The Miserly, Penny Pincher, Tightwading, & Thrifting Thread

Parent Cafe
41

<p>

Please. I could easily buy nicer cars but there about 100 things that would IMO being higher leverage use of the money … including lots of non-practical uses like pilot lessons. Your comments only might make sense for a student eligible for financial aid and are accepted at a school that meets 100% of need … and even then I’m still not a fan of the advice. Our kids were not getting FA so if our kids were going to a full pay school we had three sources … current income, savings, or borrowing … and using some savings, by far, made a lot of sense for us.</p>

<p>PS - IMO most folks overstate the affect of the 5% “tax” on assets … those assets are also earning returns … so the “tax” to pay for school should not shrink the assets that much. Frankly, IMO it’s the payment expected from income that most families have trouble meeting … and their history of spending versus their income level has a lot to do with how daunting the income component is … for families spending at the level of their income their profile EFCs probably are pretty daunting … for those used to living below their means those EFCs are still daunting but require less adjustments to meet.</p>

42

<p>My example of $50K was NET income, not gross income & probably closure to $55-56K per year NET after taxes, retirement & health insurance. And unless a student is attending HYPS-M or one of the meets 100% schools, they ARE going to be gapped with an aid package including Direct and Perkins loans, if available, at the majority of privates and publics. </p>

<p>A co-worker went through this just a few years ago with her class of 2012 D the year or year after the Plus Loan requirements changed. Her child was accepted at several privates and a couple of OOS publics, but was gapped on top of the family’s EFC totaling a difference of $18K-$30Kish per year. She figured she could swing the Plus Loan payments and applied so her D could attend one of the privates. She & her husband were denied due to slow pay on credit cards and returning a vehicle they could not afford. Her husband was laid off and used the maximum UC benefits and was unemployed at the time. I will not get into why they did not use NPCs or why the family did not have their D apply to financial safety schools–who knows. She asked how she could come up with the difference on her income. She was determined for her daughter to attend college that fall and not take a gap year. They’re mortgage was about $1100 including insurance, the car they kept was almost paid off, and it was just the two kids. She paid the minimum on the credit cards along with the difference between their car loan for the returned vehicle and what the CU sold the vehicle for. She had to borrow $4K from her parents, too, to make the initial tuition payment in order to participate in the 10 month tuition payment plan. Her D has a Direct and Perkins loan she’ll have to pay back. </p>

<p>We sat down and went over her checkbook, bank statements & credit card bills, and figured out how to pay the tuition for the school year and they continue to do so to this day. They paid their mortgage, tuition, and credit debt & lived off the remaining income. </p>

<p>Like I said, it can be done, all be it, it will be tight for some households, and I based it on where I live without taking into consideration the coasts. So, INTParent, you ARE right, that some families will NOT be able to save $20K, but could save $10K depending on the coast of living in the household’s area. </p>

<p>Oh, the schools that gapped the family: Pace, Sarah Lawrence & Bard–I cannot remember the publics, but recall one was a public in Florida–maybe New School???. Student had a good GPA and high test scores.</p>

43

<p>In our house, cars are for transportation, not for bragging rights or to impress people. We drive them til they die, so we look at it as a 10-12 year lifespan. When one gets paid off, we put that payment in the bank as a down payment for the next vehicle.</p>

<p>Groceries run $75/week for us (2 adults, some organic, mostly fresh stuff for me) – add another $20-25 when S2 is home. Water bill is $20/mo. No premium cable channels.</p>

<p>We have always lived on one income and banked the other, which went for college, 401(k), etc. Bought our house based on one income, too. We are still in our starter house. Kids did not have laptops til college; no cell phones til HS (flip phones, not data); no computers or TVs in their rooms (or ours). Were darned glad about our fiscal policies when major health issues knocked me out of the FT job world (and have kept me PT off and on for the past 10 years).</p>

<p>We do our own yardwork, clear our own snow from the driveway, though since S1 is in CA , S2 is only home during the summer and DH works 70 hrs/week, I have someone cut the grass in the spring and fall since the docs have forbidden me to do it.</p>

<p>I don’t spend a lot on clothes for myself. My kids are not into name brands. Our main vice is travel, but we use FF miles, camp and do things inexpensively.</p>

<p>We also banked all medical/day care spending account reimbursements. Because some of our docs want payment upfront and require us to submit to insurance for reimbursement, we have already paid those bills by the time we get the funds come back from the insurance co. Those also go into our “EFC Account.”</p>

<p>Thank G-d for good health insurance. Otherwise, all of our good financial plans would have been toast.</p>

<p>All of these things have made paying for college a bit less painful. We are used to living lean.</p>

44

<p>DH and I were able to put away $25k in 18 months on an AGI of $40k (gross was ~ $44k). This was in 1985-86. Once he decided to go back for grad school and give up his job, we got really serious about saving.</p>

45

<p>DadII, we buy practical cars because they are reliable. I can’t stand to get into a car, turn the key, and nothing happens. Why would We buy an impractical car? I think of cars not as a status symbol but for a practical purpose. And I know you’re into spending your money without a worry about college, but we prefer to have the freedom to choose things, including which colleges our children attend, which is what saving money allows us to do.</p>

<p>My saving tip: stay away from stores. Well, that’s not really hard for me to do since I hate shopping. But I never, ever go to the mall. And I rarely go shopping for clothes. I know my MIL was always overjoyed when she saved $XXX, but I think to myself that I saved even more because I spent nothing. I suppose it helps that I’ve stayed the same size since high school and I wear very “classic” clothes. </p>

<p>Food, OTOH, is unavoidable. Zooser, I always go with a list. I’m not one who buys lots of stuff just to have it on hand. I don’t need to warehouse supplies. That’s what stores do. In fact, we are now members of Costco because they were the cheapest place to buy my son’s glasses, but their huge quantities means a lot gets wasted. In the end, that doesn’t make their prices the bargains they advertise. It’s actually much cheaper to shop at Shop & Stop / Shop Rite, especially when you just get what’s on sale.</p>

46

<p>For the love of god, there are some posters who should NOT be doling out college savings/planning advice.</p>

47

<p>

</p>

<p>Okay, PLEASE stop saying that I said families couldn’t do this. I did not say anything of the sort. I only said that families can’t save their pre-tax daycare dollars once their kids are teenagers. This is getting annoying. You don’t seem to have read my post or any of my follow ups. And it isn’t INTP…</p>

48

<p>DadII,
I have never responded to you before but I must do so this time. There are actually some of us who have been saving for decades for college for our kids, from even before they were born. We thought it was the right thing to do. Save for their education. Not buy fancy cars, go on fancy vacations, own the latest in gadgetry. We didn’t expect anyone else to foot the bill for their education, as you apparently did. We didn’t try to “game” the system. We were able to save and we did. I wholeheartedly agree with post #46.</p>

<p>Happy New Year to everyone. :)</p>

49

<p>I agree intparent about when to start saving. If you think you can get started when the kids are teenagers, well, you’ve missed all those years of compound interest. What may seem to be very little now can grow and grow year after year, until, well you have a bundle. It’s also very hard to change a behavior when you’re older.</p>

<p>And about your last post, I had to look up what INTP meant. I’ve heard of that, it turns out, but I don’t identify myself with any of those characteristics. Good thing there isn’t a LIMA designation! I know you’re intparent aka an interested parent to me.</p>

50

<p>need that Like button for post #48…</p>

51

<p>It will be interesting to see how my generation… the first generation where MOST college students graduate with a significant amount of debt… handles saving for their children’s future. </p>

<p>Our plan is to pay off our loans within 5 years and then start putting roughly that same payment towards college & retirement savings. It’s obviously a long way out, but since we’d be used to not having that amount it makes sense. I know plans change, but it’s not to have a plan :)</p>

52

<p>We haven’t had cable for over 30 yrs.
We get news from twitter & the radio. Traffic & weather- iphone apps;)
No landline
Grow lots of veggies & herbs.
Camp for vacations.
Walk to the grocery store.
Our cars are well over ten yrs old.( 12, 22& 43)
Cut my own hair (& I get lots of compliments!)
:wink:
Also am still in my starter house, with my first husband!</p>

53

<p>

</p>

<p>Having a dollar less of savings won’t get you anywhere near a dollar more in need-based financial aid*. If the school meets full need, then the added financial aid would be $0.05 to $0.12 per year ($0.20 to $0.48 over four years) for a dollar less of savings if above the asset minimum. But many schools do not meet full need, or have any institutional financial aid at all (just distributing government aid).</p>

<p>*Based on net price calculator trials and the FAFSA EFC formula.</p>

54

<p>I may try to wean myself off morning and evening news so I can get rid of the dish when the kids are gone. I hate paying that bill every month. I wish I could get even ONE local TV station in but I’m in a bad spot- between two major cities and none of their channels come in anywhere close to watchable without cable or satellite. I don’t feel like the 3 minutes of news I get at the top of the hour on the radio gives me the same information. </p>

<p>I did get rid of my landline and I do play the games between the cable/internet providers every couple years to get my best deal. Ditto with cell phones and home owners and car insurance. </p>

<p>Medical bills threw my budget way off this year. Two very expensive unexpected major medical issues screwed us up badly. It wouldn’t have been so bad if it weren’t for my D’s mandatory student health insurance which is NOT as good as my employer provided insurance. </p>

<p>As others have stated- I’m not a shopper. I have a heart attack looking at the prices of some things that people buy regularly- like Coach purses. I do drink a lot of diet pepsi but never coffee. I don’t order it in restaurants and I always buy it on sale. </p>

<p>I know where most of my money has gone over the past several years and I’m not sure I’d make different decisions if faced with them again- it goes toward experiences for the kids. Boy Scout camps, pre-college programs, marching band fees and trips, student activity fees, senior year stuff for both kids (senior pictures, prom, etc.),college visit trips, and application fees. CollegeBoard and ACT have quite a bit of my hard earned money for all those tests and scores to be sent. Oh, and my grad school tuition. I don’t know how I can forget about that.</p>

55

<p>^ lol. My current purse is a vintage leather coach purse(from the 1980’s) I bought on ebay for $30. I get complements on it regularly mostly I think because it’s not like what everyone is using right now.:)</p>

56

<p>That’s a Coach I would pay for! I had people tell me they only get theirs at the outlet stores so I went into one this summer and was floored at how much they were- even at the outlet store! </p>

<p>I thought of another way I’ve saved a lot of money over the years- not buying anything from school fundraisers ever. So sure, the band is selling X and the money you earn goes right into your student’s account. But the item is marked up 75%. I started taking the money I would pay for whatever useless thing it was and putting it in an envelope so when the band fees or Scout events came along, I had the money set aside- the whole amount, not just the half I’d have gotten if I’d bought something I never thought I needed or wanted in the first place!</p>

57

<p>

</p>

<p>Read it on the news channel’s web site?</p>

<p>I prefer reading news over watching it on TV.</p>

58

<p>I save money by only having two kids and having them 8 yrs apart.
( although we pamper our dog, so there go the savings)
My H is also very low maintenance.
His big splurge is skiing, but he’s used the same equipment since I’ve known him & it’s now been 36 years! He’s planning on skiing for another 36, so he is looking for deals.
I figure the exercise & enjoyment he gets out of it keeps him happy & that is priceless!</p>

59

<p>

</p>

<p>This brings up one of the weak spots in my financial planning. We have only recently gotten to the point where we had enough money saved that it seems we should probably be investing rather than just letting it sit in a savings account. We just don’t really know how to go about it. Where do most of you put money that you are saving…and how did you decide that? Do you have a financial advisor, go to a tax consultant, or just work it out on your own?</p>

<p>BHM, I admire your clarity in budgeting (and college planning). I just seem to go round and round on these things. </p>

<p>I am glad you started this thread!</p>

<p>We do not do well in budgeting for food. We live very near too many fast food and mid-priced chains, etc, combine that with lack of planning and a dislike of cooking …It isn’t a good combination. I have tried many times to come up with a plan for meals, but we just never stick with it. I go back and forth between wanting to shop frugally and super healthy or just buying what I know we will actually eat, thinking that even ‘not so frugal’ and maybe not super healthy is still better than drive-thru.</p>

<p>We did pay off all debt except the house, and bought a house that cost quite a bit less than what the banks would have allowed. We do not have cable/satellite (I forget who asked, but with an antennae for the TV, we get all the local channels…actually a better picture on those than we got before, and PBS has a few different channels over the air).</p>

60

<p>No TV, smart phone, expensive vacation in our household. The high school senior son and freshman D don’t have a cell phone. when they need one, I give them mine to use. I firmly believe that a lack of distraction from TV and phones has made both of them great readers and better teens socially. It’s greatly to see my kids holding conversations at the News Years Eve gatherings while friends’s kids were all playing on their phones. A nice side effect of our parenting choice.</p>

<p>One thing we did differently with many on this thread is debt. With sufficient rainy day money and max 401k contribution each year, we leveraged to the extent we could and used the excess fund to buy investment properties. Right now we on sitting on 3.5% 30 year fixed rates on all mortgages, while the annual return on investment from rental has approached 15%, and caputal gain over 100%. Not everyone agrees with our “don’t pay off your low interest mortgage” philosophy, even though it served us well.:)</p>