Some of my posts will be about money management. About what I call frugality without sacrifice. About how I manage to lead a pretty nice lifestyle for less than $18,000 gross a year.
Alex
I am very interested in your posts and I do think you have a lot to offer.
However, I think that you undermine your good points by presenting yourself as living on $18,000 a year when you are married and you've said your wife also contributes the same.
If we assume that your wife spends exactly the same as you (I wonder about that because often people have different hobbies that cost different amounts and the reality is that women pay more for some things typically than men do - at the same hairdressers a haircut for a woman costs $25 more than a haircut for a man, etc), then the more accurate way to describe your spending is to say that you are married and you and your wife collectively spend $36,000 a year (If her spending is not the same then adjust it).
The reality is that you can't divide in half the spending of a married couple and say that is what "you" spend since not all expenses can be neatly divided that way. That is, if you were on your own with no wife it is highly likely that many of your expenses would change and it is doubtful that you would spend exactly $18k a year. You can perhaps make a case that you would. However, you
aren't on your own living alone so you can't just pretend that your expenses are the same as someone in that situation.
I know you feel that you aren't being carried by your wife. I am
not saying that you are. If you say that she is spending $18k a year as well I take you at your word. But, it seems potentially misleading (I am
not saying intentionally so) to say you spend $18k a year when pretty much everyone else in the world would report
household spending when you are part of a married couple. I know you have followed Mr. Money Mustache and even he reports things form a
household standpoint. He doesn't take the household spending and then divide it in two and report that as his spending.
I think it would be impressive enough to be spending $36k a year as a married couple and you don't have to try to make it sound better by saying you personally spend $18k as your share.