How frugal can you be?

Parent Cafe
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<p>We keep cars 13-18 years, and put the money in to keep them mechanically well maintained. We know a lot of folks who get three or four brand new vehicles – each costing more than the last – in that same stretch of time. Our car insurance costs (especially for D) are a lot lower because the cars aren’t so new. </p>

<p>H likes dinners I make enough so that he’s happy to take in leftovers, most of which are better than what Lean Cuisine could provide. We have a shelf in the freezer just for lunches. </p>

<p>We’re (mostly) empty nesters right now, but I still by large vacuum-packed cuts of meat and break them up into more reasonable sizes for us and freeze them – a full pork loin nicely translates into four roasts for us. I also keep an eye out (and will look next week) for a deal on a spiral sliced ham – last year we picked a name brand one up right after New Year’s for .39 or so a pound. Cut it up, packed into ziplocs, and we had excellent ham in reasonable portions. We find our freezer to be a big help.</p>

<p>We buy outerwear from Lands’ End and LLBean, and a lot of household stuff from Costco because each of these companies really stands behind their products. I don’t abuse that at all, but I really like that if a zipper breaks on a jacket, I don’t have to worry about whether it is within 30 days or even have to dig up the receipt. We’ve also found that the Lands’ End and LLBean outerwear is just made better – I’m still using the winter parka I got years ago, and H finally got a new winter jacket only because the old one had faded a lot after something like 10 years.</p>

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<p>I don’t think anything people here have suggested seems mentally ill, but I do think in the extreme, as in that show on the other night, some of those people were obsessed with saving to the extreme and did seem mentally ill. The man who dumpster dove for his wife’s flowers also stalked other diners at restaurants and scraped all of their leftovers into his to go container. Not just the people at his table, but random strangers. There was another woman who refused to use toilet paper, instead cut up rags and kept them in a basket on one side of her toilet, with an open bucket for used rags on the other side. I think when they take it to such an extreme that they do things that are unhealthy and potentially dangerous, that might indicate a mental illness.</p>

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<p>Time is money. We have a wonderful housekeeper who comes monthly now. When both kids were here, she came weekly. </p>

<p>I’m with Jym. Finding a great deal is a sport for me. I don’t really look for things I do NOT need but when I find a great deal for something I’ve been looking for, it makes me feel ever so much better than paying the full price for it.</p>

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<p>Love the thread! Our big savers:</p>

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<li>both Ds are waiting until they are 18+ to get a driver’s license and when they can pay for a car, gas & insurance on their own. Saving are huge --though we will pay for 4 hours of one-on-one instruction before they have the road test, when the time comes.</li>
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<p>-- no ECs that cost money outside of what is offered at the high and school and town recreation</p>

<p>-- girls have a sewing machine and make everything from Vera B. look-a-like bags, scarfs, dresses, pants, etc… </p>

<p>–make coffee at home and use travel mugs when we go out.</p>

<p>–make our own bread, pizza dough, rolls, cakes, muffins, etc. (someone gave me a bread machine years ago and it makes GREAT dough – cheap, high quality flour and yeast can be found at BJs) </p>

<p>–learned to fix many things ourselves (just replaced a part on our washing machine for $11 --followed a U-tube instructional video!)</p>

<p>–do own yard work, house cleaning, painting, staining, gardening (burns calories too).</p>

<p>–netflix instead of movies or expensive cable options</p>

<p>–get museum passes for free at library</p>

<p>–see concerts, lectures and plays at local college </p>

<p>Our biggest splurge is on good food (good cheeses, fruits, fish, chocolate)…but we satisfsy our foodie urges by cooking gourmet things at home a couple of times a month.</p>

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<p>Not here in southern California. Seems like in any given decade about 7 of the 10 years will be spent in drought conditions, with water rationing imposed in the really bad years. In drought years many people limit flushing not to save money (although that’s a byproduct) but to save water.</p>

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<p>My mother made this mistake to some degree. We never had a car with air conditioning the whole time I was growing up, because in her estimation that was a luxury for rich people and not for the likes of us. It wasn’t until the last years of her life that she finally bought an air conditioned car. And it made driving in the summer so much more pleasant that she kicked herself for having been so cheap all those years.</p>

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We wanted our kids to get their licenses as soon as possible mostly for our convenience.</p>

<p>It freed up a lot of time for us to not have to drive them to/from every activity or their friends, jobs, etc., and really made some aspects of our lives a lot easier.</p>

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<p>It all depends on where you live… our kids can take the public bus, subway, and commuter rail to go almost anywhere and students get discounted prices. Plus they can walk to our town center, shopping areas, and recreation parks in 15-20 minutes. Most of their friends have licenses but do not have their own cars (just use parents’ cars, when available). The next town over is a different story --their kids drive better cars than what most of us drive!</p>

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<p>True enough but not relevant here. ANYTHING taken to the extreme suggests mental illness. It would be like posting on a thread about diet and exercise tips that some people are mentally ill with it (well duh, yes, if you suffer from anorexia, this would be true).</p>

<p>THough now you have me curious to watch that show!</p>

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<p>Same here, pathways. Our kids have public transit passes from their school and absolutely no need for a car where we live because they can bus and train pretty much everywhere (and parking and insurance are expensive). Still we want them with their license before going off to college. More akin to learning to swim- a skill you will need at some point in your life.</p>

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<p>We just downsized and now every sq ft in our house is used instead of having a bunch of empty rooms.</p>

<p>We heat our place to 64 degrees in the winter and supplement this with using our gas fireplace if necessary. We don’t use air conditioning.</p>

<p>We walk everywhere we can…so outside of commuting to work I drive about 5,000 miles a year and my wife does the same.</p>

<p>We run our cars into the ground.</p>

<p>We don’t over insure and we don’t have collision insurance for one of my
cars.</p>

<p>We don’t buy any more clothes than we need…and they aren’t fancy. I
own 3 pairs of shoes and I buy one pair from costco for about 15 bucks.</p>

<p>My wife is going to cut my hair.</p>

<p>We buy some of our furniture from Ikea.</p>

<p>We don’t buy anything we don’t need or don’t use. We don’t buy expensive wine. A friend of my wife’s, who knows very well my wife does not buy expensive wine, and who is into expensive wine, had
labels drawn up and puts them on her expensive wines’ bottles.
WSWB. WSWB stands for Wines Susan Wouldn’t Buy. </p>

<p>These wines are supposed to be exceptionally high quality wines. If you ever see these wines in a store, pick up a bottle. You know, when you are not being frugal. :)</p>

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<p>Dstark,
so does that bathy Thing work Ok??</p>

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<p>Why are you asking me? I thought you had one.</p>

<p>It is a nice luxury…</p>

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<p>I know, you know, and may be some else can discover this luxury.</p>

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<p>I and DW live a boring lifestyle. DS however, </p>

<p>His House started to raise rabbits for food and pelts. They have a dozen of pelts in the freezer for next summer tanning. I had to repair a belt at the leather store and discovered they carried tanning supplies. I told DS about this, and he said, “oh, [she] was going to organically tan the hides.” outside in the sun? “No, [she] also saved the brains for the tanning agent.” </p>

<p>That’s frugal. </p>

<p>The House, has since reconsidered the work and the return of labor/investment and have reconsidered this enterprise.</p>

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Y’all are more frugal/tougher than me, I guess. I hate being cold. I keep the house at 71 degrees during the evening, and the room I spend most of my time in gets warmer than that due to the computers running. I do turn it down to 65 at night.</p>

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<p>Years ago, we had to survive as a family of five, with a new baby, on less than 35K/year before taxes (unbelievable that we even had to PAY taxes, but we did). It wasn’t much fun, but we had to do it.</p>

<p>Now, I try to be frugal, I don’t have a Starbucks habit, we don’t jetset around the world, etc., but the fact that we actually have life insurance policies, and a second car, and can eat out more than once a year, reminds me that the fun in being frugal is when you don’t actually HAVE to be, at least not for everything all the time.</p>

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<p>I’m sorry LongPrime…that is disgusting. As an avid consumer (I looked on this thread for advice), but a non fur wearer, I hope never to be invited to anyone’s home where there are “pelts” and “brains for tanning” in the freezer.</p>

<p>Am I kidding myself? Probably. But anything that has a rescue group I don’t eat…or wear…</p>

<p>I apologize: but we found a bunny in our backyard, twice. Two different homes I might add. One was the sweetest thing ever. We had to give it to the rescue group because our goldens thought it was a moving toy. The other one was taken by a neighbor who had bunny pets. And yes, they were spayed…or neutered…</p>

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<p>Here ya go, starbright…clips of the guy who give his wife stuff from the dumpster (who does not seem to be thrilled with his ways) and the lady who makes her own tp:</p>

<p>[Extreme</a> Cheapskates : Videos : TLC](<a href=“http://tlc.discovery.com/videos/extreme-cheapskates-videos/]Extreme”>http://tlc.discovery.com/videos/extreme-cheapskates-videos/)</p>

<p>I think they’re quirky and a bit extreme but don’t appear to be suffering from mental illness unlike the horror show portrayed on Hoarders.</p>

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<p>Today in So Cal…I am being ultra frugal. The thermostat is in the off position and windows open to 75 degree weather. SORRY.
I am so disconnected to what the rest of the cold country pays in energy costs. What DOES it cost to heat a 3000 sq ft house in the east?</p>

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<p>^ umm… less than earthquake insurance? :D</p>