Spinoff: How do you live below your means?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our #1 is never paying someone to do work for us. Mow your own lawn, lay your own wood floors, paint the walls yourself, put your own brakes on (dh learned through YouTube), install your own light fixtures, clean your own house. We have a well maintained, beautiful house with new kitchens and baths we did ourselves. We only hired out what was mandatory under code (like gas lines). We've saved tens of thousands.

This is assuming you want to sacrifice family time for these things. We are firmly in the camp of not worth it. Plus i don't want to have a bunch of tools around the house. We just had our HW floors refinished and it took 3 guys 5 full work days to do our floors. That's 120 man hours. That would take us months to complete.

Then you must have a huge house. We diy'ed ours and it was not a big deal. The prep work was the worst. We have tons of tools but a floor sander is something you generally rent. We get the kids involved so it is family time. We don't work on our cars but do our house. That's not really living below your means. Living below your means is spending less and saving.

Not interested in exposing my kids to those fumes. The people who did our floors wore respirators and it was strongly suggested that we stay somewhere else for the week. They were correct. Polyurethane is not healthy to be breathing in without the proper equipment.

Just look at the back of the can of those chemicals. Nope.

Its easy to DIY refinish hardwood floors. Common sense is not to use strong chemicals. They are still in your house for months so don't kid yourself to think you aren't breathing them. You should have used a tung or other natural oil finish if you were so concerned about smells.

All chemicals used for refinished HW floors are strong. Using oil or wax does not work well for a modern family.

Yes, we are breathing them, but I'm not about to strap respirators on my kids faces for a week to save money. That's just idiotic.

You already got told to shut up once nicely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone with young children get babysitters to go out to date night and such, or do you feel it’s an unnecessary expense?

Unnecessary expense. We just stay home, have a glass of wine and watch a movie on Netflix after the kids go to bed!

I don’t consider it an unnecessary expense however it is avoidable. Swap with another family or plan play dates and go then. Hi

Kinda crazy, but my frugal husband NEEDS a babysitter every weekend. I was really surprised at his willingness to pay for one every week. We typically go out for 3-3.5 hours and we go out dancing so it's $40 ($12 an hour) every Friday or Saturday night. We aren't willing to pay just to go to a movie or to eat dinner though. He also travels a lot and I get one to attend book club or my monthly happy hour with friends. It's a pretty huge quality of life increase getting to leave the house and not just sitting at home feeling sorry for myself that my DH travels so much and I have no friends. Oh and my toddler and infant haven't ever met our babysitter! They go to sleep before I leave. So it's not like my kids are missing out on parent time.

So if the wake, it’s to a stranger?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We bought a fixer upper 2 family. Fixed up the rental real nice but only did the basics for our unit. Our kitchen is horrible. No intention of renovating. Make do....

So did we! But, hey, the rental unit pretty much pays for our mortgage, so can't complain.

[Anonymous]

I increased my salary by getting more certifications and different positions over the years but then living like I was living 10 years ago.

I am still driving my seven year old car which is paid off now and it isn't a luxury car. I purchased a house in a cheaper less desirable area which that saved me a lot especially in this area. I also rent out my basement. I cut the cord and just have an Internet connection with antenna and Netflix/Hulu. I paid down my loans and credit cards and only use them now for the rewards. I decided to hold off on having children for now. I contribute to my 401k, IRA, and savings account monthly.

My only problem is eating out but I am trying to cut back on that and cooking more. I want to eventually invest and become financially independent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our #1 is never paying someone to do work for us. Mow your own lawn, lay your own wood floors, paint the walls yourself, put your own brakes on (dh learned through YouTube), install your own light fixtures, clean your own house. We have a well maintained, beautiful house with new kitchens and baths we did ourselves. We only hired out what was mandatory under code (like gas lines). We've saved tens of thousands.

This is assuming you want to sacrifice family time for these things. We are firmly in the camp of not worth it. Plus i don't want to have a bunch of tools around the house. We just had our HW floors refinished and it took 3 guys 5 full work days to do our floors. That's 120 man hours. That would take us months to complete.

Then you must have a huge house. We diy'ed ours and it was not a big deal. The prep work was the worst. We have tons of tools but a floor sander is something you generally rent. We get the kids involved so it is family time. We don't work on our cars but do our house. That's not really living below your means. Living below your means is spending less and saving.

Not interested in exposing my kids to those fumes. The people who did our floors wore respirators and it was strongly suggested that we stay somewhere else for the week. They were correct. Polyurethane is not healthy to be breathing in without the proper equipment.



Just look at the back of the can of those chemicals. Nope.

Its easy to DIY refinish hardwood floors. Common sense is not to use strong chemicals. They are still in your house for months so don't kid yourself to think you aren't breathing them. You should have used a tung or other natural oil finish if you were so concerned about smells.

All chemicals used for refinished HW floors are strong. Using oil or wax does not work well for a modern family.

Yes, we are breathing them, but I'm not about to strap respirators on my kids faces for a week to save money. That's just idiotic.

You really have no clue what you are talking about.

+1

What an idiot. Whatever. Pay the $$$$ in labor if you want. But stop coming up with made-up justifications for doing so.

[Anonymous]

We got married right out of college and lived off one salary and saved the other. It was harder to do in the beginning because one salary was much lower (40k) so we had a lot of side hustles to pay for extras. Now I am 30 and we each make $200k, but still save one salary.

[Anonymous]

All my suits, are custom made in *China*

[Anonymous]

I am a single woman, in 20s

Moved to parents house
Drive a paid off car
Eat out less due to being home
Work from home so limited commuting costs
pretty much keep my entire engineer salary to myself.
have cut out of country trips this year to save.
don't drink

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a single woman, in 20s

Moved to parents house
Drive a paid off car
Eat out less due to being home
Work from home so limited commuting costs
pretty much keep my entire engineer salary to myself.
have cut out of country trips this year to save.
don't drink

Good for you but in total that sounds miserable to me.