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I admit, I have always erred on the frugal side (well, with extravagances thrown in there for jewelry but I viewed it as an investment. I now see a lot of that was somewhat stupid) and I had a well paying job or quite a bit of money at the time.
Now my bills are so high and I don't have a job so I am forced into it. And I don't like being forced into anything. Every time I turn around something is going out at my house and maintenance must be done. It comes before a lot of things (well, most everything with insurance and utilities leading the list).
Oh sure, love my Wed taco days for $1 a piece and would no matter what my financial situation, but not so sure I'm enjoying it out of necessity. And I see no end in sight.
So I know this forum typically espouses the virtues of being frugal, and I agree, but does anyone just wish they had more money to really splurge once in a while? I mean, I had planned on seeing the world.
I, personally, don't know how anyone can justify it in this economy (major purchases unless necessary, vacations, etc) , yet I guess it's good they are spending the money as it's keeping things afloat, but I'd be saving up for the future if I could. Thoughts?
The deductible for them coming out was $ 55 and in my case, the heater went out $ 1500.00 and the Air Conditioning $ 3,000.00. I only paid my deductible of $ 55.00. DM me if you want the name of the Company.
I have been frugal my entire life. I got it from my dad and the fact that we were poor growing up.
Turn off those lights....don't waste food....check for lower prices..use coupons...It's second nature for me !
So that frugal bug he had inside him, has stayed inside me.
Now as everyone tries to struggle with the * New America * it's been this way as long as I have been alive....
Well -- my Dad died when he was 57, and in his prime earning years. They were supposed to put me through college, and I had gotten a loan that my dad had promised to repay.
Mom was a housewife. Had been her whole life. She worked at a library about 5 hours a week as a volunteer.
She was 52. Ten years before she could collect Dad's Social Security. And about 30-50K to her name.
I watched my mother sit and cry at her desk, looking at what needed to be paid, with no money coming in. Luckily, none of it was credit cards. But there was still a mortgage, and basic living bills.
First things first I told her she wasn't responsible for my education, regardless of what they had done for my sisters. I'd deal with it.
My mom made it. She was a child of the depression, and grew up in a frugal household, and took those lessons and made them work.
But I took it as a lesson, too. We've never been buy now pay later types. When we had to run a credit card for a couple of months, I ran the numbers to make sure it made sense. And for the most part we did it to not derail a savings plan.
If my dear hubs "leaves" me at 57.... I'm not going to have a money worry in the world.
Although I technically don't need to be frugal with money since I'm still living at home and going through college with the financial support of my parents (which I'm extremely grateful for), I force myself to be frugal in order to be at least somewhat prepared for when I leave the nest. After watching the credit binge rise and collapse over the past decade and seeing very questionable economic prospects for the future, I want to have the knowledge and discipline to prepare for future economic downturns and I want to not worry about living paycheck to paycheck with no liquid savings for emergencies and nothing in my retirement account. There's no guarentees in life and who knows what will happen, but I hope to live a modest, but comfortable existence.
I am very proud of being frugal and wish I had done this in my 20's. There are so many little things I could have done had I known the economy was going to be in the state it was in and I would someday be displaced. Luckily we have an ok amount of savings, but I wish I had more money in the bank than I do - would have had I started being frugal in my 20's.
I don't really think of it as being frugal.. more like allocating less money to things I don't really care about and more money to what's important to me, regardless of what society thinks. So what if I don't spend money on a nice apartment, a new car, an iPhone, fancy massages, nice furniture, big screen TVs, etc... who cares! I'd rather spend the money I save there on video games, new computers, weed, vacations, good food, etc.
Another incentive is saving up so I can live life without being forced to take whatever job is out there to survive. I'm very picky about what jobs I'd do.. only ones in my field of study with requirements and pay reflecting the advanced degrees I've obtained. If those jobs aren't out there, I'd rather live off of my savings and look for one for an extended amount of time than take up something at McD, Target, Walmart, etc. for measly pay.
Another incentive is saving up so I can live life without being forced to take whatever job is out there to survive. I'm very picky about what jobs I'd do.. only ones in my field of study with requirements and pay reflecting the advanced degrees I've obtained. If those jobs aren't out there, I'd rather live off of my savings and look for one for an extended amount of time than take up something at McD, Target, Walmart, etc. for measly pay.
^^^This is my biggest motivation for being frugal. The job market out there is brutal even in the best of times. I work in the public sector and there have been layoffs where I work and more are coming---and not just a few.
If I lose my job, I at least have a few years worth of breathing room as far as finding another job/career, as I really don't want to compete with millions of others for low paying jobs in depressing work environments.
I want to have the knowledge and discipline to prepare for future economic downturns and I want to not worry about living paycheck to paycheck with no liquid savings for emergencies and nothing in my retirement account. There's no guarentees in life and who knows what will happen, but I hope to live a modest, but comfortable existence.
I think you're really onto something big when you talk about the discipline frugality brings. Psychologists are finding that people who are happy tend to have self discipline. And people who exercise self discipline in one area of life are able to take that new found discipline and apply it to other areas of their lives.
Real life case in point: I helped a friend of mine with her finances and she's mostly gotten her financial act together over the last 4-5 years. A couple of years after she got her finances in order, she started going to Overeater's Anonymous and lost 60 lbs, which she has kept off for more than 2 years now. She recently made the connection about how getting her finances in order eventually led her to tackle her weight/eating issues.
My sister recently came to a similar conclusion about saving. She said to me that she has serious doubts about the future of our economy (as do I), but that even if everything totally crashes, the discipline you get from saving will give you the inner strength to help you through difficult times, whatever they may be. That inner strength is also something that no one can take away from you.
i think my wife and i do pretty good at being frugal/thrifty. that doesn't mean we don't spend money on things, we do. but we try to be smart about it. i hope to do even better. we save a decent amount of money, but i think we can do better, so i'm revising our budget this week to do a trial month or two where we live a bit more strictly, and see if we're ok with that. i want to enjoy my 20s and 30s and 40s, and not just sock money away for retirement, but i also don't want to be forced into situations dealing with money, if i can help it by creating a larger cushion now, while times are good for us. so even though we save x/month already, and the rest, after all budgeted items are covered, we spend if we want to...i know we can save more, and now i want to.
i think being frugal and smart about spending is a great quality to have. but to me, being frugal, given my current situation, doesn't mean i need to go without "wants". it just means i need to be reasonable with "wants".
Being frugal doesn't mean I do without. It means I spend my money intelligently and with forethought. Being frugal in my day to day life means I can be extravagant when I choose to be, on things that are important to me.
Since I don't have a printing press in the basement, it just makes sense!
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