My life is a string of imposter syndromes.  I was a cop, but I never felt like one, nor quite fit in as one.  I played musical instruments, but I never really liked it.  Instead, I loved martial arts, but even that was only to a point, because I was so hyper-focused on self defense, that I never quite fit in with the martial arts crowd.  And while I do practice frugality, well, I too feel like an imposter here as well.

In this case, I am not technically frugal because frugality in and of itself is not my true end goal.  Rather, it's seem to be more like a means to the end.  My true goal is more like hypervigilism.  You see, I grew up being more of a musical and computer nerd.  While of course, there is nothing wrong with that, junior high and high school can be rather cruel against those who are deemed more as fringes of society.

Another thing that I am suspecting more and more is that I think I am mildly autistic, though high functioning?  My autistic focus has always been on self defense though.  I was and I guess I am still obsessed with the overwhelming desire to learn how to defend myself and my friends.  I used to practice until my hands bled, frustrated that I can never seem to get it right.  However, it did get to a point that whenever my friends were in trouble, they would all turn to me for help, and I felt so much joy and pride that I could help keep them safe.  Growing up, this helped forge my sense of self-identity.

How all this relates to personal finances is that I realized, sooner rather than later, though never soon enough, that financial self defense is one of the ultimate expressions of self defense.  For example, I think most everyone here can agree that having an emergency / rainy day fund is a great idea, right?  Because it is smart to protect yourself with a money buffer against unexpected or emergency expenses.

At least, that's how I see it.  I don't know how anyone else sees it.... So, exactly how do you see frugality, dear readers?  Are there other forms or truer forms of fruggies out there?  Or am I just confusing semantics?

As a related example, I've been wearing this torn shirt I like for months.  Hanging on and using stuff for as long as I can indeed saves money.  Unfortunately, I had to finally get rid of it today.  Perhaps I could have hung on to it longer, but alas, the torn hole has become so big that it was starting to expose my pepper spray and handgun that I conceal carry daily, and that's a real problem to me.

However, wouldn't a true fruggie just try to sew it up?  I didn't though, instead only hyper-focusing on self defense like I normally do.  If it's any consolation, I did wear that shirt for as long as I could, so I think I still saved some money in the end.