Is “Frugality” a Trend?
by Katy on April 17, 2025 · 31 comments
I was driving with the radio on yesterday and the Z100 DJs were talking about how “frugality” had become trendy, which gave me a laugh. It reminded me of when I was interviewed in 2009 for a NY Times article titled In an Age of Austerity, The Miserly Thrive.
If you recall, 2009 was the middle of a nasty recession and headlines like this sold newspapers.
“My behavior has become less strange and more of a resource,” said Katy Wolk-Stanley, 41, a nurse in Portland, Ore. A practicing penny-pincher for the last decade, she is now spreading her gospel. Last May, she started a blog with tips and tactics for cutting back called The Non-Consumer Advocate.
She knows whereof she blogs. She darns socks, dries clothes on a line she recently hung inside her house (even though it takes a few days for the clothes to dry inside), washes and reuses plastic bags and takes used clothes and furniture people leave on the street — like the slightly torn Garnet Hill duvet cover she found recently.
“It was wet, and covered with dog hair,” she said. “I washed it really well a couple of times and mended it.” Her quest for money-saving ideas “is very energizing,” she says. “You see opportunities everywhere.”
I don’t consider myself “miserly” as I want nothing more than for everyone to have the tools to live a full rich life on whatever income they happen to have. I’m hardly sitting on a pile of gold coins as I bow down to the right and honorable Scrooge McDuck!
I remember that the NY Times photographer came to the house with specific instructions to photograph me hanging laundry on my inside line and was somewhat derisive, commenting “Is this all you do?” as if I thought my simple act of hanging laundry was revolutionary. Of course it isn’t. Extreme frugality touches every aspect of my life, from my 19-year-old edict to only buy secondhand, to my twenty-year-old car, to the practice of mending and repairing pretty much everything we own.
Telling the American public that “frugality is trendy” feels akin to wartime propaganda to manipulate people into feeling proud of their frugality, when this specific situation is actually being forced upon us by corporate greed and tax breaks for the wealthy.
This may seem odd for me to write, as I’m certainly proud of my frugal creativity, but I’m not pinching pennies so that egg suppliers can enjoy record profits or so our current administration can squeeze all they can from the American public.
So yes, frugality is more necessary than ever, but please don’t confuse it with it being “trendy.”
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”
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{ 31 comments… read them below or add one }
Hard agree. Living simply, trying to have a small footprint, is so much more than a trend. I do hope more people adopt it though!
Frugality is not only good for your financial well being it is also good for our sanity and our planet. It is calming to not be chasing after or trying to keep up with the latest. It is so much better for the planet if we exist on the low end of the consumption spectrum (as long as we have enough, I know that is not a privilege for everyone).
Keep preaching Katy.
You omitted a couple of paragraphs from the NYT article you mentioned:
“Ms. Wolk-Stanley says she is not cheap. She’s sensible. Why spend on new things when there are viable alternatives? And she contends she does not judge others.
“If everyone followed this advice, it would be catastrophic to the economy,” she said.”
I do enjoy having something in common with my nieces and nephews, who think thrifting is cool.
Frugality is in my genes. I have furniture my parents curb picked in the 70s, and a lamp my grandfather curb picked in the 50s. This isn’t a trend for me.
Yes, this isn’t a trend to me, either. It is normal behavior.
For some reason, curb picking, isn’t common in our area. Generally, I don’t see things left out at the curb. Occasionally, a garage sale will set out the remains after the sale with a free sign on their driveway, but often as not they haul it to the Goodwill.
I do watch Facebook Marketplace in our area, as well as our own neighborhood Facebook page where my own neighbors will often list things for sale or sometimes for free.
So much of what I have in the way of furnishings have come to my second hand, but the sources vary. I’ve been gifted many items from family members and I hope that it gives them pleasure to see me using their gifted items.
Aside from local customs (or weather), city ordinances might be reasons for more or fewer free piles. Or attitudes of street department officials and how they enforce the rules.
Frugality – in our current context – makes up a significant part of my participation in the Resistance. It offers community, like this one you have nutured Katy, joy, especially when I can share it with others who will appreciate it, and creativity.
And I am very mindful that for some of our fellow humans now, and for previous generations of my family, frugality has always been the only option for survival.
I’ve practiced some form of frugality for decades but the past few years Hubby and I have loosened the purse strings a little bit. However, the past few weeks I’m feeling the need to tighten things up again.
I’m rich! I own a mansion and a yacht!
OK, not so much. I am probably selling my house to a young couple expecting their first baby. I offered them the vintage Arts and Crafts nursery rhyme lithographs my daughter grew up with for free. I never know whether I’m doing right. I tend to give away things rather than sell them. In my defense, I live in the middle of nowhere so it’s hard to sell nice antiques anyway. And I’m tired. And this makes me feel good about getting rid of them rather than sad. And I’m so, so tired.
My best to you.
Rose,
That first line made me think you’re just like Elmer J. Fudd, millionaire. 🙂
I think you’re doing the right thing if giving away the nursery rhyme lithographs feels right to you. Sending you rest.
You go girl! Someone (all of us) needs to be calling it like it is and speaking truth to power. Sad that living within your means and caring that everyone can thrive when they’re trying their hardest should make someone weird or a revolutionary! How about mindful, caring, human. A model. Thank you Katy.
Aww, thank you Lindy! <3
Frugality is not a trend for me, it is the DNA of all refugees and their children. My parents came from Nazi camps and then displaced person camps, arriving with nothing but a sponsor who met them at Ellis Island and took them to a temporary apartment that had one month paid on it. A job as a hod carrier was waiting for my father, so they immediately started saving because they were on their own for the next month’s rent. We were so poor that they would buy hamburger and we would eat that one night and the leftover grease with bread the second night; many days of the week we had borscht and homemade black bread. (Beans and rice were not big items in Eastern European cuisine.) I remember my mother making me a dress out of a pillowcase because it was cheaper than buying cloth or a store-bought dress. In those days you could buy jelly in glass jars that were meant to be used as drinking glasses once the jar was empty, so between that and green stamps, we ended up with enough dishes that we could have someone come over and have a place setting for them. All of which is to say, maybe thrift is a trend for some people, but not for everyone.
I remember the jelly glasses and Green Stamps! Which stores and gas stations and grocery stores you shopped out were often dependent upon which business gave out which brand of trading stamps. Mom liked Green Stamps so she went to Piggly Wiggly; my Baptist aunties supported HEB (supposedly owned by a bigtime Baptist) and therefore saved Texas Gold Stamps given out by that store. There was also Gold Bond Stamps but I forget whether Safeway or A&P had those. Meanwhile, Grandma only bought Bama Jelly and used the jars as her drinking glasses. Different brands of powdered laundry detergent also had a drinking glass in every box, so housewives could use that detergent and collect the glassware. You’d buy the smaller boxes for juice glasses, while the larger sizes contained iced tea glasses.
Lindsey, I persist in thinking that you have material for several books–one about your father, one about you and the husband, one about your Alaskan village life, and one about Houndini and Clobber Paws.
And Fru-gal Lisa, count me in as another member of the Bama Jelly Glass Club. My mother bought Bama and reused the jars as glasses for years. (They were tough enough to stand up to four kids.)
As for frugality as a trend–well, along with others here, I believe that anyone thinking of it as merely a “trend” and not a way of life isn’t going to do that well with it.
I second A. Marie, on writing a book about your interesting life would be fantastic. I would certainly buy one or more, if you write more than one.
I remember helping my mother and grandmother lick and stick the stamps in the Green stamps and Gold Strike stamps books. I have a set of beautiful garnet-colored dessert bowls that were my grandmother’s when I was a little girl. I’m certain she got those with stamp books.
I take exception to the condescending attitude of the photographer. The Times is a liberal newspaper. It seems he was “judgy” towards someone who was conservative with money & resources (fiscal responsibility). I thought the liberal mindset included tolerance. Good for Katy for standing firm in her convictions to limit waste & to be a good steward of her resources.
I don’t think that was the situation, as the photographer was just underwhelmed with what she saw. Had she been interviewing me I would have expanded on my frugal lifestyle, but that not what she was there for.
I stand corrected.
Perhaps the photographer was looking for bigger savings from single actions. Clothes lines are better for clothes, for the environment, and they save on electricity. Yet setting aside the upfront cost of the dryer, they don’t save a lot each month, especially if you value your time highly.
Living in a smaller house; repairing furniture, vehicles, appliances; being part of a sharing economy; staying in good health; having like-minded friends and family for entertainment– those save bigger amounts.
I love that photo and the article. For once I’m on trend! I’ve been a thrifter for a long time but now that’s just about the only way I’ll buy anything if possible. I sell some finds on ebay along with things in my house. Hopefully, this frugality “trend” will stay around for a long time. Something has to counter the constant onslaught of influencers and ads trying to get people to buy things they don’t need and can’t afford. I just mended a blue and white awning striped patio umbrella. Just had a small tear. Young me would have tossed it and bought a whole new set of umbrellas.
I’m a baby boomer. I recall my dad a machinist carrying a thermos of coffee and a metal lunch box with a sandwich often made of leftover meatloaf. We didn’t have an automatic dishwasher till I was 16.
My 2 younger sisters and I’m had Toni home perms and “mom” bangs cut with kitchen shears.
I’m now retired and 72 I take advantage of every senior discount I find
My parents never had a dishwasher. I finally had one at age 45. I remember my dad packing – make that my mom packing it – lunch. He had an “office” job.
Hear! Hear! Good points you make, as always!
To borrow/change a phrase from an old country song, “we were frugal before frugal was cool.”
I think frugality goes in and out of style. Remember the Annie Hall fad, from the movie of the same name? Everyone was copying Diane Keaton’s thrift store fashions, only a lot of folks — who didn’t quite get it –were buying brand new “Annie Hall” stuff from dept. stores. But, happily, others discovered the joy of thrifting — and finding vintage men’s clothing stored in the attic.
A coworker of mine was thrilled when her teenager wanted an old pickup truck for his high school car. That was the year when boys were getting their grandpa’s old fishing trucks as frugal hand-me-down vehicles. Their family didn’t have a grandpa or a fishing truck — but they found an old beater for sale cheap, and she was delighted at this frugal fad.
Another frugal movement was the Lenten season when several church ladies started a movement to wear what you had for Easter dresses and donate (to the church or a charity or mission) the money you would’ve otherwise spent on the traditional new outfit. I was a newspaper reporter then, and the managing editor killed my story about this (ie, wouldn’t let it get printed) bc he said our dept. store advertisers would be furious at such a notion. He feared they’d cut back on their full-page ads. Because they wanted people to buy all-new outfits for Easter and other occasions.
To me, frugality is all about “beating the system.” The powers that be would like to nickel and dime the rest of us so they can keep their billions, and they brainwash the masses into thinking the “trickle down” economy will benefit all; then they encourage the lower classes to go out and buy now, pay later, getting all kinds of new stuff these poor folks can’t afford.
Being able to live a good life (not to be confused with “THE Good Life”/American dream they’re promoting) and not drown in debt is my way of beating them at their own game.
Frugal jaysus will likely be found again. A glut of women who think they’ve discovered how to save money (sometimes after firing their cleaning lady/other help thus making things worse). They’ll start blogging, that is until times (for them) get better. I’ll be blunt and judgy, yes judgy – they just don’t get it. Being financially wise applies despite good or bad times. A person is delusional if s/he thinks good times will never end. Read your history books – yes they exist despite attempts to whitewash/cover up.
I’ve said it before – this is our better half and my first rodeo with crap economic times. This time we are debt free. While always possible I’d lose my job (I am retirement eligible at my employer), my dinosaur skills plus others retiring put me in a pretty good place. Be it at my current employer but no f-ing way would I lower myself to fill what will soon be a fed govt job needing my dinosaur skills. Apartheid Andy (Peon Pusk) and the orange pox made their bed and they can lie in it. Or is it lay in it?
Not our first rodeo – better half experienced stagflation as adult, I remember it. It always helps when a partnership is on the same page economically speaking.
We came to this country with 10 suitcases for our family of 5. We had a one week reservation at a hotel and in that one week had to find a place to rent and a job for dh. When we moved into a tiny 2 bedroom apartment my husband bought a lazyboy recliner (I had always wanted one to rock my babies in), a bed for us and one for each of the 2 older children. Baby was in a pack and play in our room. The beds and the recliner were our only furniture. The kids toy box was an empty suitcase. I didn’t put a single thing up on the walls because I was too afraid to lose our security deposit. My aunt visited and said it was the saddest place she had ever seen.
We have been ultra frugal ever since that time. It has served us well. I get joy in hanging my clothes on the line and seeing which ones I can mend or make over, and thinking how old each garment is. We have all that we need, some to share, and a joyful family. We work enough, but don’t need a huge income because we don’t have a lavish lifestyle to maintain. And we like it that way.
As a newlywed married to a GI, I set up housekeeping on the German economy. We were able to check out a wringer washing machine and I obtained a spinner to further get the water out. Line drying outside or in the attic was the norm! Often, the radiators served as dryers and humidifier. When we returned stateside, the purchase of a washer and dryer was the absolute best!!! I’d grown up frugal and those lessons plus the additional ones I’ve learned have served me well.
I have been in training to hang laundry on lines my whole life. My mother did not believe in owning a dryer. As far as I can remember, we were the only people in the neighborhood without one. This was in the 60s and 70s. We hung laundry outside in the good weather and in the cellar on lines strung across the whole length of it in the bad weather. We lived, as I still do, in New England, with lots of snow. Not as much now what with climate change. I just hung a load of whites and have darks in the washer now to be hung in a bit. I use my dryer in the winter due to low light and I won’t trudge through snow to get to the clothesline. Kudos to those who do.
That’s not trendy…it’s lifelong as are so many more aspects of my life. Mostly it’s a comfortable feeling knowing we will always have enough because DH and I are both happy living our low maintenance lifestyle.