is done. Philosophy, etc. (Jill Bond’s _Dinner’s in the Freezer_)

By: kimc

kimc — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 06:49:32 +0000

We just call it priorities and say we choose to splurge in certain areas, but “WOW factor” sounds so much more fun!
Good coffee is one of our small luxuries, though good fresh coffee beans really don’t cost much more than the cheap preground stuff.
Good ice cream has recently become another.

By: lynn

lynn — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 15:59:13 +0000

just one quick note on beans- if you soak them overnight, and then drain and freeze them like that in baggies, they will cook faster and better, and it seems to take one extra step out of the cooking. just take a bag of presoaked beans out of the freezer and dump them in the crockpot with water. it’s not canned, but it’s certainly simple.

By: Fairy Dust

Fairy Dust — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 15:30:46 +0000

I totally concur with the wow factor and paying to see a movie in the theatre. We decided years ago that unless the movie sported excellent special effects that would be so much better in the theatre environment (like the new Star Trek movie, for example), that we would just wait to rent it later. That’s saved us a bundle! And I don’t think we’ve lost out on anything

By: Bella

Bella — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:28:15 +0000

Thank you for this. I think I do assess the “Wowness” of things instinctively, and of course it is very very personal – my “wow” would be incomprehensible to my husband most of the time! This makes me feel better about personal expenditure that I know some people would find odd, but which really makes sense to me. Certainly books, plants, and tickets for certain concerts or art exhibitions are full of wowness and I go on on getting pleasure out of them and deriving inspiration from them for a long long time, meaning that I’d rather economise on many other things in order to be able to enjoy them.