Reply to What motivates you to be frugal?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]my parents were not frugal, even though they made a decent middle (and at times upper middle) income for most of their professional lives, and now have very little of an accumulated nest egg to show for it. I am an only child and feel a sense of responsibility to help them in their old age now that they are retired (luckily my mom has a good pension with cost of living adjustments).

We also went through a period when my father lost his job (after the 1987 Black Monday stock market crash) and had to cut our living standard essentially to 1/3 what it originally was. He was eventually able to find work again, but at a completely different level of compensation. Luckily, my mom's job kept us going, but we had to sell the house in the suburbs, and move to a 2 BR apt. That had a big impact on me.

So I guess my frugality is a reaction to both of those things. Having a large savings cushion is a security thing for me. Also, will always live below our means, in case one of us loses our jobs. We purchased a house affordable on one spouses income only. And even though we could afford for me to stay home with the kids, I can't see myself ever doing that, because I want to maintain the ability to support the family/myself in case of divorce/husband job loss, etc. We clip coupons, drive a ten year old car, brown bag lunch 90% of the time, don't shop high end fashions/beauty maintenance, cook at home, don't outsource housecleaning, garden services, etc.  We are saving and investing 50% of our take home pay, which makes me happier than a Prada bag could ever do. But we spend on private school for the kids, and lots of kid activities and good, but not lavish vacations. Since my husband and I both didn't grow up with a lot of money (just middle class, not dcurbanmom "middle class", we already feel like we're doing better than our parents and feel quite satisfied with our quality of life. It doesn't bother me that we don't have fancy house or cars that other people in our peer group expect us to have, based on our income/professional status.  HHI: 750K, equally split.

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How does your household keep up two very high paying jobs, with more than one child, while outsourcing no housework? No snark. I am amazed and want to know how.[/quote]

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