Reply to What is the most frugal (or cheap) thing you do to save money?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We are not frugal at all (at least now...). HHI is 250K. 
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Luxuries - [/b]
- We have house cleaners twice a week
-  I am a SAHM and volunteer my time at school and church.
-  DH buys lunch at work
-  We eat out or get take-outs very frequently. At least a few times a week. 
-  We entertain a lot - big parties with food, booze, servers
-  We recycle a lot, but do not wash ziplocks to reuse. 
-  We use bottled water for drinking. 
-  We buy a lot of clothes and accessories, give most office clothes to the drycleaners, 
-  At least two loads of laundry a day. At least two loads in the dishwasher a day
-  We use a lawn care company to treat our lawn and a lawnmover company to keep our lawn mowed. 
-  We give generous amounts of money to many charities
-  We give generous gifts to school staff and all teachers of my children during holidays
-  We are the people who have huge birthday parties for our kids, all siblings and family allowed, at least one entertainer, a full meal served along with booze, goody bags for all. 
-  Travel abroad every year.

So, why am I posting on this thread? We have an absurdly low cost structure and can cut down on the luxuries mentioned above in an instant - and that makes us frugal and smart.

- Live, save and invest on one salary.  My own salary (during the years that I worked) was never touched and  100% invested. 
- Bought a huge SFH in the boonies for &lt;300K.  It was a steal then and a miracle now. We were not tempted to move to a more prestigious and more expensive area.  Our friends did. They pay for it in more than one way. 
- Retirement on track, a whole lot of insurance (a few million), and a pension plan. 
-  Kids go to magnet public schools. I do spend on enrichment and tutoring outside of school  but I am guessing people in private schools do that too.  
- Energy efficient and Green everything - home, cars, appliances
- No student debt for us. Fully funded college for kids.  Not just for 4 years of college but for Med school, law school, masters, or MBA.  
- Retirement on track, a whole lot of insurance (a few million), and a pension plan. 
- Costco, Amazon, Walmart shopper
- No gym, but we trek a lot so we have expensive gear for that.  And we have expensive paraphernalia and equipment  for all our hobbies.
- Indexed Mutual Funds.  Have always saved at least 30% of our salary...from our very first paycheck.  Power of compound interest!!
- We will not pay for our kids weddings because it is a waste.  Each kid will get 40K when they marry towards a down payment for a house, and 20K towards a new car when they start working. We think that is very generous helping hand in life for any child.  If our kids cannot make the very best of these advantages then really there is no hope for them.

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Wow this is awesome. Twenty-something here. You sound a lot like my parents down to the 40k at marriage and entertaining around the clock on what dcum would consider a modest salary. I aspire to model my own life the same way! Thanks for posting.[/quote]

This is not helpful at all.  You are UMC and live in a low COL area.  And you aren't frugal about anything. [/quote]

Living in a low COL area  when you can afford Bethesda is frugal!   I am UMC because I choose to live where I do.  Otherwise I would be DCUM poor. [/quote]

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