Hank at My Investing Blog wrote a funny post recently about the most frugal (tight for Brits, cheap for Americans) things he’d ever done. There were 29 of them and some were toe-curlingly embarrassing.

Regular readers of this blog will know, I’m not big on being frugal. I believe it’s important to tighten your belt a bit, but not so it cuts you in half. I used to love frugality though. When I had my big debt, I thought I could save myself by doing without and spending next to nothing. I challenged myself to ‘beat my high score’ each week and live on less.

I lived in East London, and like The EastEnders of TV fame, I was surrounded by the best street markets in the country. There was a particularly good vegetable market about a mile from my home. I used to go there once a week, just as the market was closing. After a while, all the stall holders knew me and would have a laugh when they saw me. I would go round the stalls and pick up all the fruit and veggies that had dropped off the stalls or got thrown there by the stallholders. Mostly there wasn’t much wrong with them, a bit of a bruise on an apple, a hole in a potato, slightly overripe aubergine/eggplant. I would end up walking home with two bags, one fruit and the other vegetables and without spending a single penny. I always felt rich on market days.

When I got home, I’d cut and peel and gouge out bad bits. I’d cook up a huge pan of vegetables and then divide it into 3 parts. Each one would have a different flavour, one curry, one chilli and one Mediterranean, for instance. If there were any decent potatoes I would have baked potato and veggies one night, otherwise I would cook rice each evening and there was my meal. All I ever bought was the occasional bag of rice and some spices. This was actually good, home cooked food. My friends used to enjoy coming for dinner. There was always a wholesome fruit salad or similar afterwards.

This whole exercise would take the best part of a day each week. One day, I thought about how much I was saving and what it was costing me in time and opportunity – I realised I was wasting both. Be sure that you know the opportunity-cost of your frugality. I stopped focussing on lack and started to think about how much money I could make in the time I was using to pinch pennies – and that’s when I began to turn the debt around.

What opportunities are you missing?

This post is featured at The Carnival of Money Stories at Financial Blogger.

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