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<p>If you REALLY want to save money, don’t have kids at all!</p>
<p>Reproduction: A Costly and Unnecessary Habit?</p>
<p>Now bundle this all together and you have a great comedy routine. :D</p>
<p>“Wouldn’t you be thrilled if your daughter ended up MARRYING Robert E. Lee???”</p>
<p>I would like to see what items would be on their “bridal registry”. Definitley, no need for a honeymoon. What place could be better for romance than in one’s own home, sweet home! Too bad that they will be sleeping on the floor because a bed or mattress is not necessary. The cold, hard floor is a more economical place to sleep.</p>
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<p>But our kids provide us with so much entertainment! Not free, though :(</p>
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<p>Take 1: Good for the back!
Take 2: If it’s tatami (Japanese-style floor), don’t knock it. I had some good nights on a futon.</p>
<p>As Willaim S Bouroughs once observed in his “Advice to Young People”:</p>
<p>“…you’ll be the richest man in some cemetary”</p>
<p>Hey, only the best for my dead body!</p>
<p>This is getting a bit out of hand. Personally, one WORKS and SAVES for RETIREMENT. </p>
<p>About the retirement home, NEM, at least I will be residing in a plush retirement community. You, on the other hand, will be living in some state funded nursing hom because you spent all your money on restaurants.PLEASE!
Who will be laughing then?</p>
<p>Everyone, I hold to this philosophy: NEEDS vs WANTS. Many of your clever jokes, UCLAri, that you have presented are items which the human race in teh 21st century needs. Of course one needs heating in the home. Most houses do not have 19th century fireplaces to keep warm. Some climates require central air conditioning. This has all gone out of hand. I criticize restaurants for it’s value of wasting money. That is all.</p>
<p>Holymomma had it right, though. We wanted kids. We did not NEED to have kids. Kids don’t need to go to college (think how many people in this world do not go to college!).<br>
We don’t need air conditioning–sorry. Most people in the tropics don’t have air conditioning; many don’t even have electricity or running water. They don’t have cars. They have a no public transport, but they do have a highly personalized mode of transportation; it’s called their own two feet.</p>
<p>Hey,</p>
<p>Look at Osama…now there’s a man who knows how to do without the excess baggage of civilization…in fact, he’d prefer the rest of us infidels to do without right along with him. </p>
<p>He has a dream, you know</p>
<p>…and it doesn’t include dining out a Nobu.</p>
<p>“About the retirement home, NEM, at least I will be residing in a plush retirement community. You, on the other hand, will be living in some state funded nursing hom because you spent all your money on restaurants.PLEASE!
Who will be laughing then?”</p>
<p>If I need to go into a nursing home, I may not care because I may not know where I am anyway. Many retirement homes are only for healthy seniors only, although some are assisted living facilities. There are facilities for various sized bank accounts. Our family does not believe in living our lives being wasteful, but we do believe in living and not thinking about every dime.</p>
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<p>I pay $7.50. hehe. and then i buy a big expensive bucket of popcorn and a drink! And later, i go out to eat! We drive around in a big SUV that costs lots of money for gas, too. IS THIS MAKING YOU CRINGE! lol</p>
<p>Had to laugh at some of the cost savings suggestions because I know people who actually do them (or I have at some points). One woman I know takes those little slivers of soap and puts them in a pump bottle with water and makes her own liquid soap. Another fought with her community over her right to have a clothesline (against homeowners assoc.). I won’t pay the prices at theaters unless its a special social occasion. My son packs for college in garbage bags (no storage problems later in dorm).</p>
<p>But to each his own. I on the other hand will not live without A/C, will not do maintenance on my own car, like to eat out. What I may consider a waste (like make-up) others consider a necessity. What I think is a necessity others may consider a waste.</p>
<p>How you want to spend your money is determined by how you want to spend your life. In one of my attempts to economize, I grabbed a copy of “The Tightwad Gazette”, a sort of Martha Stewart on a shoestring budget. Felt the same way about some of Amy D’s ideas as I do about Martha S’s. Just not interested in spending the time to salvage some item to make into a useful or decorative piece. The recipes in the Gazette, just did not suit my palate. I just like the taste of certain foods to much, and though I’m sure the meals in there were nutritionally sound, well, palatably they left a lot to be desired. But more power to those who can live to that standard. </p>
<p>One area where I have economized is in clothes. My boys don’t care what they wear. Good Will and Salvation Army have some perfectly fine outfits. When they were in catholic schools and needed coats and ties, I found that the cheap, second hand stuff did just as well as brand new ones. I would pick out their shirts and blazers all on the cheap. Some of the stuff I found were designer label, for less than $10, with button down shirts less than $3. The way they abuse their clothes, it made no sense to buy new. </p>
<p>You can find alot of entertainment that is less expensive if you do not go prime time. Also there are numerous cheap venues. The Child magazines and newspapers that you see that are give aways have numerous ideas for family trips and excursions that cost little or nothing.</p>
<p>It comes down to experience vs expense, and you have to balance one against the other. I think families who plan out their entertainment can find many inexpensive things to do. It’s the immediate gratification that usually costs.<br>
Marite, yes, my kids have been entertaining but too often at my expense, both mentally and monetarily. Right now I think I want a little more 'boring" out of them.</p>
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What?! Am I the only one ROFL?</p>
<p>I think we <em>do</em> need the Internet, because with it we can read cc and get our daily dose of endorphins, enabling us to live long and frugal lives, counting all of our money.</p>
<p>Oh, wait… was that Scrooge?</p>
<p>How is it that most people manage to save for retirement without worrying about the average cost of a pound of meat?</p>
<p>And is there some secret there that perhaps I should be sharing with the CC public?</p>
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<p>Reproduction is costly. Sex, however, is a necessary habit.</p>
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<p>AND…it’s FREE! :eek:</p>