The Diminishing Returns of Frugality (Bestie Ep) #1011
How to Money
iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 3.2K Ratings
🗓️ 18 July 2025
⏱️ 63 minutes
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Summary
Have you ever eaten so much dessert that you thought you might puke? Or maybe you find yourself at the end of a shopping spree with too many clothes in your closet than you could ever possibly wear? In both cases we’re talking about the diminishing marginal utility that we receive from each additional item we consume- the first cup of water after a run is wonderful, but the fifteenth... less so! Diminishing returns is a common way to describe this phenomenon, and we want you to know that this applies to frugality as well. There’s a certain subset of folks who think that the best way to handle their money is to be frugal to the max. And while we would even call ourselves a couple of frugal fellas, it’s important to point out that it’s not a financial tool that fixes everything. So while we’ll be the first to point out how frugality can make you wealthier due to how quickly you can implement it and it’s long-term implications, we’re also not shy about highlighting its downsides: how it can be the result of a fear driven mindset, how focusing on expenses can distract you from thinking about income, how it can lead to a miserly existence. There’s a way you can develop a healthy embrace of frugality and that’s what we’re discussing today!
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Transcript
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| 1:20.5 | to How to Money. I'm Joel. And I am Matt. And today we're discussing the diminishing returns |
| 1:26.2 | of frugality. That's right, Joel, just like you learned at a very young age that there's only so much candy that you can eat before your tummy starts to hurt. |
| 1:52.7 | I still remember getting a five pound bag of runts from, I think it was Sam's flow back in the day. |
| 1:57.2 | Gross. But the one thing, some people love the banana runts. Not me. Oh, the banana. Oh, see. I picked all the banana runs out. We talked about this before. You and I, we would have made a good combo even at a very young age. Yes. No, we, so we are talking about frugality, which in my mind is sort of like this superpower. It's this universal tool that you can apply to almost any area of your life. But it does have its limitations. If you lean into it |
| 2:18.4 | too hard, you are going to see some of those diminishing returns. And so that's what we're going to talk |
| 2:23.4 | about today, the proper way to approach this idea of frugality. But, you know, I was actually, |
| 2:28.7 | real quick, before we get started here talking about that, I was thinking about our wives, the |
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