How to Live Below Your Means

re: How to Live Below Your Means

STEPcoach — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 16:07:08 GMT

I buy all my clothes at Dillards during their twice yearly 75% off sales. Much better quality clothing at better prices than WalMart!

re: How to Live Below Your Means

Geertje — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 09:48:59 GMT

I would add the suggestion to think about giving even as you try to save. My husband and I have been married for 37 years and have had many severely lean times. But we always remembered those who are worse off than we are. We have given to our church, we have sponsor children, we remember those that are starving and find many other good causes to give to. The good old Book provides you with the attitude that makes giving a pleasure and in return you get a grateful and happy heart.

Why should we complain when there are so many worse off.

re: How to Live Below Your Means

reality — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 13:30:24 GMT

"There are two ways to get rich - spend less

than you make or make more than you spend."

re: How to Live Below Your Means

Heather Marsh — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 06:07:25 GMT

Recycling? Even my husband is pre-loved!

re: How to Live Below Your Means

Heather Marsh — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 05:54:58 GMT

Sad to say (in Australia) that if you have or plan to have more than 5 children it is probably NOT in your family's best interests for you to work!

I have known of women who have deliberately had children every 4 or 5 years so that they stay eligible for the generous family assistance.

A member of another forum showed how-with 4 children - they were getting about AUS$800/week tax free, plus concessions on telephone, home energy, medicine, public transportation and health care. School costs were subsidised by a Government assistance scheme. Had they been renting privately they would have also qualified for rental assistance!

They can afford pay TV and the latest gizmos for the children.

Another member with 4 children works, does not get $800/week after tax and family assistance, pays full price for everything, spends a very large slice of their take home pay on child care for their youngest two children, and spends a lot on petrol and parking costs in order to attend the work place.

They cannot afford pay TV etc

There is something seriously askew here!

I do blame the media and commercials for much of the consumerism......after all, the job of advertising is to make the public feel that they deserve the product or they are 'missing out' if they do not get it.

Who doesn't want to be "Mentos fresh and full of life"? or doesn't want more "power under the hood"?

Not so long ago, electricity was not in every home, and all the things that rely upon it did not exist. Now we consider them neccessities, and do not spend what we should on the real neccessities - good water, clean air and real food.

re: How to Live Below Your Means

HeatherM — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 03:34:24 GMT

Children are one of life's biggest overheads. The population explosion, and its demand on limited resourses, is very real. As has been said previously, think of your ability to support your children before you have them. But then again, circumstances can change suddenly due to divorce, separation, illness, death, unemployment & natural disasters. So planning your life for decades into the future, in actuality, doesn't always work out, no matter how hard you try.

People mainly have children to give & receive more love into their lives. I'd rather just put my time into concentrating on nuturing the love between my partner, friends, pets and myself. I don't need to produce more people to love, who cost a fortune.

A child these days costs over $250,000 to its teenage years. Having them is often a gamble. You've got no idea how they're going to turn out & whether your relationship with them will bring joy & friendship, or disappointment & heartache. The most mentally & finacially stressed people I've met are parents. So many parents have told me I'm lucky, when I tell them I don't have kids.

But let's not argue about the pros & cons of children. I'm one of the 10% of women who never had the biological urge to have kids and neither did my partner, and I realise I'm in a small minority.

re: How to Live Below Your Means

webwitch6 — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 03:22:29 GMT

I have always been cheap. Some friendships were lost because of it. I couldnt help it then, and now I wont change. When my friends were out spending their first paychecks on clothes and shoes and movies, I was putting it toward my rent and extra food. When they hocked everything they had to afford the first SUV that needed three gallons of gas just to start, I bought a second hand Tercel. When they had a humongous white wedding with the men wearing ruffled outfits and the women wearing fluffy Pepto Bismol dresses, I eloped with a dress from Marshalls and 3.oo bunch of wildflowers, and my hubby to be wore a very nice suit we got on sale at Macy's.

Living cheap wasnt something I thought was a fun thing to do, and sometimes I do bore the hell out of myself, BUT-I own my house outright, a small itty bitty thing but no bank can lay claim to it.

I come from a family that lived in excess. Ran up credit card bills, doctor bills, neighborly debts, (have a neighbor do a favor for them and never do something they need to pay it back...) you name it they owed for it. I guess while I was a child my environment did form me into a tight wad. But I feel it is a useful trait nowadays.

I do have a wish to be a millionaire. My husband feels like I would be the cheapest person even if I won! (I pay for the powerball ticket with change I find on the street, in the couch or in the car, LOL!)

re: How to Live Below Your Means

Susan Snow — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 03:10:53 GMT

When my husband received a raise during the early 90's, we did NOT adjust our lifestyle do his raise, even though it was significant. Instead, we kept our lifestyle exactly the same, never bought on credit, and lived within our means.

Now, we've lost most of our retirement egg in the market with the downturn, but have not sold. We are in it for the long term. Fortunately for him, he converted half the stocks into a CD, and we still live within our means. At ages 67, I feel a bit panicked, as half of my personal savings, which I had before our marriage 40 years ago has gone. I haven't sold, and now I cannot because if I do, I'll lose everything.

We are retired, but he's just accepted a part time job as a DBA in Houston that will add my cash to our portfolio. Hopefully we can live out the down turn in the economy. If and when my stocks return to where they were prior to this falling market, I'm cashing out. And, if they don't, perhaps they will return for our daughter after we die. In the meantime, I know how to save money --eat low fat, vegetarian!

re: How to Live Below Your Means

DoverPawPaw — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 01:25:02 GMT

A couple of comments and additional suggestions.

Regarding #2 borrowing DVDs - Most libraries, have a large selection of many of the latest TV series and movies and allow you up to 3 weeks to watch them.

Regarding #3, I was amused by the "offer name-brands at a discount" advice and then later it is suggested to stop trying to keep up with the Jones? Who needs "brand name"?

Number 5 - buying with cash. Good suggestion. But remember that when you pay cash, you save the vendor from paying 3-5% for the privilege of accepting credit cards and they get their money from you immediately instead of waiting several days from the ccard company. Pay cash but ask for a discount, all they can say is no.

Recently, my father and I each needed new furnaces. Upon learning my father needed a furnace, I asked the salesman for a discount for both of us since he was making a 2nd sale to the same family with little effort and he immediately offered $100 off the total for each of us.

Numbers 11 and 12 refer to the Jones again reminding me of something I heard about 30 years ago. I am probably butchering this but it went something like this "stop spending money on things you can not afford to impress people who deep down you really do not like and in most instances who probably do not like you".

Number 18 - maybe I missed it somewhere but I did not see shopping at consignment shops or garage/yard sales. My wife and daughter have found clothing that is clean & sometimes still have the original store tag it.

One last suggestion is eBay. There are many bargains you can find there on all kinds of things, including clothing. The second part of this suggestion is to earn some money by selling some of the stuff you've accumulated and what you no longer wear or use.

re: How to Live Below Your Means

LuvToSki — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 23:57:09 GMT

LoriSmi,

I too, know a family that has 9 kids. The woman stays at home all the time.

They have to have help by their church to help pay gas and electric bills.

My grandfather taught me when I was young to always pay your own way and don't get to a point in your life you need hand outs. He was a simple man but always had money to pay cash for his car.

If this was the 20th Century and 1940's and 1950's I would say... having 8 children would be the way to go. But we are in the 21st Century and things are not like they used to be.

My husband came from a family of 5 boys and 1 girl. They were poor and I hear stories all the time from the brothers on how they lived. None of the siblings had more than two children. My husband said he did not want his son to grow up like he did... without. And we pay cash for a used car.

Good luck to you but times are different now.

re: How to Live Below Your Means

springolife — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 21:25:18 GMT

I do 14 of them. pay less and put away the savings, make long term investments...those kinds of things are impossible to do when you are poor! We are now up to nearly $10,000 in credit card debt because we can't spend less then we earn. It's terrible, and I don't buy new clothes or electronics or anything of the sort. Most of the debt is gas (can't get to work without gas and there's no public transportation or car pool opportunities) as well as unavoidable medical debt. My husband had sudden acute appendicitis. insurance deductible is $1,000. I'm pregnant and the midwife +added expenses put us over $4,000 (insurance won't pay for her and none of the doctors or midwives on the plan will assist a VBAC. ) But we are doing the best we can....it's expensive to eat right. The people I know that are doing OK send me recipes of the foods they eat on a regular basis...and it's all junk! But junk is cheap.

re: How to Live Below Your Means

broobs — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 20:31:58 GMT

I try to do all the above suggestions. We live frugally. I make all our food from scratch and have begun to make gifts instead purchasing the newest "hot" item of the year for Christmas. In a few months that newest "hot" item will mean nothing and just sit in a drawer or on a shelf collecting dust.

We have four kids and DO NOT regret having them. We have always lived off of one income and have managed to make it. We have faith in God. That makes all the difference in the world. He has and always will meet our needs. Our kids are a blessing to not only my husband and I but to those who cross their paths. They are NOT a burden to soceity, but a blessing!

re: How to Live Below Your Means

JayPatrick — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:15:42 GMT

Personally, I keep my expenses down focusing on how I can achieve the most personal value from spending my time in ways that I find most attuned to my sense of self (being). Some of you may remember the old song "the best things in life are free". Anyway an enriched consciousness that comes from taking time to smell the roses certainly harkens back to the inspired writing of Henry David Thoreau.

Owning an impressive and large mansion can tie one up with remairs, maintenance, and improvement projects. By keeping it simple, time is freed up to enjoy the magnificent public edifaces that are there for all of us, or to enjoy the parks and mountains in all their splendor rather than just owning an impressive landscape surrounding your high cost McMansion.

Small is beautiful. And thinking back to the Victorian era, people mastered musical instruments, reading and writing as well as gracious living as ongoing projects. Personal excellence in various areas can involve years of practice before levels of fulflling expressive mastery are attained. Then, of course, others appreciate your accomplishments, though they always suggest that you are extremely talented. Oh well. It's still well worth it!

re: How to Live Below Your Means

BH — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 16:36:21 GMT

As for investments, consider cash or cash equivalents (bank account, savings account, CD, short-term US Treasuries). Cash (as represented by an FDIC insurred CD (Certificate of Deposit) or short term US treasuries) has had a higher rate of return over the last 10 years (about 30% total for the period) than stocks. We are in a deflationary period; you will be able to buy more next year for the same amount of cash than this year, So don't be concerned that interest rates on save ways to keep your money are close to zero.

You don't believe prices are going down? Consider all of the going out of business sales that are coming up. Consider China's excess capacity to create "stuff" that fewer Americans can now afford. High supply and low demand means prices will drop. Keep your money and wait for real sales.

re: How to Live Below Your Means

ExJohnson — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 15:50:47 GMT

I appreciate the idea of a novelty's charm wearing off. But, I bought a wheat mill grinder back in august, and am only now seeing how wonderful of a product it is. This is probably linked to the advertisement tip somehow, that grinding your own wheat doesn't show up on TV too much, so a fake need never arises in most people, fake fulfillment doesn't happen, blah blah. I as a person just don't buy clothes or music or gadgets, but man will I spend money on food.

And the not having kids you can't afford. As a Judaic follower, having children is a commandment, therefore it is also a joy. You can't break a commandment because you're scared of the economy. Just a thought. It's good to be fiscally repsonsible, but I'd rather do the right thing. And yes, sometimes the two of them are at odds with eachother.