<p>Late to join this party but here goes. We are selectively frugal. Our cars are OLD…both have over 150K miles and no plans to replace. We own our house so no mortgage. We pay off our credit card each month…so basically no debt.
Food…hmmm…we could spend less but we don’t. We go out for sushi once per week. Other than that, we cook our own food…nothing processed. But we spend up for organic produce (for those items that are high in pesticides like berries) and buy wild fresh fish like salmon and cod. And sometimes grass fed beef. And eden organic beans in cans (no BPA). Not cheap…but we love it and it’s all good for you. And easier to do as empty nesters. We also drink mostly filtered water from the tap and treat ourselves to Pelligrino with dinner.
I love clothes so that’s a weak point. Need to stop buying but I lost weight over the last year or two and I can’t alter everything. Got a senior corporate job and I feel I need to look good. I try not to pay retail though…always looking for sales!</p>
<p>Cheap is like one of my friends who bummed rides ( amongst other things) for years because they didn’t have any money.
I felt bad for her, but then found out she was making double house payments so it was paid off before she was 50- that’s why she didn’t have a lot of money.</p>
<p>Many people can’t afford to do that & while it is certainly their choice to do so- I was pretty irritated when I found out.</p>
<p>I hope that I am frugal rather than cheap-We use public transportation or walk when we travel ( we did rent a car at Christmas- but since the car ended up being a huge truck that I could barely climb into- we might as well have saved the money!)</p>
<p>Ellebud, we were in the epicenter of a quake around 21 years ago. Our chimney came down, but we were going to demolish it anyways since we were going to do a remodel. Houses on either side of us came off their foundations and it was a wakeup call for us to keep equake insurance as well as sheer wall and bolt the remodel to the foundation. I don’t know if a 6.1 is considered a major catastrophe, but sitting right on top of it incurred some staggering damage. One thing every insured homeowner in my neighborhood had in common… even then they had to hire a lawyer to get enough out of their insurers to repair their homes.</p>
<p>At that time we too were in the epicenter of the earthquake. We moved after the earthquake. I believe it was a 6.7. And yes, I really remember how some homes were destroyed, some apartments pancaked, and some homes had cracks. In our former neighborhood (Encino/Tarzana) there were people who took advantage of a system. But yes, many people had to hire attorneys specializing in bad faith. But the policies were written differently then. And many honest people had issues. But with rewritten policies you can’t make an insurance company give you more than you have agreed to take…you pay your premiums and then its a contract.</p>
<p>But unfortunately for every homeowner who had to fight their insurance company, there are thieves who made their home better. (One of our friends came out to find someone taking pictures of their home…to make a claim on a stranger’s insurance.)</p>
<p>I think you are referring to the Northridge quake when you say “the” earthquake. I’m referring to a different quake.</p>
<p>Frugal is going out with friends, despite being on a tight budget, ordering the side salad and water, but enjoying the time together.</p>
<p>Cheap is going out to diner, ordering wine, appetizer, dessert, etc, then telling everyone “we’ll just split the bill evenly” when you know full well other people had economy meals. :D</p>
<p>Cheap is also going out to dinner and then undertipping because the meal was expensive.</p>
<p>We are also cheap with cars, clothes, credit, dining out, etc. I take a lot of pleasure in being able to buy whatever I want at the grocery store and farmers’ markets. We also let our kids choose their schools without taking cost into consideration; no regrets about that. (We just made our last tuition payment. :))</p>
<p>We’ve passed our thrifty ways along to our children and my oldest, who is in grad school, manages to live in Boston, fly to the left coast to see his GF every other month, and max out his Roth IRA contribution, all on his NSF Fellowship stipend.</p>
<p>Yes, musicamusica…I apologize. We Californians have shared experiences…with different quakes. Once you hear the roar you never forget it. Glad that you are ok…and I hope that your lives and homes were put together again.</p>
<p>We rarely hire anyone to do anything around our house. H built our deck, did all of our landscaping including retaining walls, finished our basement, installed the sprinkler system, etc. Luckily he grew up watching his dad do all of these things and learned how. We do our own interior painting. We do a lot of cooking from scratch and I iron shirts rather than send them to the dry cleaner. I cleaned the house when I was a SAHM/worked part time. We do our own taxes.</p>
<p>We rarely hire contractors for jobs we can perform ourselves. It is a pain in the rear to take time off work to get bids, then pick and “babysit” contractors. The “outsourced” jobs so far were some septic work and removal of a 100+ yr old Douglas fir that eventually died (due to damage to its roots done by the contractors hired by the builder of the house).</p>
<p>I come from a family of extreme cheapskates. My parents made us bathe in the same bath water sometimes(I was the fourth one in, and it was pretty cold and dirty by them). When the furnace broke 50 years ago, they never fixed it. We still huddle in the 2 rooms that have water heaters in them when we visit, though they could easily afford to fix that furnace.</p>
<p>But I never could go that extreme, I don’t like suffering. When we were getting ready to be laid off, we gave up coffee and alcohol (ahhhh!), and stopped using the dryer, did extreme coupon shopping. I still do things like turn off the stove, oven and toaster early, don’t turn on many lights and order a side dish for dinner and mooch off my families plates. Good luck getting any of son #2’s french fries, though!</p>
<p>For us, it is a savings to hire professionals to do things rather than spend the time & labor doing the work ourselves, potentially injuring ourselves in the process and having to get medical care. </p>
<p>H & I often like to share a main course when we go out rather than stuffing ourselves or taking home leftovers. I often prefer the appetizer and/or dessert to the main course anyway & we often share one of those as well. It also helps keep our weight at a reasonable even keel and keeps us from having to buy new, larger-sized wardrobes. We still have & wear clothing that we’ve literally had for decades (& it still looks great)!</p>