Quote:
Originally Posted by Sliver
I think frugality can be defined in so many different ways, but in general it is a better philosophy than one that leads to conspicuous consumption. I know nobody is advocating spending/living like Paris Hilton, but I think there's value in leaning more toward the frugal side of things than the other direction.
Good examples of things that - I believe - people waste there money on, thereby setting themselves and their family in a worse position in life, are: expensive clothes, large homes with unnecessarily high operating costs, expensive new cars, too-expensive vacations, expensive weddings, etc.
Unless you come from wealthy families, and/or unless you are topped off on all of your retirement savings relative to your age and are living debt free, you shouldn't spend more than modest amounts on any of the above. This is because upgrading from a basic-ish level on any of the above to a deluxe version does not lead to any more happiness. It will absolutely lead to a longer working career, though, out of necessity. I want to have the option to retire when I want; not be forced to work longer because I wanted to wear $150 jeans when I was 25 instead of $35 jeans, or because I spent $200K more on a house in my 30s than I needed (with more interest charges, higher taxes, higher insurance, higher heating bills, etc.), or because I didn't want a three-year old car so bought new, or because I thought throwing a $20,000 party was important when my net worth was half that (people are adding years to the length of time they have to work with some of these expensive weddings).
Thankfully, my wife is on the same page is me, which is also important. The last thing you want is some dumb chick blowing through your monthly income on expensive clothes and new hairdos. You'll never get ahead in life on average incomes if that's going on.
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I think you really have it figured out. Not having options gets you closer to feeling like a slave.
My only thing to add is that people should make it a goal to develop secondary skills that reduce their monthly expenses. Cooking, simple home maintenance & cleaning, food gardening, riding a bike to work instead of commuting by car and other habits.
For example we cook all our bread, granola bars and cookies from scratch. If you get organized it really doesn't take much time out of your week. We built a 20k retaining wall last year by ourselves for 4k, we re-did all our footer drains and surface drainage around our house for 10k instead of 50k this past summer. I'm currently re-doing my entire basement so that my teleposts will be able to move up and down again. I'm going to paint my old van by hand with a roller brush this Christmas vacation for less than $200.00 bucks and it will look great:
http://www.cartalk.com/blogs/craig-f...eum-and-roller. The last three years I lived in Calgary I was so fed up with the commute/transit and downtown parking that I built my own e-bike and rode that in every day.
I didn't start this way, but over the years I've gotten competent enough that I'm not afraid to take on these kinds of diy projects. I also know what things should cost when I don't want to go the DIY route.