Are you frugal in everyday life: perspective?

Rather enjoying reading this thread. People are always fascinating. I've previously indicated it's a Yes and No for me but in some ways it depends on what frugal means to the individual. I don't think it necessarily means being a tighta!se but possibly being economic in the use of your resources.

Silly example, do you buy an expensive but high quality piece of furniture which will last for years and probably still have a residual value as opposed to a less expensive one which will fall to pieces in five years? Tessa v Ikea anyone?

 

Intrestingly, I got a free retro (70s I think) Tessa sofa a few months ago. Great design. Was going to be left on the nature strip.

 

Yes.
Definitely buy quality products but for recliners and sofas I've been a second-hand girl. Most I've ever spent was $1600 for a brand new ($3000) leather set at auction. My dogs jumped all over it when they were puppies and their little claws damaged the leather. It took ten years to die.

 

Nice.

Not too sure of the laws in Canberra on this but I wouldn't be surprised you could be fined for illegal dumping given the odd attitude of the legislators here. However, I have done it with small items I no longer required and they were snapped up within a few hours. Better than ending up as landfill.

 

I don't know.. most of these post are depressing.

I think if the heading was" Were you frugal in everyday life before you were successful" then I would unequivocally say yes. Would even take photos of investment books pages in Borders to save money.

Fast forward 12 to 13 years and definitely not. I rarely look at the price tag (unless they are big ticket items) when I buy things now. I didn't work this hard, only to then have to worry about every cent I spend. To me, that's not how to live a wealthy and fulfilling life.

 

I really dislike this mindset ( no offence)
So you put a value on your time?

So if you earn 30 an hour, and a task costs you 28 or 32, then it's deemed not worth or worth it?

Do you put a value on spending an hour putting your kids to bed?

Or a holiday?

I also value the experience I get, the pleasure or lack of or the knowledge I gain, and the personal satisfaction

The way I see it. Unless you are losing income by doing this job, that mindset is a very non investment and petty one

And yes I use the 4c off vouchers, and wait until it's cheap fuel day to fill up.

Hell, if my car has full fuel and my family has an empty car and I'm off somewhere, I'll go to their house change cars and fill it up. On the way back

 

Instead of wasting time trying to save $....why not work out how to make extra $...

 

i like your dedication!

 

This suggests to me that when you were being frugal, you were doing it out of necessity to achieve your income goals and likely considered such a lifestyle as one of deprivation. If you are a naturally frugal person, then spending more than you really have to on things, regardless of how wealthy you currently are, can cause a similar level of anxiety to the deprivation feeling you experienced during your temporary frugal phase.

I'm not saying this is bad thing, rather I'm just pointing out that the difference in philosophy can determine what makes you feel financial pain, whether that be from spending too much (natural frugality) or not spending enough (imposed frugality). I tend to be the former, as evidenced by my recent purchase of a new vehicle initially causing more feelings of guilt that it was far fancier than I really needed than the pleasure I should have been getting from having such a nice thing. Obviously, you are the latter, and that's fine too.

 

good point,

I dont mind having fancy things, but addmittedly, the amount of depreciation would stick in my throat,

so spendning $50k on a brand new car that might be worth $30k after 3 years would always bug me,

thats why I spent $30k on a car that wont go down any further in value and eventually will appreciate

 

What if you can save thousands per year from a single phone call, or even just save a bit in a couple of minutes? I have done both. The first was a phone call to negotiate a lower rate on an investment loan. The second was switching my phone plan. It took 2 minutes. Amount saved was not much but I got extra data

My point is you don't have to spend a lot of time to save a lot. Why earn more then waste it when you can get the same or better at a lower price?

Home insurance, car insurance, phone plans, internet, energy, interest rates are areas where it is easy to save a lot with little effort.

 

Nope, never considered to be living a lifestyle of 'deprivation'. Always felt blessed. The mindset to save/budget etc for future goals is simply a matter of discipline and focus. Nothing to do with feeling deprived - at least not for me.

You're over thinking it. I spend whatever I want to now because I simply can. I rather save my time than have to go running around comparing prices on X product to save $5, $20, $100. CBF doing that anymore.

 

That describes me to a T. But hey, if it makes me happy then who are others to judge.

It has benefits anyway. I am back on overnight oats and green tea to save money for something I want to do next year. I feel less hungry during the day and slightly more alert. That's a direct benefit of my frugalness

 

You say you dislike my mindset but then reinforce the main point throughout your post.

The point I'm making is you have to figure out whether the task you plan on doing will provide you/those you care about more value (happiness, memories, money etc) than another task you could be spending your time on.It's not some arbitrary hourly rate I place on my time. It's something I'm constantly reassessing every day. It's a cost vs benefit analysis. This isn't an absolute.

Some examples:

• Spending 15 minutes arguing with cashier/driving to further fuel station to save $2 Vs spending 15 extra minutes with the kids before they go to bed = spend time with kids

• Doing 1 hr overtime which will allow me to take the kids to the movies and get ice cream (a good 3 hours quality time) = do the overtime

• Paying cleaner 3hrs to clean house Vs 1 hour overtime = do the overtime and have an extra 2 hours in my week to do more enjoyable things

• Spending 1 hour to do some research on insurances and phone plans and save $1,000 per year = do the research

On top of this you also need to look at not just 1st order consequences of your decision, but also 2nd and 3rd order.

E.g.
1st order consequences = Get voucher + drive further fuel station = $2.00 saving
2nd order consequences = waste 15 minutes of time + place additional wear and tear on vehicle + additional fuel spent to get to the service station = lost time with family + likely expenses greater than $2.00

I don't see anything 'petty' about this mindset or 'non investment' at all. In fact quite the opposite. I believe having this mindset actually leads you to being far more conscious of what you value and spending more time on the things you do.

 

yes that is all a very valid point, but you mentioned is the task worth less or more than your hourly rate,

your last post is referring to what you value more, which Iagree with, not by how much you earn per hour vs how much you are going to save

if going to the petrol station and saving 10c per litre which is $5 per week for example, and it may take an extra 15 mins per week, thats $250 a year, and at the end of the year I will go out and buy a new toy for $250 (unfrotunately, I dont practice what I preach , and I dont buy myself that toy! )

 

Fair enough, I could have placed more emphasis on 'what you value' rather than your 'the value of your time'. The hourly rate comparison rate was simply to show how ludicrous driving 15 minutes to 'save' 4c/litre is.

As I mentioned, it's worth weighing up the 2nd and 3rd order consequences of your decisions.

In the example above, are you really saving $250 spending an extra 13 hours driving to the further station per year? Or are you saving $150-200 due to the extra fuel and wear and tear? Are you better off doing just doing an extra hour overtime once every 2 months? 6hrs x $50 = $300?

I know this is semantics but spending a few minutes thinking why we do things and their true consequences can sometimes make you rethink things and make life a whole lot simpler.

 

I probably fail on a number of frugality aspects. Happy to throw a relatively goodly amount of funds on some art I like and want or on other incidental stuff for which I could get a very good car and yet when it comes to getting the last of the crumbs out of the Weetbix box, no way am I going to waste my money by throwing them out.

 

well, to be honest i dont go out of my way to find the cheaper fuel but the amount of energy I spend timing wouldbe more signficicant,
as melbournes fuel cycles keep changing, if I am on the way home and petrol is about to go up, i will top my fuel tank even though I only put in $8, and if I run out of fuel and its at peak, I will only put in $10, and make it last as long as possible to get to the cheaper price,

probably way too much energy and thinking for most people....unfortuantely ,thats who ive become