Frugal living or fruitless living

A few weeks ago I posted an article about earning extra money as a copy editor. In that article, I admitted that I use a copy editor. Actually, I use a couple. Someone asked me just how is it frugal to pay someone to do what I can do for myself. That’s a good question. Before I answer, I need to address just what frugal is. Frugal is maximizing the return on the use of your resources, primarily by planning how to economically employ your money and time in a way that adds to your enjoyment of life.

Frugal Living Or Fruitless Living

The point of the article on copy editing was that someone with good (written) language skills might want to take on work copy editing. (Skills and abilities should also be considered resources to be exploited for gain.) In this case a skill and some time could be employed to bring in funds for later use. That would make copy editing a frugal move for the person doing it. Now, I want to look at it from the blogger’s side.

A blogger does more than just write articles and stick them up on the internet. Many readers would be surprised to know how much work goes into blogging. Essentially there are four phases—research (if needed), writing, posting, and promoting. Promoting is easily the most time-consuming. I read somewhere that bloggers spend 20% of their time in research and writing the post, with most of that going into the writing aspect. The rest of their time—80%—is spent on promoting it. That sounds about right. (By the way, the actual act of posting doesn’t take long.)

You have to work to promote your work. Most bloggers use social media: FaceBook, Twitter, Pinterest, and G+ just to mention a few. Each of the social media platforms has its own “personality,” rules, and best business practices. It takes time to work through each protocol.

Then…I have my “day job” and living life in general.

My Answer

Let me reiterate the question: Since I could edit my posts myself, is using the services of a copy editor a frugal or fruitless endeavor?

My answer is: It’s frugal. Yes, I could do it all if I needed to. And, truthfully, most of the time I do my own editing, but sometimes my schedule gets full and I wouldn’t have time to LIVE if I didn’t have someone else do it.) Sometimes blogging and my day job take all my time and there’s no way to do much of anything else. (And don’t forget, I need some sleep, too.)

That’s Where My Frugal Lifestyle Comes In

In many of my posts (including this one), I’ve said that frugal people use their assets with the intention of getting the most out of them—making them profitable. Money is definitely high on my list of resources, but so is time, and sometimes spending money (if you stay on budget) really pays off in quality time. Of course, the opposite is true, also. Time often yields money. The yield of a frugal lifestyle should be quality and enjoyment, so to some extent it’s a balancing act and it’ is certainly subjective: When you live frugally, it really is all about you. What do you want out of life? Well…Since we’re talking about me, what do I want out of life?

Here Are A Few Things That Should Help You Get To Know Me Better:

When you read through my posts, you know I endorse planning for the future and protecting the “now.” So, I guess the question is what does my “now” look like?

1) Attending church is important to me. Every Sunday I look forward to hearing the pastor’s message and fellowshipping with other Christians. I rarely miss church.

2) I’m a foodie. One of my great pleasures in life is eating the food of other countries. I’m particularly fond of Thai food, but I enjoy trying a variety of cuisines.

3) My daughter lives about an hour away from me. I love going to visit her and her husband. (I love being around family, period.)

4) I enjoy traveling. This year I want to travel to Southeast Asia. I’ve been to Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, China, and Thailand just to mention a few countries. This year I’m making plans to go back to Thailand. I want to see if my memories of Thailand hold true. (If they do, Thailand may figure more in my future. We’ll see…)

5) I like to fish, but I don’t often get the chance to do it. This may be something I focus on more when I retire. That is, when I retire again. I’m retired Army now, but I’m still working a full time job.

6) My hobby is this blog. There are several reasons I like blogging. Perhaps the biggest reason is that I feel I have a lot to offer in the arena of frugal living. My wife and I raised a family on military pay; we had to be frugal. I also plan for the blog to supply one income stream when I, eventually, retire from my “day job.” (I’ll have others.) I want a financially secure future.

Enough Of That

Earlier, I said frugal living is about maximizing the return on money we spend in order to enhance our lives. I just gave you a short list of things that are meaningful to me. When you read it you can’t help but notice the list is all about me and what I want/enjoy. (And by the way, that list really is a “short list.” My copy has a lot more entries.) In order to be able to do these things I need to plan my money and time so I can accomplish them. Think about it…What kind of relationship would I have with my daughter if I buried myself in blogging? How frugal would I be if I ate every meal out? Or, how honest would I be about wanting my blog to deliver a future income if I didn’t post regularly. I need to be frugal with my money, my time, and anything else that can be considered an asset or resource.

What Does This Have To Do With Hiring A Copy Editor?

Now, we’re getting back to the initial question: Is hiring a copy editor a frugal or fruitless practice? You know I want to go to church, visit my daughter, eat exotic foods, and travel. All of these things take time and money in varying degrees. If I’m unwilling to use my resources to do or have the things I

value and do all the work on my blogg myself, I’m not using my resources for a present advantage. If I overuse them, I’m undermining my future.

So…what will allow me to strike a balance? The answer is a budget. My budget allows funds for a copy editor. I carefully monitor the use of that money in conjunction with my schedule to allow time to enjoy LIFE. (A schedule should be considered a budget for time.) That’s a frugal practice. I’m also careful not exceed the financial boundaries of my copy editor fund. Spending that money does not undermine my savings plan for the future; that would be fruitless. Besides, this blog is mine. It needs to remain mine. If I used a copy editor too often, I might lose my perspective.

Final Answer

As long as I stick to my budget, occasionally paying for the services of a copy editor is a frugal practice. It pays off in time to enjoy my LIFE now without jeopardizing my LIFE of the future.

Last Comment

Before I close, I just want to go back to a principle I covered in a post some time ago: We need to budget our money, and when we have a budget, we need to adhere to it. But… budgets can be modified. Years ago, when the military was my full-time job, I would have had absolutely no need for a category in my budget for a copy editor. In fact, blogging hadn’t yet been conceived. As my life has evolved, so have my needs. I blog, and it is an income stream. That income allows me to use the services of a copy editor, which in turn lets me keep to my present schedule (my time budget). Sometime in the future, my schedule will change, and I plan for the blog to become a more prominent source of income. I will also have more time to devote to it. It’s likely I will no longer need to use a copy editor. So, what is frugal now will, then, become fruitless. You can believe my budget will change to fix that. Frugal living or fruitless living it’s up to you.