Lauren Weber thought there seemed to be some connection between our consumption-oriented lifestyles and our society’s high levels of restlessness and unhappiness. She decided it was time to tell her story and to reclaim the virtue of thrift — or, as she likes to call it, cheapness — for a new era. She defines being cheap as a commitment to self-sufficiency, independence, and freedom from debt. It involves cultivating skepticism toward the message that we must consume our way toward happiness, that we have to spend money on the right house or the right clothes in order to feel fulfilled. Some p
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