How much could you cut spending?

[NW-Bound]

The real question may be "How much could my lifestyle drop without me feeling like I am so poverty stricken that life isn't worth living?"...

For me, that would be living under a bridge and scrounging garbage cans for food.

Most people, particularly those here who have managed to save enough money to retire early or to contemplate doing so, would know to manage their finance so that they would never get there, short of an all out war or an asteroid strike.

I found a blog of a full-time RV'er, a single man who was diagnosed with leukemia in his early 50s. After a terrible treatment involving full-body radiation, he did OK despite the slim chance, and successfully received a bone marrow transplant. Of course he never came back to work, and has been boondocking in a trailer with his two cats, going up/down the state of New Mexico which has a generous policy regarding camping on state land. His active lifestyle involves a lot of hiking and biking in nature, and is a lot healthier than that of many other city dwellers like myself.

 

[nuke_diver]

Not yet retired but I also expect we could cut maybe 30% (drop CATV, eating out...buy in bulk grow more vegetables etc). To do much more than that we would have to move since we live in an expensive area in general. That and because we already don't spend a lot the floor is much closer than the ceiling

 

[Unpaintedhuffhines]

It's a good thread, and I have considered what happens in the disaster scenario where I would be forced to cut expenses. I am always stunned and impressed with those folks who can live on $2,500/month (or in many cases much less!) when my current lifestyle costs about $10K/month (with about a 3% WR). That alone tells me that I could probably cut 50% out of my budget if I needed to, but also like others, I can tell you I wouldn't like it. But I could probably do 20% if I was creative without too much of a lifestyle change. Things like buying less grass-fed beef and more chicken, perhaps downsize to one car, call the cable company every 6-9 months and threaten to shut it off to get a better rate, eat out a lot less, and cut back on wine. Okay, I was just joking about cutting back on wine, but that's sort of the general idea.

 

[Moemg]

Last year I spent a little less than half my allotted amount without any cut backs and I sure did not live frugally . If I had to cut back farther I could downsize my house . We could cut one car & not eat out as much . I could also cut my charity giving & present budget . The one thing I will not cut is visiting my daughter & grandchildren at least one or twice a year .

 

[A Bird In Hand]

Our current expenses could be cut back about 40% without changing our lifestyle today one bit. All we'd have to do is stop sending the kids to private school (ok, this would change the kids' lifestyles a bit), stop sending extra mortgage principal payments, and stop contributing to 401k's.

Coincidentally, along with mortgage P&I that we expect to be gone in a handful of years, the lack of these expenses is the same thing that should enable us to ER.

 

[ESRwannabe]

My expenses are already pretty low. I pretty consistently spend around $2k per month. Half of that is for rent. So if I wanted to save more money the obvious way would be to reduce my housing expenses by moving to cheaper accommodations.

 

[WannabeRetired]

Living in the [-]midwest[/-] southwest isn't nearly as bad when you don't need to go to work every day in [-]snow and ice[/-] 110-degree heat. If you're retired then you can stay home on [-]bad weather[/-] hot days and get things done on the [-]few nice-er[/-] cooler days. Makes a big difference.

You don't have to shovel sunshine though.

 

[jjquantz]

That's a good year. In a bad year you can add the second half of November, all of March, and part of April.

What can I say, she's an optimist!

 

[NW-Bound]

You don't have to shovel sunshine though.

True.

But the SW sun can burn you to a crisp if you are not careful. Yesterday, I had to be out in my garage for a bit, and man, it was HOT! My tolerance of the heat has diminished a lot since my younger days. My t-shirt was soaking wet. Gah! If there's a power outage, I might be among the first who go.

 

[Walt34]

Or tiny house living seems like it could be pretty cheap -

I could see having a tiny vacation home like this some day. DH thinks we would get on each other's nerves if we lived in that small a space all the time.

I agree. While I love my wife dearly, and she loves me, one of us would have to take up some outside activity and spend most of every day at it.

But if I was single I would take a hard look at that type of house.

 

[W2R]

I could see having a tiny vacation home like this some day. DH thinks we would get on each other's nerves if we lived in that small a space all the time.

I'll bet the trick would be to stay outside of the home most of the day every day, and just go there to sleep.

But honestly, it seems to me that there are a lot of tiny homes already in this country, built 50-150 years ago when smaller houses were the norm. If I ever wanted to live in a tiny home, I'd look into buying one of those and upgrading. That might be cheaper to do than to buy a new tiny home. Many of the new ones seem overpriced to me. At least if I looked into it, I'd get more of a handle on costs.

 

[eta2020]

I agree. While I love my wife dearly, and she loves me, one of us would have to take up some outside activity and spend most of every day at it.

But if I was single I would take a hard look at that type of house.

This is too small for my taste, but I think living in 800-1200 sq ft house is great.

Today's houses are huge monsters. You don't know where you kids and wife is. They provide nothing pleasurable in quality of life.

Now 700 sq ft chalet in Swiss or Austrian Alps would provide a lot in quality of life and in experiencing life.

 

[FIREd]

After living in spaces ranging from a sub 200 sqft studio to a 2,500 sqft house, I think that the right space for the 2 of us is around 1,000 sqft.

 

[Huston55]

DW and I both grew up in the Midwest and lived there for 20 years while raising our kids. DW says there are only three reasons why she won't move back: December, January and February.

Yep but, it's not like Dec-Feb is 'pleasant' in NoVa. It's more a matter of 'less miserable' than the northern Midwest.

 

[martyb]

We bought our retirement home about 10 months ago, and it's 1646 sq. ft. It feels a little small to me, now that we're all moved in. Believe it or not, we've had conversations about up-sizing! Not to a huge place, but I think 1800-1900 sq. ft. might be a better fit for us. Not saying we'll actually do it, but...

 

[Meadbh]

We bought our retirement home about 10 months ago, and it's 1646 sq. ft. It feels a little small to me, now that we're all moved in. Believe it or not, we've had conversations about up-sizing! Not to a huge place, but I think 1800-1900 sq. ft. might be a better fit for us. Not saying we'll actually do it, but...

Perhaps you are trying to squeeze too much big house furniture into a smaller space. Do you really need all of it? Alternatively, are there opportunities to make more space without moving? e.g. developing the basement, adding a storage shed or building a conservatory?

 

[REWahoo]

Go ahead Marty, turn that basement into a man cave!

 

[NW-Bound]

Did you bring all the furniture from the old larger home?

I remember you shopping for a home. Wow, 10 months already.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I'll bet the trick would be to stay outside of the home most of the day every day, and just go there to sleep.

But honestly, it seems to me that there are a lot of tiny homes already in this country, built 50-150 years ago when smaller houses were the norm. If I ever wanted to live in a tiny home, I'd look into buying one of those and upgrading. That might be cheaper to do than to buy a new tiny home. Many of the new ones seem overpriced to me. At least if I looked into it, I'd get more of a handle on costs.

A cottage would be a good idea. We used to live in a charming old house that had been converted into to two flats. We lived in the top in 800 sq ft and didn't even use the dining room.

I think we are just going to go with a condo for now. That will be a trick by itself because now we have so much stuff to get rid of just to fit in the condo.

 

[martyb]

Go ahead Marty, turn that basement into a man cave!

Yeah, I wish I had a basement! This is NW Louisiana....houses are built mostly on concrete slabs, same as they all were when we lived near Austin. The only place I've ever had a basement was in Wisconsin.

 

[martyb]

Perhaps you are trying to squeeze too much big house furniture into a smaller space. Do you really need all of it? Alternatively, are there opportunities to make more space without moving? e.g. developing the basement, adding a storage shed or building a conservatory?

You're partly right, we do have some too-big furniture. Still, the house just feels a little too tight. This is the smallest house we've ever lived in, so it could be we just need more time to adjust. I know for sure we need to have a big garage sale & get rid of years worth of stuff. No doubt that would make the place at least feel a little roomier.

 

[W2R]

Yeah, I wish I had a basement! This is NW Louisiana....houses are built mostly on concrete slabs, same as they all were when we lived near Austin. The only place I've ever had a basement was in Wisconsin.

What you need is a big shed or outbuilding in the backyard, with electricity. You could make it a combination home theater and workshop, or whatever you would like in your mancave.

 

[martyb]

Did you bring all the furniture from the old larger home?

I remember you shopping for a home. Wow, 10 months already.

Yep...we bought last October....time's a flyin' !

We did bring some furniture with us, but we also bought some new stuff. We definitely over-did it on the living room furniture.

 

[Mulligan]

After living in spaces ranging from a sub 200 sqft studio to a 2,500 sqft house, I think that the right space for the 2 of us is around 1,000 sqft.

I imagine I would do just fine in a 500-600 sq. ft home, especially if it had a little loft. If I shared it with my SO, it wouldn't work. Presently I have around 2000 sq ft of living space and half of it is only used when I vacuum and dust. Kind of like my lawn. The only time I am on it is when I am mowing it.


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[Independent]

Wow, tight budget! Good luck with that.

I wish I could say that I get utility out of every dollar that I spend today, but honestly I don't. I could get rid of a lot of expenses that wouldn't affect my quality of life (my landline is next! ). I could stop shopping so much at Amazon and instead play video games or read more free Kindle books for entertainment, for example, and I would be perfectly happy. I could put off house upgrades and that wouldn't change my lifestyle either. There are so many ways in which I could cut back with minimal if any disruption of my lifestyle.

Maybe we have different definitions of "utility".

If I enjoyed free Kindle books just as much as I enjoy hard copy books that cost money, I would stop buying hard copy books.

OTOH, if I enjoy the hard copy books more than the free Kindle books, then I'm getting "utility" from the dollars I spend on hard copy books.

Sometimes my "utility" comes from reduced hassle. Maybe I could save some money by carefully watching gasoline prices at all the gas outlets I pass and being careful to pick only the cheapest. I've observed that their prices are usually extremely close, so I don't worry about the possibility of paying the extra penny and just stop where it's convenient today.