One of the most insightful books I’ve read over the years is Your Money or Your LIfe, by Vicky Robin and Joe Dominguez. It was an instant bestseller on the New York Times bestseller list, and has sold steadily ever since.

Vicky Robin has been focused on sustainability for a long time. In fact, that’s how she came to write that book. “I call sustainability an extreme sport,” she says on her blog. “I think it’s cool to get into a hot issue by living the solution, not just conjecturing. My first book, Your Money or Your Life, came out of living as much by my wits and as little by money as I could. I wanted to question our dependency on money and on buying stuff.”

And what I realized, as I was reflecting on the concept of ‘frugal invention’ today, is that this conscious choice is something that unites many of us across the divides of geography and socio-economic status. When you can’t afford to buy something, and you live in a community or a household that is not well-off, you have to be creative – and that means being frugal.