On (Middle-Class) Frugality

At the beginning of last year, I decided that if I could cut my family’s weekly expenses, not including mortgage payments, to $400, then our life would be better. Optimized. Simpler. Less cluttered. There had to be a trick to it, a hack, such that if I gave up the small stuff, I’d be able to afford what I wanted the most. After spending the pandemic with my family constrained to our little house in Ottawa, I wanted to swim in the ocean; eat ripe, flavorful fruit in January; or walk through a city where I didn’t know the language.