So you live within your means?

Bitch.

Yup. Always have, always will, even when I was a desperately poor grad student.

But no one will ever mistake me for anything other than working class.

I just told someone today that I'm the best educated poor person I know.

I do. Finally. it took me a while but I have my credit cards under control. I have three, and none of them has a balance exceeding $500. I have also put myself on the budget billing plan for my utilities, and cancelled a bunch of streaming services I wasn't using. No Amazon Prime either. It's too easy to buy shit when you have Prime. My car is paid off!!! For the past 18 months I have no car note! I'm also trying not to be wasteful with grocery shopping, and I'm using a list to curb impulse buying. I give myself a $10 margin. If I see something not on the list it comes out of t hat margin. I know. All of this may seem silly, but my monthly income is about $42000 and I have to be frugal. I have everything I need and I can afford to splurge once in a while so I'm fine. Debt is bad. If you have debt do everything you can to get rid of it. I even review all my insurance every two or three years to get better rates.

I do

but It is an effort

[quote]All of this may seem silly, but my monthly income is about $42000 and I have to be frugal.

I assume you mean $4,200, but almost every time there's a thread about money on DataLounge, someone claims that they're poor because they only make half a million per year. And those people are insufferable.

First of all OP, Oh dear.

I do.

I don't start sentences with "So" in this manner, however.

R5, yes, I meant $4,200. I can only imagine how great that extra zero would be, but alas!

That’s where depression comes in handy.

I can’t imagine wanting to shop for anything.

Yes. I got out of credit card debt twenty years ago, and have never carried a balance since. We've been taught as a society that it's okay to buy things we don't need on credit and pay interest on those purchases indefinitely. It's not okay. Emergencies? Sure. Nothing else.

Debt is the blights one's future. Get rid of it ASAP and don't take on any more!

Stop recurring payments as best you can except necessary ones, like utilities and insurances.

ALWAYS love below your means and save/invest at least something out of every paycheck.

[quote] ALWAYS love below your means . . .

[Quote] ALWAYS love below your means . . .

Words to live by

No debt and pay cards off monthly. Need a new car, save up for it.

I was deeply in college debt and credit card debt in my 20s, and I felt trapped by it. Never again.

I live BELOW my means so I’m generally able to save a substantial amount of money every year.

I live way BELOW my means and find I'm having a hard time changing that lifelong habit now that I'm old and should be spending it.

I live below everyone I know.

Definitely. I can't stand credit card debt. I can't even stand waiting until the end of the month to pay it off, so I pay it beforehand. I know I could make a tiny bit of interest if I kept my money in my interest-paying savings account until the bill was due, but it bothers me too much to see a balance on there.

I see my young work colleagues buying lunch and going out for coffee every day when they should be saving that money for a down payment on a property or paying off their student loans as fast as they can, but they just don’t seem to get it.

No, but I’m better than I was a few years ago.

Yes, but I come from a family of teachers, so I never experienced the kind of pressure to "keep up with the Joneses," as we used to say in the mid-20th century, that people in business do. If I had to drive a late model luxury car and have an upscale address and that kind of thing I'd be fucked.

Depends on how you look at it. Warren Buffett famously hated paying for a $5.00 haircut because in his mind it meant giving up $10,000.00 in potential compounded interest.,

I will order a $30.00 pizza from time to time, but according to Buffett I can’t afford it even though I make a good living.

Fred Goodstein from Casper left several hundred million dollars when he died in 1983. He spent a lot of his time sitting on the park bench outside the local barber shop where he could chat with friends while wearing his standard outfit of bib overalls and white t-shirt. I remember being introduced to him when I was a kid, that would have been about 1974.

I got into some credit card trouble in my late 20s and early 30s. I got myself out (roommate and second job + austerity budget). I never want to be in that position again.

I could afford to splurge a bit but I like having money more than I want things.

What I have discovered is that by living frugally, when I do splurge I really savor it. It's a big deal. The key isI don't do it weekly but maybe every couple of months I will buy something I consider extravagant. Now I pay it off in my next billing cycle, but it feels good.

I try to live below my means, but every so often I'm hit with unexpected expenses. I have 3 cats so vet bills. My senior cat has kidney failure and is on two medications. He also needs his thyroid tested and possibly more meds. I can pay for his care, but that means sacrificing in other areas like travel. It's a balancing act.

Don't get any more pets after these die. Save the money!

Life isn't worth living without furry buddies 😺🐶.

Well, the Silent Generation went trough the depression supporting their families no matter what they went without.

I fear gen Z will be living their lives because Gen X forgot the lessons.

And please explain to me why we have a Social Security Safety net in the first place? Does it have anything to do with the FIRST time big Business fucked up the economy and created the Great Depression, by any chance?

Who was Herbert Hoover?

Yes. For some reason I don’t want much, so it goes into either savings or necessities. I probably spend more in gifts for others than I do on myself. It’s not a humble brag but just reality. I guess I’ve always been thrifty.

r25, that's how Christmas was before everyone could afford everything on credit the rest of the year.

This year, I say we give Christmas back to the Christians and their marketers and NOT give gifts.

r31, that's a great idea: let's get Christmas back to its Christian origins and celebrate that.

R31 We are down to t wo little kids in our family, and there are 12 of us. We no longer give gifts except for the little kids. My mother stopped putting up a tree last year. She said it was too much trouble taking it down. We just have a nice family gathering, great food, games and a nice long walk.

r33, nice example for opting out, except I would put the two little kid's gifts contingent on a Republican work requirement.

Greed is Good, Jesus wants children to work. No subsidy.

I have zero empathy for people who live above their means. It's astoundingly idiotic.

When I first started making money, I thankfully found the Suze Orman Show on CNBC. I followed her advice basically don’t buy unless you can afford it) and lived within my means ever since.

Now, I don’t buy extraneous things and am fine financially.

I have to. But I’m still sacking some $ away for my muscle car. I’m thinking a +2013 Dodge Challenger or Charger with fold down rear seats. I may have to live in it. Must have a hemi.

We all have too much stuff. Look around and see the shit we fill our lives with. Stop buying clothes all the time especially.

I managed to live within my means all my life and didn't scrimp. I had a somewhat boring government job but it paid well and I was able to live within my means - plus travel - in my youth. I was able to retire at 55 with a full pension, got a soft higher paying job with a great 401(k), and continued living a good life. Retired for good at 65 and now live a better life than before. I always lived within my means and now my 'means' are very good! Yes, I'm blessed...except I wish I had a partner to share it with.

R39, lots of 20 years olds looking for a sugar daddy!

I'm living below my means. I need to snap out of it. The thing is when you're poor growing up and then have money when you age it's not easy to spend it. It's a psych thing.

I just spent $250 on a very rare promo CD that I’ve been wanting for years. But I can afford it, along with my business class airfare to Amsterdam.

When I go food shopping I don't look at the prices, if I want it I buy it. Food is necessary so why not buy something that tastes great. I'm fortunate that I don't have that worry. I'd feed the world if I could, I cannot abide hunger, I endured that as a child and there's not much that's worse. I've been skinny all my life, I guess my body got used to it and stayed that way. I don't overeat, it's impossible for me to do that. So I live below my means.

I was glad when my parents died, still am.