<p>It is pretty amazing to me when you add up things we spend money on. There are many people in our state that send their kids to private school from K-12. Prices range from $5K up to 17K+/year for up to 13 years, plus pre-school and then what funds are left for college? It really can add up! Some of those same parents don’t understand why they have no money in their retirement accounts or for their kiddos’ college/grad school funds.</p>
<p>It’s also amazing how much folks are willing to spend on cars–leased or purchased new and only kept for 4-5 years, plus insurance & gas.</p>
<p>Housing can also be a huge black hole–the rent/mortgage, maintenance, taxes, insurance, improvements, furnishings, cooling/heating.</p>
<p>Oh yea, dining out & vacations! Those jamba juices, Starbucks, bars, lunches and meals out sure do add up much more quickly whan folks realize, as can a plane trip and hotel here and there. </p>
<p>Of course, there’s always higher education, which has a high obvious price tag, sometimes discounted via merit and/or FAid (sometimes not).</p>
<p>It is amazing we can keep any assets for retirement or much of anything else with all of these things to gobble up our money.</p>
<p>Thoughts? I guess that’s why people can live comfortably or struggle while making the exact same income, depending on so many of these expenses that are somewhat flexible.</p>
<p>I am struggling with some of this now. Youngest is in 8th grade and we need to make high school decision. The public schools here older bro and sis went to are in turmoil now and we are uncertain if the same experience would be there for her. BUT, how can we possibly justify spending $9000 for the private high school? Seriously? $36,000 (hopefully it might be lower if she gets a little aid) for high school? We can’t afford it, but we want her to have a good quality high school education. But we also want to help her with college. Right now, no-can-see doing both. Yet people around us, who also don’t appear to have the $$$ dive right in. Some days I say to myself, “how can you even THINK of spending that kind of $$ for high school?”</p>
<p>I think we have become very “disposable”. New cell phones every two years. Dinner out 3 times a week. Houses full of laptops and desktops - not just one computer, but a few. Water bottles instead of water from the faucet with a filter. </p>
<p>“Green” society? No, I think overall “we” are very wasteful in many ways.</p>
<p>abasket- We did spend a lot of money for private high school. Both of my kids are through college now, and looking back, the high school spending was worth every penny.<br>
If I had to choose between an excellent high school education and then a cheaper public college for my kids versus a lousy high school and expensive college, I’d go with the former. (We took out loans and did expensive both ways…:rolleyes:)<br>
If your kids come out of high school without excellent writing, critical thinking and math skills, they will never really catch up in college. On the other hand, going into college with those skills will enable them to do well wherever they go–even if they don’t finish college. JMHO</p>
<p>The Millionaire Next Door as well, makes the point that living below one’s means is the path to wealth. </p>
<p>Of the above, the communication bill is the one I resent the most. I refuse to pay for cable, but cell phones and text plans sure put a dent in the budget in a way that the simple land line didn’t years ago. </p>
<p>When the kids were young I had to be very frugal, and though I’ve kept many of those habits, is very easy to slide into little indulgences here and there that add up in a big way. The worlds “I deserve it” are dangerous ones. When someone tells me I deserve something, I tell myself I deserve money in the bank, and retirement more than a minor this or that.</p>
<p>You missed one big expense, especially when teenagers are involved; i.e., clothing. Our local mall is huge and pretty much dedicated to clothing. Clothing expenses come pretty close to being frivolous. Most clothing is cheaply made, semi-disposable and geared towards individuals who are interested in the latest fashion. I am old, grouchy and looking for clothing that is functional and durable. The mall has little to offer.</p>
<p>When we had the clothing demands I told the 2 girls making them that they could have $150 each for back - to - school clothes, and if they chose to spend $70 - 80 of that on 2 prs of jeans, it was up to them. </p>
<p>They decided pretty quickly they liked jeans from Walmart, and the second hand store turned into a “vintage finds” place in their minds. </p>
<p>Our biggest expenses always have been tuition & house repairs.</p>
<p>H loves coffee, chai lattee. Whenever we travel (or just out for the day), he wouldn’t think twice about going to an expensive coffee place to get a cup. When kids were younger it wasn’t so bad, but now the girls also want to have one, so it’s $20 before you know it. But then H reminds me that I like to have a glass of wine with my meal when we go out.</p>
<p>There are many ways of saving money, but sometimes I feel if we are always sweating over every dime, then what’s the fun?</p>
<p>We put fixed amount away for retirement, and we splurge when there is extra. I am trying to put a Tuscany trip together for the family. I could do it cheap or I could get a nicer villa. This could be the last big trip we could take as a family because D1 will be graduating this June (no more long summer or winter breaks), and I want this trip to be as memorable as possible, so I think we will splurge. When we die someday, my kids are not going remember the extra 10k or 20K we have left for them, but they will have the memories of “Under the Tuscan Sun.”</p>
<p>I agree with you, oldfort. I’ll drive my car into the ground and my living room needs painting badly, and I have a kitchen counter from the 70s,
but I’ll fly my kids home for Christmas and special birthdays and make sure we make some memories while they’re here. It’s all about what’s important to you.</p>
<p>Our TV, Internet, home phone and four cell phones run $0+$32+$34/month or about $66/month. Still a lot of money but the conveniences offered but I think that we have sufficient value for the dollars spent.</p>
<p>My plans are to reduce average spending this year from last year on computers. Last year I bought a 27 inch iMac (which our daughter uses in the apartment near her school) and a new MacBook Pro for our son (his older model had some hardware issues that were causing him problems - his old one is now the spare). This year, I bought a bunch of parts and built my own system to replace my six-year-old desktop. I don’t plan anymore computer purchases this year. The iMac and MacBook Pro last year ran about $3,600. The computer that I built was about $1,400. Note that I made the money for the computer this year with a trade in INTC stock. I made the money for the Apple systems last year with a few Apple Computer trades.</p>
<p>We could use a new car so that’s a potential expense this year. I may replace a bunch of windows in our home. We have some long-overdue carpentry that needs to be done. None of these should be problems as we are long-term savers. We do spend money when we want to - it’s just that we don’t want to that often.</p>
<p>I am one to turn off all lights when not in use, and I used to turn our thermostat low in the winter. We eat in quite a bit to not waste money. When we go on vacation, we’ll often stay at places where there is a kitchen, so we could dine out or eat in. We would eat in some days, but we would splurge to go to a great restaurant for a meal.</p>
<p>Like moonchild, I would do all I can to fly my kids home whenever the want. I hope my kids will have enough money to pay for trips home when they start working, but if it should not happen, I would fly them home for special occasions.</p>
<p>One disadvantage to keeping the thermostat low is snow buildup on the roof for those that get a lot of snow. We’ve kept ours low (62-64) this winter and we have a higher buildup compared to most neighbors. I’m considering raising it to help promote melting.</p>
<p>Another aspect of the snow is that we are eating in more often only because it’s a headache to go out. We had an ice storm Saturday night - we had been planning to go out but the driveway was a skating rink. I’m under a lot of time pressure this semester so we’re probably not going to eat out as much just because the opportunity isn’t there.</p>
<p>It IS mind boggling. And I love quicken for helping id those black holes of spending. H spent quite a while doing reconfigurations on our DSL/phone/computer domain stuff … and saved $240 a year. To me, that isn’t chump change. </p>
<p>We are contenders for the millionaire next door in that we live in a high rent neighborhood and still don’t have cable. (yeah, two DSL servers, but no cable). Our cars are old. Our furniture is old. No one bought any clothes this year they think, yet more than $2000 was spent at clothing stores. </p>
<p>It was interesting to see how much the power and water bills dropped (by a third) when D left for college. Long showers were THAT expensive? Who knew?</p>
<p>We did the splurge vacation this Christmas for part of it. We got a heck of a deal on a condo in Hawaii for the majority of it; so splurged on a really nice place (2x the price for 1/2 the days at the other place) on the other side of the island. It was nice, it felt indulgent, but I don’t think I’d do it again. Mostly we did because of the bargain that the other place was. … But having the extra room and the right on the beach was pretty great.</p>
<p>We did the expensive private high schools. Still have mixed feelings about that. But both kids are doing fine in college and survived HS more or less intact. </p>
<p>But, as I’d meant to focus on, knowing where the money goes is incredibly powerful for either changing things or identifying what you think is “worth it”.</p>
<p>Oldfort–I definitely don’t want to save money in order to leave any to the kids, that’s for sure! The reason that I aim for frugality is because the thing I want more of the most is time. I don’t want to work till I’m old and can’t enjoy time–I want to save so I can work less, because there are so many things I want to do that I don’t get paid for.</p>
<p>I definitely think that wonderful experiences like a Tuscany trip are the kind of thing worth spending on, though for me, when I travel, I keep the luxury level low, and just enjoy the place itself.</p>
<p>The point of living frugally, in my world, is to then have the money for those experiences that mean so much. Visiting the kids on semesters abroad, giving them those semesters abroad, vacations, a rare splurge meal out. Special times, special memories=closer family in my book. </p>
<p>My girls learned early to shop sales and St. Vinnies. Sometimes the best stores have the best sales.</p>
<p>Another one here who is frugal in many ways (old cars, limited vacations, packing lunches, really need some furniture replaced, no housecleaning or yard service, no cable, etc.), but I make room in my budget for private school for my kids. It has been worth every single penny, no doubt in my mind. So far we have not had to take out loans for college, either, and D1 goes to a pricy private (with merit aid). As long as my health and the job market hold up, should be able to do the same for D2. As stated above, it is a matter of priorities, and a rock solid education for my kids (better than I got) is mine.</p>
<p>There’s a bill in NH to provide a $3,500 property tax rebate for homeowners with school-age kids that don’t use the public schools - that is they either use private schools, public schools outside their district or home schools. $3,500 isn’t a lot of money for private schools but it is an absolute fortune for homeschoolers.</p>
<p>Would you really turn up the heat to melt the snow on the roof? My FIL in Buffalo has a snow rake. You can also get those wires installed (but not right now!) that will heat the roof slightly when you turn them on, and melt off the snow from the lowest couple of feet. They are all over the WNY area.</p>
<p>I did the snow rake thing this weekend. Took off about 8 feet from the roof line. The problem is that this is a second-story roof and snow rakes run about 15 feet. I added two sections from a second snow rake to the first one and can only get eight feet. The thing is pretty unwieldy at that length. I have considered putting all 6 sections in but I’d have to be careful not to take anything out if it fell on something. The wires are to deal with ice dam problems. We’ve never had ice dam issues on that side of the house. I’m concerned about the weight over the whole roof.</p>