Frugal and Cheap living are not good ideas

Those are his vacation homes. I think he still lives in his original home in the Midwest.
 
ls99 said:
..."Buffett talks about not timing the market based on macroeconomics, but he did time the housing market perfectly...
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Buffett times the market and picks stocks all the time. His advice to us really means "don't you try to do what I do, because you are you and I am me".

And of course he is correct, because we can just look at what he has and what we have.
 
Maenad said:
NW-Bound: I think you posted that quote back in 2010 when this thread started, too. :D ...
If one uses the Tobias meaning of "cheap", I definitely try not to do that!
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I have quoted Tobias more often than that. His are my favorites. I like this man a lot, though his writing falled out of vogue and I have not read much about him in the last 15-20 years.
 
I don't know if Buffet had two CA homes or only one, but from reading the bio book IIRC he bought a house for his first wife when she moved to CA. So that one wasn't primarily intended to be an investment.

Re stock market he is the antithesis of a trader.
 
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Warren Buffet has a private jet and the $11M home in Laguna Beach. One article mentioned another Lagune Beach home, "In 2005, he sold a house adjacent to the Emerald Bay home now on the market."

I think the whole Omaha house and diner stuff is a bit of good PR and not necessarily an accurate depiction of his real lifestyle. More like the "reality TV" version of it.

He tells other people to buy index funds but that it not what he does, as in do what I say not what I do. Other successful stock pickers are his competition.
 
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I've always considered thrifty and frugal to be positive words vs Cheap, tightwad to be negative words. A cheap piece of furniture implies it will not last, will fall apart easily or break, thus has little value. However, someone who is frugal or thrifty my find a nice piece of furniture on clearance, thus still buy high end, but at a greatly reduced price.

A cheap person/tightwad often does so at the detriment of others.. ie they go out to dinner but dont' tip or tip 50 cents on a $20 meal. A thrifty person goes out and has a meal for $5 and still leaves a $1 tip or maybe even more. A cheap person goes to costco and grabs all the freebie samples and doesn't buy anything vs. a thrifty person may go to costco and get their $1.50 hotdog. Its that fine line of what is acceptable social contract that you shouldn't break just to get a deal or take advantage of other people.
 
Interesting thread. The opposite of frugal is generous. I believe you can be both but it is how you choose to spend the money you have. I think of frugal as living within one's means, which doesn't connote anything negative IMO. Each person may have a different level of means so it can have many different meanings depending on where you fall in the wealth spectrum.

I don't think jollystomper's family trip to Asia was "non-frugal" but rather a generous gift to the family.

Given Warren Buffett's wealth, he doesn't live extravagantly and he is generous in his plans to give most of his wealth away similar to what Andrew Carnegie did in the early 1900s.
 
Frugal can mean to squeeze the best juice out of the fruit... It's a Latin derivation., I believe. Getting the best of what you really enjoy by not wasting money on cheap stiff... Yummy. A juicy life.
 
A different example of frugal: Looking for bargains but only buying the bargain when you already want the item. This is not cheapskate or any of that. Today I was frugal. I do once a week shopping (sometimes less) and use the grocery loyalty card, plus look at the weekly specials to see if there is anything I regularly use, or want to get, and don't buy stuff I'm not going to use. By doing this, our gas guzzler van which needs a tank of gas about once a month usually gets a free fill up. That saves about $45 per month or almost $500/year.

For the last couple of years I've been wanting to make rack of lamb in the spring, but could not stomach the price. Last year I looked around, couldn't find it, except at BJ's, and it was about $25/lb if I recall. :nonono: This week my regular grocery store is selling Australian rack of lamb for $8/lb. With my loyalty card it was $6/lb. :dance: The lamb is fresh-not frozen, packed 4/7, bought today. So yeah, I got extra. It will freeze well the way it is packed, and cooked sous vide, as I have done with steaks, it will still be amazing.

Frugal-yes.
Cheapskate...rack of lamb for my family...no, not cheapskate.
 
Wow, I have never seen racks of lamb for as high as $25/lb. Usually I can get it for less than 1/2 that.

When buying an expensive cut, I remind myself that it is still a lot cheaper than eating in a restaurant. The rule of thumb in the restaurant business is that 1/3 of the meal price goes for the ingredients, 1/3 for labor, and 1/3 for fixed costs of the establishment. By supplying my own kitchen and my labor, which I love to do as I like to cook, I already save a lot of money. I enjoy eating out too, but cooking at home for family is also a pleasure, and it is inexpensive.

Just last night, watching a Rick Steves' episode in Alsace when he was dining at a fancy restaurant, I happened to catch the prices on the menu that he was holding up. Appetizers ran €40-60. Main dishes ran €90-100. And I did not catch if that restaurant was awarded any Michelin star or not. Good grief!
 
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NW-Bound said:
The rule of thumb in the restaurant business is that 1/3 of the meal price goes for the ingredients, 1/3 for labor, and 1/3 for fixed costs of the establishment.
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No profit?
 
I believe the profit is embedded in the labor cost (the restaurant owner pays himself), and the fixed costs (paying himself rent if he owns the place).

I heard about this on FoodTV, and from Anthony Bourdain if my memory serves, so it must be true.
 
NW-Bound said:
I believe the profit is embedded in the labor cost (the restaurant owner pays himself), and the fixed costs (paying himself rent if he owns the place).

I heard about this on FoodTV, and from Anthony Bourdain if my memory serves, so it must be true.
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I've led a sheltered life I guess....have never heard of profit being considered a cost, which I thought was a short term liability.
 
Anyway, the above prices I saw were outrageous, so could it be an old video that I now saw on youtube? A youtube commenter said the date was 1997. Ah, so that explained it.

A French franc was about 1/6 or 1/7 the value of the euro, so the prices would be a lot more reasonable. And I went to the Web and found that the restaurant is still in business. A simple appetizer runs €10, and foie gras is €17. Main dishes are around €20. I feel so much better. Even I can eat there. :)
 
It's what people get when they want to try concoctions made by avant-garde chefs: "a halved and refilled passionfruit, the vicious passionfruit supplemented by a watercress purée that tastes only of the plant’s most bitter tones", "spherified balls of onion purée that burst jarringly against the roof of the mouth", "pigeon requested medium, but served so pink it just might fly again given a few volts, with brutally acidic Japanese pear and more of that flavourless watercress purée", etc...

Just give me the old-fashioned onion soup and duck confit, please.
 
Regarding business aspects of running a restaurant, I found the following on a Web page:

Full-service restaurants at all levels spent about 32 percent of each dollar on the cost of food and beverages, 33 percent on salaries and wages, and from 5 percent to 6 percent on restaurant occupancy costs. Profit margins, however, varied according to the cost of the average check per person. Those with checks under $15 showed a profit of 3 percent. Those with checks from $15 to $24.99 boasted the highest profit margin at 3.5 percent. Finally, those with checks of $25 and over had the lowest profits, at 1.8 percent.​
 
One reason why I don't like to eat fancy restaurants, almost everything is purée, vegs that don't look like vegs. Yuck!
 
EastWest Gal said:
For the last couple of years I've been wanting to make rack of lamb in the spring, but could not stomach the price. Last year I looked around, couldn't find it, except at BJ's, and it was about $25/lb if I recall. :nonono: This week my regular grocery store is selling Australian rack of lamb for $8/lb. With my loyalty card it was $6/lb...
Click to expand...

NW-Bound said:
Wow, I have never seen racks of lamb for as high as $25/lb. Usually I can get it for less than 1/2 that...
Click to expand...

I just came back from Sprouts. Their price for rack of lamb is $19/lb. No way I would pay that. Occasionally, they will mark it down to 1/2 if a package does not sell after a few days, and that is when I buy.

I do not have Sam's club membership, but just saw that they have New Zealand lamb rack for $11/lb, and deboned leg for $6/lb. That's more my price, which I pay when seeing the same at other grocery stores.

Last Sat, I and my son-in-law shared a small boneless leg of 3.5 lbs. We only ate 1/2 and had plenty of leftover. Cooking is so much fun, and we always welcome opportunities to cook for family. We can entertain for so much less, compared to the times we went to our favorite French restaurant (which we do occasionally for a change of atmosphere). The money I save on food, I can spend on expensive booze.
 
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EastWest Gal said:
A different example of frugal: Looking for bargains but only buying the bargain when you already want the item. This is not cheapskate or any of that. Today I was frugal. I do once a week shopping (sometimes less) and use the grocery loyalty card, plus look at the weekly specials to see if there is anything I regularly use, or want to get, and don't buy stuff I'm not going to use. By doing this, our gas guzzler van which needs a tank of gas about once a month usually gets a free fill up. That saves about $45 per month or almost $500/year.

For the last couple of years I've been wanting to make rack of lamb in the spring, but could not stomach the price. Last year I looked around, couldn't find it, except at BJ's, and it was about $25/lb if I recall. :nonono: This week my regular grocery store is selling Australian rack of lamb for $8/lb. With my loyalty card it was $6/lb. :dance: The lamb is fresh-not frozen, packed 4/7, bought today. So yeah, I got extra. It will freeze well the way it is packed, and cooked sous vide, as I have done with steaks, it will still be amazing.

Frugal-yes.
Cheapskate...rack of lamb for my family...no, not cheapskate.
Click to expand...
Glad you found the deal you wanted!

Do you have a Costco membership? Their Australian rack of lamb is usually at a good price.
 
NW-Bound said:
...
Just last night, watching a Rick Steves' episode in Alsace when he was dining at a fancy restaurant, I happened to catch the prices on the menu that he was holding up. Appetizers ran €40-60. Main dishes ran €90-100. And I did not catch if that restaurant was awarded any Michelin star or not. Good grief!
Click to expand...
I sometimes wonder about the Rick Steves' message. On the one hand he has good travel advice and features ways to do reasonably priced travel. On the other hand he seems to show more of his true travel style in the videos and he has lots of personal contacts most travelers do not have. And he runs tours which are surely not the way to be a money smart traveler (maybe 2x a non-tour cost). Hmmm....
 
Please see my correction in post #90. Basically, the prices that I saw in that video were back in 1997 and in French francs, when the euro was not yet in effect.

And Rick Steves makes so much money now that he can eat at any Michelin-3-star restaurant he wants. My niece shared a tidbit the other day about him donating $500K to charity.
 
Lsbcal said:
I sometimes wonder about the Rick Steves' message. On the one hand he has good travel advice and features ways to do reasonably priced travel. On the other hand he seems to show more of his true travel style in the videos and he has lots of personal contacts most travelers do not have. And he runs tours which are surely not the way to be a money smart traveler (maybe 2x a non-tour cost). Hmmm....
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Guided/organized tours are expensive, but it's a great option for folks who don't want to do the work - especially for the first time Europe traveler. There are lots of gotchas and it's easy to make rookie mistakes. At least Rick Steves tours aren't priced as high as many.

See my sig line - our Europe excursions sometimes take months for me to research, plan, and reserve/purchase.

This year we're taking a break - staying in one location. Next year it will be back to the whirlwind.
 
NW-Bound said:
Please see my correction in post #90. Basically, the prices that I saw in that video were back in 1997 and in French francs, when the euro was not yet in effect.

And Rick Steves makes so much money now that he can eat at any Michelin-3-star restaurant he wants. My niece shared a tidbit the other day about him donating $500K to charity.
Click to expand...
Right, but RS books seem to be oriented to the average traveler. Yet he is showing videos that are more in the splurge category.

Still we buy the books and tune in the some of the shows.
 
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