by Kate
One thing that can get overlooked in discussions about frugality and intentionality and spending your values it the fact that you can, indeed, spend money. Of course, a lot of the time making deliberate spending choices means that we need to cut back, or say "no" more, or consider a life with less. But being deliberate about spending also means we spend money as well. Spending our values means we should spend our money on the things we truly value and love and the things that benefit us the most. And some of the time the things that benefit us the most are downright fun!
A few years ago we led a workshop on spending your values at our church in DC and we asked people to think about how their spending habits overlap (or don't) with their values. A lot of people realized that they should be spending money differently. But one of the most interesting outcomes of the workshop was the moment when people discovered what they should be spending their money on instead.
One woman, a graduate student in the city, discovered that paying for grocery delivery was not the luxury she thought, but a worthwhile investment and use of her time. She calculated the time-value of the money she spend on the delivery service and found that spending two hours of her pay each month saved her hours and hours of time going to the grocery store (which was pretty far away), shopping, and lugging all the groceries up three flights of stairs. In her current stage of life, paying for grocery delivery absolutely aligned with her values of studying and being deeply involved at the church.
Another woman, a journalist, realized that she wasn't taking her value of learning as seriously as she should. While she enjoyed being a journalist she also loved studying theology and hoped to go to graduate school in theology one day. As part of her love of learning and theology she wanted to study Greek in her spare time, but she felt like she shouldn't spend the $60 for the Greek language-learning software she really wanted. It seemed "expensive." But over the course of the workshop she realized that while $60 is a substantial amount of money, buying the software aligned directly with a number of her values. When she took the time to examine what really mattered in her life, she was excited to find out that making a purchase was actually the right decision in spending her values.
One of the great parts of spending your values is that you don't have to feel guilty about spending money on the things you value! When you take a minute to examine your motivations and reasons for a purchase, you are not just being smart about money, you are giving your future self the gift of a meaningful and guilt-free item/experience. It really is okay to spend money - even if the item, at first glance, seems a bit extravagant or not totally necessary. If it helps you commit further to your values, then go for it!
(Also, aren't people so wonderfully different? I marvel over new chapstick while other people get groceries delivered and learn Greek! It's delightful!)
The power of the small amount.