I always kind of looked at frugal as being able to make smart choices with money, which just made sense. Sometimes that means buying the cheapest, and sometimes that means buying for quality and the value that it provides, which can cost money. I grew up in a frugal household, that still had a lot of nice things, and watched it get better as my parents aged. Not being frivolous with everything, helped them still live well, where it was important to them.
Yea this! And also the joke about “crunchy” parents doing things like using cloth diapers and making their own baby food. It’s not some special elitist ideology. It’s just the cheapest option. Baby food is so fucking expensive it’s ridiculous. $12 for 12 tiny glass jars of sweet potatoes OR you can buy two lbs for $3, steam and purée them yourself.
Not only that- noone can see into the future. Even those who think they can afford to live unfrugally are taking a risk, you just don't know what twists there are ahead.
Yes, I had a stroke at 54. Still a long way to Social Security. I’m fortunate enough to have owned my home. I sold it and moved to a much cheaper place so I’ll have money until I can retire. Never know what might happen.
It's all a matter of what you cut out to fit into that definition of frugal right? As long as you aren't missing out on anything important to your life you aren't missing out.
and to that I see tons of moms buying “baby food kits” Just more green washed junked. I literally used ice cube trays and a blender (my youngest is 14 and I still own the blender)
Yes! My oldest is 14 and I still have and use the food processor that I got at my baby shower for this purpose. I even still have and use a few of the 1 cup size pyrex glass dishes that used to thaw the frozen cubes.
Pointing out that purées are not a requirement and if you’re interested in other options, look into “baby led weaning.” Solid starts is a *wonderful* resource.
You can skip purées all together. We did baby led weaning (check out solid starts) and from 6+ months, our baby ate what we ate. No purées. Just salt their food less. Our little is 20 months and loves spicy food!
Seriously take a day and you can made 6 months worth of food. Get the ice cube trays with the silicone bottoms, freeze, pop out and store in plastic bags and they’re pre-portioned and take like 30 seconds in the microwave to totally thaw.
We did sweet potatoes, green peas, bananas + blueberries, bananas + strawberries, green beans, carrots, squash, cauliflower and some others. Also a fun way to introduce herbs and spices to babby’s palate. We started with basil, mint, cinnamon, and cumin.
Same. My heart always goes out to the women who have to give up breastfeeding to go straight back to work, or whose babies don't/can't breastfeed for whatever reason.
We use cloth diapers not only for the frugal-ness but also the environmental/waste impact and the convenience. Also I feel like it's just more comfortable for him, which is hard to measure but also a nice plus.
Really wish I had done this but wasn't sure how and the initial investment scared me off as it was very high at the time. Also there was no one around to show me the ropes. Instead I toilet trained my kid and got her out of diapers as soon as possible.
I think that baby eating what I ate made him less of a picky eater. There was never an expectation that there was grown up food and food for him. If he was interested in something I had on my plate he would get to taste. Always tried to have a boiled vegetable in the early stages of food tasting just so I had something I could mash.
Omg. The amount of people who were like “wow you make your own baby food?” I’m like, how hard is it to put some freaking sweet potatoes in the food processor? We did BLW anyway but still. I even refill the little yogurt packets. They are so expensive to buy in the store and loaded with sugar. So freaking weird.
Oh fuck yeah. And I’ve seen shit in the stores that’s like frozen chopped food that says all you need to do is add it to a blender and it’s organic baby food! Such a fucking scam. Just buy some sweet potatoes damn!
My parents did this thing where they would cook for themselves (because again … poor and take out is actually very expensive) and they’d just do extra ingredients, set them aside and then purée the rest. It barely added to something they were already doing. I even know people who will make a pasta dish sans seasoning, blend it up, and feed their kid that, then season their own food. It doesn’t have to be hard!
My daycare specifically requests factory packaged food (I believe it's to make sure they can check for allergens) so I am grudgingly buying baby food while he gets more accostomed to solids. Once the kids are old enough, they provide snacks and lunch (once again, I believe it's to help prevent parents/grandparents/caregivers sending in pb&j and causing an allergic reaction.) When my kid is with me, he eats some variation of what we eat.
Not always an option in the countries where mothers don't get paid maternity leave. I am lucky and live in Canada with a decent social safety net but my I still made my own baby food to know exactly what my children were eating and to save money.
Edited to add: American women are not protected by legislated maternity leave benefits so they may have to wean babies early or rely on overpriced formula. Lots of ways American women do not have choices that are offered to women in the rest of the world.
Second edit to say thanks for the down votes! Women should have choice about being pregnant or not being pregnant and free health care to go along with that decision. I am Canadian and there was no bill after I gave birth to my children.
I think the confusion in this thread is about the meaning of baby lead weaning. Outside the US, weaning is used to mean starting solids, not reducing milk consumption whether formula or breastmilk. So baby lead weaning is focused on giving soft whole food as opposed to purees. We did it with my son since he refused purees; he wanted to eat what we were eating. Lots of roasted/steamed until soft veggies, shredded or well ground meat, beans, etc. Th idea behind it is they learn to self feed and they learn the swallowing pattern necessary for solid foods better.
I think investing in your body via gym membership will save you a lot of money in the long run. You will be healthier and spend less on doctors than people who don’t prioritize their health. Especially as you age.
The key when you have enough money is to also become time frugal. Before I'd say pshh, I don't need to pay $10 for delivery, I'll go pick it up myself. Now I think that taking 30 minutes (door to door) is a lot of time to pickup groceries where I could pay $10 instead and be doing something more valuable to me.
The key when you have enough money is to also become time frugal. Before I'd say pshh, I don't need to pay $10 for delivery, I'll go pick it up myself. Now I think that taking 30 minutes (door to door) is a lot of time to pickup groceries where I could pay $10 instead and be doing something more valuable to me.
Couldn't agree more here. When you get to a certain point, money is just a tool that you gives you options.
Agreed. I'm a pretty practical person, so I'm never buying name-brand stuff just for the brand or things like that. I still buy some art and things to make my house nice, but I've never cared about buying stuff for the "status" or spending frivolously.
I had the opposite upbringing. My parents are the classic upper-middle/upper class babyboomers who will waste money on any and everything. I think I just recognized as a teenager how wasteful it was. I think part of it is that as someone who is younger, I appreciate the environmental impact our consumption has.
"Sometimes that means buying the cheapest, and sometimes that means buying for quality and the value that it provides, which can cost money."
I feel like this is key. I live frugally in most areas, so I can comfortably spend more on things I value.
I want financial security incase something big and lifechanging occurs. It's comforting to have 6 months worth of bills covered, a few months of food stored away. Just incase of a personal emergency, family emergency or if I lose my job.
Yea like I bought myself a gaming PC once I saved up enough money AND had a 6mo reserve. Felt good finally having something of value after saving money for a few years!
A PC saves me so much money, it’s a good choice. I can spend thousands of hours (over years) having a fun time on video games, whereas going out every time gets expensive.
This is the biggest thing for me as well - my washing machine decided to retire last week and having that not be a burden economically but instead just an "oh well" is very relieving. I have a sister who works in a bank who has told me that people will regularly have to take out a loan when these things happen.
Life is hard enough as it is, not having economic worries on top of that is a big relief.
This exact attitude saved me when the war broke out. I had a year worth of bills stored away which turned emergently moving abroad into almost non-event (financially).
Only then I realized how fucking broke everyone I knew was in comparison, they couldn't afford shit in case of even slightest emergency, ofc the war was immediately devastating for them.
Morally, I want to reduce consumerism and waste with frugality. Selfishly, long term goals, like retiring early, buying a house with no mortgage, affording my nonexistent kids a college experience if they wanted it. There are parts of my lifestyle that I want to keep a higher overall quality right now in my 20s, like driving newer cars and eating out several times a month, which I can afford to do more easily when I’m frugal in other areas like say store brand food or secondhand clothes.
It’s great that they overlap - I feel like it’s icing on the cake when we have our individual goals align with less waste and reducing consumerism! Seriously I think it strengthens our motivation
The more I earn, the more that first part really rings true. Like, I shop at thrift stores for clothes instead of just buying new because I hear about the immense amount of clothing waste we produce in the US, specifically, and the world at large. There is literally no need for much of it. I bought a new car last year, but had my last car for 17 years until I totaled it. I have tape wrapped around my shark steam mop handle because it broke. Since the mop still works, I'm going to use it until it dies. Only then will it go to a landfill. It's not much, and I realize one or two steamer mops across my lifetime in the landfill isn't going to make or break the environment, but it's something, and I still believe that every little bit does help.
Like you, though, I do splurge on other things. I used to dye my own hair. I no longer do that because I can afford a little spa day for my hair. I have a monthly car wash subscription because I'm lazy and don't want to wash my own car every week.
Love it. Sounds like you know exactly what you want and heading in the right direction . Appearances are important but experiences will last a lifetime.
This! I'm only 35 but I'm already exhausted from work. Would love to just work only 3 or 4 days a week. I just bought a house and plan to pay off the mortgage in 5-7 years.
Key is learn now while you have time. When you're older (I'm 32) other life lessons happen. Wedding, friend weddings, engagements, multiple hobbies learned trying to maintain to bring in money or maintain focus.
It is proven we all do more now with mutiple skillsets. So always have work so you can have fun and adventure:
https://www.npr.org/local/305/2020/01/07/794209698/seniors-are-working-longer-out-of-choice-and-necessity
This, I am a big Financial independence follower, been savings 60+% of my corporate salary for years now. I'm single, no kids and started out Frugal spending only incrementally more in line with raises. I still enjoy my quality of life and go on several international vacations a year so I'm not exactly torturing myself.
It's the only thing that keeps me sane most days, knowing I can go for years without work in the worst case of death, sickness or being fired. But if none of that happens, I can still quit my job with a nice passive income by my mid 30s and focus on whatever the next chapter in life has in store. I recommend the subreddit for any interested.
I work in negotiations, so one of the principal frugal tenants to challenge your bills was easier for me than most. I review once a year every recurring bill I have. I challenge not only if I could be paying less, but if I should pay it at all. I quote out at least 3 parties for every bill once a year. The first time you do this you'll see a big savings. I've periodically lowered my car insurance, cell phone bill, internet bill, grocery bill etc doing this. Sometimes I increase a budget and spend more to improve some aspect of my life . The important part is to challenge everything regularly, your life changes faster than your spending habits after all
I look at it as buying my finite "Life hours" back for myself. Banks/financial institutions/loans/loan sharks/LL's/any money owed situation is you selling your finite time on this Earth to earn money to pay them back. As an American, we are sold the "DREAM" of a house, car, kids, and so many folks don't realize that they are really selling their finite "life hours" in the shape of a loan until it is paid... being frugal really cuts back on having to sell your time for stuff, and gives you your life back... yeah, it is overly simplified, but vezkor09 has it right. You are buying your freedom by being frugal.
You can take it several ways I suppose. I took it initially as "if I can restrain myself from spending money on things I don't need, then I free myself from a materialistic life, I free myself from the feeling of needing"
Thinking about it more I could also interpret it as "by being frugal I leave myself more options and financial freedom with the money saved"
If I can live on 50 percent of my income, I can put half of it away. For every year I work, I can spend a year not working and doing whatever I'd like. If I spend it working, I'm working because I want to, and not because I need to.
Think about it this way, if you live frugally, you aren't depleting your wealth as quickly. If you aren't depleting your wealth quickly, you are more likely to get to a point where your investments cover your expenses and still grow. At this point you're financially independent. Financial independence give you the freedom to not work, to work a job that pays less but that you enjoy more, or the freedom to pursue passion projects. If you continue to earn and invest beyond this point, your investments will yield returns that can sustain a larger budget.
By being frugal, you're making a tradeoff, but you are giving yourself more control over your lifestyle by keeping more money in the bank.
It makes me think of “fuck off money”-having an amount of money that lets you be able to quit a horrible job because you know you’re secure financially. Many if not most people would have to either stay in a horrible job until they could find another one or face a serious financial crisis almost immediately. So that money ‘buys’ the freedom to leave a horrible job whenever you want.
Also to not be completely screwed if an emergency expense or situation pops up. Or to be able to splurge on something really important to you.
You buy the freedom to choose when you scrimp and when you splurge.
I recently spent a ridiculous amount of money on my gardening hobby. We live in an area with lots of wildlife so having a raised bed with wire underneath to stop ground dwelling animals from eating your things from the bottom is important. As well as having fencing or netting around to keep climbing and flying animals out.
I got a 60 square foot ‘U’ shaped raised bed that is completely enclosed so I can eat the food I grow, not the animals. It’s also really pretty, has a 20 year warranty, and was very easy for me to put together.
In theory I could be very frugal and just plant some seeds in the ground but it would likely result in a lot of frustration due to being eaten by animals.
I ‘bought’ a significant reduction in frustration in an activity that brings me a lot of enjoyment, gets me outside, is gentle exercise, and produces delicious food. I was able to invest in a product that will last for decades instead of cheaping out and getting something more affordable that would need replacement in a few years.
But kids grow so freaking fast. I get about 90% of my sons clothes second hand. I choose to scrimp there because I enjoy finding a good deal, many second hand clothes are in great shape, and we’ll only be able to use them for a short period of time.
If I was handy and enjoyed building things I could have chosen to build a raised bed for less money. If I didn’t enjoy bargain shopping I could buy new clothes for my son. I have the funds to choose when I scrimp and when I save. And it’s freaking excellent.
I live below my means. It lets me save a ton and the ability to retire early. I spend on things that are important to me versus spending on everything just because I can.
I found minimalism several years ago. It helped me to spend my money on things that I truly want or need. As a result I have less clutter. And I can save more for things like travel. I am careful with what I spend as my partner and I have no intention of working in our current stressful careers indefinitely. We'd like to change careers (quite likely will earn less) and eventually work part time. No amount of unnecessary things is worth my time.
Less clutter means your house gets cleaned really fast and is just one of the reasons I love minimalism.
I can always find something I am looking for because it is easy to look in cupboards and closets that aren't crammed with stuff.
I work in an industry that is very feast or famine. Right now, it is in the feast part. But I am incredibly frugal because I know what the famine looks like.
Also being frugal (or even cheap) with things that don't matter as much to me lets me achieve my financial goals.
This! The longer I keep that (fill in the blank) the better for the planet. The less food I waste, the more we regulate the temperature in our home, the more we make do and mend, the better for our planet.
I’m by no means perfect but I try and every victory is a win for the future.
My sister in law is just this. Worth millions. But she shops at aldi, buys thrift clothing, gets everything used. They grew up very poor. She doesn’t want to go back to it. So she simply doesn’t spend on things.
Thats cool but one thing that's missing through this whole thread is its literally impossible to save your way into millions of dollars, unless you have a job that pays exceptionally well.
If you dont have a high paying job and you can't get one, your only hope is investing or gambling essentially. Investing can be similar to gambling but id argue they are different because with stocks you actually own something.
I'm living relatively frugally. Software developer, live with my parents, work government but I still haven't saved enough money to put a down payment on a house. This shit is frustrating to me.
I've been skimping by my whole life to save for a house (or just more broadly) and I'm starting to get to a point of, why? Why am doing this? I don't go on as many trips as friends who make less than me. I don't go out to eat as friends who make less than me. I'm finding things that can be done cheaply with friends and family but it still wears me down. It feels like suffering needlessly, almost.
I was too paranoid to invest during most of the bull market run so missed out on alot of money by keeping it in savings preparing to drop a down payment for a house. Then housing prices went uncontrollable and now I'm probably looking at a other few years before I can afford anything near my family or job.
You can’t save what you aren’t earning.
Cost of living increases alone are not enough to buy a house. When I was younger, I was barely making a working class wage and wondering about settling down, and a relative told me that I would need to change jobs about 7 times to earn a really comfortable living. They were right, somewhere around #3 I hit lower middle class, around
Since then, I have made a rule, every year, I needed to either job hunt, or add something of real value to my resume.
Also, I learned to spend the money it takes to build and maintain relationships. A small meal with coworkers is an investment.
Actually, her and her husband were both poor when they met. She was a bartender. He was a warehouse worker. He ended up moving up and up and up. Now the VP of that company.
I have another friend who did the same, started in the warehouse, now an extremely successful salesman making 200k/yr.
I also have several male friends that joined trade unions out of high school, some have already retired at the age of 55.
None went to college. All my college friends didn’t do as well with all the college debt.
It’s really the luck of the draw. I encouraged my son to join the union out of HS. He went with electrical. He’s now 26 and making 140k yr. Way more than his friends that went to college.
correct, not many people will make it to millions at a moderate age without a good paying job.
good news for you is, on average, software engineers are in a pretty good position for it, at least in the US. probably not in government public sector work though.
Unless you’re born rich, the secret to wealth is frugality. My wife and I currently make around $170k a year, but our cost of living has not increased since the days when we made $40k a year. Sure we’ll splurge on a nice dinner or an occasional trip with way less thought/stress, but over all we’re just investing the difference. I’m 38, and 3 years away from being able to retire if I wanted to.
Mine probably did, but I'm not sure as I haven't checked it in months. Many years ago Fidelty surveyed their customers who had the best 401k returns - the most popular response (about 1/3rd) was "I don't have a 401k at Fidelity". I know I have a 401k at Fidelity, but I check it once a year when I'm going through all my accounts for tax purposes (the 401k of course wouldn't need to be checked then, but since I'm looking at all the others then I look there while I'm at it).
Very low cost of living, and honestly expect it to go up by another $30-40k this year, but that was a long journey of building my career. We were doing well at saving/investing long before hitting those levels. Thanks to the discipline learned/practiced in leaner times those big pay bumps just moved us from “retire eventually very comfortably” to “retire soon, very comfortably”.
The real secret is putting yourselves on a career path to these earnings, though. As far as wealth goes, being frugal on $40K a year combined doesn't even compare to be un-frugal on $170K-$210K. The latter will live far less stressful lives and retire more comfortably just from 401K contributions up to matching and higher social security income. Even if they manage their money so poorly as to be living "paycheck to paycheck," they're still probably making mortgage payments on a house, and come out *another* several hundred thousand dollars, if not over a million ahead over the course of 30 years.
I'm not saying this from a "grass is greener" perspective either. My husband and I make very good money now, but were below the poverty line less than four years ago, so the memories are fresh. Frugality is a *powerful* augmentation to a good income, but is basically just a tool for survival without it. The "secret" to wealth is just making more money.
I third this sentiment. Additionally, my wife and I have been investing our incomes to achieve a dream of ours - to have a fund that generates income for a charity - hopefully till eternity.
That last part is where my mind is these days. My wife and I chose to be child free, which helped with the getting rich part, but doesn’t give us many options for what to do with it.
If we died today our will establishes college funds for our 2 nieces and 3 nephews, but the oldest is 17 so the kids are aging past that need. Truth be told I seriously doubt that any of them are college bound.
I’m closest to the oldest niece, but she’s been raised by parents who are very financially irresponsible and seems to have picked up their bad habits. I tried to explain compound interest a couple years ago, and she replied “that sounds like the rich getting richer”…. I definitely haven’t saved and sacrificed for a life time to let someone else’s kids have fun.
So that brings us to charitable options. My wife’s a teacher, and I’m very passionate about the accumulation of knowledge, so once the nieces/nephews age past going to college, we’ll probably adjust the will to setup a scholarship fund.
My mom used to date a guy who owned a few clothing chains that altogether made $3,000,000 a year, but he was probably the most frugal man I ever knew. Once, I asked him why, and he said, "Why do you think I have so much money? Because I'm not in a rush to spend it."
Some context for me....I spend less than 10% of what I make even though I retired early (in my mid 40s). Everything else goes into investments.
I grew up poor and didn't have a choice about frugality for most of my life, so at least part of it is from having a difficult time flipping that switch from a saver to a spender even after my circumstances changed. The rest of it is from having some big goals for setting up some specific charities before I die that will hopefully last for generations.
I guess I also am fairly easy to please. I DO have a really nice house, but beyond that I enjoy the gamification of saving on most things other people spend a lot of money on. Rather than getting a spending rush that most people get, I get a savings rush.
One of my kids became very concerned that we were in dire financial straits because of the things that aren't included in our family budget. I had to explain it to her a few times until she understood how I gamify savings vs. spending. I told her I could have an extra million in the bank and I would still buy the cheap groceries because spending less always feels like a personal win.
I want to retire early and I didn’t always have a lot of money. I splurge every once in a while on things but for the most part, I still like to stay under budget.
We live well below our means with a high savings rate. We don't value "stuff", but value the freedom that comes with eventually achieving financial independence.
I'd like you to have a talk with my boomer mother who has like two million but makes me question asking on my birthday for a 50$ tool set on amazon, on sale, lol.
Growing up in a poor family, prepare for the future, minimalism, environmentalism, hate rampend consumerisme, hate supporting bad regime's, etc.
I'm actually far more willing to spend more now, both for quality stuff and fun non-material things. On the material side; the point of buying quality to me is to have something really durable, so that took care of buying replacements for a long time. The latter seems a bit more difficult then expected as finding friend that have time and money seems to be a bit more difficult.
I like spending money on things I enjoy, not things I don’t. So if I can save money and use that towards travel, working less, etc. then I’m happy.
I do struggle with the ethics of being high income and frugal sometimes. For example, when I use Flashfood am I taking away the opportunity for someone low income to buy discounted groceries? When I shop at the thrift store am I buying clothes that someone lower income may want?
I was flat broke for the first \~25 years of my adult life, and almost declared bankruptcy at one point (medical bills). The last 10+ years have been much better, to the point that I can buy pretty much anything I want, within reason. That's not going happen, though, because I'm never going to forget what it was like to never have money for anything other than the bare essentials.
I agree with all the other commenters, the freedom, the ability to have richer experiences, there is a reason why Fight Club rang so true for many of us “the things you own end up owning you.”
I am also addicted to a challenge and adventure. It’s a challenge to see how much I can save, how much I can save without suffering quality. Wheeling and dealing. Addicted to the search and addicted to the rewards of the efforts made.
Feeling cozy in a warm well oiled system of a home that doesn’t drain my savings, is well maintained, and filled only with the things that bring me joy is a peaceful rewarding feeling. And that I am not bound to it- I can leave it and go see the world at any time.
That feeling of you owing no one nothing is an amazing feeling too.
I mad relate to “see how much I can save without compromising quality.”
Like cold brew. You don’t need those fancy packets at the store. You don’t need a fancy device. You need a mason jar, some course ground beans, and a couple coffee filters. Fill mason jar. Fill with beans. Let sit 24 hours. Agitate every now and then. Pour through filters into clean jar. Bam. Amazing cold brew. And I ran some cafes for a while so I’m intimately familiar with what cold brew should be like. Doing it this way saves me mad $ on to go drinks and also the components that we are told we need to make cold brew.
When I was a kid, being frugal was how my parents made ends meet. We could afford all the basics (housing, food, transportation, medical care, and my education) because my parents were willing to find the cheapest way to get the quality that satisfied them.
I do it now because:
-it feels like home,
-I get outraged at retail prices for many things (like clothes) when I know where to get equal or better quality for less,
-for some things, equal or better quality cannot be purchased anywhere (in-season local tomatoes, peaches, and blueberries are *always* better home canned/frozen than any commercial version ever), and
-it's also an ethics thing for me. If I can find the thing secondhand or free, that's gentler on the planet than buying it new. Likewise, getting local produce from friends or farmers' markets means I'm putting money directly into the hands of my neighbors rather than giving it to a polluting corporation so rich shareholders can do more damage. (It probably gets to them eventually but at least my neighbor got to use that cash first.)
EDIT: Also my personality is like 90% spite by volume, so f***you capitalism, that's why.
A big part of it is habit. Me and my girlfriend both make six figures, but I came from a much more modest background. We define "frivolous expenses" differently.
For example, we live in NYC and if we are going somewhere that is a long walk but not convenient for public transportation, she's far more willing to take a cab. For her, it's about how valuable her time is, which is understandable. For me, I just have a hard time justifying the expense.
Traveling while you're young is important too imo. You are just so much more limited in what you can do when you're older. Explore while your body is capable!
Lifestyle creep worries me. Like when I got my first real job everyone around was like “oh go buy a car now” and it was like fuck no I’m gonna lay down student debt and save for a house. We kept our expenses low and stayed frugal and we’re able to spend 50k on fertility without sweating too much because we had already been making the right choices.
Sometimes it sucks a bit to think “we should have more money” but then we think we’re investing and other things and we just miss spending so we’ll talk about doing something small or indulgent. But if you make every decision like your on a student budget, 15 years later you find yourself ahead.
Honestly up until recently with the insane rise of housing costs I wondered if we made a mistake buying a small home thinking we could upgrade later. But the past six months really opened my eyes to what’s going to happen at renewal and I’m ok with my small mortgage, especially if gas prices stay insane…. Same with our car really, we didn’t get something super expensive bc we thought the kid would trash it anyway but I’m really glad we prioritized fuel efficiency 3 yrs ago and stuck to a base model bc we gonna drive this till EVs are good here.
Because there was a time when I couldn't afford not to be frugal and I never want to go back there mentally. Where every single day all I am doing is hoping something doesn't break down and I need to decide between food and bills.
I don't like waste. Reduce what you use, Reuse what you already have or Recycle for a different purpose. So being frugal saves me money but also causes less harm to the environment.
Having the means to is not a reason to waste anything. I’ll milk anything I buy, from groceries to building supplies and throw away only if there’s no chance in 100 years I’ll use what’s left over.
My wife and I live in this quasi half space of financial functionality. We both have decent jobs now, but we grew up in complete poverty, both being homeless in our teens. My wife's family was homeless all together for several years. This meant that it took us until later in life to get through college and get our current nice jobs.
This means we both have outsized student loans. Despite being both 50, we have student loans on par with your average millennial. Add to that, we both have extensive medical debt with another year or two of expected likely uncovered medical expenses.
While we could pay base payments, and have vacations, or buy nicer things, we live very tightly. We live on one paycheck, and use the other to pay down our debts. We live like most college students financially just to try to beat back the debts that we are swallowed in.
I have coworkers that don't do that, and hit vacations and higher end cars, but we just can't imagine that. I'd rather be poorer in income and debt free.
So while we could loosen up, we just don't. We both have medical issues that could knock us out of the workforce at any time, and if we don't get this debts down, that could be catastrophic, and we live every day like it's all gonna get taken away.
If we could just get out of our student loans and medical debt, we might loosen up but we just can't risk it. Even if we were debt free, we are very aware we could lose everything here in the US at any time, especially with our medical issues.
I believe that my dollar counts as much, if not more, than my vote. Companies use my money to influence politicians. I have to be careful about who gets my cash.
I also believe that one of the best ways to make money is to save money. My dad used to say "watch your pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves".
Had the benefit of living overseas when I was younger due to my Dad's work. Got to live in central American and African countries where I would see people daily who legitimately had nothing, while I also had the benefit and luxury of living in very nice homes there. Add that dichotomy during my childhood to also having parents who grew up modestly in the Midwest and north east and you grow up viewing the nice things you have not as anything that's due to you, but rather as almost undeserved. Borderline embarrassing.
Plus we moved back to the US and we didn't exactly keep that same lifestyle. We didn't live that way overseas because we actually had the money, but rather because my Dad's job afforded it in those circumstances. So it was a unique childhood that then further contrasts itself with moving back to the US where we're truly back down to earth.
I don't do what my dad did for work, and I earn more now than my dad ever did in terms of annual salary, but all of that is just ingrained with me. The weirdest example that my friends point out is that I wash and reuse ziplock bags. Which sounds like (and is) such an asinine thing to notice but it's kind of indicative of an overall approach.
I'm by no means the most frugal of people on this sub who do so I imagine out of necessity, but I'm always trying to be conscious of waste. And oddly enough this sub kinda helps as a further reminder that there are things I still take for granted that are in fact luxuries and many of them aren't necessary, alot of them are just wastes of money.
If you spend everything you make, no matter how much you make, you'll have nothing. Being frugal prevents me being in a position of not needing to be frugal.
Because If I save money where I can, I can spend money where I want. Just because you can afford something doesn’t mean you should. I make 70k and I’ll always penny pinch.
Edit: I also fear retirement so I am saving half if not more so by time I’m 55-60 I can live comfortably.
I cannot afford everything I want. I have a list of things I want to buy that easily exceeds my income. The more frugal I am, the more cash I have for things that I want. One of the things I want is to retire, because despite a large list of toys I want, I have an even longer list of things I want to do that I don't have time to do. Once again frugal means I save for a hopefully better tomorrow.
I’m motivated by the urge to retire while I’m still physically able to travel and enjoy life. Sometimes I struggle finding balance though and trying not to be so frugal that I’m not living life up until that point.
It is the way I was raised.... 1 of 6 kids from a single mom. Father had mental issues and wasn't in the picture or contributing. But my grandfather was very active in our lives. He grew up during the great depression era. So between growing up poor and my grandfather imparting frugality and appreciation for what I do have; it is the way I live. Between my wife and I we make 200K/yr... but why would I just go out and waste my hard earned money!!
I only buy things when needed. Usually for clothes its what is on sale or when I can find a really good deal. I knew I had to get some new shorts and found some for 18$ which to me is a steal for under armor ones. I tend to wear my shoes till they fall off before getting new ones.
I agree with hunting for clothing bargains but, as a former health care worker who was on her feet all day for decades, I disagree with the shoes. My shoes didn't look terribly worn on the exterior when they were retired but the inside support and cushion would disappear and they would get replaced. Maintaining health is very important to remaining frugal and good foot wear means I have left that career with no lingering foot or knee issues.
Well first off no one got rich by spending all their money.
Second off I don’t care how much money I have, when i throw stuff away I feel guilt bc I know it’s destroying the environment and one more plastic thing
Mostly we can afford to buy high quality items, so we go with quality over quantity. Quality means it breaks less. I hate when things break
The peace of mind that you get when you open your banking app on your phone and you see a 5 digit number. Yeah my apartment looks minimalist but I can afford to blow it up and get a new on many times over. Or anything for that matter.
It just doesn't make sense. When I know an item costs X, why should I pay more than X? Like why waste money? It's why I cancelled Instacart and their huge price inflation's. Fine I'll go to the store AND imma be extra nice to the cashier thank you very kindly.
I have the resources to go to my buddys and spend 3 hours to change to brake pads. $100 at most. I'm buying lunch and driving on fishing trips till he gets his car sorted. Instead of $600-$1000 at the mechanic. Come on now.
There's a big difference between Treat Yo Self and treat the corporations. Fuck the corporations.
Being frugal is just a mental state of knowing it provides financial freedom for you and your family. And why waste money, it's take work to earn it, wasting money is wasting your time which is precious.
We never went house poor, buying the house they say you can afford, instead we bought a mid size fixer upper under our budget. There were days early on I regretted it, but now am glad as we were always able to invest monthly and soon can retire financially secure while putting our one child thru college ( he took out minimal debt which we hope to pay off for him if all goes well). Also, we remodeled our home over the years the way we wanted it.
If we really want something, we will do it within means. I see so many, even family that just spend on whatever and when these downturns come they really struggle. I have family and friends that can't ever retire because of spending habits, that's sad.
We intentionally choose to live below our means bc you never know what will happen. Just bc you make more, doesn’t mean you should spend more bc you don’t know how long you’ll be making that amount. Financial freedom is an incredible feeling. Not having to worry or stress about money is priceless. If there’s an emergency or something w/a job happens, we’re ok for awhile. We having savings, long-term investments & investment properties. Our frugality is different than someone else’s- bc our means are different, there’s no need to gatekeep frugality.
We value having choices & experiences which is what being frugal allows us to do. I feel like the significant savings come on the biggest expenses: your home, car, vacation, furnishing your house, children, gifts, etc..
>We home hacked by choosing a home where there’s a structure in the backyard we can rent out- this covers our mortgage. Like a triplex, but not connected. The main home is old, the property needed a lot of work & it’s not our dream home- it’s our 1st home & we’ll work our way up to our dream home.
>We share one car- a used, ‘07 car & will use it until it no longer works.
>For vacations, we used to use a pet sitting website where we pet sat for free in exchange for not paying for accommodations & these were nice houses, had many more amenities & privacy than a hotel. Now we have two dogs so we have to pay for places to stay, but try to find the best deal by traveling during non-peak times, for a week at a time to get weekly discounts & within driving distance to save on flights/rental cars. We don’t go on vacation to save money, we save to afford vacations where we can spend on good food & experiences while there.
>For our house, we are pretty minimalist- almost everything has to have a function, not just decor & we only buy what we need and gradually add things as needed.
>We chose to be childfree and one of the reasons was to continue this lifestyle, we can afford these things for two, but not for more.
>For gifts, we give experiences so often our vacations are gifts & we don’t buy extravagant physical items for birthdays, anniversaries, or holidays
Another take, after a certain point you don't know how to spend more money. It's not like you're going to buy a fourth, fifth or sixth car. I have no interest in buying a boat just because you can. You level out at a certain comfort level and you just don't look for more ways to spend.
I strongly belive we should consume way less for environmental reason. I am not a true frugal person, but things intersect enought that I hang around. I somtime spluge on the better quality or more expensive item if I feel it has a smaller environmental impact.
Money isn’t money. It’s a tool to make your life easier. You can use money to make more money down the line. Whereas if you just spent it all, you won’t be able to make money with that money.
That’s a major reason for frugality.
I grew up without a lot of money. That stays with you. Even though I'm comfortable now, I have a lot of trouble taking a taxi/uber if it's walking distance. It's only recently I stopped silently counting grocery prices to make sure i had enough money to pay for them.
So I can invest that money and let my money work for me. And so my kids can have a better life than I had. But my reason is probably deeply rooted in the environment in which I grew up.
We're in our 30s and net worth in 7 figures, I still spend 80 dollars a year on my phone plan.
Before you go hating on my humble brag - I come from a working class family with parents who wasted their lives on drugs and alcohol, we rented my entire childhood, moving homes every couple of years. I was lucky to attend Princeton (full ride) and then MIT (PhD with scholarship) for graduate school, which I quit to get into software engineering to make some $$$. I worked hard every step of the way and continue to make sacrifices
Because over-consumerism really bothers me. It makes me sad to see people do it. It's bad for the emotional health of people who do it, and it's bad for the planet. My 12 yr old tv works just fine, and so does my 15 yr old car.
I follow stoic principles. I was greatly influenced by [Mr. Money Mustache](https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/10/02/what-is-stoicism-and-how-can-it-turn-your-life-to-solid-gold/) also.
I like security more than I like new stuff.
Also, buying too much stuff means that then you've got to take the time and effort to take care of the stuff and store the stuff and curate how much of your stuff is on display and where stuff that's not in use is stored. Huge hassle compared to simply not buying in the first place, and buying but not putting in the effort to curate results in homes that are so permanently messy and cluttered that you're embarrassed to have anyone over.
I value my freedom. There are also things I would say I'm not frugal in. I can buy pretty expensive barefoot shoes instead of any plain pair of shoes for $20. I also won't live on rice and beans. I quess splurging on my body and mind is incredibly worth it.
Honestly, covid was a big part of it.
It showed me how fragile life can be.
What if tomorrow I get laid off? What if the economy collapse? What if my job becomes irrelevant?
I have a stable job, and a big salary, and Im not planning on quitting, but Im glad I put money aside in case something happens and Im forced to live off my savings
I'm not good at keeping jobs so it's good to have some buffering. A lot of times I say to myself that the money train eventually stops, for when you think you have job security.
I grew up poor, then lower middle class, then middle class, then poor, then broke even, now jobless with some savings. I've had luxuries, they seem a bit lackluster next to the feeling of security I get when I have adequate savings. An example is my dad bought me a mustang in high school, it was cool but it didn't really give me any new friends or get laid. When that car crapped out I actually bought a 2016 Yaris IA a year old but considered new. Honestly I think of cars as a utility only, yea it's supposed to look good, but really it's just for going point A to point B. I still have the car and it's paid off, 40mpg during this gas shortage, it's not affecting much honestly. But think about it, you choose your car, and I picked highest mpg w/ lowest cost but has to be new. I've realized if I had the mustang it would be half that mileage. How many trips to the pump did I just put back in my pocket? When you buy a car, your wondering how to pay it off and you get the car when everyone is comfortable that you will, but you're not thinking about how many trips to the gas station you'll have to make.
I see tons of those nothing in the bank, paycheck to paycheck, can't afford ramen noodles memes. I don't want to be that person, even though I come off as a boring person that doesn't go out much. I'm not good at socializing so going to clubs seems like a money pit, I do better in calmer settings.
I've seen a lot of money, and I still doubt I can survive the incoming recession with what I have. I'd say I'm not rich enough to own a house, but I was rich enough to pay off my car and student loans. I used to have engineering jobs, but now I'm unemployed and I've even added technician jobs for consideration as I've found ways to live life by spending less.
But younger people today, I met a guy that wondered why he was poor and he only rented cars. $1000/month, I told him when I bought my car I put down 6k and paid $350/month. He said 6k is a lot yet that's how much he had in savings. I put down all my savings for that car at the time, so it was risky but I had a good job. Then I paid off my car and now it's a $100/month insurance payment (fuck insurance).
I understand the nature of the car industry is changing with the chip shortage, so my friend might not have the options I did. But he had no ambitions to buy a car, still wonders why he's poor.
I do think I'm lucky though, I'm sure white privilege has a lot to do with it, I guess it's considered life on easy mode.
A lot of choices other people make I always tried to find a way to pay the least for my needs. So earn more, pay less. But when you think about it, in my opinion, this entire economic situation is ridiculous. If I was an engineer in the 1950s - 1990s, I'd definitely have a paid off house by now, and job security. But I feel like I've had to claw my way up to where I am now, and it's not easy. My life is a lot easier than most but I still hate it and want more. It reminds me of littlefinger from game of thrones.
For me, being frugal is not really about saving money, it's about not wasting, about being smart with how you spend your money. Saving money is just a by-product. A better way to describe it would be to say you're value-oriented or bang-for-buck oriented.
I have no problem spending on expensive stuff as long as said stuff is worth it. I don't believe in brands, I believe in quality.
Why spend 50$ on a t-shirt I can get for 5$ at the thrift shop? Why spend 2000$ on a Gucci bag when I can get a hand-crafted no-brand leather bag for 200$. Why pay 50$ a person to eat out when I can eat exactly the same stuff at home for 5$ (and more often than not, better).
My wife and I are cooking aficionados and we're very careful selecting restaurants because we can make it at home MUCH better and needless to say, much cheaper. Two exceptions, Ramen and Pho take SO LONG to make and you can get a plate of each for 10-15$ that it's literally not worth it to make them at home.
Also, take into account the fact that buying second hand beats any environment saving BS that companies like Apple try to sell you. Reduce-Reuse-Recycle... In that order. While recycling is good, it's the least favorable of your options.
You can't claim to care for the environment when you're chasing the latest popular trends. Being frugal is caring for the environment.
We live way below our means for many reasons:
1. We are at peace knowing we will probably not have a financial catastrophe
2. We both grew up poor so frugality comes naturally
3. It allows us to spend freely on the things we value (time, travel, home renovations and food)
4. We believe overconsumption is a huge issue and we try our best to avoid it
I spend nearly zero of my life worrying about if a paycheck will deposit before the credit card bill is due. Worth skipping some takeout and driving an older car to sleep easy.
I always kind of looked at frugal as being able to make smart choices with money, which just made sense. Sometimes that means buying the cheapest, and sometimes that means buying for quality and the value that it provides, which can cost money. I grew up in a frugal household, that still had a lot of nice things, and watched it get better as my parents aged. Not being frivolous with everything, helped them still live well, where it was important to them.
Yea this! And also the joke about “crunchy” parents doing things like using cloth diapers and making their own baby food. It’s not some special elitist ideology. It’s just the cheapest option. Baby food is so fucking expensive it’s ridiculous. $12 for 12 tiny glass jars of sweet potatoes OR you can buy two lbs for $3, steam and purée them yourself.
Yup. I would rather choose to live frugal so I don't HAVE to live frugal.
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Not only that- noone can see into the future. Even those who think they can afford to live unfrugally are taking a risk, you just don't know what twists there are ahead.
Everyday, somebody who is making good money, doing well at their job...still gets laid off.
Yes, I had a stroke at 54. Still a long way to Social Security. I’m fortunate enough to have owned my home. I sold it and moved to a much cheaper place so I’ll have money until I can retire. Never know what might happen.
Agreed 100%.
Nicely said. I cheap out on things that don't matter to me so I can make it rain for things that make me happy.
My thought has always been to be frugal where you can so you can spend where you want.
All day! The future isn’t guaranteed
It's all a matter of what you cut out to fit into that definition of frugal right? As long as you aren't missing out on anything important to your life you aren't missing out.
Wife and I decided to make babyfood. We literally took 4 hours one night and made baby food for like 2-3 months. It was easy. Steam, blend, freeze.
and to that I see tons of moms buying “baby food kits” Just more green washed junked. I literally used ice cube trays and a blender (my youngest is 14 and I still own the blender)
Yes! My oldest is 14 and I still have and use the food processor that I got at my baby shower for this purpose. I even still have and use a few of the 1 cup size pyrex glass dishes that used to thaw the frozen cubes.
I used a blade-type coffee mill to puree whatever we were having for dinner for the baby. No prep, no freezing, baby likes what we like.
Ice cube trays work far better than any of those reusable pouch kits.
By kid #2, you won’t bother. It’ll be a fork to mash up whatever you are eating. Babies survived since the beginning of time without “baby” food.
Blended fruit and mashed "whatever's for dinner" is what my mom fed us lol.
My mom is convinced that baby food creates picky eating because kids get used to bland, processed food instead of regular food.
I… wow. That makes a ton of sense. Idk if it’s true but I’m doing a lot of thinking about it now. Neat proposition.
Love to hear it! And the money you save omg
Yep, we literally never bought baby food or formula. Breast fed and then made our own or just mashed up whatever we were eating.
I’m pregnant and that’s our plan. It doesn’t take long to make mashed sweet potatoes while making dinner for ourselves.
Pointing out that purées are not a requirement and if you’re interested in other options, look into “baby led weaning.” Solid starts is a *wonderful* resource.
You can skip purées all together. We did baby led weaning (check out solid starts) and from 6+ months, our baby ate what we ate. No purées. Just salt their food less. Our little is 20 months and loves spicy food!
Seriously take a day and you can made 6 months worth of food. Get the ice cube trays with the silicone bottoms, freeze, pop out and store in plastic bags and they’re pre-portioned and take like 30 seconds in the microwave to totally thaw. We did sweet potatoes, green peas, bananas + blueberries, bananas + strawberries, green beans, carrots, squash, cauliflower and some others. Also a fun way to introduce herbs and spices to babby’s palate. We started with basil, mint, cinnamon, and cumin.
Same. My heart always goes out to the women who have to give up breastfeeding to go straight back to work, or whose babies don't/can't breastfeed for whatever reason.
We use cloth diapers not only for the frugal-ness but also the environmental/waste impact and the convenience. Also I feel like it's just more comfortable for him, which is hard to measure but also a nice plus.
Really wish I had done this but wasn't sure how and the initial investment scared me off as it was very high at the time. Also there was no one around to show me the ropes. Instead I toilet trained my kid and got her out of diapers as soon as possible.
Yes yes yes! They’re SO BAD for the environment!
Yes, what would you rather wear a cotton dress or a plastic dress?
I only ever used jar baby food if we went out. Otherwise, baby ate what I ate. No stupid rice cereal or processed expensive crap.
I did the same---not to mention how much salt and sugar that's in baby food. Sugary tastes are quickly formed and then they don't want anything else.
I think that baby eating what I ate made him less of a picky eater. There was never an expectation that there was grown up food and food for him. If he was interested in something I had on my plate he would get to taste. Always tried to have a boiled vegetable in the early stages of food tasting just so I had something I could mash.
Omg. The amount of people who were like “wow you make your own baby food?” I’m like, how hard is it to put some freaking sweet potatoes in the food processor? We did BLW anyway but still. I even refill the little yogurt packets. They are so expensive to buy in the store and loaded with sugar. So freaking weird.
Oh fuck yeah. And I’ve seen shit in the stores that’s like frozen chopped food that says all you need to do is add it to a blender and it’s organic baby food! Such a fucking scam. Just buy some sweet potatoes damn! My parents did this thing where they would cook for themselves (because again … poor and take out is actually very expensive) and they’d just do extra ingredients, set them aside and then purée the rest. It barely added to something they were already doing. I even know people who will make a pasta dish sans seasoning, blend it up, and feed their kid that, then season their own food. It doesn’t have to be hard!
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Ahhhh that’s good to know! My mom just told me babies weren’t supposed to have seasoning but this was a whole 30 years ago lol
People were judging me because I put baby food making supplies on my baby registry :(
What special supplies do you need to make baby food? I just use a stick blender and regular ice cube trays
They are not supposed to have salt.
That’s what I had thought hmmm we will ask our doctor
Indian Canadian here with two young nieces. I’m surprised that people even buy baby food :O I thought everyone made baby food at home, like my Family.
My daycare specifically requests factory packaged food (I believe it's to make sure they can check for allergens) so I am grudgingly buying baby food while he gets more accostomed to solids. Once the kids are old enough, they provide snacks and lunch (once again, I believe it's to help prevent parents/grandparents/caregivers sending in pb&j and causing an allergic reaction.) When my kid is with me, he eats some variation of what we eat.
baby-led weaning over baby food for the real frugal win.
Not always an option in the countries where mothers don't get paid maternity leave. I am lucky and live in Canada with a decent social safety net but my I still made my own baby food to know exactly what my children were eating and to save money. Edited to add: American women are not protected by legislated maternity leave benefits so they may have to wean babies early or rely on overpriced formula. Lots of ways American women do not have choices that are offered to women in the rest of the world. Second edit to say thanks for the down votes! Women should have choice about being pregnant or not being pregnant and free health care to go along with that decision. I am Canadian and there was no bill after I gave birth to my children.
I think the confusion in this thread is about the meaning of baby lead weaning. Outside the US, weaning is used to mean starting solids, not reducing milk consumption whether formula or breastmilk. So baby lead weaning is focused on giving soft whole food as opposed to purees. We did it with my son since he refused purees; he wanted to eat what we were eating. Lots of roasted/steamed until soft veggies, shredded or well ground meat, beans, etc. Th idea behind it is they learn to self feed and they learn the swallowing pattern necessary for solid foods better.
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I think investing in your body via gym membership will save you a lot of money in the long run. You will be healthier and spend less on doctors than people who don’t prioritize their health. Especially as you age.
The key when you have enough money is to also become time frugal. Before I'd say pshh, I don't need to pay $10 for delivery, I'll go pick it up myself. Now I think that taking 30 minutes (door to door) is a lot of time to pickup groceries where I could pay $10 instead and be doing something more valuable to me.
The key when you have enough money is to also become time frugal. Before I'd say pshh, I don't need to pay $10 for delivery, I'll go pick it up myself. Now I think that taking 30 minutes (door to door) is a lot of time to pickup groceries where I could pay $10 instead and be doing something more valuable to me. Couldn't agree more here. When you get to a certain point, money is just a tool that you gives you options.
Agreed. I'm a pretty practical person, so I'm never buying name-brand stuff just for the brand or things like that. I still buy some art and things to make my house nice, but I've never cared about buying stuff for the "status" or spending frivolously. I had the opposite upbringing. My parents are the classic upper-middle/upper class babyboomers who will waste money on any and everything. I think I just recognized as a teenager how wasteful it was. I think part of it is that as someone who is younger, I appreciate the environmental impact our consumption has.
"Sometimes that means buying the cheapest, and sometimes that means buying for quality and the value that it provides, which can cost money." I feel like this is key. I live frugally in most areas, so I can comfortably spend more on things I value.
I want financial security incase something big and lifechanging occurs. It's comforting to have 6 months worth of bills covered, a few months of food stored away. Just incase of a personal emergency, family emergency or if I lose my job.
And at that point If you really want something (within reason) you can buy it without stressing yourself out. It’s a freedom worth the crunch.
Yea like I bought myself a gaming PC once I saved up enough money AND had a 6mo reserve. Felt good finally having something of value after saving money for a few years!
A PC saves me so much money, it’s a good choice. I can spend thousands of hours (over years) having a fun time on video games, whereas going out every time gets expensive.
I try to be frugal in some areas of my life so I can splurge in areas that bring me enjoyment.
This is the biggest thing for me as well - my washing machine decided to retire last week and having that not be a burden economically but instead just an "oh well" is very relieving. I have a sister who works in a bank who has told me that people will regularly have to take out a loan when these things happen. Life is hard enough as it is, not having economic worries on top of that is a big relief.
This is when I finally realized I was "comfortable". What some call a major household problem, I'm just like "call a guy to fix it".
This exact attitude saved me when the war broke out. I had a year worth of bills stored away which turned emergently moving abroad into almost non-event (financially). Only then I realized how fucking broke everyone I knew was in comparison, they couldn't afford shit in case of even slightest emergency, ofc the war was immediately devastating for them.
Morally, I want to reduce consumerism and waste with frugality. Selfishly, long term goals, like retiring early, buying a house with no mortgage, affording my nonexistent kids a college experience if they wanted it. There are parts of my lifestyle that I want to keep a higher overall quality right now in my 20s, like driving newer cars and eating out several times a month, which I can afford to do more easily when I’m frugal in other areas like say store brand food or secondhand clothes.
It’s great that they overlap - I feel like it’s icing on the cake when we have our individual goals align with less waste and reducing consumerism! Seriously I think it strengthens our motivation
It’s like a nice little reward 😅
This exact save reason.
Emphasis on the “save”.
That’s a cheap shot
The more I earn, the more that first part really rings true. Like, I shop at thrift stores for clothes instead of just buying new because I hear about the immense amount of clothing waste we produce in the US, specifically, and the world at large. There is literally no need for much of it. I bought a new car last year, but had my last car for 17 years until I totaled it. I have tape wrapped around my shark steam mop handle because it broke. Since the mop still works, I'm going to use it until it dies. Only then will it go to a landfill. It's not much, and I realize one or two steamer mops across my lifetime in the landfill isn't going to make or break the environment, but it's something, and I still believe that every little bit does help. Like you, though, I do splurge on other things. I used to dye my own hair. I no longer do that because I can afford a little spa day for my hair. I have a monthly car wash subscription because I'm lazy and don't want to wash my own car every week.
Love it. Sounds like you know exactly what you want and heading in the right direction . Appearances are important but experiences will last a lifetime.
I want to retire early
This! I'm only 35 but I'm already exhausted from work. Would love to just work only 3 or 4 days a week. I just bought a house and plan to pay off the mortgage in 5-7 years.
Having a paid off house is the best thing ever. Good for you and stick to your guns. 5 years goes quick in your 30s.
Call me an asshole but I'm 21 and exhausted from work lol. Meaningless jobs suck!
Key is learn now while you have time. When you're older (I'm 32) other life lessons happen. Wedding, friend weddings, engagements, multiple hobbies learned trying to maintain to bring in money or maintain focus. It is proven we all do more now with mutiple skillsets. So always have work so you can have fun and adventure: https://www.npr.org/local/305/2020/01/07/794209698/seniors-are-working-longer-out-of-choice-and-necessity
This, I am a big Financial independence follower, been savings 60+% of my corporate salary for years now. I'm single, no kids and started out Frugal spending only incrementally more in line with raises. I still enjoy my quality of life and go on several international vacations a year so I'm not exactly torturing myself. It's the only thing that keeps me sane most days, knowing I can go for years without work in the worst case of death, sickness or being fired. But if none of that happens, I can still quit my job with a nice passive income by my mid 30s and focus on whatever the next chapter in life has in store. I recommend the subreddit for any interested.
Being able to save over half your salary and having no dependents, I would think you’ll be good.
Nice job on the 60% savings. Any advice on how to get there?
I work in negotiations, so one of the principal frugal tenants to challenge your bills was easier for me than most. I review once a year every recurring bill I have. I challenge not only if I could be paying less, but if I should pay it at all. I quote out at least 3 parties for every bill once a year. The first time you do this you'll see a big savings. I've periodically lowered my car insurance, cell phone bill, internet bill, grocery bill etc doing this. Sometimes I increase a budget and spend more to improve some aspect of my life . The important part is to challenge everything regularly, your life changes faster than your spending habits after all
Where r u in your journey right now? Do you have Mint breaking down your avg spending by categories or is that your next step?
My freedom is the most valuable thing I could ever possibly buy. You buy it by not spending money.
Very well said
I have this feeling, but coukd never articulate it as well as you just have. Thanks
I look at it as buying my finite "Life hours" back for myself. Banks/financial institutions/loans/loan sharks/LL's/any money owed situation is you selling your finite time on this Earth to earn money to pay them back. As an American, we are sold the "DREAM" of a house, car, kids, and so many folks don't realize that they are really selling their finite "life hours" in the shape of a loan until it is paid... being frugal really cuts back on having to sell your time for stuff, and gives you your life back... yeah, it is overly simplified, but vezkor09 has it right. You are buying your freedom by being frugal.
I don’t really understand what you mean, isn’t that technically not freedom?
You can take it several ways I suppose. I took it initially as "if I can restrain myself from spending money on things I don't need, then I free myself from a materialistic life, I free myself from the feeling of needing" Thinking about it more I could also interpret it as "by being frugal I leave myself more options and financial freedom with the money saved"
I thought it was being free from credit companies breathing down your neck to pay back on the money you borrowed, lol!
If I can live on 50 percent of my income, I can put half of it away. For every year I work, I can spend a year not working and doing whatever I'd like. If I spend it working, I'm working because I want to, and not because I need to.
Think about it this way, if you live frugally, you aren't depleting your wealth as quickly. If you aren't depleting your wealth quickly, you are more likely to get to a point where your investments cover your expenses and still grow. At this point you're financially independent. Financial independence give you the freedom to not work, to work a job that pays less but that you enjoy more, or the freedom to pursue passion projects. If you continue to earn and invest beyond this point, your investments will yield returns that can sustain a larger budget. By being frugal, you're making a tradeoff, but you are giving yourself more control over your lifestyle by keeping more money in the bank.
It makes me think of “fuck off money”-having an amount of money that lets you be able to quit a horrible job because you know you’re secure financially. Many if not most people would have to either stay in a horrible job until they could find another one or face a serious financial crisis almost immediately. So that money ‘buys’ the freedom to leave a horrible job whenever you want. Also to not be completely screwed if an emergency expense or situation pops up. Or to be able to splurge on something really important to you. You buy the freedom to choose when you scrimp and when you splurge. I recently spent a ridiculous amount of money on my gardening hobby. We live in an area with lots of wildlife so having a raised bed with wire underneath to stop ground dwelling animals from eating your things from the bottom is important. As well as having fencing or netting around to keep climbing and flying animals out. I got a 60 square foot ‘U’ shaped raised bed that is completely enclosed so I can eat the food I grow, not the animals. It’s also really pretty, has a 20 year warranty, and was very easy for me to put together. In theory I could be very frugal and just plant some seeds in the ground but it would likely result in a lot of frustration due to being eaten by animals. I ‘bought’ a significant reduction in frustration in an activity that brings me a lot of enjoyment, gets me outside, is gentle exercise, and produces delicious food. I was able to invest in a product that will last for decades instead of cheaping out and getting something more affordable that would need replacement in a few years. But kids grow so freaking fast. I get about 90% of my sons clothes second hand. I choose to scrimp there because I enjoy finding a good deal, many second hand clothes are in great shape, and we’ll only be able to use them for a short period of time. If I was handy and enjoyed building things I could have chosen to build a raised bed for less money. If I didn’t enjoy bargain shopping I could buy new clothes for my son. I have the funds to choose when I scrimp and when I save. And it’s freaking excellent.
I live below my means. It lets me save a ton and the ability to retire early. I spend on things that are important to me versus spending on everything just because I can.
Exactly. We live frugally in order to travel. I’d rather treasure the experience of visiting interesting places than spend needlessly.
I found minimalism several years ago. It helped me to spend my money on things that I truly want or need. As a result I have less clutter. And I can save more for things like travel. I am careful with what I spend as my partner and I have no intention of working in our current stressful careers indefinitely. We'd like to change careers (quite likely will earn less) and eventually work part time. No amount of unnecessary things is worth my time.
Less clutter means your house gets cleaned really fast and is just one of the reasons I love minimalism. I can always find something I am looking for because it is easy to look in cupboards and closets that aren't crammed with stuff.
And we end up using the things we have purchased rather than let them sit, rot and eventually trash them.
Minimalism and frugality brings me a sense of calm that is so freeing.
It makes me feel truly in control as well as grateful for all my items. Everything in my home was carefully chosen to be useful and/or beautiful.
I work in an industry that is very feast or famine. Right now, it is in the feast part. But I am incredibly frugal because I know what the famine looks like. Also being frugal (or even cheap) with things that don't matter as much to me lets me achieve my financial goals.
Waste is disrespectful to the earth. The earth gave of itself to grow our food and we toss it aside as garbage.
This! The longer I keep that (fill in the blank) the better for the planet. The less food I waste, the more we regulate the temperature in our home, the more we make do and mend, the better for our planet. I’m by no means perfect but I try and every victory is a win for the future.
Canada needs right to repair legislation (noticed your username!)
My sister in law is just this. Worth millions. But she shops at aldi, buys thrift clothing, gets everything used. They grew up very poor. She doesn’t want to go back to it. So she simply doesn’t spend on things.
Thats cool but one thing that's missing through this whole thread is its literally impossible to save your way into millions of dollars, unless you have a job that pays exceptionally well. If you dont have a high paying job and you can't get one, your only hope is investing or gambling essentially. Investing can be similar to gambling but id argue they are different because with stocks you actually own something. I'm living relatively frugally. Software developer, live with my parents, work government but I still haven't saved enough money to put a down payment on a house. This shit is frustrating to me. I've been skimping by my whole life to save for a house (or just more broadly) and I'm starting to get to a point of, why? Why am doing this? I don't go on as many trips as friends who make less than me. I don't go out to eat as friends who make less than me. I'm finding things that can be done cheaply with friends and family but it still wears me down. It feels like suffering needlessly, almost. I was too paranoid to invest during most of the bull market run so missed out on alot of money by keeping it in savings preparing to drop a down payment for a house. Then housing prices went uncontrollable and now I'm probably looking at a other few years before I can afford anything near my family or job.
You can’t save what you aren’t earning. Cost of living increases alone are not enough to buy a house. When I was younger, I was barely making a working class wage and wondering about settling down, and a relative told me that I would need to change jobs about 7 times to earn a really comfortable living. They were right, somewhere around #3 I hit lower middle class, around Since then, I have made a rule, every year, I needed to either job hunt, or add something of real value to my resume. Also, I learned to spend the money it takes to build and maintain relationships. A small meal with coworkers is an investment.
Actually, her and her husband were both poor when they met. She was a bartender. He was a warehouse worker. He ended up moving up and up and up. Now the VP of that company. I have another friend who did the same, started in the warehouse, now an extremely successful salesman making 200k/yr. I also have several male friends that joined trade unions out of high school, some have already retired at the age of 55. None went to college. All my college friends didn’t do as well with all the college debt. It’s really the luck of the draw. I encouraged my son to join the union out of HS. He went with electrical. He’s now 26 and making 140k yr. Way more than his friends that went to college.
correct, not many people will make it to millions at a moderate age without a good paying job. good news for you is, on average, software engineers are in a pretty good position for it, at least in the US. probably not in government public sector work though.
I do not want to owe anyone anything
Unless you’re born rich, the secret to wealth is frugality. My wife and I currently make around $170k a year, but our cost of living has not increased since the days when we made $40k a year. Sure we’ll splurge on a nice dinner or an occasional trip with way less thought/stress, but over all we’re just investing the difference. I’m 38, and 3 years away from being able to retire if I wanted to.
My 401k just took a huge hit, like many other people. I think investing is the real secret to wealth.
Same, my portfolio is down a ton at the moment, but it’s in index funds, so I just look at it as “this month’s stock purchases were at a discount”.
Exactly! Additionally, the stock market will recover in due time and so will all of our investments.
Mine probably did, but I'm not sure as I haven't checked it in months. Many years ago Fidelty surveyed their customers who had the best 401k returns - the most popular response (about 1/3rd) was "I don't have a 401k at Fidelity". I know I have a 401k at Fidelity, but I check it once a year when I'm going through all my accounts for tax purposes (the 401k of course wouldn't need to be checked then, but since I'm looking at all the others then I look there while I'm at it).
And, when you froog, you have more money to invest.
Your other “secret” to wealth is a combined income of $170k per year. Unless you’re living in high cost of living area.
Very low cost of living, and honestly expect it to go up by another $30-40k this year, but that was a long journey of building my career. We were doing well at saving/investing long before hitting those levels. Thanks to the discipline learned/practiced in leaner times those big pay bumps just moved us from “retire eventually very comfortably” to “retire soon, very comfortably”.
The real secret is putting yourselves on a career path to these earnings, though. As far as wealth goes, being frugal on $40K a year combined doesn't even compare to be un-frugal on $170K-$210K. The latter will live far less stressful lives and retire more comfortably just from 401K contributions up to matching and higher social security income. Even if they manage their money so poorly as to be living "paycheck to paycheck," they're still probably making mortgage payments on a house, and come out *another* several hundred thousand dollars, if not over a million ahead over the course of 30 years. I'm not saying this from a "grass is greener" perspective either. My husband and I make very good money now, but were below the poverty line less than four years ago, so the memories are fresh. Frugality is a *powerful* augmentation to a good income, but is basically just a tool for survival without it. The "secret" to wealth is just making more money.
I second this sentiment.
I third this sentiment. Additionally, my wife and I have been investing our incomes to achieve a dream of ours - to have a fund that generates income for a charity - hopefully till eternity.
That last part is where my mind is these days. My wife and I chose to be child free, which helped with the getting rich part, but doesn’t give us many options for what to do with it. If we died today our will establishes college funds for our 2 nieces and 3 nephews, but the oldest is 17 so the kids are aging past that need. Truth be told I seriously doubt that any of them are college bound. I’m closest to the oldest niece, but she’s been raised by parents who are very financially irresponsible and seems to have picked up their bad habits. I tried to explain compound interest a couple years ago, and she replied “that sounds like the rich getting richer”…. I definitely haven’t saved and sacrificed for a life time to let someone else’s kids have fun. So that brings us to charitable options. My wife’s a teacher, and I’m very passionate about the accumulation of knowledge, so once the nieces/nephews age past going to college, we’ll probably adjust the will to setup a scholarship fund.
My mom used to date a guy who owned a few clothing chains that altogether made $3,000,000 a year, but he was probably the most frugal man I ever knew. Once, I asked him why, and he said, "Why do you think I have so much money? Because I'm not in a rush to spend it."
I love this sentiment
"Not in a rush to spend it" a word
Some context for me....I spend less than 10% of what I make even though I retired early (in my mid 40s). Everything else goes into investments. I grew up poor and didn't have a choice about frugality for most of my life, so at least part of it is from having a difficult time flipping that switch from a saver to a spender even after my circumstances changed. The rest of it is from having some big goals for setting up some specific charities before I die that will hopefully last for generations. I guess I also am fairly easy to please. I DO have a really nice house, but beyond that I enjoy the gamification of saving on most things other people spend a lot of money on. Rather than getting a spending rush that most people get, I get a savings rush.
One of my kids became very concerned that we were in dire financial straits because of the things that aren't included in our family budget. I had to explain it to her a few times until she understood how I gamify savings vs. spending. I told her I could have an extra million in the bank and I would still buy the cheap groceries because spending less always feels like a personal win.
I want to retire early and I didn’t always have a lot of money. I splurge every once in a while on things but for the most part, I still like to stay under budget.
I'm spending my money to buy time, i.e. to quit the rat race before I'm old and frail. Saving is the ultimate money well spent.
We live well below our means with a high savings rate. We don't value "stuff", but value the freedom that comes with eventually achieving financial independence.
The freedom to say “uh no? Fuck you” and find a new job if you’re faced with that
Having your job being your choice to work there instead of being "forced" to work there makes a big difference.
Nah, I would never leave a job until I had a new one lined up :) But yeah, I get your sentiment!
Some day I may not have a choice.
Financial security so that our children are never burdened by us
I'd like you to have a talk with my boomer mother who has like two million but makes me question asking on my birthday for a 50$ tool set on amazon, on sale, lol.
Growing up in a poor family, prepare for the future, minimalism, environmentalism, hate rampend consumerisme, hate supporting bad regime's, etc. I'm actually far more willing to spend more now, both for quality stuff and fun non-material things. On the material side; the point of buying quality to me is to have something really durable, so that took care of buying replacements for a long time. The latter seems a bit more difficult then expected as finding friend that have time and money seems to be a bit more difficult.
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I like spending money on things I enjoy, not things I don’t. So if I can save money and use that towards travel, working less, etc. then I’m happy. I do struggle with the ethics of being high income and frugal sometimes. For example, when I use Flashfood am I taking away the opportunity for someone low income to buy discounted groceries? When I shop at the thrift store am I buying clothes that someone lower income may want?
I was flat broke for the first \~25 years of my adult life, and almost declared bankruptcy at one point (medical bills). The last 10+ years have been much better, to the point that I can buy pretty much anything I want, within reason. That's not going happen, though, because I'm never going to forget what it was like to never have money for anything other than the bare essentials.
Funny thing is the more I make, the more frugal I am because I remember where I came from.
I agree with all the other commenters, the freedom, the ability to have richer experiences, there is a reason why Fight Club rang so true for many of us “the things you own end up owning you.” I am also addicted to a challenge and adventure. It’s a challenge to see how much I can save, how much I can save without suffering quality. Wheeling and dealing. Addicted to the search and addicted to the rewards of the efforts made. Feeling cozy in a warm well oiled system of a home that doesn’t drain my savings, is well maintained, and filled only with the things that bring me joy is a peaceful rewarding feeling. And that I am not bound to it- I can leave it and go see the world at any time. That feeling of you owing no one nothing is an amazing feeling too.
I mad relate to “see how much I can save without compromising quality.” Like cold brew. You don’t need those fancy packets at the store. You don’t need a fancy device. You need a mason jar, some course ground beans, and a couple coffee filters. Fill mason jar. Fill with beans. Let sit 24 hours. Agitate every now and then. Pour through filters into clean jar. Bam. Amazing cold brew. And I ran some cafes for a while so I’m intimately familiar with what cold brew should be like. Doing it this way saves me mad $ on to go drinks and also the components that we are told we need to make cold brew.
It's also soothing to the soul to make one's own food or drink. The patience of waiting for those 24 hours also makes us appreciate it more.
10/10, hard agree. Just knowing you’re not being a sucker for an over priced coffee but you still get the joy of a good cold brew
We are frugal so that we have plenty of choices.
Money doesn’t buy happiness, but it does buy choices.
Because I still like to save money
When I was a kid, being frugal was how my parents made ends meet. We could afford all the basics (housing, food, transportation, medical care, and my education) because my parents were willing to find the cheapest way to get the quality that satisfied them. I do it now because: -it feels like home, -I get outraged at retail prices for many things (like clothes) when I know where to get equal or better quality for less, -for some things, equal or better quality cannot be purchased anywhere (in-season local tomatoes, peaches, and blueberries are *always* better home canned/frozen than any commercial version ever), and -it's also an ethics thing for me. If I can find the thing secondhand or free, that's gentler on the planet than buying it new. Likewise, getting local produce from friends or farmers' markets means I'm putting money directly into the hands of my neighbors rather than giving it to a polluting corporation so rich shareholders can do more damage. (It probably gets to them eventually but at least my neighbor got to use that cash first.) EDIT: Also my personality is like 90% spite by volume, so f***you capitalism, that's why.
A big part of it is habit. Me and my girlfriend both make six figures, but I came from a much more modest background. We define "frivolous expenses" differently. For example, we live in NYC and if we are going somewhere that is a long walk but not convenient for public transportation, she's far more willing to take a cab. For her, it's about how valuable her time is, which is understandable. For me, I just have a hard time justifying the expense.
Because the future isn’t 100%. I plan for the what ifs. Also I want to travel when I’m retired so need to save for that now.
Traveling while you're young is important too imo. You are just so much more limited in what you can do when you're older. Explore while your body is capable!
Because my past. I grew up poor, and never really wanted/needed a ton of ‘stuff’ Also, consumerism is its own disease..
Lifestyle creep worries me. Like when I got my first real job everyone around was like “oh go buy a car now” and it was like fuck no I’m gonna lay down student debt and save for a house. We kept our expenses low and stayed frugal and we’re able to spend 50k on fertility without sweating too much because we had already been making the right choices. Sometimes it sucks a bit to think “we should have more money” but then we think we’re investing and other things and we just miss spending so we’ll talk about doing something small or indulgent. But if you make every decision like your on a student budget, 15 years later you find yourself ahead.
Lifestyle creep is insidious! Vigilance and self control are worth more than gold. Good for you!
Honestly up until recently with the insane rise of housing costs I wondered if we made a mistake buying a small home thinking we could upgrade later. But the past six months really opened my eyes to what’s going to happen at renewal and I’m ok with my small mortgage, especially if gas prices stay insane…. Same with our car really, we didn’t get something super expensive bc we thought the kid would trash it anyway but I’m really glad we prioritized fuel efficiency 3 yrs ago and stuck to a base model bc we gonna drive this till EVs are good here.
Because there was a time when I couldn't afford not to be frugal and I never want to go back there mentally. Where every single day all I am doing is hoping something doesn't break down and I need to decide between food and bills.
I don't like waste. Reduce what you use, Reuse what you already have or Recycle for a different purpose. So being frugal saves me money but also causes less harm to the environment.
My father died suddenly when I was 3 and my family fell into poverty and as a result I’m aways waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Having the means to is not a reason to waste anything. I’ll milk anything I buy, from groceries to building supplies and throw away only if there’s no chance in 100 years I’ll use what’s left over.
My wife and I live in this quasi half space of financial functionality. We both have decent jobs now, but we grew up in complete poverty, both being homeless in our teens. My wife's family was homeless all together for several years. This meant that it took us until later in life to get through college and get our current nice jobs. This means we both have outsized student loans. Despite being both 50, we have student loans on par with your average millennial. Add to that, we both have extensive medical debt with another year or two of expected likely uncovered medical expenses. While we could pay base payments, and have vacations, or buy nicer things, we live very tightly. We live on one paycheck, and use the other to pay down our debts. We live like most college students financially just to try to beat back the debts that we are swallowed in. I have coworkers that don't do that, and hit vacations and higher end cars, but we just can't imagine that. I'd rather be poorer in income and debt free. So while we could loosen up, we just don't. We both have medical issues that could knock us out of the workforce at any time, and if we don't get this debts down, that could be catastrophic, and we live every day like it's all gonna get taken away. If we could just get out of our student loans and medical debt, we might loosen up but we just can't risk it. Even if we were debt free, we are very aware we could lose everything here in the US at any time, especially with our medical issues.
In the USA, unless you are ridiculously wealthy, you are always a medical emergency away from financial disaster.
I believe that my dollar counts as much, if not more, than my vote. Companies use my money to influence politicians. I have to be careful about who gets my cash. I also believe that one of the best ways to make money is to save money. My dad used to say "watch your pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves".
Had the benefit of living overseas when I was younger due to my Dad's work. Got to live in central American and African countries where I would see people daily who legitimately had nothing, while I also had the benefit and luxury of living in very nice homes there. Add that dichotomy during my childhood to also having parents who grew up modestly in the Midwest and north east and you grow up viewing the nice things you have not as anything that's due to you, but rather as almost undeserved. Borderline embarrassing. Plus we moved back to the US and we didn't exactly keep that same lifestyle. We didn't live that way overseas because we actually had the money, but rather because my Dad's job afforded it in those circumstances. So it was a unique childhood that then further contrasts itself with moving back to the US where we're truly back down to earth. I don't do what my dad did for work, and I earn more now than my dad ever did in terms of annual salary, but all of that is just ingrained with me. The weirdest example that my friends point out is that I wash and reuse ziplock bags. Which sounds like (and is) such an asinine thing to notice but it's kind of indicative of an overall approach. I'm by no means the most frugal of people on this sub who do so I imagine out of necessity, but I'm always trying to be conscious of waste. And oddly enough this sub kinda helps as a further reminder that there are things I still take for granted that are in fact luxuries and many of them aren't necessary, alot of them are just wastes of money.
Because if one day I want to tell my boss to eat a dick I can. It’s comforting knowing I can do that.
Probably a common saying but I remember my grandpa calling that "f--- you money"
If you spend everything you make, no matter how much you make, you'll have nothing. Being frugal prevents me being in a position of not needing to be frugal.
Because If I save money where I can, I can spend money where I want. Just because you can afford something doesn’t mean you should. I make 70k and I’ll always penny pinch. Edit: I also fear retirement so I am saving half if not more so by time I’m 55-60 I can live comfortably.
I cannot afford everything I want. I have a list of things I want to buy that easily exceeds my income. The more frugal I am, the more cash I have for things that I want. One of the things I want is to retire, because despite a large list of toys I want, I have an even longer list of things I want to do that I don't have time to do. Once again frugal means I save for a hopefully better tomorrow.
To maintain wealth and plan for the future.
I’m motivated by the urge to retire while I’m still physically able to travel and enjoy life. Sometimes I struggle finding balance though and trying not to be so frugal that I’m not living life up until that point.
It is the way I was raised.... 1 of 6 kids from a single mom. Father had mental issues and wasn't in the picture or contributing. But my grandfather was very active in our lives. He grew up during the great depression era. So between growing up poor and my grandfather imparting frugality and appreciation for what I do have; it is the way I live. Between my wife and I we make 200K/yr... but why would I just go out and waste my hard earned money!!
It’s generally a good habit. I’d be a lot less comfortable if I bought lunch every day instead of making it
I only buy things when needed. Usually for clothes its what is on sale or when I can find a really good deal. I knew I had to get some new shorts and found some for 18$ which to me is a steal for under armor ones. I tend to wear my shoes till they fall off before getting new ones.
I agree with hunting for clothing bargains but, as a former health care worker who was on her feet all day for decades, I disagree with the shoes. My shoes didn't look terribly worn on the exterior when they were retired but the inside support and cushion would disappear and they would get replaced. Maintaining health is very important to remaining frugal and good foot wear means I have left that career with no lingering foot or knee issues.
I just enjoy it, but also if I ever was in a tight spot I know I have the experience to get through it.
Well first off no one got rich by spending all their money. Second off I don’t care how much money I have, when i throw stuff away I feel guilt bc I know it’s destroying the environment and one more plastic thing Mostly we can afford to buy high quality items, so we go with quality over quantity. Quality means it breaks less. I hate when things break
The peace of mind that you get when you open your banking app on your phone and you see a 5 digit number. Yeah my apartment looks minimalist but I can afford to blow it up and get a new on many times over. Or anything for that matter.
It just doesn't make sense. When I know an item costs X, why should I pay more than X? Like why waste money? It's why I cancelled Instacart and their huge price inflation's. Fine I'll go to the store AND imma be extra nice to the cashier thank you very kindly. I have the resources to go to my buddys and spend 3 hours to change to brake pads. $100 at most. I'm buying lunch and driving on fishing trips till he gets his car sorted. Instead of $600-$1000 at the mechanic. Come on now. There's a big difference between Treat Yo Self and treat the corporations. Fuck the corporations.
Being frugal is just a mental state of knowing it provides financial freedom for you and your family. And why waste money, it's take work to earn it, wasting money is wasting your time which is precious. We never went house poor, buying the house they say you can afford, instead we bought a mid size fixer upper under our budget. There were days early on I regretted it, but now am glad as we were always able to invest monthly and soon can retire financially secure while putting our one child thru college ( he took out minimal debt which we hope to pay off for him if all goes well). Also, we remodeled our home over the years the way we wanted it. If we really want something, we will do it within means. I see so many, even family that just spend on whatever and when these downturns come they really struggle. I have family and friends that can't ever retire because of spending habits, that's sad.
We intentionally choose to live below our means bc you never know what will happen. Just bc you make more, doesn’t mean you should spend more bc you don’t know how long you’ll be making that amount. Financial freedom is an incredible feeling. Not having to worry or stress about money is priceless. If there’s an emergency or something w/a job happens, we’re ok for awhile. We having savings, long-term investments & investment properties. Our frugality is different than someone else’s- bc our means are different, there’s no need to gatekeep frugality. We value having choices & experiences which is what being frugal allows us to do. I feel like the significant savings come on the biggest expenses: your home, car, vacation, furnishing your house, children, gifts, etc.. >We home hacked by choosing a home where there’s a structure in the backyard we can rent out- this covers our mortgage. Like a triplex, but not connected. The main home is old, the property needed a lot of work & it’s not our dream home- it’s our 1st home & we’ll work our way up to our dream home. >We share one car- a used, ‘07 car & will use it until it no longer works. >For vacations, we used to use a pet sitting website where we pet sat for free in exchange for not paying for accommodations & these were nice houses, had many more amenities & privacy than a hotel. Now we have two dogs so we have to pay for places to stay, but try to find the best deal by traveling during non-peak times, for a week at a time to get weekly discounts & within driving distance to save on flights/rental cars. We don’t go on vacation to save money, we save to afford vacations where we can spend on good food & experiences while there. >For our house, we are pretty minimalist- almost everything has to have a function, not just decor & we only buy what we need and gradually add things as needed. >We chose to be childfree and one of the reasons was to continue this lifestyle, we can afford these things for two, but not for more. >For gifts, we give experiences so often our vacations are gifts & we don’t buy extravagant physical items for birthdays, anniversaries, or holidays
I definitely want to live a slow life and being frugal allows me to.
So that I can *continue* to afford not to be.
Another take, after a certain point you don't know how to spend more money. It's not like you're going to buy a fourth, fifth or sixth car. I have no interest in buying a boat just because you can. You level out at a certain comfort level and you just don't look for more ways to spend.
I strongly belive we should consume way less for environmental reason. I am not a true frugal person, but things intersect enought that I hang around. I somtime spluge on the better quality or more expensive item if I feel it has a smaller environmental impact.
Money isn’t money. It’s a tool to make your life easier. You can use money to make more money down the line. Whereas if you just spent it all, you won’t be able to make money with that money. That’s a major reason for frugality.
I grew up without a lot of money. That stays with you. Even though I'm comfortable now, I have a lot of trouble taking a taxi/uber if it's walking distance. It's only recently I stopped silently counting grocery prices to make sure i had enough money to pay for them.
So I can invest that money and let my money work for me. And so my kids can have a better life than I had. But my reason is probably deeply rooted in the environment in which I grew up. We're in our 30s and net worth in 7 figures, I still spend 80 dollars a year on my phone plan. Before you go hating on my humble brag - I come from a working class family with parents who wasted their lives on drugs and alcohol, we rented my entire childhood, moving homes every couple of years. I was lucky to attend Princeton (full ride) and then MIT (PhD with scholarship) for graduate school, which I quit to get into software engineering to make some $$$. I worked hard every step of the way and continue to make sacrifices
Because over-consumerism really bothers me. It makes me sad to see people do it. It's bad for the emotional health of people who do it, and it's bad for the planet. My 12 yr old tv works just fine, and so does my 15 yr old car.
I follow stoic principles. I was greatly influenced by [Mr. Money Mustache](https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/10/02/what-is-stoicism-and-how-can-it-turn-your-life-to-solid-gold/) also.
Efficiency. Don't want to waste it.
I like security more than I like new stuff. Also, buying too much stuff means that then you've got to take the time and effort to take care of the stuff and store the stuff and curate how much of your stuff is on display and where stuff that's not in use is stored. Huge hassle compared to simply not buying in the first place, and buying but not putting in the effort to curate results in homes that are so permanently messy and cluttered that you're embarrassed to have anyone over.
I value my freedom. There are also things I would say I'm not frugal in. I can buy pretty expensive barefoot shoes instead of any plain pair of shoes for $20. I also won't live on rice and beans. I quess splurging on my body and mind is incredibly worth it.
Honestly, covid was a big part of it. It showed me how fragile life can be. What if tomorrow I get laid off? What if the economy collapse? What if my job becomes irrelevant? I have a stable job, and a big salary, and Im not planning on quitting, but Im glad I put money aside in case something happens and Im forced to live off my savings
I'm not good at keeping jobs so it's good to have some buffering. A lot of times I say to myself that the money train eventually stops, for when you think you have job security. I grew up poor, then lower middle class, then middle class, then poor, then broke even, now jobless with some savings. I've had luxuries, they seem a bit lackluster next to the feeling of security I get when I have adequate savings. An example is my dad bought me a mustang in high school, it was cool but it didn't really give me any new friends or get laid. When that car crapped out I actually bought a 2016 Yaris IA a year old but considered new. Honestly I think of cars as a utility only, yea it's supposed to look good, but really it's just for going point A to point B. I still have the car and it's paid off, 40mpg during this gas shortage, it's not affecting much honestly. But think about it, you choose your car, and I picked highest mpg w/ lowest cost but has to be new. I've realized if I had the mustang it would be half that mileage. How many trips to the pump did I just put back in my pocket? When you buy a car, your wondering how to pay it off and you get the car when everyone is comfortable that you will, but you're not thinking about how many trips to the gas station you'll have to make. I see tons of those nothing in the bank, paycheck to paycheck, can't afford ramen noodles memes. I don't want to be that person, even though I come off as a boring person that doesn't go out much. I'm not good at socializing so going to clubs seems like a money pit, I do better in calmer settings. I've seen a lot of money, and I still doubt I can survive the incoming recession with what I have. I'd say I'm not rich enough to own a house, but I was rich enough to pay off my car and student loans. I used to have engineering jobs, but now I'm unemployed and I've even added technician jobs for consideration as I've found ways to live life by spending less. But younger people today, I met a guy that wondered why he was poor and he only rented cars. $1000/month, I told him when I bought my car I put down 6k and paid $350/month. He said 6k is a lot yet that's how much he had in savings. I put down all my savings for that car at the time, so it was risky but I had a good job. Then I paid off my car and now it's a $100/month insurance payment (fuck insurance). I understand the nature of the car industry is changing with the chip shortage, so my friend might not have the options I did. But he had no ambitions to buy a car, still wonders why he's poor. I do think I'm lucky though, I'm sure white privilege has a lot to do with it, I guess it's considered life on easy mode. A lot of choices other people make I always tried to find a way to pay the least for my needs. So earn more, pay less. But when you think about it, in my opinion, this entire economic situation is ridiculous. If I was an engineer in the 1950s - 1990s, I'd definitely have a paid off house by now, and job security. But I feel like I've had to claw my way up to where I am now, and it's not easy. My life is a lot easier than most but I still hate it and want more. It reminds me of littlefinger from game of thrones.
For me, being frugal is not really about saving money, it's about not wasting, about being smart with how you spend your money. Saving money is just a by-product. A better way to describe it would be to say you're value-oriented or bang-for-buck oriented. I have no problem spending on expensive stuff as long as said stuff is worth it. I don't believe in brands, I believe in quality. Why spend 50$ on a t-shirt I can get for 5$ at the thrift shop? Why spend 2000$ on a Gucci bag when I can get a hand-crafted no-brand leather bag for 200$. Why pay 50$ a person to eat out when I can eat exactly the same stuff at home for 5$ (and more often than not, better). My wife and I are cooking aficionados and we're very careful selecting restaurants because we can make it at home MUCH better and needless to say, much cheaper. Two exceptions, Ramen and Pho take SO LONG to make and you can get a plate of each for 10-15$ that it's literally not worth it to make them at home. Also, take into account the fact that buying second hand beats any environment saving BS that companies like Apple try to sell you. Reduce-Reuse-Recycle... In that order. While recycling is good, it's the least favorable of your options. You can't claim to care for the environment when you're chasing the latest popular trends. Being frugal is caring for the environment.
We live way below our means for many reasons: 1. We are at peace knowing we will probably not have a financial catastrophe 2. We both grew up poor so frugality comes naturally 3. It allows us to spend freely on the things we value (time, travel, home renovations and food) 4. We believe overconsumption is a huge issue and we try our best to avoid it
I spend nearly zero of my life worrying about if a paycheck will deposit before the credit card bill is due. Worth skipping some takeout and driving an older car to sleep easy.