Frugality, for me it's still a choice.

This post appears in the 150th Festival of Frugality at Bargain Briana.

I’ve only been really frugal for about six or eight months now so, in some cases, I’m still learning new behaviors. My plan to stay at a friend’s house in El Paso on my way home fell through so I went online before I left New York to book myself a hotel room. In my old life I would have booked the Marriott or Radisson or Hilton and been done with it. Anything from $80 - $150 a night would have been fine. Now that I am trying so hard to be frugal I had to make a little more effort. I ended up going on Expedia and booking the airport Travelodge. When the listing said the room included a refrigerator, microwave, complementary fruit bowl, free wireless Internet and free breakfast all for $60 a night, including tax, I was a little concerned. My trip back to Texas yesterday was really long. I’m still hanging on to my cold and was exhausted when I finally got to El Paso. In the spirit of frugality I had parked in the long term parking so I had to wait on the shuttle, which was full when it arrived, and deal with my luggage. I’d managed to hurt my foot during the day so I was in some pain and limping. I really needed to get to my room!

When I found the hotel I was a little disheartened, actually worried, by its appearance. I’m not saying anything about the Travelodge in general because I have stayed at some nice ones before but this one looked pretty grim. During check-in the front desk person had to physically leave and go check the room to make sure no one was in it. He explained that they’d just gotten a new reservation system and there were some glitches. I was half-hoping they would not be able to accommodate me so I could flee to the Marriot! When I signed the reservation form it turned out the room, including tax, was only $45. That made me even more apprehensive. My room was very small and dated with stains on the carpet. The air conditioning unit turned on but did not produce the correct temperature of air. Its sound did at least provide some white noise so I left it running. The peephole in the door was actually a dime-sized hole. Clearly someone could peep in just as easily as I could peep out! Tissue solved that problem. I put a chair and my suitcase in front of the door. I was feeling a little sorry for myself as I tentatively got into the bed. As I prepare to sleep, I’m in the habit of thinking back over the day and mentally listing what I’m grateful for. It occurred to me that I needed to be grateful that I could afford this $45 a night room as I know there are lots of people who can’t. I needed to be grateful that I could afford to choose to check out of this room, if I wanted, and go to the Marriott as there are even more people who couldn’t afford to do that.

Frugality, for me, is still a choice. There are lots of people out there for whom it is a necessity. I can whine about the price of gas as I fill my tank and the price of food as I shop but I am still able to buy both gas and food without counting my pennies or waiting for payday. My stay in this little, slightly icky hotel room has reminded me of all I have to be grateful for. I still not putting my bare feet on the carpet but I’m grateful for that reminder!