The Cheaper Your Pleasure The Richer You’ll be – A pearl of Wisdom!

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Written by jayargonaut

The daily prompt asks me:

Daily writing prompt
Write about your approach to budgeting.
View all responses

Now I don’t usually respond to these daily prompts, as I am just not sure what to write, but this one I can answer and Know what to write!😊. So here it is.

Growing up my family didn’t have much money, as many others in this world, so I didn’t grow up with what I would call a healthy mentality to money, but a skewed one. I watched my parents try, and try…but then only to fail later in life, so badly so, it put my mother into hospital for a while. Thankfully they found some sort of balance in their later years before they both passed.

So I grew up with a scarcity mentality, always believing anything I got – someone would try and take this away from me, quite common maybe. This was only made worse by the fact of several losses in my family, and having a major head injury in a traffic accident when I was 11 years old…so I always believed I was unlucky, rather than lucky maybe. I went through life always looking out for the loss, the ‘stealer’, the black swan etc, etc.

I talk about this as I am well aware we become seriously affected by what happens to us, or can be, we can become ‘victims of circumstance’ as such. So I am still aware I have this wrong sense of scarcity, but now I can control it better. When I was young I overspent really, but then someone stepped in and helped me out.

Many years ago a chap I had gotten to know, much older than me, almost like a second Father to me, would guide me a little and offer me advice. He would advise books to read to help me out mentally and spiritually. He gave me the book:

The Richest Man in Babylon

(Book title: The Richest Man in Babylon – By George Samuel Clason)

I won’t include a link to this, you can just go google it and purchase the book from anywhere, and it is not expensive, maybe £6-7.00 gbp. But this book helped me, and helped change my attitude to money. It started to help me understand the concept of the title of this post: ‘The Cheaper Your Pleasure The Richer You’ll be’ or to put it another way ‘If your tastes are cheap, you will always be rich’.

Now this doesn’t mean I have lots of money, far from it, I am a single Father and starving artist who always has to manage what little money I have wisely, and I have no other family to help me out. It is just me and my Son, struggling through life. But we are happy with our meager lot, and we find pleasure through our learning, our work, philosophy, talking, walking, playing games, science, art…generally the things that cost no money, or at least very little money. Money does not own us or our minds…we own them!

So this is my philosophy around budgeting, always try to live below your means;

‘be a creator, not a consumer‘

Now I know we have to consume a certain amount, I am not trying to be smart, it is just a simple philosophy; try and add to the world rather than just taking, and when you do take, just be humble about it….you will find a happier place.

Go and buy the book, it will be worth it.

Okay that is it for this post, it is now time for one of my consuming pleasures….a simple cup of coffee 😊, you have to have some small ones.

I hope you enjoyed my post. Please respond if you did, I love getting comments and always reply.

Have a great day people.

Kind regards, Jay

Jayargonaut

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19 Comments

    1. Well said Ojaswi 😊, and thank you. The world has become a big business I am afraid, and we are the fodder. Consumerism really kicked in post the 2nd world war, we were manipulated into it. People are always chasing the ‘quick fix’, and that is a futile endeavor. The search for meaning is a better path I believe. Thanks for the comment Ojaswi, I really appreciate them🙏. Best, Jay😊

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  3. Incidentally, I am reading this while having a cup of coffee before I go to the farm. I usually don’t read blogs in the morning but at night before bed, I was too tired last night.
    Well, your childhood is not so different from mine, neither is my present but here’s my take from the book when it comes to pleasure, “I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:12.
    Thank you for sharing.

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    1. Hey Mosrubn. I hope you enjoyed that coffee 😊? Thank you for that, that is an insightful and wise passage. Thank you for sharing that with me and my blog. You have a great day my friend and stay blessed 🙏😊. Best…Jay

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  5. I did find a nice summary by following this search in the URL from Wikipedia, which I suggest to any blogger and writer to get to the essence of any history or book: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Richest_Man_in_Babylon

    We’re so blessed to have information at our fingertips: 1. The Seven Cures for a Lean Purse, and 2. The Five Laws of Gold, which were created 4000 years ago and made into financial pamphlets in the mid 1920’s before the big crash. (You can see how I picked this info from Wiki)

    I’m also enjoying your blog having my morning cup of Joe, I really like the look of your site. The black field is so much nicer on the eyes upon awakening! What I got from the corny ‘Thy and Thee’ and Biblical babble from Arkad in Babylon is; Pay ourselves First, and automatically tithe about ten to fifteen percent. Take out pre-tax earnings for 401K and skim ten to fifteen percent off the top. When you get a raise, the amount increases, and as you go by and by and enter your big earning years, kick the cut up to twenty percent! It sounds impossible, but after about seven years, the money starts getting bigger than your paycheck per month. AND DON’T DIP INTO IT, NO MATTER WHAT. And here’s what we don’t get because our education system does not teach us about money–your paycheck doesn’t go down my the twenty percent–because your taxes are at least as much–your take home only goes down my the twenty percent of the twenty percent such that if your booking two hundred a paycheck into savings, your paycheck only goes down my fifty bucks. Ca-peesh?

    I’ve spent about two hours a month on my QuickBooks Sole Proprietor website and took six and a half hours to file this year on Turbo Tax, but it netted me $4500 in refunds. DEDUCT EVERYTHING for Home Business. Apple iCloud Storage? Deduct. Monthly subscriptions from Google or websites? Deduct. New Computer? Deduct. Rent on office in your apartment? Deduct. Travel to do photography and blog? Deduct. Have a meal and talk about your craft? Deduct. Our tax rates are so oppressive right now that keeping receipts can drop the magic number of Adjusted Gross Income. “AGI” is my gift of Gold to you vis-a-vis Arkad and the land of Babble!

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    1. Hi DriverDoug. I am assuming it is just Doug? Thank you for your kind comments🙏. I am pleased you like the colour scheme and layout of the blog, I like the dark background as it makes the images ‘pop’ a little and easier to see. I appreciate the feedback👍.

      And thank you for this great and informative comment. I sincerely appreciate the time you have taken to write such concise and informative content, and the fact you are willing to share. Thank you my friend! Best, Jay.

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    1. Thank you Roksana😊🙏. I am so glad you agree. Yes it is a much more fulfilling path as you say. You too Roksana😊, and have a blessed day…Jay✌️

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    1. Thank you Freddie😊. I am glad you enjoyed it and found it interesting. It is a principle close to my heart and one that I think should be taught to children in schools, but sadly, I think isn’t. We should value experience and the natural things around us every day, unfortunately we are taught to value the consumerist machine, and that stuff must equal success. Stay interested, happy , and free. Thank you for your support Freddie, and you have a wonderful day too my friend😊✌️

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