Anonymous wrote:We are not frugal at all (at least now...). HHI is 250K.

Luxuries -
- 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 <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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I invest exclusively in Vanguard index funds rather than pay a fund manager or financial advisor 2%. That saves about $30,000 per year.

We send our kids to public school, which saves about $80,000 per year.

DW sometimes uses a single tea bag for two cups of tea. That saves about $1.50 per year.

Clean our own house.
Do our cosmetic upgrades - ikea cabinets, backsplash.
DH does most of the repairs and maintenance in the house.
DH cuts his own hair.
Take our lunch to work.
Iron our own shirts.
Use dryel for dryclean-only sweaters and blouses.
Save actual dry-cleaning for suits and slacks.
Wear things multiple times before dry-cleaning and spot-clean when that's enough.
Travel mostly on airline and hotel points.
Brew coffee at home.
Use one teabag throughout the day.
Download movies for free.
No dogs.
No kids.

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Anonymous wrote:we barely spent or spend anything on our dog.

-we get yearly shots at the Humane Society in DC for $10 each.
-we had him spayed there as well. Under $100 including anesthesia and post-op meds
-he's small so he doesn't eat much
-we buy grocery store level dry food (no grain but it's not high end).

If he got hit by a car or something I'd spend a fortune to help him but I don't see the point of spending a lot day-to-day.

Yeah I didn't used to spend much on my dog either - but they get old and sometimes require daily medication and/or special food for allergies. Getting old sucks for everyone.

+1. My dog takes 3 daily meds now. One is $90/month. The others are $30-50/month. Not sure why dealing with a kidney disease is somehow less important than being hit by a car.

Quick tip:

Most dog meds can be filled at the local drugstore (instead of at the vet). You can print out a prescription discount card online that will provide large savings on Rx that are not covered by insurance.

We've saved a lot on our uncovered meds and meds for our dog using this one: https://www.wellrx.com/rx-discount-card/enroll

Once you use it, the drugstore saves it in your account so you can just tell them to apply it, you don't have to carry it around.

We will give that a try. We tried CVS a while ago and they don't carry the two most expensive ones.

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Anonymous wrote:Wear the same clothes and shoes until I'm no longer able. Im talking on the verge of having holes in them.

When I go out with a friend, I secretly hope they'll offer to pay because I don't want to spend my money. Or I'll tell them I don't want to go out just so I don't spend my money.

Rarely turn on the a/c or heat which has helped me keep my electric bill to under $40 each month.

I don't pay for Netflix, use my sibling's account instead.

99% of my napkins came from restaurants. I tend to grab a handful and just save them.

Use olive oil to remove makeup.

The library is my friend. Haven't bought a book in about 10 years. I used to live in Borders and B&N.

Only use my printer if I must otherwise I print from work.

You're a mooch.

Agree! If I was your friend and got this cheap mooch vibe from you, I'd drop you. Friendships are reciprocal.

That's fine; I've dropped friends who seem to never have money to pay for their meals or are horrible tippers.

This isn't being cheap, this is using your friend.

Anonymous wrote:We have a bi-weekly clean in service because it's cheaper than divorce. We've probably saved hundreds of thousands.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:we barely spent or spend anything on our dog.

-we get yearly shots at the Humane Society in DC for $10 each.
-we had him spayed there as well. Under $100 including anesthesia and post-op meds
-he's small so he doesn't eat much
-we buy grocery store level dry food (no grain but it's not high end).

If he got hit by a car or something I'd spend a fortune to help him but I don't see the point of spending a lot day-to-day.

Yeah I didn't used to spend much on my dog either - but they get old and sometimes require daily medication and/or special food for allergies. Getting old sucks for everyone.

+1. My dog takes 3 daily meds now. One is $90/month. The others are $30-50/month. Not sure why dealing with a kidney disease is somehow less important than being hit by a car.

Quick tip:

Most dog meds can be filled at the local drugstore (instead of at the vet). You can print out a prescription discount card online that will provide large savings on Rx that are not covered by insurance.

We've saved a lot on our uncovered meds and meds for our dog using this one: https://www.wellrx.com/rx-discount-card/enroll

Once you use it, the drugstore saves it in your account so you can just tell them to apply it, you don't have to carry it around.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wear the same clothes and shoes until I'm no longer able. Im talking on the verge of having holes in them.

When I go out with a friend, I secretly hope they'll offer to pay because I don't want to spend my money. Or I'll tell them I don't want to go out just so I don't spend my money.

Rarely turn on the a/c or heat which has helped me keep my electric bill to under $40 each month.

I don't pay for Netflix, use my sibling's account instead.

99% of my napkins came from restaurants. I tend to grab a handful and just save them.

Use olive oil to remove makeup.

The library is my friend. Haven't bought a book in about 10 years. I used to live in Borders and B&N.

Only use my printer if I must otherwise I print from work.

You're a mooch.

Agree! If I was your friend and got this cheap mooch vibe from you, I'd drop you. Friendships are reciprocal.

That's fine; I've dropped friends who seem to never have money to pay for their meals or are horrible tippers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:we barely spent or spend anything on our dog.

-we get yearly shots at the Humane Society in DC for $10 each.
-we had him spayed there as well. Under $100 including anesthesia and post-op meds
-he's small so he doesn't eat much
-we buy grocery store level dry food (no grain but it's not high end).

If he got hit by a car or something I'd spend a fortune to help him but I don't see the point of spending a lot day-to-day.

Yeah I didn't used to spend much on my dog either - but they get old and sometimes require daily medication and/or special food for allergies. Getting old sucks for everyone.

+1. My dog takes 3 daily meds now. One is $90/month. The others are $30-50/month. Not sure why dealing with a kidney disease is somehow less important than being hit by a car.

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Anonymous wrote:Make over 400k but:

1. One car
2. Bring lunch to work
3. Make coffee at home
4. Take the bus
5. Cook often at home
6. Groom our own dog
7. Clean our own house

Dontnthink this list is frugal or cheap. We make a bit more than yiu andnit has never even occurred to me to pay someone to wash our dog and clip her nails. Taking the bus seems frugal though, but all other things are pretty normal.

Sadly I think they aren't that common. Always every couple we know at our income level sends their dog to the groomer and has a cleaning lady. They also buy their lunch at work.

How in the world do people know what their friends income level is? I've never divulged my income level to my friends, nor have I asked or been told what income level my friends are at. It is just not a topic that we sit around and talk about.

Just got our w2s and i brought in 293K and DH 164k. We live in the same house for 10 years, we drive japanese cars, mine is 9yrs old, and I've never had someonw groom our dog. I bring my lunch to work to keep my weight down and save time. I cannot imagine how someone could guess or know what we make.

It's pretty easy to guess.

How? Tell, me how would you guess? For example, this is my family: we live in a row house in Shaw worth about $900k. I work as a director of public relations for a large well known non-profit. My spouse is a journalist. We have two kids age 7 and 9 who go to charter schools in DC. We have one car, a Honda CRV which we bought new three years ago. We go on a lot of vacations and eat out regularly. What's our income?

Around 280k.

That being said I'm not familiar with your industries. For some of my friends I roughly know what their jobs pay. There is no way they are earning more ban 400k. I also know they live in 1.5 million dollar homes, have car payments, cleaning service, vacations etc. I know they are spending all of their money and possibly getting money from family.

Ill ask the oracle this. How much is my HHI? DH sales, me controller. Both IT. Live in Reston, work in Reston. House worth about 800k, public schools, 10 & 7yr old cars, one nice vacation a year. We have an AuPair.

Hard to tell with a sales job.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wear the same clothes and shoes until I'm no longer able. Im talking on the verge of having holes in them.

When I go out with a friend, I secretly hope they'll offer to pay because I don't want to spend my money. Or I'll tell them I don't want to go out just so I don't spend my money.

Rarely turn on the a/c or heat which has helped me keep my electric bill to under $40 each month.

I don't pay for Netflix, use my sibling's account instead.

99% of my napkins came from restaurants. I tend to grab a handful and just save them.

Use olive oil to remove makeup.

The library is my friend. Haven't bought a book in about 10 years. I used to live in Borders and B&N.

Only use my printer if I must otherwise I print from work.

You're a mooch.

Agree! If I was your friend and got this cheap mooch vibe from you, I'd drop you. Friendships are reciprocal.