LBYM Question

[Hyperborea]

Not just European, the man purses are everywhere in Asia too.

I miss Texas sometimes, I really do

Eh, they're practical. You find them in the US too but often people try to hide it by using fanny packs, small knapsacks, jackets with big pockets, or just really large wallets. You got stuff and you need a way to carry it. Seems practical.

I've got a fancy leather one that my MIL gave me years ago that doesn't get much use because I rarely dress up fancy. I do have a couple of different small knapsacks that I use especially when we go out for the day - water, sunscreen, a hat, reading glasses, etc.

 

[W2R]

My contribution to this thread is suave shampoo. It used to be 99c, now I can get them at 99cent store for 99c, but not at regular store. My husband and I go swimming often, practically every day in the summer. Cheap shampoos and free hot water are definitely in the frugal category. No handbag is necessary to carry these cheap products either.

I love Suave shampoo and use it all the time. It's not only reasonably priced, but also it's great shampoo IMO.

 

[Scuba]

I order up anything I want, I fear no restaurant -

+1
We could have RE'd several years ago if we had wanted to live a very frugal life, but we didn't. For us eating good food at nice restaurants, accompanied by a good wine, and traveling the world are important parts of our lifestyle. We budgeted to increase our spending on both of these in retirement since we now have more time to enjoy them. YMMV

 

[Jack_Pine]

I may be a LBYM hair person!

I go down to the barber and get a "2" all the way around once every two months - $10

I am going to grow a pony tail to save money on hair cuts ....................

 

[Big_Hitter]

I am going to grow a pony tail to save money on hair cuts ....................

I thought about doing that but mine would just turn into a gallagher mullet

 

[Big_Hitter]

Eh, they're practical. You find them in the US too but often people try to hide it by using fanny packs, small knapsacks, jackets with big pockets, or just really large wallets. You got stuff and you need a way to carry it. Seems practical.

I've got a fancy leather one that my MIL gave me years ago that doesn't get much use because I rarely dress up fancy. I do have a couple of different small knapsacks that I use especially when we go out for the day - water, sunscreen, a hat, reading glasses, etc.

put it in the back of the pickup truck or hang it in the gun rack

man bags and lone star don't mix, js

 

[Hyperborea]

put it in the back of the pickup truck or hang it in the gun rack

man bags and lone star don't mix, js

So, that's a motorized man bag then?

 

[Jack_Pine]

I thought about doing that but mine would just turn into a gallagher mullet

Mine may too but going to give it a shot. Still working on what the retirement "look" is going to be.

 

[kcowan]

I agree - I was shopping for shampoo recently and even places like Target don't carry the cheap stuff anymore. There are dozens of varieties - all 4 or 5 dollars for about a pint.

I always buy the cheapest shampoo at Costco and discovered from DW that it reduces hair loss and many of her friends seek it out.

I also get my hair cut every 5 weeks for 60 pesos. Went up from 40 pesos over 10 years.

 

[kcowan]

We could have RE'd several years ago if we had wanted to live a very frugal life, but we didn't. For us eating good food at nice restaurants, accompanied by a good wine, and traveling the world are important parts of our lifestyle. We budgeted to increase our spending on both of these in retirement since we now have more time to enjoy them. YMMV

We found we could eat out more often at fine dining places with wine in PV. Right now, premium places are 1800 to 2400 per couple with tips and wine. Regular nice places are 800 and inexpensive places are 500.

We save enough by living here for 5+ months that we can afford a European trip every year and still be 30% under budget!

 

[daylatedollarshort]

Not just European, the man purses are everywhere in Asia too.

I used to see quite a few Asian tourists with man purses at Six Flags.

 

[meierlde]

One other idea is to first check if prescriptions are for branded generics, ask for a change to the generic. Second because generics are cheaper, and also have had their phase 4 trial period (essentially the period of time the drug was under patent protection) the larger group should have found most problems. Tell the physician you want generics if possible.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

+1
We could have RE'd several years ago if we had wanted to live a very frugal life, but we didn't. For us eating good food at nice restaurants, accompanied by a good wine, and traveling the world are important parts of our lifestyle. We budgeted to increase our spending on both of these in retirement since we now have more time to enjoy them. YMMV

Being frugal or LBYM doesn't necessarily mean a spartan lifestyle, not being able to travel or not having the money to afford nice things. I think many here simply like to bargain hunt and live well without spending as much as other people do for the same goods and services. A customer with a Groupon for a nice restaurant has the same experience as a person paying full price. Or someone can enjoy a trip on frequent flyer points as much as another traveler paying full price.

I just checked some of the deals on Groupon and one was a wine country limo wine tour marked down from $1,150 to $329. Another was a $800 meal at a fancy San Francisco restaurant for $280. One of my best bargains last year was going to a $300 wine and food tasting event at a fancy venue last year for $40 on seat filler tickets.

 

[audreyh1]

I was 18 when I first saw men with handbags, in Rome. After my initial double take I realized they were quite functional, and the cut of their elegant Italian suits was not ruined by bulging pockets. So go right ahead.

DH carries a shoulder strap "man purse" when traveling in Europe, and when flying in the US.

No one has jumped him yet for carrying a man purse in the Texas airports.

 

[Chuckanut]

Yeas ago when I had a very limited data cap on my mobile phone, I stopped using colons when I typed and started using semi-colons so as to send less data and not trigger additional charges. I also reduced my use of those big capital letters.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

My bargain hunting and urban homesteading hobbies help us to keep our taxable income low enough to get ACA tax credits, and for us those are worth $18K a year.

 

[Big_Hitter]

I stopped using colons .

now that's frugal

 

[Corporateburnout]

+1
We could have RE'd several years ago if we had wanted to live a very frugal life, but we didn't. For us eating good food at nice restaurants, accompanied by a good wine, and traveling the world are important parts of our lifestyle. We budgeted to increase our spending on both of these in retirement since we now have more time to enjoy them. YMMV

+1.
We also could have retired earlier if we wanted to live a frugal retirement pinching pennies.

While some people hate to spend $2 for a soft drink at lunch others don't mind spending $10 for a glass of wine. It's a personal preference as long as someone is happy and content with their choice.

The economy would have to tank and the stock market would have to go down by 50% before we start clipping coupons, search for bargains and drink 2 buck chuck wine rather than Chateau St Michelle. Until then we will stay the course and enjoy our retirement.

 

[Nemo2]

now that's frugal

Aren't semi-colons bigger than colons?

 

[Big_Hitter]

Aren't semi-colons bigger than colons?

dunno, i use my colons all the time

 

[tmm99]

We don't feel we need to feast every single day to be living. That would be so depressing!

Instead, we just eat lunch. And take a lot of criticism for doing so, by people who think it's impossible to eat without ordering everything on the menu.

Most restaurants serve over twice what a person needs, because they make more money that way. We simply circumvent that by sharing, or by taking half home. Or, often we will each order a cup of soup or a side salad (not both). That is plenty of food for someone in their 60's.

I agree that this happens more and more as we age. My mom lives in Tokyo and goes out to eat with her sister often (both in their 80's). They often share a meal at restaurants because they cannot eat as much as they used to. The serving sizes there are smaller, but still, our food requirement dwindles as we age.

 

[davismills]

Here's our strategy:
1. Ooma for landlines
2. Tracfone for cell with a pay as you go plan
3. Cook meals at home
4. Made a junk email address and sign up for all kinds of "member only" discounts using that address
5. When buying our favorite delivery pizza (Marco's) we always order the grande size and freeze the rest for 2-3 more meals.
6. Love Sirius radio, but always negotiate a rate to less than $5.00 per month.
7. Use our military discounts when offered.
8. Love camping in our RV (our one ill-advised indulgence), but do pay minimal overnight rates at military and state campgrounds. Let's us take our fur baby along with no hassle. The dog is so excited she sleeps in the RV the night before we leave.
9. Maximum use of cash back credit cards.
10. Shop at Aldi's.
11. Use the library regularly.
12. No cable. Use Netflix and Tablo for OTA recordings. The Tablo recordings get ripped to a laptop and pumped to the RV's TVs when we're on the road.
As Bubba would say "That's about it"

 

[tmm99]

We don't flush the toilet until it's necessary. I know some of you think this is totally gross, but we had to do this in California in 1977. I am not sure if it was a California thing, or a Marin County thing, but I was going to a public high school at the time, and they implemented this "yellow mellow rule" at my school to combat the severe drought the region was experiencing at the time. I think this was when restaurants stopped serving glasses of water unless requested.

I live in Ontario, Canada now. We have a HE gas furnace for heat, and HE toilets (3 flushes to a tank, and 2.5 flushes to a tank). Amazingly, our water bill is almost as high as our heating bill in the winter months!I don't know why water costs so much here as it rains multi-folds of northern California (We paid much less for water in California) - Anyway, we have recently implemented the mellow yellow rule. We do enjoy taking baths, so we are not changing that.

My mom thinks I pinch pennies in a strange way, but what I do, to me, is quite logical.
I cannot stand spending money on things that are needlessly overpriced. One example is lipsticks. Why do you have to pay $10-$30 for one lipstick? Half of the time I purchase lipsticks, colors just don't seem right and they end up not being used. And even the ones I use seem to last for years. Why can't they sell sample size lipsticks for like $2-$10??

Sorry, I am just ranting...

 

[Nemo2]

dunno, i use my colons all the time

Well don't wreck 'em...I mean don't rectum.

 

[CindyBlue]

Great deal!

For some reason (not sure why) I don't really like Coach purses, or I'd run to do the same. After years of seeking, I finally found the perfect purse for me and doubt I'll ever buy another brand or style. The purse that I like is this one,

https://www.amazon.com/eBags-Piazza-Day-Bag-Black/dp/B01M7PKZFL/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1491408612&sr=8-1&keywords=ebags%2Bpurse&th=1

$39 on Amazon and probably less elsewhere if I looked around (I haven't). That's not LBYM, in my case, but just blind luck.

I completely agree with you about this purse! I ordered the black one three years ago and still use it every day. I've traveled all over the USA with it and stuffed it silly and it still looks great. I'm glad to see your post, because I've been meaning to order another one. I just know that they will stop making it someday (because that always happens to me with things I love (smile!)) and I want to be ready!