Life swap
There is a TV show Wife Swap where people change lives. I think if we changed lives with most other folks financially, the results would be night and day. There is such a different mindset, from spending any penny in your pocket on "needed things" to taking it a step further to spending every penny you don't have but every dollar you have on your credit limits. The other extreme is having millions but worrying about the price of gas, shutting things off at night, etc.
For us it is just a lifetime habit, and in my mind, saving on the little things is where it is at. Yes, if you make major purchases, it could swap the little things, but those everyday unthinking decisions really add up.
Even basic consumables we try to buy on sale. Either get it at Costco, or stock up. For cereal we regularly eat, I have bought as many as 24 boxes at once (limit of 8 so buy them, put them in the car and go back in and buy more). Usually I empty the shelf before I am done. Just check the dates and make sure you will eat them before the sell by date.
With the gas, we have a few low priced stations around, but I can now check their rates on a web site. So now I just go to the cheapest one, using a 5% back card. It is hard to define exactly, but I think if we did that "life swap" for equivalent lives someone else would spend tens of thousands of dollars more each year. They would essentially live our lives, but not shop for bargains, not bring lunch each day, upgrade our cars, TVs, and everything else. In the end, their lives would still be similar, with so much less financially to show for it.
One big example is the house we live in. We really cannot "afford" it, based on our current income, but our current income is irrelevant versus our net worth. I could make the monthly payment go away at any point (I don't because the interest rate is very low) by dipping in to savings. DW was working when we bought it and it was more manageable then. But she was able to stop without us blinking an eye. We no longer save any money on a monthly basis, but with a decent stock market, our dividends and gains are much greater than my income. We are almost at the point where we could live off the dividends alone. This could only have happened by winning the lottery or day-by-day, year-by-year living an "efficient" life style.
