Are you frugal in everyday life: perspective?

well, here I am,
ive generally been quite good at finding out a bargain, wont leave lights on when not needed,
if I see a bargain at the super market, ill pounce on it, ill wait until petrol is cheaper, if I can find it online cheaper Ill buy it from there,

however recently, as im hitting a certain age, ive got a few maintenace issues on my ips,
ive got a few vacancies, and it got me thinking

whats the point in saving $2-$10 here and there, when a vacant ip is costing $250 per week, a plumber will charge me $120 to tighten a leaking tap

and it started ******* me off! here I am being financially savvy to save a few $ here, yes a $4 coffee saved per day is $1k per year, thats a holiday! cancel foxtel and do netflix, save $50 per month, buy a mobile outirght and put in on the plan save $500 per year
and then next minute ill get a maintenace or a vacancy that wipes the savings out instantly, especially via overpriced tradies

anyway, ignoring time constraints and assuming you arent bill gates rich or homeless,

what do you guys do?
it started annoying me so much last week that I hired a lamborghini for 2 days for $1500 and drove it around like an idiot, and now im looking at buying the samsung note 9 at $1500, even thought my s8 is doing fine

and this is after I bought my parents a care a few months ago, and still paying it off!

I guess its all about perspective, but whats the point saving for a year if a bit of bad luck wipes it out
why bother!

 

Yes, this is something I’ve thought long & hard about over the past few years. The outcome has led to many decisions that have shaped our current lifestyle.

My conclusion on the topic was: Balance.

IMO, it is about weighing your wants/needs versus your financial position & balancing short term gratification against long term financial stability/growth. We do this by enjoying life but not in complete reckless financial abandon.

For instance, I still rock a Samsung Galaxy S7E because it still quite modern, works perfectly fine & meets all but one of my “wants” in a phone. (It’s not water resistant like the S8)... but spending $1000 or more upgrading to latest version is not logical....yet.

Another example is we bought new but affordable (for us) cars. That is, we could afford buy outright, run & maintain our cars on our income. Before anyone jumps in to smash the idea of outright ownership, we can’t write off vehicle costs against a business.... so we own ours.

I agree that being a frugal tightwad for your own expenses on one hand and throwing around relatively large sums of investment related dollars with what sometimes seems like reckless abandonment on the other hand, is not conducive to a sense of balance. In my experience, when the two get too far out of sync, radical decision making tends to creep in.....

So, what’s my point on this topic..... $$$ spent of experiences in life are less likely to attract remorse later in life versus buying “stuff”..... so, take the holiday (keeping costs under control), splurge on luxury outbursts on occasion (ie. the Lamborghini experience) but think twice about the new shiney gadget rabbit hole & keeping up with the Jones’..... because in 10 years time what will you remember & have fond memories of?

Balance.....

 

yes i agree, if you have a savvy overall mentality, you will save on investments, living costs, and just about everything in life, and overall you will be way out in front,

however unless you dont own 100% of your portfolio, a portfolio loss/benefit is no different to coming out of your personal savings bank account!

 

well said!!!

 

I'd hold off and wait for the Galaxy S10, slated for release in mid to late Jan 2019.

If even just half of the rumoured specs turn out to be true this will be a beast of a phone. It is the their tenth anniversary after all.

 

My 3 year old Telstra phone blew up last week,so went into the Telstra shop and the phone I wanted was on special at $160.00 ,still thought it was too much-went down to coles and they had the same phone for $79.00 so bought the phone from coles..Then went back to Telstra to change the sim card..

There are only 2 types of people these days,those that swipe the card and don't look at the price,and the others that look at the price first..

 

I'm the same. To me it's two distinct entities. The portfolio is like a Business. You have to spend money on certain things & it's never questioned. However, the income that goes into our personal accounts is completely different. That doesn't mean that I'm a tightwad & don't pay for things, but the money is looked at with a different perspective.

For instance, a tenant can put in a request for a certain expensive item. Let's say a deck....well the answer is NO, unless it's going to bring me a desired return for the money I'm spending, or it's maintenance that needs to be spent. On the other hand, Hubby can put in a request for the exact same item (assume same size, materials & cost) and the answer is a resounding YES if it is something that we will personally get pleasure out of having.

I know that doesn't exactly answer the question, but it's all about the perspective. This year we've bought 2 ducted air conditioners, spend over $10k on plumbing, add in water heaters, ovens & other misc maintenance requests, and it's all been done without a question. In reality, if we needed to spend that much personally, I'd be running around getting a heap of different quotes & lets be honest here, our own home has never needed huge amounts of $$ in maintenance all in one go because the care level seems to be higher than some tenants.

 

Are you frugal in everyday life: perspective?


No. But we worked hard to be in this FU position. When I started out I was frugal as anything. Used to take photos of investment books at the old Borders in Bondi Junction...memories..memories.

Anyway I don't stinge on anything now. Life is too short AND what's the point of working your ass off for 15 years if you cant enjoy soon after.

 

I know this wasn't the point of your post, but I would love to hear more about this experience and pics if you have them.

 

In the early days when getting started, all that scrimping and saving a few bucks here and there really helps to kick things into gear.

But once a decent asset base is in place, the growth on the portfolio does the heavy lifting and saving a few bucks here and there became rather pointless.

Say an asset base of $2m which increases 5% = $100k or 10% = $200k...all of a sudden saving $2k a year by not induldging in a cafe coffee every day is not really going to make much difference if you get my drift.

Still it makes sense to fill up with Petrol when it is cheaper.

I don't go over board with consumption, but it's like I don't care what the price is, if I want it I want it...its like people who read a menu down the right hand column looking at price before description, if i want it I want it, I don't care what the price is.

Mind you I am still using a 3 year old Samsung Galaxy S5...it ain't broke and I see no need to replace it just yet...I can't be bothered with upgrading it yet.

I guess we all place value on different things.

 

The cost of guitar strings is horrific. Just no idea how I will afford them.

 

Oh you said it so well! I have exactly the same thought: I scrapped every Dollar and crumbs from our dinner table, just to get wiped-off within days to Medical or Hubby!

But am I going to go nuts and hire a Harley for $1500? Maybe not. But I've just tossed out our old bedroom suite. It's 10-years old but it's real timber. Nothing wrong with it really, I just got sick of it. So bought another set from Harvey Norman, only the bedframe is rubberwood, the rest are just MDF I guess, from Malaysia. But like @skater said, it gives me pleasure!!

I dont want to be mean to myself, or to be a slave and die the richest person in the graveyard! Well, not really, dont think I will even by giving-up food and drinks... But you know what I mean. So this year I have been visiting salons more often, to have my nails and hair done. This makes me feels good about myself, not feeling/looking like a Drag...

It just makes me laugh when people ask for the cheapest PM, looking for the cheapest rate, and translate into a few dollars after tax, minus the services. These people need to read this post.

 

I am frugal as anything but not to make myself unhappy. For example:

- my phone is old but works great! No need to replace. When it stops doing what I need I will replace it

- my car is old but it's fun to drive and super reliable. When it stops being reliable I will replace it

- my bed is old but it's really comfortable. When it stops being comfortable, I will replace it

- my computer is old but it runs all the games I am playing right now really well. I will replace it when it no longer runs games I want to play.

I have the same attitude with everything.

 

I think value for money..unfortuntely..some people never can release from being a scrooge....it seems to be a disease with some these days.

Value for money is okay...but being a stingy tightwad is not..why because sometimes in life you just have to enjoy.

I got to a lot of meet-up and some interesting behaviours/people there.....I could write a book on that topic perhaps two - one on psychology and other on tightwads.

 

I Bought my elderly paretns a $120 smart phone a few years ago new from the super market.. I thought they could. learn how to use it with basic function

Weeks later they weere complaining how useless it was, thinking it was just old people being old, I used it for an hour.
I ended up throwing it in the bin.
The touch screen was barely rssposnve in one corner.
It was slow and horrible

My. Point is. Even though I don't buy high end phones even for basic use the cheap ones are cheap and are barely usable

 

Today I received spam from Coles on my. Flybuys card, for a free 250ml.can of. Coke orange.

No bull, It actually made me happy that I got a bargain.

How embarassing

 

[QUOTE="especially via overpriced tradies[/QUOTE]

Can I ask how you come to the conclusion they are overpriced? Do they give a breakdown of there business expenses with each invoice?