<p>Love this thread, so much resonates with me. I grew up as I say it, too poor for hot lunch but too rich for free lunch. Scraped by in college and medical school. Learned frugality so much find it hard to break habits and have not loosened up much despite having plenty of money. Perhaps one reason we have plenty of money is because our needs and wants are relatively low. We taught our son about what something is worth having, not just having it because we could afford it. Includes not getting the latest, greatest electronics, and just about everything else.</p>
<p>I moved to this thread from the splurge thread. So many things I won’t spend money on- fancy branded clothes, shoes, purses. </p>
<p>Stylists instead of cheap haircuts. Manicures. All that beauty stuff, cosmetics…</p>
<p>H got rid of cell phone plan to go with $.10 minute phones because we don’t use them that often. </p>
<p>Travel- we stay at moderate, not top hotels- so much easier to have the free breakfast. Look for deals on airlines and trip packages.</p>
<p>Wines. Gourmet versions of foods. H can’t generally taste the difference anyhow.</p>
<p>House cleaner. Past experience was that they did not do as thorough a job as I did. Now- do it about once a month when it is convenient (or when having guests).</p>
<p>Electronics. I would replace a lot if H would.</p>
<p>House. We renovated and kept as much as we could plus put in moderate everything. One workman told us how he was involved in a $250,000 bathroom redmodel- we redid our whole house for a fraction of that! It is amazing how much you can spend on so many things. But is isn’t worth it. I suppose we could have spent more and it would be noticeable but spending a lot more wouldn’t be. We want simple, informal stuff. </p>
<p>Furniture. We downsized and kept pieces we could use. Mismatched, some inexpensive, informal. Would definitely make the BEFORE pictures in a magazine.</p>
<p>H wanted to replace the CFL flood lights with LEDs. I told him the energy savings (for acceptable to me bulbs- I despise the LEDs with a bunch of dots) was only 2 watts and that LED prices will decrease. And I want 100 watt replacement LEDs, not just 60 watts in lamps for reading…</p>
<p>The 1% thing. Annual income versus net worth. We worked hard- including a lot of years studying instead of having more fun in college than most- to have the financial security. We could have afforded private college for son but he only applied to 3 and went to our flagship. I couldn’t see the point of having children only to send them away to boarding school (although during his teen years it was seeming like a much better choice…). Our public schools were better academically than any private ones.</p>
<p>Enough for now. Time is one thing I spend far too much of- on CC.</p>