Many of us spend a lot of our lives feeling mildly dissatisfied. The day we go to the beach is windy, our delivery app shopper picks out bruised apples, or we feel like we got a good deal on a contract until we find out someone else got a better one.
We can balance out dissatisfying experiences by learning to better tune ourselves to moments of satisfaction when these occur.
We all intuitively know what satisfaction feels like. The feeling can be sensory, like popping something. Or, it can come from completing or resolving something (e.g., getting the last smear of jam out of the jar), from having exactly the right amount, from good timing or serendipity, from feeling validated or clever, or from order and neatness.
We all have satisfying experiences, but some people are better at noticing and savoring them than others. This savoring is a skill you can work on to increase your experiences of positive emotions.
I chose satisfying frugal experiences as the theme for this post because a narrower theme can make for deeper learning, and because this theme provides plenty of concrete, accessible, everyday examples that most people can connect with easily. The main point, however, is to sensitize yourself to satisfaction in any sphere of life. You don’t need any interest in saving money to benefit from these ideas.
Common Scenarios That Feel Satisfying
- When you prefer a cheap version to a more expensive one. For example, you learn you prefer a Chromebook to a Mac, the free preschool to the paid one, or the store brand of cornflakes to the name brand.
- When you extend the life of an old item by repairing or maintaining it, such as appliances or cars.
- When your airline rewards miles come in clutch for booking a flight when cash rates are expensive for a last-minute, necessary trip.
- Reusing a box.
- When you have just the right amount of an item left over for the next use, without needing to buy more, like gift wrapping paper or powdered sugar for a cake.
- A superb deal you didn’t chase, like when you stumble on a favorite product being on clearance, or when something breaking coincides with the best sale of the year.
- When you give or receive incredibly useful pre-loved items. For example, your neighbor is moving overseas and gives you kitchen equipment. Being the one doing the gifting can be just as satisfying as receiving.
- Sharing a frugal tip with someone who appreciates and acts on it.
- When simply asking for a discount gets you one.
- The dirt-cheap dinner all your family loves.
- Forgotten value uncovered during cleanouts, like half-finished crafting projects that defeated you at the time but you return to with new understanding (or AI help).
- Shopping “pauses” that freshen up stale routines. For example, eating everything in your freezer before buying new frozen items. Your family enjoys the odds and ends dishes that ensue.
- When you suddenly need a replacement item and realize you stashed one you got for free a long time ago.
- When you use a community resourcelike a subscription available through your library membership.
- When a change you make to save money has positive effects on other parts of your life.
- When you finally cancel a subscription you aren’t using.
- When a benefit included with something else turns out to be surprisingly enjoyable or useful.
- When you realize a product has a free tier that offers all you need and want.
- When you find a cheaper way to do exactly what you were doing before, like a family subscription rather than two individual ones.
- Free activities on vacations, like watching the Bellagio fountains in Las Vegas or the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace.
Satisfying Moments Need to Be Created, Noticed, and Learned From
The popularity of ASMR and pimple popping videos demonstrates how rewarding a momentary sense of satisfaction feels.
Opportunities to feel intense satisfaction are partly stumbled upon and partly created. For example, you create them when you choose to do a clean out, a “no spend” pause or challenge, or deliberately look for free or cheap activities.
Beyond creating opportunities for them, satisfying experiences need to be noticed, slowed down, and absorbed rather than brushed past. One way to do this is to derive learning from satisfying experiences that feel lucky or serendipitous. When they happen, consider how you can make them more likely in the future.
For example, other parents at free activities for children are more likely to have good tips for other great frugal activities than parents taking their kids to pricey activities. People often want to share the things that feel like cheat codes they’ve discovered with interested and appreciative people, especially if others in their lives don’t get it and aren’t interested.
As mentioned, I focused on frugal experiences to give this post a theme, but that’s largely beside the point. The broader concept is better sensitizing yourself to experiences of satisfaction. Take the principles I’ve outlined here and extend them to the domains that interest you.
Conversation can be a good tool for better noticing and savoring. Consider sharing this post with a friend and asking them which points they most relate to.
