This post was inspired by Invest It Wisely and his post Challenging Your Thoughts and Beliefs.

This post was featured as an Editor’s Pick in Carnival of Personal Finance #286.

This post was included in The Best Personal Finance Articles of 2010 by Free From Broke.

I like spending money. There… I said it. I like shopping (if you didn’t know that, read about it here). I like going on vacations even if it means only a two day getaway to some place I’ve never been before. I like eating out with my friends. So, overall I like spending money and I don’t feel guilty about it. Or even worse – I don’t feel like a fool who is parted from her money.

Some people like saving money, some people like spending their hard earned dollars. It is a personal choice. Do you believe you can be frugal and not be afraid to spend money?

A frugal lifestyle could require a lot of work, time and patience. It could overtake your life. It could control your life in the following ways:

1. You spend endless hours researching, exploring, shopping around for good prices and deals. A frugal person like you understands that shopping is not fun. It is hard work comparing prices, planning and timing your purchases, organizing your schedule to accommodate your shopping trips so that you can get precisely what you need for exactly what you want to spend on it. Instead you could be walking in the  park with your dog, playing with your kids, spending time with your friends, visiting your parents, reading a book or watching the news.

2. Your hair will eventually grow out of control, lose shape and style. But, being a frugal person you cannot justify spending more than $20 for a haircut. Annually. You decide to cut your own hair, even though you cannot see if you cut it straight in the back. Instead of looking stylish and preppy, you choose to look frugal. Come on… what is really important? Definitely not looks. Substance.

3. You separate the 2-ply toilet paper rolls into 2 separate rolls. You even start considering to use newspaper instead of a toilet paper. You wash and re-use plastic storage bags. You make your own soap and you tell yourself it is better for your skin (and it probably is). You cook at home all the time. Why go out and pay someone to serve you the same food you can make yourself? Time consuming? Yes. Boring? Probably.Instead you could be … see #1 above.

4. You don’t want to pay money for cable or the Internet. You sign up for your local library to get free books, magazines and movies. You wait for months because all popular books and movies are taken, and the waiting lists are huge. However, you don’t mind waiting because you don’t have time to read or watch movies. Insteadof reading and watching movies, you are busy cooking, cutting out coupons, making your own soap, unrolling and rolling toilet paper and washing plastic storage bags.

5. You don’t go on vacations because they cost money. Instead you take naps and dream of places you have never been because that doesn‘t cost anything and gives you so much needed relaxation.

If after reading this you are still considering frugality is a way of life, think twice. And for Goodness sake, go get a life!