Why do I choose a frugal lifestyle?

I think it is important to be aware that my fiance and I are lucky; for us frugality is a conscious choice. We were both born into middle class families with loving parents who have supported us. We are both college educated, in fact we both hold advanced degrees (though mine came with a lot of student loan debt) and we are both employed in good jobs. It was a struggle to get here, we both graduated around the beginning of the economic crisis in 2008, but we are still very fortunate to be where we are.

Even though we have struggled at times, we are still luckier than a lot of other people because for us living a frugal lifestyle is mostly a choice. One we have made in part, in response to economic insecurity in our past but also for other reasons, so why do we live the frugal life?

Frugality gives us choice and reduces stress
I don't find living below our means to be a deprivation, in fact I feel like it opens up a lot of choices for us. A frugal lifestyle allows us to save money and having savings provides security for us. We don't worry about paying the mortgage or keeping the lights on because we have money in the bank should something unexpected happen.

As prime example of this, last year my fiance was at a terrible job. The company had really declined after hiring a new manager and the staff were being treated horribly with constantly shifting schedules, being berated for taking "breaks" of even 30 seconds and 3 members of the 10 person staff were fired in just a few months (1 of them had been at the company for 6 years!). Thankfully, my fiance was in the final stage of an interview for another position but because his job had become so unbearable, he was able to quit the bad company while he waited a few weeks for the final approval of the new job.

If we wouldn't have had savings to cover a few months of living expenses, he wouldn't have been able to do this in case the new job didn't come through, it would have been too much of a risk. But since we live frugally and have savings, even if he didn't get the new job job we could've made ends meet for several months while he kept looking.

A lower budget means less stress and more security.

Consumerism is bad for the environment
Shopping as hobby, overbuying and consuming just to consume waste the valuable resources of our planet. I am far from a minimalist but I try to aim for some awareness that the resources of our planet are finite. I have a long way to go here...my fiance is much better (he seriously loves thrift stores). Buying fewer things and using up what we have helps.

Even striving to live a frugal lifestyle I still have a full closet and usually way more than I need of everything. I try to only buy clothes that really speak to me as something I will wear many times and are of good quality but it is also an area where I could improve.

In other areas I do better - I do some meal planning to keep food waste low and we don't buy all the latest tech gizmos, instead aiming to keep our phones and laptops until they completely break.

We don't want to work forever
I like my job and my company is a great place to work but I still don't want to work forever. I would like to be able to retire early and travel with my partner in crime while we're still youngish. In order to realize that dream, we need to save and invest. We bought our first rental property last year and I would eventually like to own 3 or 4 so we can live off of the rental income. In order to make this dream a reality, we need to save money so we can invest it.

These are the main reasons we choose to spend our money thoughtfully, avoiding spending that doesn't give us joy or meet a need. What inspired your frugal lifestyle?