turning green

If you get a chance, read THIS article.  It's titled, Are you taking frugality too far? and is written about me.  Not really, but it may as well be.  Well, maybe more written straight TO me.  I was raised constantly being reminded to 'save' money (both by setting it aside in a savings account for the future, and by not paying full price for items).  Things like "never pay for clothing unless it's at least 50% off", "don't buy it if you don't need it", "would you rather have this now, or a house later?" and "when you buy something, you're technically never saving it" constantly run through my head.

When I lived at home I did a great job at setting a goal for myself (a self made competition between me and what I knew my friend had saved) of setting money aside for the future.  Now that I'm on my own, my penny pincher tendencies come out.  Some are good, and helpful, some... not so much.  I'll sign up for free samples and clip coupons (I use... most of them), I try to keep the lights off and the heat as low as possible.  I try to be frugal in what I spend on clothes and other accessories.  I try to do research on certain items that I think I can get a better deal on elsewhere.  But I also feel like I'm the type of person who'll save my plastic fork from a work Christmas party and wash it and use it the next day.  Or grab a roll of toilet paper as I'm leaving the hotel.  How lame. But one big thing that this whole frugality thing has done to me, is made me a tightwad to a certain extent, and a little selfish.  I mean, I give some money away... but not enough.  What am I saving all this money for anyways?  Is it going to guarantee my happiness?  No... Now that I know I have the ability to save, why don't I use some of what I've saved to bless others?  I should have the mindset of using my God-giving resource of saving, to eventually give that away.  I want to save money when I am eating meals alone, so that when friends want to get together, I am able to bless them with my presence be there and not decline.  I want to save money on groceries for myself so that I can splurge a little bit and buy ingredients to make meals for Dennis and others.  I want to save  money on clothing and have a goal to buy at least one outfit for someone who cannot afford one.  I've been blessed with so much, and for as often as I think about money, I want to think of it more in the context of how I can use it for others and not how I can become the next Lynchburg Grinch.