Our cats would get along very well.
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I posted this elsewhere some time ago. He sometimes has more 
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This is my son’s freezer
Figured maybe you could use a laugh
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I use a ridiculously expensive shampoo (Hairstory), but it’s the only shampoo I have found that works for my thick gray hair. My hairdresser orders it for me and sells it to me at his cost.
I also swear by Charmin and Bounty. Many grocery items I buy are store brand, but if the store brand has more sodium & added ingredients than the name brands - which seems relatively common - I opt for the brand with the lowest sodium. And don’t get me started on Aldi brownie mix - we eat a lot of Aldi brand stuff, but those actually ended up being tossed.
Overall, I look for value, but I am able to pay a bit more when I feel it is worth it.
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I preferred oreos to hydrox. My disappointment was when nabisco stopped making their chocolate wafer cookies. They were a staple for cookie crusts for chocolate mousse pie and the classic log cake.
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Love it - the bare necessities - tequila and ice cream!
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They were also a staple for the crust for chocolate cheesecake.
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I like aveda shampoo and conditioner. I found a great sale several months ago, but checked my “supply” and had plenty in the cabinet, so passed on buying more.
I am now more into comfort than I was when younger. Stayed in the new hotel by campus at my college reunion this past weekend (did not want to stay in an un-air conditioned dorm and heard from everyone that it was miserably hot and the sheets didn’t fit the beds and slid off constantly). Some others stayed in air bnb’s or in hotels that required driving and parking in a remote lot on campus, and that was just not convenient. So we splurged on the close by new hotel, and it was the absolute right choice.
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As were those “alphabet” chocolate cookies from TJs, also discontinued 
The thing that is really not good quality from off-brand is plastic cling wrap. It used to be the case for pasta and tissues, but both of those have improved significantly in the past decades.
There was just an NYT article about discontinued products that people miss.
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I have started watching on YouTube a few of the summary Dave Ramsey when it comes to the study they did on millionaires and how they got there. Listened to a particular program where a female MD surgeon is married to a man that is still in divinity school - so I believe he has the student debt, and she didn’t agree about paying off the debt but instead following a financial guy’s advising. I also know a MD that his wife says ‘we are still paying on his brain’ - I am not sure as to why they as a couple are not budgeting better - but I believe it may have to do with their BIL that is in a higher paying MD specialty and a bit of ‘keeping up with the Jones’.
Dave Ramsey said that MDs often make terrible financial decisions - and I have seen that play out with some MDs and also our pharmacist uncle who was great at making money but not so great with investments (back when most pharmacists owned their own business, and later he worked fill-in for other pharmacists into his 80’s). DR’s comment was about systematic people doing well financially even though they may not be the top ‘earners’ - engineers for example. I have to listen to that segment again; it had some good points that I want to be sure to absorb. The other ‘systematic’ people besides engineers - accountant/CPA, teacher, management, and attorney.
93% of millionaires said they got their wealth because they worked hard, not because they had big salaries. Only 15% of millionaires were in senior leadership company roles, such as vice president or C-Suite roles (CEO, CFO, COO, etc.). Only 31% averaged $100,000 a year over the course of their career, and one-third never made six figures in any single working year of their career. DH and I can attest to this - the top our combined income in any year was $127K, and this was only a couple of years - once before my 18-year absence from work force and once after.
The study glosses over things, but one does not need to look at ‘average American’; we are in a generation where the internet and information is so readily available, and we can invest in so many things with risk balancing.
One caller kept having ‘fear’ of various market investments that her H and she did ‘really safe’ CDs. Talking all the stock downturns over the last 20/30 years kept scaring them from having other investments. They are at retirement age with over $2 Million. Dave Ramsey said they might have had $6M or $7M doing things differently, but they are retiring well.
Here is a brief free summary of the Millionaire Study
national-study-of-millionaire-new.pdf
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Do you have a link? Would love to see the article
Not a fan of David Ramsey. At all. He gives me the creeps
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That 20 to 25% should grow IMHO, in part due to inflation and in part because of information out there with how to learn and invest in 401k, Roth, growth of personal savings. Some young adults learning from their parents, and some choosing not to make bad mistakes some parents have made. The one area some have fallen into is with student debt - and those that have finished degrees who choose to work extremely hard and live frugally to pay off their debt, and those that do not for whatever reasons. A gal that ended up working for Dave Ramsey - she and her DH had a LOT of debt - about $180,000 of $460,000 was student debt (and no graduate degrees there, both I believe music degrees) – and they had to work a lot over a period of 8 years to become debt free. Her H went a year or two to Berkley in Boston which is an expensive music school.
Some things this study does gloss over, for sure. For example, these people in their sixties and above grew up in generations where you could buy a house for a very reasonable price, your health insurance was cheap, college tuition was a song (and you could actually work your way through college), income kept up with inflation, and people even had pensions. Easy to max out your 401K when the cost of living is low.
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Most of us just cannot fathom uber wealth. Here is a list and brief summary on the wealthiest 15 women according to Forbes.
Walmart heiress Alice Walton, worth $101 billion, is richest woman in U.S. - al.com
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I think he’s fine for the segment of people who really are in trouble financially and need a lot of structure and rules and imposed discipline. But, yeah, he’s also kind of creepy.
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yes sorry
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I have watched some Dave Ramsey shows, and I understand why some find him creepy. But… I know a couple who took his message seriously, really improved their financial situation by limiting debt, keeping cars longer etc.
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Yes, it is a mix of things with people like me (DH and I both turn 69 soon) - but it also is a double-edged sword.
Paradigm shift.
Ways to make money, ways money gets spent, how to invest money, what it takes to save enough for housing market in one’s place to live. I know young people that rise in their careers and then move to where they can get a home and have a decent lifestyle (going from CA to Atlanta for one young couple we know for example - engineers).
Housing is one area that has gone up all through our adulthood, but DH and I made the sacrifices to get into our first home - we shared one car, I worked night shift (as a BSN) for the higher shift differential, we lived on less than half of our income, we did not eat out or have entertainment expenses. We paid off DH’s student loans within a short time frame (they were 41% of his first-year gross income), and got into our first home 14 months after both of us finished our undergraduate (DH in engineering). Our salaries were also relative - at the time minimum wage was about $2.10/hour (then eventually went up to $2.65/hour), and our starting salaries were about $17K/year. Of course, engineering salaries went up higher and now of course is significantly higher at BS level. We moved (company move) and were in our second purchased home, and I worked PT and got my MBA while DH continued to work his engineering job with some modest pay raises. Building costs went up and home costs also went up, also with inflation. Our 3rd home, not much more than first or second, but considerably more to buy in 3rd city/different state, with DH job move (they closed the plant he worked at in 2nd city). 1979 - 1984-time frame.
Agree college costs have gone up, significantly much higher for private schools for full tuition/fees costs - and also agree it is not as likely to ‘work your way through college’ although some still do it with a spouse working FT with FT student spouse, or if going into military and then going to college with their benefits. Some parents (like us) planned for DDs’ college, and with their scholarships and our financial plan they came out from undergraduate debt-free. DDs went to public sleep-away colleges in-state, but there was the option for in-state local college which had their areas of study (but not all the benefits their sleep-away public U had). We could afford their living expenses with our planning.
Instead of pensions, the shift to matching in 401k. Neither DH or I have pensions - DH did have pensions but the company kept getting sold until the last ownership was w/o pension.
It took a while for the government to ‘wake up’ with deductions for child-care expenses, and the pre-tax accounts for childcare and health spending. Many on this thread also lived through that.
Problematic financially is having children during the years one has careers making traction, or prior to acquiring a home. In some areas, not being able to buy a home for a long time. One just gets to some things later, if having children while in earlier years, and then possibly building up the retirement nest egg later.
There is no single path to retirement. Many ways to retire with enough money - but there are pitfalls. Sometimes one does not have their health and may not have disability income sufficient for example.
Having one’s health is so important to living well in retirement.
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When DR says financial advice like grandma use to follow - working out a budget and living within a budget, saving some, and tithing. Credit cards with high interest rates, student debt, and other things have caused some to fall into a pile of debt that they see as ‘insurmountable’. The debt snowball is a psychological thing, and I believe him when he says a lot of financial things are emotional and not head-knowledge. For example, paying off lowest to highest debt regardless of bigger amount having a higher interest rate (so ‘makes sense’ to try to pay down the higher interest rate bill). Visual and other things to keep on the path of paying off the debt.
Some people are ‘natural savers’ and some are ‘natural spenders’. DD1 is a saver, and DD2 is a spender. DH is a saver. I restrain my spending. DD1 got by osmosis DR’s message – she didn’t take the course that DD2 needed and took in HS which was a semester with DR workbook and the videos. DD1’s DH had to listen to DR recordings and read the books - sit down with budget meetings with DD1. SIL carried over his modest student loans instead of listening to his parents to pay them off; DD1/SIL together paid them off. SIL is now in 100% financial agreement on their household finances.
DD2 is doing much better on her finances.
Also, we were able to find our term life insurance policies through the broker than advertises through him, Zander. Buying an additional policy on SIL as soon as he gets that turned in (policy will be owned by DD1).
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You obviously don’t need his advice. So many people have benefited.
I benefit and learn from what he says - and it is to me worth the time to hear the stories.
Also others, like the now deceased Thomas J Stanley PhD “The Millionaire Next Door” and “Stop Acting Rich…and Start Living Like a Real Millionaire”. He died at age 71 in 2015, killed by a drunk driver pretty close to his home in Atlanta. He had data driven information he shared in his writing and in his work.