<p>Cancel all your insurance policies and get some rosary beads.</p>
<p>BcE
A ** washlet bidet** will save you TP. Costt recovery
maybe 2-3 years or faster depend on # in household . Sell IP and PG.</p>
<p>Ok to use, used beads or bad karma?</p>
<p>Let’s see… I bathe and groom my three poodles myself (saving $65/dog/2 month cycle). I only use cloth napkins and cloth dish towels. I pay cash whenever possible to avoid interest charges. I don’t get manicures/pedicures or use makeup (my skin is sensitive to chemicals). </p>
<p>Of course, we’re also extravagant: we eat out about once a week; I pay dog training fees and entry fees for dog agility trials; we travel. </p>
<p>It’s all about the priorities ;-)</p>
<p>vineyardview - Welcome!</p>
<p>The temp in our house is also set ln low 60’s during the winter at night. During the day when we are out I set it for 50, although it has never gone that cold. I use cheaper laundry detergent than my preferred brand, Tide and always buy when on sale and I have a coupon. I just got rid of my Pathfinder (ok it died with 252,000 miles on it) and got a Prius. I am saving a bundle on gas. </p>
<p>If I didn’t have one in college and the other in private school I would pay someone to clean my house. It is a quality of life issue, I would be willling to have that free time.</p>
<p>We don’t drink much other than tap water & Kirkland Rice Milk, which is a fraction of the price of elsewhere. We also enjoy quiet time at home and dining out at inexpensive ethnic restaurants over expensive Zagat’s places. We use the library & internet a lot for our reading material over purchasing books.</p>
<p>S got a good scholarship that saved us a lot of $$, enrolling in college with 60 credits. D graduated HS after JR year & started CC, saving us more $$. </p>
<p>We pay off ALL our CCs in full every month and have never paid interest or finance charges for CCs. We charge everything we can & get cash back or other benefits we want & use. We pre-pay our mortgage so that it will be paid off sooner than later. Our cars are old but reliable–1992, 1998, 2000 and 2005.</p>
<p>We never buy CDW with cars as it comes free with our CC. We also only buy the insurance we want and need. We also get free extended warranties with our CC, which we have used.</p>
<p>I definately have the closet of gifts. Many young members of extended family, it’s nice to have something nice for them for the holidays. Target toy clearance works for me, we have the storage space. Cleaning products, shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, etc is always bought with a coupon/sale combination. It works for us.</p>
<p>The closet of gifts can backfire though–sometimes they aren’t the right size or color or just not quite right and can sit there for longer than you might want before you find the right recipient. Have backed off of the closet gifts nowadays, since my nieces & nephews have gotten older & tougher to shop for.</p>
<p>Might have to give some things from the “closet” to worthy charities or other good places and indeed they do take up space.</p>
<p>I do love travel and find that hotwire and priceline allow us to stay at nicer places for lower prices. Air travel IS expensive, but when we have more leisure, we will try to get great last minute deals by remaining flexible.</p>
<p>My printer ran out of ink the other day so I bought a new printer.</p>
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<p>Same thing happened to me at work. We dutifully sorted discarded office paper from other garbage only to find out years later that the janitors were tossing it all into the same (and only) dumpster.</p>
<p>O.k. many very frugal people here. Do any of you know how much you save doing what you are doing, $500, $5000, or $10,000 a year?</p>
<p>What do you plan to do with all the $$ saved?</p>
<p>Buy a bicycle seat.</p>
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<p>I don’t keep track of the savings. It wouldn’t be worth the effort required to do that much estimating and to keep a comprehensive running tally of the savings. I just mentally file it all under “every little bit helps.”</p>
<p>Also, I don’t plan to do anything special with the money. Retire some day I guess. I do not consider “saved” money as somehow separate from all the rest of my money.</p>
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<p>Or a camera.</p>
<p>I buy wine and books and Costco as well as bulk items. I work out at Jazzercise for 39 dollars a month and use it six days a week. I cook most meals from scratch. My friends and I exchange books. I have never paid interest for any charge in thirty years. I paid off my house ten years ago. My car is a 2003 with 80.000 miles. I throw every purchase on a credit card for airline miles. We have always lived below our means and invested the remainder in stocks, 401k, IRA’s and a tax free bond fund. The college fund we started when our d was born was fully funded by the time she was twelve. Thirty years ago after being married for two years, the company my husband worked for folded. We had a rough year and vowed to never be caught unprepared if we were ever again struck with economic hardship. That preparation has put us in a good position for retirement.</p>
<p>Of course i know what am going to with $$$$ saved…
Buy TP. There are enough CC’ers who will come begging. :)</p>
<p>With money we are saving, we have a comfortable emergency fund and plan to retire while we are still young enough to enjoy doing things we enjoy–travel, dining out, visiting our loved ones and kids. We also are comfortable with me earning MUCH less than I could because I’m doing something we believe in with my non-profit. We also allowed our kids to graduate college debt-free, which is something we value highly.</p>
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<p>We were able to pay for our kids to attend college due to our thrifty spending habits on other things. In addition, we were able to build a nest egg and fully fund our retirement.</p>
<p>We know exactly how much we saved by refinancing our house to lower interest rates, not having a new car payment each month, and not buying “gizmos and gadgets”. Each of us does have a hobby that requires some money output, but we regularly seek sales, and frequent ebay for some things.</p>
<p>It doesn’t take high level math to know how much you save per month by having basic cable instead of extended service, or how much we saved by consolidating phone/internet services.</p>
<p>I let my company talked me into moving to a “dangerous country,” so I wouldn’t have to pay for anything for 2 years. I think that’s frugal.</p>
<p>We have also saved by paying for cars in cash and keeping them until they are declared totaled by insurance or somehow acquire a good used car at a great price. Have only the most basic cable and phone (but splurge on DSL). Have NO data plan for phone but do have basic cell phone and unlimited messaging. Could go cheaper with skype, but are OK with the luxury of being able to text or phone our kids easily.</p>
<p>Don’t think it’s ever a problem figuring out what to do with money saved or not spent. It just helps one be more comfortable with lower income if their expenses are lower. As our kids are happy to note, mom & dad are NOT subsisting on PBJ even with having had to help with the kids’ considerable HS & college tuitions & expenses.</p>
<p>Really, it’s about each person/family figuring out what they value & seeing how well they can get their spending to align with their values. My sibs have a lot of things they consider essential/important that we don’t–similarly they don’t value some of the things we do. As long as folks can align things the best they are able, it’s all good.</p>