Getting a Big Thrill Out of Being So Cheap

On Wednesday, Yeager was in the middle of a "fiscal fast," his term for going a week or more without spending money. It forces him to use up leftovers in the freezer and half-empty boxes in the pantry.

"I read that the average American throws away 100 pounds of usable food a year. That's disgusting," he said, slicing up a cow's heart (29 cents per pound) for lunch. "That's like throwing away one and a half Olsen twins a year."

Yeager may be frugal, but he lives well in a 1930s house built by an artist. His house is a series of outdoor decks and vast windows. Japanese shoji screens add to its openness. Bamboo surrounds the property, and Buddhist artifacts preside over the sloping back yard and the water garden, which Yeager converted from a cement pool.

Yeager and his wife, Denise, who works for the Alexandria Health Department, exult in nature and their relative liberation from the almighty buck. Yeager decided years ago -- while working as an administrator and fundraiser for nonprofit groups such as American Youth Hostels and the American Canoe Association -- that he needed no more than $40,000 a year to live happily. Once he began making more than that at a think tank, he quit.

By then, the Yeagers had "paid like hell" to finish off their mortgage. Now, Yeager said, he has been able to dedicate his time to writing, cooking, biking, bonsai-growing and driftwood-sculpting because he hasn't gone after more than he needed to be happy.

"Nonprofit organizations are a lot like most people, where they don't have the luxury of throwing money at a problem," Yeager said. "The question wasn't what do you want to do, it was how are you going to pay for it. So I sort of lived and breathed this challenge, if you will, day in and day out.

"One of the things that blows me away is most Americans have never asked themselves, 'What's enough money?' " he said. "Most Americans just want more. We need to spend less time buying stock and more time taking stock."

Data from psychological studies suggest that once one reaches a lower-middle-class existence (defined as $10,000 per capita or $30,000 for a median family), happiness and income cease to have anything to do with each other, said Gregg Easterbrook, a Bethesda resident and author of "The Progress Paradox: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse."

"American culture, and 100 percent of the American media, assumes that the goal in life ought to be to make as much money and buy as much as possible," Easterbrook said. "If your goal is to find a fulfilling philosophy of life and play a constructive role in life, these may be more fulfilling but a lot harder than earning money and buying a Lexus."

Yeager sees himself not only as a miser laureate but also as someone who is "living light" on the planet. He is on the board of directors of the Mid-Atlantic Environmental Law Center and the Alice Ferguson Foundation, which sponsored the Potomac River Watershed Cleanup.

"There's a social stigma in this culture to be a cheapskate, when in reality he represents some of the solution we need to incorporate into this issue of trash," said Tracy Bowen, the foundation's executive director. "Being a cheapskate doesn't mean you're not generous. Buying and having isn't necessarily being a good American. He's a model for us."

So what if the guy who is content to live modestly becomes wildly successful? Would that change him?

"Probably not at all," his wife, Denise, said. "I just can't imagine he would have anyone hired -- even to do drywalling."

He certainly hasn't bought a new digital watch, even though his is stuck 70 minutes behind.

"It does keep time," he reasoned. "It just doesn't keep the right time."