How frugal are you in ER?

[NW-Bound]

Yes, thanks for reminding me of that. Of course, I do not want to push my wife too far, you know?

I will have to compromise by throwing some different forms of travel in there for her, like a cruise, or another European trip.

It is easy to please everyone. It only takes time and money!

 

[rescueme]

If you moved out of NY you could probably cut your expenses in half
TJ

Along with your paycheck ...

 

[Birchwood]

For us, it will require some major changes in ER. I'm not sure DW is amenable to some but we'll have discuss it seriously.
1. Downsize in housing. DW has a lot of stuff.
2. Downsize in vehicles. We have 3 relatively new vehicles. We think of keeping the truck, and trading the 2 cars to a minivan, thus 2 vehicles.
3. Concentrate on buying only what we need not want. No more jewelry-my wife will get mad at me.
4. More road trips- more expenses.
5. One cruise/year for about 3 years.
6. Low profile simple life, getting away from the Jones'.

 

[pb4uski]

For us, it will require some major changes in ER. I'm not sure DW is amenable to some but we'll have discuss it seriously.
1. Downsize in housing. DW has a lot of stuff.
2. Downsize in vehicles. We have 3 relatively new vehicles. We think of keeping the truck, and trading the 2 cars to a minivan, thus 2 vehicles.
3. Concentrate on buying only what we need not want. No more jewelry-my wife will get mad at me.
4. More road trips- more expenses.
5. One cruise/year for about 3 years.
6. Low profile simple life, getting away from the Jones'.

aka LBYM (particularly not keeping up with the Joneses).

 

[MichaelB]

For us, it will require some major changes in ER. I'm not sure DW is amenable to some but we'll have discuss it seriously.
1. Downsize in housing. DW has a lot of stuff.
2. Downsize in vehicles. We have 3 relatively new vehicles. We think of keeping the truck, and trading the 2 cars to a minivan, thus 2 vehicles.
3. Concentrate on buying only what we need not want. No more jewelry-my wife will get mad at me.
4. More road trips- more expenses.
5. One cruise/year for about 3 years.
6. Low profile simple life, getting away from the Jones'.

I'd say achieving these things means a pretty strong commitment from everyone involved is needed.

 

[Major Tom]

aka LBYM (particularly not keeping up with the Joneses).

I'd say that you're ahead of the game if you're not even bothered who the Joneses are because their lifestyle isn't relevant to your own way of life.

If you're at that point, then the issue of keeping up with them wouldn't even enter your head

 

[Amethyst]

Ever seen a guy's dorm room? You think they're all monks in there??

A.

I'm curious to know how many hot chicks have spent the night in his little love nest.

Which would explain a lot of the psychology behind big homes.

 

[tmm99]

This has nothing to do with anything, but when I was young, I didn't care if a guy had any money. I didn't have any either. Nobody young around me did, so it was OK. When I first got married, getting a dipped cone at Dairy Queen was a treat. Now, if a guy takes me out (I have an SO, so that won't happen but stay with me here...) to Denny's or something for the first date (and use a coupon to boot?), nah, I don't think I will go out with hiim again. I don't care if he is a savor and has a lot of money or what; I don't care.

But then, at one point in my life, I actually considered renting a room in someone's house to save money (cheaper than renting a place of your own).... Actually that would be fine if I thought of doing it when I was much younger (I was already in my mid 30's!)

 

[misty57]

Not ERed yet, but DH will be later this year. We've always been value shoppers and I don't see why that would change in retirement. However, I believe we will probably be spending a little more after ER than we do now - more eating out, more concerts and sporting events, more golf for DH, etc. It's less than 6 months away and we're both very excited.

 

[haha]

3. No more jewelry-my wife will get mad at me.

Unless you absolutely cannot afford her jewelry, you would be wise to lay off that issue. Many men cannot know what place jewelry holds in a woman's heart, but you mess with that to your peril. If you cut off her jewelry she is not going to be happy about your single malt tastes.

Ha

 

[Tree-dweller]

Unless you absolutely cannot afford her jewelry, you would be wise to lay off that issue. Many men cannot know what place jewelry holds in a woman's heart, but you mess with that to your peril. If you cut off her jewelry she is not going to be happy about your single malt tastes.

Ha

To me, jewelry, real jewelry, is like Persian rugs or modern art or expensive wine: I can easily get ripped-off because I have had a lifelong bafflement as to what really constitutes its value, at least its monetary value. I always feel like I am at the mercy of the seller. Once at an "educational" wine tasting the teacher/pourer said that once you get above $30 per bottle, the improvement in taste and quality is almost impossible to gauge. When asked why people buy wine costing many many times that, he said "Because they can! " I agree with Ha that jewelry at certain points in life - engagement, marriage, notable anniversaries - is the only way to go, but I thank my lucky stars that my wife would rather spend money on, say, life experiences, than expensive baubles. She married me, thereby proving she's not a show-off!

 

[Lsbcal]

... I agree with Ha that jewelry at certain points in life - engagement, marriage, notable anniversaries - is the only way to go, but I thank my lucky stars that my wife would rather spend money on, say, life experiences, than expensive baubles. She married me, thereby proving she's not a show-off!

Sounds like a sensible approach to me. DW loves jewelery but generally the lower priced colorful stuff you can get from a street vendor. She beads some of her own bracelets and necklaces. They're colorful without being gaudy. Beading gives her a chance to visit bead shops, some while on vacation, and have even more fun.

 

[Khan]

Unless you absolutely cannot afford her jewelry, you would be wise to lay off that issue. Many men cannot know what place jewelry holds in a woman's heart, but you mess with that to your peril. If you cut off her jewelry she is not going to be happy about your single malt tastes.

Ha

I've been told all my life I'm supposed to want jewelry.

 

[obgyn65]

There must be something wrong with me - I have never been interested in keeping up with the Joneses... Instead I have always kept a low profile.

aka LBYM (particularly not keeping up with the Joneses).

 

[Marita40]

LOL Kahn, me too. I never understood the lure of expensive jewelry. Too much anxiety wearing it out of the house. I have a couple of inherited rings that I look at and pet in their cute little box every so often--but that's it.

 

[Khan]

LOL Kahn, me too. I never understood the lure of expensive jewelry. Too much anxiety wearing it out of the house. I have a couple of inherited rings that I look at and pet in their cute little box every so often--but that's it.

A few months ago I sold most of the gold and silver I had. ~$3000.

 

[Nords]

Ever seen a guy's dorm room?

Don't get my college daughter started on the hygiene/sanitation issues with guy's dorm rooms. Ever notice that the guys are mostly hanging around the girls' dorm rooms? There's a reason.

You think they're all monks in there??
A.

Elsewhere? No. In there? I'm pretty sure that when the "Your place or mine?" question comes up, they're not going to impress any hot chicks besides Amy Dacyczyn or Vicki Robin...

 

[Birchwood]

I read the two things which people splurge the most affecting financial health are 1. Homes and 2. cars. Thus if we down size on these, we are on our way.
Frugality is something one learn from childhood. It is hard to teach.

My wife is frugal, but can tell fine jewelry from cheap ones 20 feet away/. Once a few years I give in to her penchant for expensive jewelry, to keep peace.

I don't wear any jewelry. My wife points out I also buy a few toys thru the years.

 

[WyndChym]

I've been told all my life I'm supposed to want jewelry.

I hear you, Khan! I have one pair of gold post earrings I wear when I go out in public (what I call “going to town” J ).

Oh... I do wear a pair of dangly “snowflake” earrings at Christmas that I paid a couple bucks for at Newberry’s back in the ‘70s.

I don’t even wear my wedding band. Jewelry just seems to get in the way.

 

[flyfishnevada]

Wow! Hard to believe, but at 129 sqft, it is even smaller than my motorhome (8'X25'). But the rent of $540/mo is probably really cheap for Tokyo. It even has a balcony!

Yes, a roof over our head, and four walls to keep out the cold. Add an AC for comfort in the summer heat, and that's all we need. Everything above it is "wants", my friends.

Ah, we early retirees who claim we are frugal are really just a bunch of hypocrites!

I'm not one to be frugal for frugality's sake. To me it's more about living within your means than trying to skimp on everything and anything just because you can. I run the hell out of our air conditioner in the summer. I like it hanging meat cold in the house. If you can afford it, why not?

I think being frugal is more about making smart choices. Nothing wrong with luxury but if that luxury doesn't bring you any happiness, why pay for it? That is a waste or money. On the other hand, trying to get what you want on the cheap isn't a bad thing either. Absolute denial in the name of saving money is, however.

 

[unclemick]

Hmmm - 1993 - to present in ER. Early on I was beyond frugile as in hard core cheap SOB and I mean cheap. (I envied 'The Four Yorkshiremen' while hang drying and leaving the dryer sheet box unopened).

Time and Mr Market in the 90's did wonders for me plus small pension at 55 and early SS.

Today finds me wildly frivilous. Within compass so to speak. I try to say within 4-6% ballpark and use ORP and my trusty bellybutton as spending guides each year.

Fear - as in running out of portfolio was a biggee starting out.

heh heh heh - lets hope overconfidence doesn't get me in trouble in 'old age'.

 

[harley]

OK, Uncle Mick, I've been wondering for a couple of years, how does the belly button calculator work?

 

[NW-Bound]

I was making some rhetoric arguments.

When we say "frugal", we really mean "LBYM". I made a follow-up post here.

Still, come to think of it, we usually spend more if we have more, but the pleasure that comes with the extra dollars gets diminishing returns pretty quickly. If one can somehow measure the hedonic scale ("pleasure vs. expenses"), I suspect it would be plotted with the dollar amount on a log scale, and the happiness on the linear scale.

I'm not one to be frugal for frugality's sake. To me it's more about living within your means than trying to skimp on everything and anything just because you can. I run the hell out of our air conditioner in the summer. I like it hanging meat cold in the house. If you can afford it, why not?

I think being frugal is more about making smart choices. Nothing wrong with luxury but if that luxury doesn't bring you any happiness, why pay for it? That is a waste or money. On the other hand, trying to get what you want on the cheap isn't a bad thing either. Absolute denial in the name of saving money is, however.

PS. My AC tonnage (5-ton) can never get my house (2800 sqft) to be cold enough to hang meat in the summer. It's 120F dry heat, man! My electric bill was already up to $500/month last July. It's better to leave town.

 

[Old Microbiologist]

Frugality in Europe

Like many here we are more frugal on somethings and less on others. For us, we got seriously frugal by bagging the US entirely and moving to Hungary. We got rid of our gas guzzling car (Acura TL) and bought a Prius specifically to save money in Europe where gas is just above $8 a gallon. But, I buy gas perhaps every 6 weeks or so and then it is only 8 gallons. If travelling then it is of course a major expense, but this is relatively infrequent. We do stay only at 4 or 5 star hotels which we have developed a taste for when travelling. Here in Hungary the farming laws are strict (no genetically modified food is permitted in the EU and nearly all insecticides are banned now in Europe) and all food is essentially organically grown, fresh and much less expensive than in the US. Our food budget is around $400 a month. We are coming up on 3 years of ER now and I have developed a love of cooking so we don't eat out at restaurants except when friends visit us. Because utilities are about 5 times higher in Europe than in the US we have gotten frugal on this especially. I concerted our computers to low power (built 2 myself using AMD M150 CPU) and only uses 20 watts. My wife still day trades in the US and has a higher power system which uses 120 watts. We have a gas heating system which feeds radiators and hot water but is is only used from late October to mid-April. I then switch to electric water heating only. Gas runs us around $5000 a year and electric about the same. Water is surprisingly expensive and also is about 3000 a year. I am seriously considering solar system to offset our electric needs and our village is in a resort community on Lake Balaton which has thermal water so we are working out a deal with neighbors to sink a deep well for thermal water for home heating. Our property taxes are zero, and our insurance is $200 a year. Because our weather is especially mild (think DC without the humidity) we have no air conditioning and have a steady northerly wind so just open the windows in the Summer. Winters I installed a system that divides the house into 3 zones on wireless controllers and keep the house at 15 degrees C in areas we aren't in, to 22 degrees C in areas we are using. We have about 3 acres, a (large for Hungary) fully enclosed swimming pool, sauna, and a 4,000 sq ft house with everything we could possibly need. I set up wireless routers around the place so we have internet everywhere on the property. We get high speed internet as a combination package from our cable TV company (UPC) which has 120 MBPS connection, cable TV (mostly in Hungarian but 6 english news channels, US sports, and about 10 english language movie etc. and includes telephone all for less than $50 a month. Interestingly, we had expected costs to be a lot higher but so far we are pleasantly surprised. I earn $3000 a month from my military retirement and we have a substantial amount of money in investments which we expected to start drawing from but we are living on less than $2000 a month. I was working 1 week a month in the US but frankly we don't need it so I have reduced this to the minimum. We have a full time property manager and a woman that cleans the house. I also cancelled all subscriptions except a proxy server to get around the stupid US internet games, and also recently cancelled Netflix as well. Mostly, we travel, I mountain bike, go hiking in the huge local National Park and am planning to buy a boat this Summer for the lake. We also read all books with e-readers and we have switched to tablets (I have an ASUS Transformer and my wife is getting an i-Pad 3 in May) for surfing the internet etc. But, our lifestyle is nearly 180 degrees from what we had in the US so it is difficult to figure out is we are more or less frugal. I think less but our quality of life is far better than what we had in the US. The weirdest things is that $3,000 a month in the US would be a modest lifestyle (or in some areas impossible) but here you are considered rich. We don't regret leaving the US ever.

 

[Zero]

Due to selling our home, and an unexpected inheritance DW received, we are living on less than 1% WR. Our DD is financially set and absolutely adamant that we not gift her in our will.

So we got the green light to shop till we drop but neither of us has that mind set.

Yesterday I bought a Green Moai surf shirt for $2 at Goodwill, fit like a Brioni but cost $10,000 less.