Obsessive Frugality

Ever since the brief tenure at the Sand Island homeless shelter, there has been an obsessive need for frugality tugging at the senses. The sensation appears to be a locked-in “survival mode.” Every kind of discount must be exploited. Anything “free” must be taken advantage of. All effort must be concentrated on cutting expenses. Conveniences are not an affordable or feasible luxury. Many aspects of the “penny-pinching” strategy has been adopted from tips from the formerly-homeless buddy and others in similar situations.

Of course, cutting expenses makes sense because the moneychangers have really put the squeeze on the rank-and-file peons. All “shiny objects” must be avoided. The latter are only inducements to produce a Pavlovian response (i.e., spending more) after the “shiny object” loses its luster.

In most cases, goods and services are so mediocre, there is no way to justify the cost of either. Better to deal with self-induced mediocrity in which only oneself is to be blamed for any disappointment. Actually, self-induced mediocrity is more likely to be embraced wholeheartedly.

Addendum: Poor quality and service problems have reduced the daily regime to three components - coffee time with instant coffee, working out at the gym, and eating dinner at a small handful of vendors.