If you are gradually downgrading your lifestyle...what do you miss?

[Anonymous]

I’ve been packing my lunches. The cafe in my building went from $7.95 to a sandwich pre-COVID to $13 and I just can’t justify that. I also invested in a vacuum sealer- now that it’s just myself and my husband I’ll buy Costco meals and portion out the leftovers and freeze. It’s cheaper than my buying all the ingredient to make those things myself.

[Anonymous]

I stated grocery shopping online. The delivery fee is only $3 at certain times and it prevents impulse purchases. I started it after having surgery and couldn’t drive but have continued due to the positive impact on our grocery bill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I stated grocery shopping online. The delivery fee is only $3 at certain times and it prevents impulse purchases. I started it after having surgery and couldn’t drive but have continued due to the positive impact on our grocery bill.

I started doing this during Covid - Aldi has a $2 fee and slightly higher prices for pickup. The lack of opportunity to impulse buy more than pays for the convenience fee, so i haven't stopped.

It's the other stores I have to go to in person for stuff Aldi doesn't have that kills my budget. Costco, HMart and Wegmans, the unholy trinity of impulse buys. The best I can do is space out my visits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have generally been low-spending for a while - at least spending well under means - but now that we need to cut back even more quite seriously, what I miss most is being ABLE to buy something if I want it. I used to bypass a lot of expenditures knowing "I could buy it if I really wanted to".

Needing to be careful with money vs. choosing to be careful is a very different, and exhausting psychological mindset. I've been on both sides.

This is so very true. We have always lived on tight budgets - grad student stipends, then day care costs and saving for a (tiny old row)home when we were in our first salaried jobs, then trying to catch up on retirement savings.

But we have gradually gotten used to being *able* to buy things, even if we try hard to delay and spend minimally. I was furloughed this fall and we tried to live on my spouse's much lower salary - it really sucked. Immediately having to draw from savings for unexpected car and home repairs, deleting pantry items from the grocery cart that we'd usually restock after using but they weren't in the meal plan *this* week, resenting how bad my wardrobe is after weight loss and wishing I could justify going to Old Navy for just one new pair of jeans. Nickle and diming like that gets depressing.

Fortunately the shutdown ended and I got paid. The car is repaired, the pantry is restocked, I'm still wearing yoga pants and delaying buying jeans. But I hope I can keep my job.

[Anonymous]

I have always had more or less a pared down lifestyle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I downgraded before needed.

Don’t drink and spouse drinks a little and rarely drinks away from home.

No botox, house cleaners, landscapers.

Kept old cars for a looooooong time.

Buy a few new pieces of clothing but mostly buy good quality used clothes or vintage items.

Have not traveled abroad in several years. Hope to next year if we are still allowed to leave.

Rarely eat at restaurants. When we do, it’s a family run type of place.

Find free stuff to do when possible. Hiking, art shows, creating art (does cost a little), free movies, etc. Do some events at parent’s assisted living since it’s paid for already.

We don’t buy a lot of decorations for holidays.

We love to cook and do spend on good food, and we enjoy grocery shopping.

We grow a garden so we have fresh herbs. Amazing.

Same.

My Subaru Forrester is about 8 years old now, and my DH was going to get me a new car and take the Forrester for himself and get rid of his 20 yr-old Blazer. But instead I'm getting his Blazer detailed for Christmas and we are going to keep it for now and skip getting a new car.

Smart financial move! If the cars are working fine and reliable, you can save so much. You will have lower insurance rates. Just try to be saving a "monthly car payment" so when you need a new one you can pay for 50-60%+ in cash.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I miss being able to buy certain kinds of relatively expensive things without thinking about it.

For example, I've lost a lot of weight and would like a really nice coat. Before "downgrading my lifestyle" (quit a professional career for a passion job, and as DH gets close to retirement we are looking very close at spending less) I would have spent a couple thousand on such an "investment piece" easily. Now I've hesitated so much that I haven't bought one at all, and keep asking myself "Do I even really need it?"

I think I've overcompensating though.

We've also cut back on travel. We just took a somewhat expensive international trip, but we are only doing such a trip once every three to four years or so rather than every year or so.

A couple thousand dollars on a coat that’s an “investment piece?” Yeah, I’m actually rooting for AI to eliminate all of your idiotic, overpaid white-collar jobs.

It's a coat that you wear for the rest of your life. That is what an "investment piece" is when you are talking about clothing -- you invest in it because it will last long enough that you don't have to buy a coat ever again. When you are looking at wearing something for the rest of your life, you are looking at pretty good cost-per-wear. But go ahead and keep buying piles and piles of trash from Shein that end up in a landfill after one wear.

+1

While I don't spend $1000+ on coats, we spend on Patagonia coats/jackets. They last longer than other brands, they repair them or give your money back years in if there are issues (got a new coat 4 years in when the zipper broke and they coudlnt' replace it exactly). Also they give back, care about the environment and are generally a great company. So yeah we spend $500 on coats, because it rains all winter where we are, and we need a warm and waterproof jacket to go outside. I'm 3 years into my newest one, it looks like new and does the job well. Well worth spending $500 versus 250

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I stated grocery shopping online. The delivery fee is only $3 at certain times and it prevents impulse purchases. I started it after having surgery and couldn’t drive but have continued due to the positive impact on our grocery bill.

If you’re okay with Walmart groceries you can get a Walmart Plus membership either free through certain credit cards or they run discounts for $49 for the year sometimes. Gets you free delivery from store and they don’t mark up their delivery items. It also gets you a ten cent discount per gallon on Exxon gas. And I think it now also comes with free Paramount Plus or Peacock.

[Anonymous]

Cable

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I stated grocery shopping online. The delivery fee is only $3 at certain times and it prevents impulse purchases. I started it after having surgery and couldn’t drive but have continued due to the positive impact on our grocery bill.

If you’re okay with Walmart groceries you can get a Walmart Plus membership either free through certain credit cards or they run discounts for $49 for the year sometimes. Gets you free delivery from store and they don’t mark up their delivery items. It also gets you a ten cent discount per gallon on Exxon gas. And I think it now also comes with free Paramount Plus or Peacock.

If you have an Amex card, they currently have an offer for $40 cash back on a Walmart Plus membership...not sure if you get that if you only pay $49, or if you have to spend at least $89. Nets you the same thing.

Also, I receive Instacart coupons all the time for $30 off $80 at Harris Teeter as an example (and you get the price discounts for Harris Teeter rewards), which covers all the Instacart fees and still leaves like $10 - $15 of a discount off the order.

Finally, if you return your Amazon items to an Amazon fresh, they have coupons that give you $12 off a $40 purchase.

[Anonymous]

We aren’t cutting back and have plenty of $ But I never DoorDash or use uber eats. Such a ripoff - so is Starbucks - except for the rice Krispy treats

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We aren’t cutting back and have plenty of $ But I never DoorDash or use uber eats. Such a ripoff - so is Starbucks - except for the rice Krispy treats

Ok?

[Anonymous]

Switch from Friday night date nights out to getting ethnic takeout and watching streaming movies or free DVDs from the library

No housecleaning service

No lawn service

Clothes from Costco

More shopping at Aldi

[Anonymous]

Vacations

[Anonymous]

I am surprised at this thread. I have not done most of the things on this list that people have cut. I guess the key is to not start doing these things in the first place and then you’re not going to miss them.