Why has your household cut back on spending?

Please feel free to elaborate in words.... or add other reasons (Bare foot investor, or Waterboy's 'I woke up one day and decided to kill the economy')

 

All of the options have negative implications. I've cut spending quite a bit this year but not for any of the reasons above. My reasons are:

A) Eliminate the mortgage on the new house as quickly as possible. The general principal of paying down debt is a good one, especially your own home.

B) Saving to purchase more real estate and other investments. I heavily subscribe to the principal of 'Pay yourself first'. This doesn't mean giving yourself money for lifestyle, it means regularly setting something aside to invest long term.

 

My reasons are also not for any of the above, mine was to reduce waste/clutter and free up some mental space. always had the latest Tv, lounge suite, appliances etc. Now I just use what we have got and am much happier for it. Most of the friends I have are starting to subscribe to a more minimal lifestyle as well. I think this is going to have a large impact in the coming decades.

ALL of my discretional Spending now goes mostly on these 5 things.
Woolworths
Cafes/coffee
Clothing
Bunnings
Paying tradies

 

Being an under 30 adult still at home i have become disillusioned with the idea of home ownership.
Not even 10 years ago walking back home from school i would stop and look at the agency listings in my suburb. Units were selling around 200-250k, good houses around the 600-700k and renovations around the 500k mark with good land.
Now unrenovated units are selling close to 400k and houses no less than 1 mil.

I ask myself what has changed in such a short period of time? I cant really come up with a definitive answer and i dont think the prices rising rapidy are purely immigration related.

To be clear i dont think home ownership is a right, but it should at least be attainable for the working class. The fact that everyone seems to rely on the price of property increasing in order to make money seems very unsustainable.

 

Minimalism is the 7th option down.

 

but since not cutting back is not a choice on the poll, that opinion doesnt count. The poll results will prove all the reasons people are cutting back.

 

Home ownership is attainable for the working class.

It may NOT be attainable in every suburb in every city.

@skater has demonstrated that, even in Sydney, affordable housing options exist. Probably not your ideal location, but a first home is usually a compromise.

 

ask yourself where the suburb was, relative to the cbd, sydney population, when your family bought it. Also think what the market did between 2002-2009 (hint not much).

there may come a point when certain property types simply dont exist anymore.

 

Still paying more each year for things.
Haven't really felt I have cut back on things.
But I do want to cut down on discretionary spending.
I want to cut back on paying less tax. Does that count?

 

Whatever you do, don't simply resign yourself to renting for life. Do something with your money. If you can't buy in a suitable location, invest somewhere else.

In retirement, a few people get to retire quite comfortably. A lot retire okay but not as well as they like. A decent amount struggle just to find the basics.

I don't know any statistics on this, but I suspect almost everyone who have never invested in anything and have never owned their own home, ends up in the last category.


There was a podcast earlier this week where the presenter analysed millionaires habits in the US. Not necessarily the ultra rich, just those that are overall quite well off. Almost all of them owned their own home outright as quickly as possible. It gives them a solid foundation. Knowing they've got a roof over their heads, people are more willing to take risks elsewhere.

This is the fundamental reason I'm throwing everything I can at my own mortgage.

 

I'm almost exactly the same now, apart from the clothes bit. Most of mine come from Salvos.

 

We haven't cut back.
Oldest child has finished High School a few weeks ago, so there's an $8k per year saving,
My wife was promoted to a different role within her Organisation earlier this year and received a pay rise,
I changed career path earlier this year, and have recently been promoted within that Organisation and received a pay rise.
At the moment; can't complain.
We will still employ our life-long practices of trying to save money on the items we spend on, and invest the difference.
Still won't retire early, unfortunately, but the path is now littered with a few more specks of gold than before.

 

My bad - The caffeine have not kicked in yet.
Had a late start this morning.
I meant to say I want to pay less tax. Preferable ZeRo and big fat Nada Zippy do da to the government.

 

I haven't. Don't need anything major or out of the ordinary.

 

Paying off your mortgage faster is the single best thing you can do. Not only does it improve your borrowing capacity , but more importantly it frees up several K per month to spend on other things. That might be paying down INV properties faster, or boosting superannuation, or servicing additional debt associated with additional INV properties, or diversifying into other asst classes.... but whatever it is, it's made possible through the accelerated repayment of non income producing, non deductible debt ....

And one final benefit - when you are mortgage free, it means you don't need to cut back on things

 

Very good advice as even though i feel the Sydney property market is overvalued i still see value in certain areas and i have been saving 80% of my low income (living at home, not great but free) to purchase a house rather than a unit to add value.

Only thing stopping me now is passing loan serviceability for the amount i need which i will hopefully rectify in my next employment role.

I expect prices to be stable after the first home deposit scheme places are used up but anything purchased during that time might be purchased at a premium.

 

I don’t currently live in Australia but the two main areas that we’ve cut back on are eating out and drinking out. By slashing these two areas, we have significantly increased savings in the household. Now after one year of this new approach and it firmly being entrenched in our everyday lives, will this habit (hopefully) be brought forward into retirement.