Frugality in the other areas of your life

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Ryland

If you want to know where a great deal of your money is going, look in the trash can...

I don't even have to look IN the trash can. I pay for (mandatory) weekly trash pickup, but I only put the trash can out once every two or three weeks. My neighbors manage at least one wheelie bin, sometimes two, and sometimes stack their extra trash beside.

[Frank Lee]

My money isn't going in the trash. Most of my money goes when the mail comes, for the utility, tax, and insurance bills. After that is gasoline expense, even though I hardly buy any! Then food. Yes I have gone through the budget almost down to the penny for several months to find out where it goes. Many of us would be surprised. Even I, who have been tracking this stuff for years, find it surprising that my bare-bones and economical driving still ranks as a top expense. I guess that's because the rest of my budget is even more bare bones!

Re: trash: I separate out the glass, cans, and plastics; the burnables go in the burn barrel. I only have to empty out the recyclable trash can 2-4x/year!

Someone made a comment about buying the thinnest shingles available. Perhaps that's OK if you are planning on selling soon. Otherwise I think the best strategy is to buy quality. The roof on my place is the original- put on in '68. It's totally due for replacement but isn't leaking yet. I think I'm going to buy quality for the replacement; perhaps then the job won't need to be done again for another 43 years.

[320touring]

I'm interested by the "mortgage" payoff comments here..

I'm 30, and have only ever stayed in rented accom since I flew the nest..

Cost per month has always been similar to a mortgage on the properties I've stayed in, but there is one big advantage..

New boiler=1 yrs rent

dead shower? = 1 months rent

cost to me?0.. as its the landlord's liability. (and yes, I know its "built into the rent..its just easier than trying to "find" £3000 to have heating in your house!)

However,

I dot he following "frugal" things

Home made Lunches taken to work
Lights only on in room that is occupied
Timer switches for electric heaters (flat is all electric-no gas) to only heat when room occupied
Car Sharing to work
Hypermiling cars
No afinity to "branded" items/food/etc
Reusing heat from oven by placing drying washing near

etc

I also have a beared..saves on blades

[Mustang Dave]

I have no mortgage (paid it off 10 months early in October, 2002) or vehicle payments (paid off my Mustang 30 months early). My biggest monthly payment is to my retirement fund (25% of my income). Second biggest payment is for food. Third is for vehicle fuel. And I pay ~$400/year to the local ski area for a season pass.

[Arragonis]

No credit here except mortgage, and we don't buy anything we can't afford from savings or what we can put aside for it. We do keep credit cards though partly as access to cash whenever or wherever we need it, partly because of the rewards points they offer and partly the convenience of not carrying cash all the time. I'm flush if I carry £20 in cash, usually its the £1 coins I've gathered in change for a month or so before.

Mrs A is the money tracker in our house and does a fine job of it. Recently I found out that feeding Her, A-Junior and me (including her smokes and the occasional tipple) cost us less week by week than one of my parents was spending on them living alone, probably only around half as much .

We came close to paying off our old mortgage but did that British thing of moving somewhere for a better school around 6 years ago - possible mistake, it may have been cheaper to pay for private schooling instead.

Now we have halved the outstanding amount and with a following wind should have it gone in about 2-3 years time but I'm not panicked if we don't manage it - We plan to sell it and move when A-junior finishes high school which is in 6 years time and go somewhere cheaper maybe even new so it needs no work and we will have no mortgage. Our current place has 2-3 outstanding "spends" needed to complete the maintenance schedule - 1973 and never maintained well until now.

Based on Eisntein's famous quote "The most powerful force in the universe is compound interest" A-junior was brought into the saving habit when we started his pension at 2 years old. And even when he earns pocket money, 1/2 to 2/3s has to go into his savings.

Even though credit is supposed to be hard to get hold of, I still get 2-3 calls a week offering me one from the bank, endless emails offering them too, and when we changed cars the only way we could get the "best deal" in many cases was by taking the credit instead of paying cash.

[slowmover]

CEPR Housing Cost Calculator

Renting a "more expensive place" is cheaper than buying a house with a lower mortgage cost. Even with adjusted numbers.

Buy if you are already in the perfect place (at end of the rainbow; immediately prior to senile dementia, etc).

[Ryland]

Originally Posted by 320touring

I'm interested by the "mortgage" payoff comments here..

I'm 30, and have only ever stayed in rented accom since I flew the nest..

Cost per month has always been similar to a mortgage on the properties I've stayed in, but there is one big advantage..

New boiler=1 yrs rent

dead shower? = 1 months rent

A new boiler should last 20 to 50 years tho and a new shower should last about the same if done well.
I'm looking at maybe buying a house to rent out because the income from it would pay me back in 3 to 5 years.
I get to pretty much live in my house for free because my room mate pays enough to cover utility costs and a fair amount of the taxes.

[Arragonis]

Renting vs owning - depends on the market. When prices are high a rising the rent price tends to go up as fewer people can afford to buy, when they go down it goes down. At the moment we have a combination situation where prices are falling slowly but the deposit requirements are much higher so fewer people can afford to buy and so rent demand is higher. Also banks are not doing so many buy-to-lets any more so supply is tighter.

[320touring]

Originally Posted by Ryland

A new boiler should last 20 to 50 years tho and a new shower should last about the same if done well.
I'm looking at maybe buying a house to rent out because the income from it would pay me back in 3 to 5 years.
I get to pretty much live in my house for free because my room mate pays enough to cover utility costs and a fair amount of the taxes.

Colleague I car share with:


Flat is 12 yrs old..

New boiler (combi)

New Electric Shower

New Electric Oven...


Colleague I sit across from

New Combi Boiler (previous one lasted 11 years).



I hear you re the payback period vs lifetime and also renting out room, but I'm of the opinoin that
a) Money is better spent on experiences/beer (delete as appropriate!)
b) Its hard enough to live with a girlfriend, never mind a "room mate".

Any house I've been in has always just been an equal split of costs for all parties (rent/elec/taxes etc)

However, I'm aware that by 45, some of my friends will be mortgage free/living the highlife with equity etc, so can see benefits on both sides.

[320touring]

Originally Posted by Arragonis

Renting vs owning - depends on the market. When prices are high a rising the rent price tends to go up as fewer people can afford to buy, when they go down it goes down. At the moment we have a combination situation where prices are falling slowly but the deposit requirements are much higher so fewer people can afford to buy and so rent demand is higher. Also banks are not doing so many buy-to-lets any more so supply is tighter.

This is another thing Thats got me off the idea of a mortgage..

So, we'll bale the banks out, suffer "negative gtrowth" (That cracks me up!) lose Triple A credit rating (poor Obama..)

and then the banks tell US, how much of OUR money we can borrow?

shoebox for mysavings I think