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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I grew up house-rich and cash-poor in Potomac and hated being one of the poorest people in a rich area. My DH grew up with his parents always saving for a larger house (they moved into it when he went to college, so he never enjoyed it) and then my MIL (whom I loved dearly) passed away a few years ago at a young age. One of the last things she said to my FIL was "we should have gone to Hawaii when we had the chance". This made me realize that I needed to look at my priorities and work towards them.

Over the years, I've come to realize that my top priorities are: private (religious) school for the kids and family vacations . So we live in a tiny house, buy second-hand clothes, rarely eat out (I'm not a fan of most restaurants, anyway), don't eat meat that often (a lot of rice and beans, but with spices so they're tasty meals). But now we're starting to go on vacations, and everyone is having a ball. It's not as hard as we expected with little kids, and everyone is happier.

It also helps that I hate shopping (DH buys all of the kids' clothes and even some of mine). The only things I like to buy are really expensive, like expensive pots/pans, etc., which we already have (not so-expensive versions, but they work), so I don't need to buy any right now.

I won't, however, put a budget on our grocery bill, even though we've moved to more vegetarian meals; I can't stand the idea of only having X amount to spend on food. What do you do, go hungry at the end of the month? What if there's a huge sale on a pantry staple?

For every non-food purchase, I first think: is this going to make me happy in the long run? Will I use it and be happy that I own it, or will I have buyer's remorse every time I see it? That thinking helps me a lot.[/quote]

I think it's great you know your priorities. Mine are college funds, food and wine and nice clothes.  Helps clarify things.[/quote]

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