Too Frugal - Anybody Else Struggle Spending Too LITTLE?

[Bamaman]

Instead of being frugal, I consider myself just "thrifty." Some of this comes from my father who was a son of the Depression.

We've never been ones to hire out anything. My father added onto our house once. We later got 3 carpenters and built the lake house I'm currently enjoying. We needed a boathouse, and we got a frame welded up--and we did the rest of the woodwork.

I've yet to find much that I cannot do, and I enjoy building and keeping busy. No telling how much money I've saved over the years doing my own plumbing and electrical work.

I'm 71 years old now, but I look much younger. I'm in the process of building a 24 x 36' garage/barn at the lake but that's going to be my last project. I'm hanging up my hammer after that.

My wife says we have the money to hire out work. And she's tired of my taking on too many projects at once--due to adult ADD. We're raising a 10 year old granddaughter, and she takes up a lot of time. My wife is having some mobility issues, but we've still got a few places overseas we want to visit.

We'll be just maintaining the status quo shortly. That means just riding a zero turn mower and doing very basic maintenance.

 

[teetee]

If you are frugal because you fear the uncertainty of the future, then you are just normal.

I am normal too. But for the past few years I think I may be frugal out of habit. I spent less than 8k per year as living expense in a mid living expense state in the US with 6 figure income.

Now I am normal because I am fearful if I spend too much, I will get fat and have a bunch of junk I will have to deal with later. I am too lazy to go on a diet and don't want my trash to become others (most likely our next generation's problem).

 

[finnski1]

If you are frugal because you fear the uncertainty of the future, then you are just normal.

I am normal too. But for the past few years I think I may be frugal out of habit. I spent less than 8k per year as living expense in a mid living expense state in the US with 6 figure income.

Now I am normal because I am fearful if I spend too much, I will get fat and have a bunch of junk I will have to deal with later. I am too lazy to go on a diet and don't want my trash to become others (most likely our next generation's problem).

I know these things come up occasionally but how anyone can live on only $8k in a year amazes me. How is that possible?

 

[RobbieB]

Twenty two dollars a day? Amazing.

 

[brett]

The light came 'on' for me after we had booked an economy flight to Singapore a few years ago. 17 hour flight. We are used to 10 hr flights but 17 is very different animal.

Went back on line and upgraded to business class. No regrets. Intend to switch to business for most international flights post covid. Why not?

 

[RobbieB]

I only fly in "sardine" class when there is no alternative.

 

[RetiredHappy]

Yep, we only fly first and business class. The only time I go coach is on Southwest for an hour flight to California.

 

[RobbieB]

Yeah, SW to LAX or John Wayne.

 

[skyking1]

We have not traveled first or business class yet, except for a free upgrade in the good old days.
We are so looking forward to that bit of BTD.

 

[aja8888]

When I worked in Big Oil I flew first class all the time. Then 30 years having my own company, I flew coach unless I got upgraded which was very frequently. I was in ALL the airline Frequent Flyer programs over the years and a Million Miler in two of them. I flew so much I hated it.

I still hate it and any U.S. travel we are planning, is driving trip. No more airplanes and airports for me.

BTW, i still have airline points and a ton of hotel points after ll these years. I give them away to family member if they need to make a trip.

 

[RobbieB]

You got me beat easy. I did about half that stuff and yeah, I was all about upgrades. That were mostly already snapped up.

After flying coast to coast on a regular basis, it gets routine and tiresome. Wow!, all these free air miles to vacation with...

The last thing I wanted to do on vacation was fly somewhere.

I dunno how many miles expired unused. And I don't care -

 

[street]

If you are frugal because you fear the uncertainty of the future, then you are just normal.

I am normal too. But for the past few years I think I may be frugal out of habit. I spent less than 8k per year as living expense in a mid living expense state in the US with 6 figure income.

Now I am normal because I am fearful if I spend too much, I will get fat and have a bunch of junk I will have to deal with later. I am too lazy to go on a diet and don't want my trash to become others (most likely our next generation's problem).

That is amazingly low! When do you intend to retire??

 

[Gumby]

You got me beat easy. I did about half that stuff and yeah, I was all about upgrades. That were mostly already snapped up.

After flying coast to coast on a regular basis, it gets routine and tiresome. Wow!, all these free air miles to vacation with...

The last thing I wanted to do on vacation was fly somewhere.

I dunno how many miles expired unused. And I don't care -

When I was a big firm lawyer in NYC, I would fly all over the country to meet people, take depositions and go to court. Sometimes, acquaintances would say "that must be fun to get to travel so much". No, no it wasn't. Every time was a mad dash to the airport at the last minute, a miserable flight to somewhere, do my business and zip back to NYC as soon as possible. The only things I ever saw were the insides of planes and airport terminals, the back of the cab, law firm conference rooms, courtrooms, and occasionally the most convenient hotel, where I spent all my time reading documents, eating room service and preparing for the next day. Everything looked the same, and it was just plain drudgery.

I will fly to go on vacation, but only because I must.

 

[NW-Bound]

I flew so much I hated it.

I still hate it and any U.S. travel we are planning, is driving trip. No more airplanes and airports for me...

Driving can be tiresome too.

We did quite a bit of fly-and-drive trips for vacations when still working. Since we got the motorhome in 2012, all domestic trips were by RV'ing, and no trips were under 3000-4000 miles, with the two longest ones more than 10K miles (to Nova Scotia and then Alaska).

The RV driving is of course tiring, so I did no more than 400 mi/day, and planned to spend a day of rest here and there to do sightseeing. Of course, a trip lasts several weeks to more than 2 months.

I am getting closer to the point of going back to fly-and-drive, if I find some destination cities I like to visit.

Of course, can't drive to Europe, so I had been making long trips of more than 1 month to make the pain of air travel worthwhile. I am now ready to spring for business seats, whenever travel gets re-normalized after Covid. It will be $7K-8K for two, so this expense takes some getting used to.

PS. My last 12-month expenses are a little more than 1/4 of what FIRECalc says I can spend.

 

[aja8888]

Driving can be tiresome too.

We did quite a bit of fly-and-drive trips for vacations when still working. Since we got the motorhome in 2012, all domestic trips were by RV'ing, and no trips were under 3000-4000 miles, with the two longest ones more than 10K miles (to Nova Scotia and then Alaska).

The RV driving is of course tiring, so I did no more than 400 mi/day, and planned to spend a day of rest here and there to do sightseeing. Of course, a trip lasts several weeks to more than 2 months.

I am getting closer to the point of going back to fly-and-drive, if I find some destination cities I like to visit.

Of course, can't drive to Europe, so I have been making long trips of more than 1 month to make the pain of air travel worthwhile. I am now ready to spring for business seats, whenever travel gets re-normalized after Covid. It will be $7K-8K for two, so this expense takes some getting used to.

Europe or anywhere else out of the country is not in my plans as I have been everywhere I wanted to go. I also did not renew my passport when it expired.

As far as driving, I have driven to Connecticut several times since I retired and to California a time or two. Woops, forgot recent driving trips to Wisconsin. My large stash of hotel points comes in handy for these driving trips.

 

[NW-Bound]

Europe or anywhere else out of the country is not in my plans as I have been everywhere I wanted to go. I also did not renew my passport when it expired....

I guess you don't want to go to places that the YouTuber Bald and Bankrupt is still exploring.

 

[aja8888]

I guess you don't want to go to places that the YouTuber Bald and Bankrupt is still exploring.

Nah, the oil business brought me to a lot of "off the beaten path" international places. Needed to have bodyguard on occasion too.

I was also told not to go in some areas where you could end up being someone's lunch.

 

[street]

^ wow, interesting career.

 

[aja8888]

^ wow, interesting career.

Black Gold is everywhere! (well, mostly)

 

[NW-Bound]

Nah, the oil business brought me to a lot of "off the beaten path" international places. Needed to have bodyguard on occasion too.

I was also told not to go in some areas where you could end up being someone's lunch.

Like what happened to Michael Rockefeller?

 

[aja8888]

Like what happened to Michael Rockefeller?

He was an idiot.

in places where the population is not that hospitable, you go there prepared and in a group.

 

[NW-Bound]

I recently read a couple of reports about Michael Rockefeller's fate. There were several individuals whose accounts corroborated the gruesome story after the fact.

The local Asmats of course stayed mum for fear of retribution, but the suspects were believed to have met Rockefeller earlier when he visited their island.

Later, when they encountered him swimming alone ashore from a capsized boat, they took the opportunity to turn him into a meal. Only a handful were involved in this affair, but they could not keep a secret and spilled the beans to other villagers, who in turn told some priests.

The culprits were suspected to be in the following photo taken in an earlier visit.

 

[RobbieB]

With fully automatic weapons.

 

[street]

^ Lol
They must have been really hungry.

 

[NW-Bound]

^^^ Of course the Asmats are active people and are always hungry.

It's customary for them to dine on the losers in tribal warfare.