My dryer is at least 20 years old, it has rust and is loud but it still dries clothes so it stays until it dies.
My two cars are a 98 Honda civic and a 99 Ford escort. Yes they both have well over 100k miles but they are paid for and they still run well so they stay until I hear some sort of death rattle.
The checkout woman at Walmart who made fun of my wallet,in a funny way It’s all good. Yes my wallet is 15+ years old but it still holds my cash and credit cards, so it stays.
Some would say this is being cheap, I say it is about priorities. I am typing this post in front of my new 26 inch wide screen computer monitor. Last month I was able to afford a new laptop for my daughter.
So, what are your priorities when it comes to your hard earned money? And what do you skimp on?
My priorities are digital cable, fast internet, and good food. The things I scrimp on are cars (mine’s an 88! and if I didn’t have kids I’d ride the bus!), clothes (I get ‘em at Ross on the waycheap), and maxipads (I make them myself out of recycled toilet paper that’s only been urinated on). I’m just kidding about that last part- ew. The third thing would be kids’ haircuts- with three boys needing haircuts every 4-6 weeks, there’d better be a sale or I’d better have a coupon, and I only go to places with punchcards so the tenth (or whatever) haircut will be free.
This is the second time in a week that I have misspelled a word on a thread title. Skimp? shoot me now.
Alice I also am thrifty when it comes to haircuts. Not so Great Clips for me. But I’m a guy, so how bad can they be?
Exactly! I can’t go to a cheapass place for a haircut, but my kids can, and it almost always looks great! When it’s an inch long, how bad can it look?
Oh gack, Alice The Goon! It’s late and I’m tired and for a minute there I took you seriously. And my mind started trying to work out the details…hmmm, she must dry it and then stack it. Thankfully, reality kicked in.
And you owe me a gallon of brain bleach since I spilled mine rushing to bathe my poor, pathetic mind.
I live in a small apartment in an unfashionable and obscure part of town, and I choose to ride the bus instead of paying for a car, so that I can have a decent computer, take courses, and go on holidays to distant places.
OMG me too. I read the sentence. Stopped. Went back and read it again. Stopped. Tried to shake it loose from my head, and then read the rest of it and realized she was kidding. Whoops!
I find myself more skimping just a tiny bit on everything. (I recently decided not to skimp on tips, though, since I bet being a waitress really sucks, here lately.) I don’t avoid spending some money on stuff, I just try to uunch back a bit on stuff. I bought a cheap assed broom, instead of a better broom, since I really don’t use the damned thing enough to need real quality. I waited and bought a bunch of tee shirts on sale, and got the cheapest ones, since the are really just as good as the slightly heavier ones.
That sort of thing. I haven’t been too badly squeezed. (Aside from loosing five percent of my IRA in the last six months, that is.) Day to day, my expenses are up less than my thrift can overcome. I have paid off my car, and I think the chances are that it will make it for a few more years with minimal expenses. The value of the car, for insurance purposes has declined, and I expect that to cut my insurance rate just a bit. Two more years, and I think I get a break on the tax rate, too.
Just turned sixty, and half the places I go give me a discount, too. So, on the whole, for a working stiff in a stagnant economy, I am pretty well off. Gubmint job, ya know?
Tris
This thread makes a bit sad. Because I sat here and asked myself what I skimp on so that I can afford what I really want…and the ugly truth is that I skimp on so little that I can’t get what I really want.
I don’t spend a whole lot of money on anything, but I spend more than I should on everything. If that makes any sense.
I am inspired. Thanks for that, Gravitycrash.
Nothing I guess. I don’t have a new car because the one I have runs pretty well and hey, why be wasteful? But if I wanted one I’d just go get one. Pretty much I could get almost anything I wanted.
I skimp on clothing to afford computers, software, books, and preventive veterinary care for my 4 dogs. I now own 2 pairs of shoes (tennies and snow boots); prior to this, I wore the same shoes for 10 years. Clothes are boring. The little I do own, I buy at thrift stores (except for underwear and socks, of course).
I’m one generation away from the Depression, so I have that inherited thriftiness compounded by my own childhood poverty and then a bankruptcy when I became suddenly disabled, all of which makes it really, really difficult to spend money even when necessary.
We skimp on our retirement fund, savings, and the kids college fund so we can pay the mortgage. We’ve got a 2004 Accord and a 2001 Taurus. Thankfully we own the Taurus - a second car payment wold hurt a lot. I make a decent salary, but we’re perpetually broke because we only have my income and we live in a very expensive suburb.
I’m going to enroll in an MBA program in the fall in part for financial reasons - I need to keep my old loans in deferrment because I can’t afford to pay them off AND my employer has a weird policy for tuition reimbursement - they give me $1500 for each semester regardless of how much I actually pay for the classes. The courses at my school will be $700 each, and I’ll only need to take one per semester to keep the loans deferred. So, I’ll get an extra $1600 a year in cash after paying for may classes. How cool is that?
I walk a lot instead of joining a health club, and buy all my clothes second hand on Saturday between 4 and 5, when everything at the thrift store is half price.
Then I spend a fortune on books & music.
I don’t really spend a lot. I’ve got small bills, but I’ve got some student loans. I drive an old car (an '88 Mercury Tracer called “Red Rocket”) but I foresee that dying sooner than later. I buy video games, but my unnecessary purchases are pretty controlled.
I try to buy store brand instead of name brand items, I don’t eat out much, I don’t have cable or anything of the sort. I do take the money I save on that kind of stuff and go to the theater and the opera. (Of course I always get the more affordable seats towards the back!)
The car is a big one. I have a good professional job but I drive an old beat up '88 Cherokee without air conditioning. Drives my brother nuts 'cause he thinks it’s inappropriate for a professional to drive such a junky car.
I also bought a tiny, tiny, very old house in a up and coming neighborhood. No dishwasher, thru wall air conditioners, not luxurious by any means. Plus all my furniture is IKEA and years old. And I don’t have cable, use free wireless for my internet, and I’m very parsimonious with utilities.
My splurges are nice clothing and very nice shoes, good haircuts, manicures, and very good food that I don’t have to cook. As well as being fairly indulgent on my Amazon ordering.
Food so that I can spend the money on drugs.
Or sometimes gambling and prostitutes.
We skimp on clothing and have an old beat up car so we can have a nice house in a good neighborhood with great schools and eat well. I like cherries in January and eating out. I buy my shoes at KMart and much of the rest of my wardrobe (and my daughter’s wardrobe) on ebay and at garage sales. We’re also saving a lot for retirement.
Haircuts and clothes: expensive cheese and good beer.
Skimp:
House, old and dumpy but paid for.
Haircuts, do it myself, sometimes shave my head.
Clothes, probably spend 2-300 a year max.
No cable or sattelite TV
Still on dialup internet
Splurge:
Guitars and amps
Kayaking gear and trips
Good beer and bourbon
Knife collection