UNM student Joshua Hull and his wife live on $12,000 a year with $18,000 in the bank — they even take three vacations a year.
Hull said he’s lived frugally his whole life and is naturally self-sufficient. His motto is “Keep it simple, stupid.” He built a house out of recycled materials he collected around town, and recently built a re-pressurizer to re-inflate tennis balls.
He taught himself the necessary skills to earn a living as a freelance computer programmer. He works about 10 hours per week for $25 to $50 per hour.
“We don’t have a lot of that (self sufficiency) … I’m always about simplicity; I don’t want a bunch of stuff because that’s more to think about,” he said.
His wife Sophia Petropulos, who teaches sewing classes for an annual income of about $900, said it wasn’t until the couple started living together that she began to understand the value of a dollar. She said her dad worked 80 hours per week, and she and her brother could have had anything they wanted. She said she took money and what it bought for granted, and that while living with Hull has been a compromise, it has taught her to value her belongings.
“You learn the joy of how something’s put together, and how you can make something better,” she said. “You have a relationship with things rather than having a school friendship with things. Instead of just saying ‘hello’ to these things … you understand how they work.”
Joseph Garcia, a UNM Ph.D. candidate, said the American desire for amassing material goods traces back to the early 1900s when Edward Bernays introduced Freudian psychology into advertising techniques. By studying how the mind works and what makes it tick, advertisers created a perceived need to buy. This has led to increased working hours and reduced quality of life, he said.
“We work too much in this country, so to offset that, we tend to buy things to make ourselves feel better,” he said. “So the whole quality-of-life issue could be the most important factor in reducing your spending, reducing your costs.”
These changes in consumption patterns have created a corporate culture, Hull said, and the people within the culture are apathetic to a degree, not thinking about the consequences of their lifestyle. Hull said he works only 10 hours a week to make time for the important things in life.
“Well, rest is worth 10 times more, and time for your wife or family is worth more than any dollar you could earn,” he said. “If someone argues with me on that, I say they’re not my friend; they’re not their own friend. That’s masochism, as far as I’m concerned.”
Hull said excessive spending can bury people with debt and keep them chained to professions that make them miserable.
“If you had money in the bank, you would take that risk and say, ‘Hey, I think you’re treating me wrong,’ or ‘I think you’re screwing up,’ or ‘I think you’re full of crap,’ but you’ve given up that power if you have a mortgage to pay or student loans to pay,” he said. “So we’ve given up so much more power than we could ever imagine, just by being in debt.”
Society’s wasteful habits aren’t sustainable in the long run, Hull said, and sooner or later more people will seek ways to save money and become more self-sufficient.
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“If you want to think of the Darwinian aspect, you might start preparing yourself, start fixing your own stuff,” he said. “I don’t think there’s anything more gratifying than fixing your own stuff. It’s just a different mindset.”
DIY products
Shampoo and conditioner
recipes from PioneerThinking.com
For shampoo, mix 1 tablespoon of baking soda with 8 ounces of hot water in a spray bottle. Stir or shake until the baking soda is dissolved. For conditioner, mix 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar or lemon juice in 8 ounces of water in spray bottle. Stir or shake to mix contents.
To use, wet your hair well and rub in some of the baking soda mix into your scalp. After rinsing, squirt your hair with the vinegar or lemon mix, rub it in and rinse.
All-purpose cleaner
recipe from FrugalLiving.about.com
Vinegar is an effective stain remover and sanitizer, and is safe for most surfaces, according to FrugalLiving.about.com. Do not use on marble and test a small area before using on finished wood or tile.
Mix equal parts white vinegar and water in a spray bottle. Shake before use.
Instead of using paper towel to clean, try a rag, a reusable cloth, or any of the free newspapers around town.
Toothpaste
recipe from Instructables.com
All you need is baking soda, which is a mild abrasive with anti-bacterial properties, and hydrogen peroxide to break down bacterial films, according to instructables.com. Adding a drop or two of essential oil like peppermint or cinnamon is optional, though this is what makes it tasty. Do not ingest the mixture.
Add six parts baking soda to every two parts hydrogen peroxide.
Without a strong enough will to live cheaply, the decision to save money is easier said than done, according to the American Psychological Association.
The APA article “What You Need to Know About Willpower: The Psychological Science of Self-Control” states willpower is limited resource. This can have damaging consequences for impoverished people.
“It’s not that the poor have less willpower than the rich, experts conclude. Rather, for people living in poverty, every decision — even whether to buy soap — requires self-control, and dips into their limited pool of willpower.”
Willpower is like a muscle that can get tired if overexerted, but gets stronger with prolonged use, the article states. For example, Sophia Petropulos and her husband live on a combined $12,000 annual income. She said she learned from her husband how to live frugally, and adjusted by slowly cutting back on expensive habits such as eating out every night.
“You should never deprive yourself of anything to the point where you go crazy and go to the grocery store and buy six of (whatever you’re craving) or go to Macy’s and buy six skirts,” she said. “There is a tapering off.”
The article suggests avoiding temptation — out of sight, out of mind — and planning ahead. Albert Cherino Jr., professor of entrepreneurial studies, said it’s important for students to plan out their finances. This way, short-term desires are trumped by long-term goals, he said.
“When your mind gets all bogged down with all those thoughts, it feels like ‘how can I manage this?’” he said. “Basically, it’s a lot of attitude in how you live your life, how you think about it.”
Cherino said when he was a student, it felt like he never had enough time. Looking back on it, he realizes that was not the case.
“Students are very challenged in managing their time; not because there’s not that much of it, or because they have too much to do, but because it feels that way,” he said.
Cherino said he’s heard of families living off less than $100 a month by keeping track of deals and clipping coupons. For students pressed for the time to plan, Cherino said they should remember to take time off every so often to clear their minds of all the school and work worries.
“That’s going to help you, one way or another,” he said. “It’s not just going to help you in a financial sense, but it’s going to help your mental health, especially for students.”
Another way of dealing with temptation is “implementation intention,” the article states. This means people should expect moments of weakness and have a game plan, so they can keep up willpower reserves for when they really need them.
“For example, someone who’s watching her alcohol intake might tell herself before a party, ‘If anyone offers me a drink, then I’ll ask for club soda with lime.’ Research among adolescents and adults has found that implementation intentions improve self-control.”
This site isn’t just for buying and selling. There’s a “free” section. Although it’s primarily used by people looking to get rid of moving boxes, firewood and broken items, there are some diamonds in the rough. Over the past week they have been a working television, headboard, computer desk and queen size mattress with frame posted under the “free” section of the site.
This is an online network where people post items they want to get rid of. People interested in these items can trade them for something of their own they no longer want. The organization tries to keep useful items out of the landfills.
The site lists events you can enjoy without the burden of breaking the bank.
This site lists free events in addition to good deals from local businesses. Under “general” you can find the “freebies” and “half off deals.”
Enter your zip code and this site lists the gas prices at stations in your area. If it’s time to give up the car, students and faculty can get free bus passes at the transportation information center or the welcome desk in the SUB, UNM Parking and Transportation Services or the UNM Main Bookstore. Students must show their current class schedule and faculty must bring a printout of their expanded record in the UNM directory.
