I have about fifty personal finance blogs on my Google Reader. Besides the top 10 ways to write top 10 lists (I only kid, but they sure are popular among this group!), the subject of frugality seems to come up the most. Oddly enough, even with all the stocks of investment techniques and net worth, it also seems to be the topic that causes the most debate. My guess is that it’s because compared to those other subjects, it’s the topic that effects people’s daily lives the most.

Lazy Man just wrote a guest post at Five Cent Nickel entitled The Limits of Frugality, which covers some of this. For instance, The Simple Dollar’s writer makes his own laundry detergent, and is very proud of this fact. And I give him credit for finding a way to be frugal with something I had never even considered before. It’s also something I would never consider doing myself unless I was pushed to the extremes of frugality. Even then it would be pretty low on the list!

Another hot topic (no pun intended) is in regards to air conditioning. According to most AC manufacturers and energy companies, the average air conditioner costs about $30 a summer to use. What an incredibly reasonable price to be able to life and function in comfort. So for me, the moment it gets too hot, on goes the AC. Why? Simply because sitting in the sweltering heat, unable to function because I want to save $0.33 that night, seems ludicrous.

So at this point, it probably seems I’m not a very frugal person at all. Instead, I am just frugal in other areas. Over the past seven years, I’ve spent $300 on clothes. That’s about $40 a year. Why? Well, just like some people don’t use air conditioning because they don’t care about being hot, I wear the same older shirts because they look fine and I don’t care much about fashion. When I do shop, I go to either discount chains or thrift stores. In fact, most of that $300 came from this year when I had to buy nicer clothes for a new job.

I’m a huge movie buff, yet in my lifetime have bought literally 8 DVD’s. I pay for cable television (I can’t live without CNBC or the Food Network), so I catch most of my movies on there. Spending $15-$20 on a movie I will watch about 1.5 times a year just doesn’t seem worth it. I also only seem about four movies per year in theaters – though I can mostly thank that to being a complete misanthrope when it comes to the types of human beings who go to movie theaters.

In in the end, here’s what it comes down to for me: I’ve worked hard to get a solid education and job in order to make a decent living. I make enough to pay my loans, never have a balance on my credit card, put 35% into savings each month, and buy nice gifts for friends and family. Some may disagree, but in my mind that gives me the right to crank up the air conditioner.