I and dying to talk about that article that starts with the way people handle 'time' and ends with the same ideas about money... anyone game yet? This is my second reading and so I am sort of pulling only what really speaks to me... I hope no one minds me going a little ahead...

Whatcha think?

Love Val

I'll pull it out tonight and try to post later. :)

Hmmmm, my page 21 is about baby formula.

Now, do we all the the complete TWG? Mine is the one that is 959 pages.

Do we have the same one or are there others?

Baby formula here too.

Ohhhhhhh... it is page 17... the page I had marked was 21... and then I just looked at the one I marked and did not look at the article. I am so sorry! Well at least I no longer feel bad about being ahead... lol!

It starts out with "You know someone who arrives 20 minutes late to everything... " then it goes on to talk about the time edge and comfort level, and then on to the finanacial edge and comfort level.

I thought it was very insitful and it really put in perspective what I have done for the last 5 years with our budget. I really wanted to talk about it.

Sorry for the mix up. It has been a LONG week.

Love Val

Yes, I liked that article also. I think I posted about it in the other thread. I'm wanting to be better about not spending every last dime in my checking account.

I didn't get a chance to pull my TWG out yet, but I think I know what article you're talking about. It's about having a cushion in your checking account, right? When I first read that article, it really struck a cord with me. I had always spent all of our paycheck right down to the last dollar. I thought that's hat everyone did - if you still have $100 worth of bills to pay for the month and $100 left in the bank, you use the money in the bank to pay the rest of the bill. So when I read the TWG article, I thought "oh, that's an interesting idea to leave some extra money in your checking account each week," but it never occurred me to try implementing this in our family. Anyways, fast forward a few months, I realized that every two weeks, I was going through this ritual of seeing checks bounce, calling the businesses/people, finding cash (plus extra for the fees) to pay back the check amounts, apologizing profusely and feeling miserable about the whole thing. I always thought that if the money wasn't in the account we couldn't spend it, but there would be debits I didn't know about or we would write checks and then cross our fingers and hope the checks wouldn't clear before the next payday. Looking back, it is ridiculous that we didn't do something earlier. But now I try to leave a $250 cushion in our account after paying bills, and it has made a huge difference. I think we've only had one incident of bounced checks in about 3 months.

We have a very hard time keeping money in the bank, because dh gets paid by peice work. He does mostly welding, and doesn't get paid until the job is complete. It can range from less than $200.00 week, to over $500.00. We end up just breaking even and sometimes have to have REALLY simple dinners.

Originally posted by Bladestar5
We have a very hard time keeping money in the bank, because dh gets paid by peice work. He does mostly welding, and doesn't get paid until the job is complete. It can range from less than $200.00 week, to over $500.00. We end up just breaking even and sometimes have to have REALLY simple dinners.

That sounds just like my husbands job. Except that on the days when the furnace breaks, or days when the anealer melts all of the peices in there and even though he worked the hours, his money is gone because the product is gone... he only gets paid for peices that are perfect. These are the days when I am SO glad he is getting out of this! He does not even get any benifits... this is a real $hit job he has been doing for 12 years. Don makes about 35 cents a peice... keeping a glass shop running when there is all this sweat shop glass (like Peir 1) around is so hard. It costs them $2500 a month in gas bills just to keep the furnace ON. That does not include the glass, color, glory hole, repairs, blow pipes, fire brick, etc. Talk about a buisness with a huge overhead. It is so sad, but it sounds like they may not be starting up again this year until the mountain in April. I feel for Don watching a buisness crumble like this... but we have all seen it coming for 4 years.

Keeping a cushion seems to me like the only way I could see to servive over the long haul. It is hard for me to see doing that now, becuase our output is so much higher than our input and we have to scramble all the time just to keep afloat. But seeing this article really made me think. It seems that this would be the best way to make a budget really work. And for the future I really wanted to remember it, and make that happen for my family.

Love Val

Yes, I just read through the pages up to p. 20, and I feel so awful about some past choices I made. We had some money given to us by Matt's mom, and we put a lot of it to good use, but some of it just got eaten up quickly by expenses we had put off for too long, like getting new eyeglasses, and some of it went to "I wants" for sure...things we really didn't need but got because we had gone without for so long.

So I had a chance to have a cushion, and now I don't have one, and I have a small amount of credit card debt. I am getting charged $5/month to have less than $500 in savings, too...that just kills me! Just figured that out today.

I was thinking about using my tax return (if there is any of it!) to make a cushion, but wouldn't I be better off using that money (say it's $500) to pay off my credit card? I could have cushion now, but choose to pay any and all extra, down to $100 cushion, to credit cards. Come to think of it I sometimes go below that and end up stressing and we have to eat out of the pantry for a long time, or worry how we will buy food.

I think one of our biggest problems is that there are many ways we could save money on a monthly basis but we don't do it unless we *have* to. So running down to the wire for me is the way I motivate myself to be frugal. Messed up, eh? It's the old "If I don't have the money I won't spend it" mentality. And if I have it, I spend it.

There is another issue here for me...goes back to my upbringing, my parents were brought up in working poor homes, and wanted us to have "more." My mom thinks it's just awful to recycle rubber bands, paper clips, and Ziplocs. She thinks it's the pinnacle of success to buy paper plates and eat take-out. It will pain her greatly to see that we can't afford to buy $6.99/lb Boar's Head sliced turkey breast from the deli for Jacob when she comes to visit Sunday.

I'm rambling...it is SO late. I was going to start another thread on that whole issue.

Oh Lauren! I am so with you! That is the same thing we did with this money that we got from Don's dad and from our tax return this year. I mean it was true we needed it to live, and we spent over $1200 on car repairs (that were SO needed) and $500 on Don's uniform, and over $3000 to live on and pay back bills... but we got a few things that we just wanted (like a stereo, I have not had one for years, and the TV ended up being our background noise... I hated that. And then Don's Oakleys. They were $260 (twice what my stereo was) but we justified it as #1 he will use them for the next 5 years, and #2 we did not have a Christmas for us... this was our Christmas.) These were easy to justify because we had been waiting for years to get them... literally. But then we also did things... like go out to eat... that is the one that is killing me now. That money was just wasted.... I mean we got to eat out. And having a few of those luxeries are important I believe. I will never be like Amy (TWG)... never. I believe that having some of those little thrills (like going out to a nice reseraunt with my dh) are really important to the way I live my life and the quality of life that I have. They are not everything... but sharing a glass of wine, a steak and a good cigar with Don are one of the perks for sure! There is just something nice about doing it, and if it makes my day brighter I am willing to sacrifice money for it... But we most likely spent $250 in Jan on food out... and that is just TOO much! I am kicking myself now... just kicking myself. And Don's whole thing is that we diserve it. But I am thinking... "wow what would even half of that give us right now?"

So yeah... we could all beat ourselves up. But don't... we all do it. And I have learned from this, have you? Sure! That is all we need to do. I am sure that even Amy (TWG) has stories she could tell about how they went with out for a long time and then really splerged... it would be bad for buisness though. lol...

Love Val

Thanks, Val. Yes, we spent $500 on car maintenance, the 60K tuneup, definitely a worthwhile investment and not something you want to skip. We spent $300 on phone counseling sessions for me, which was necessary at the time in terms of my mental health, several hundred on stuff for massage school like books, the required massages for admission, some on going out to dinner, eyeglasses/contacts for Matt, and contacts for me, which we'd put off till his glasses were falling off his face (yep, about three years).

But you're right...you can't go back and beat yourself up. Just learn and think about how you might do it differently next time. I agree, I will never be as frugal as Dacyzcyn, no way. I also enjoy eating out once in a while, and treating myself to certain luxuries, like a massage every so often. And think about it - does she *need* to live in a humungo pre-1900 farmhouse (with attached barn, LOL)? No, and the maintenance costs must be astounding. I think her point is more to make conscious choices of where to spend your money, not just to penny pinch beyond belief (though...it's questionable).

I do think there's a point at which frugality becomes obsessive. And I don't want a garageful of crap that I'm saving in case I could use it someday. I'm trying to find some balance that works for us. That is what it is all about, I think.

Originally posted by mamabear
I do think there's a point at which frugality becomes obsessive. And I don't want a garageful of crap that I'm saving in case I could use it someday. I'm trying to find some balance that works for us. That is what it is all about, I think.

Lauren, you have just summed up my goals in a nutshell.

I think the goal is balance between being frugal and living a life we can enjoy. What is balance for me is not necessarily what it will be for someone else.

But doesn't Amy D also talk about *not* pack-ratting? She gives an example of a woman who saves everything, till there is barely room to walk around her house. Then Amy D says this is wasteful. You don't need 100 rubber bands, just a few. You don't need 10 stacks of styrofoam trays, just a few will do. Because otherwise you are wasting space that you could enjoy or use to store other things, and you waste time looking for stuff, and waste time getting around all the clutter.

I'm not big on saving too much stuff. My Dad had a warehouse for years, he paid $150 per month to store old tools that he *might* use again some day (and never did). For the price of storage, he could have bought NEW tools, and duplicates of them! $1800 per year is a lot of money to waste storing "stuff", yet people do it all the time. Of course, when he finally cleaned out his warehouse and gave it up, all his old stuff ended up at my house! In my garage and in my back yard! UGH! I could strangle DH, as he'll never use this stuff either! It's ANCIENT! Then DH brings back my dads two old rusty boat motors! UGH! Take them to the scrap heap already!!! Yes, my DH is a pack-rat, can't throw anything out, has about 10 broken drills sitting in a basket in his shed. I think I'm going to get him a shadow box to hang up his tool collection, LOL. "Drills I have known", and he can point out when he got the drill, what jobs he completed with it, how it broke, etc.

J/K. LOL

Originally posted by seahorse
But doesn't Amy D also talk about *not* pack-ratting? She gives an example of a woman who saves everything, till there is barely room to walk around her house. Then Amy D says this is wasteful. You don't need 100 rubber bands, just a few. You don't need 10 stacks of styrofoam trays, just a few will do. Because otherwise you are wasting space that you could enjoy or use to store other things, and you waste time looking for stuff, and waste time getting around all the clutter.

I'm just joining into the thrift board, so I hope you all don't mind me jumping right in... I think this a very good point that Amy makes. You should clear out the clutter. Less sometimes is more! However, if you feel bad about throwing away/recycling magazines/newspapers, etc, there are always other things to do with these items. Kindergarten classes and some schools can always use magazines for projects, school classrooms are always looking for newspapers for current events classes, excess styrofoam trays donated for craft projects, etc. Same as for free items, if you have coupons or such for free products you don't normally use, like a brand of shampoo, deoderant, etc., you could always donate it to a shelter.

Welcome, Brinda. I love the names you've choosen for your children. They sound so "wholesome". :thumbsup:

Thank you Suzie! :p

Hm, I guess I forgot about the part where Amy says you should clear the clutter. The first 20 pages she mentions "organized packratting" that her husband taught her about.

And hi Brinda! Welcome! Glad you jumped right in! :)

i think the key to everything is moderation. From val's example, figuring out how to spend say 100-150 bucks on going out to eat. Or finding a way to go out for wine and cigar, but no steak.

My friends laugh at us but my dh and I go out for dessert often. We spend maybe 15 or 20 bucks -- more than dessert would cost at home, But we figure we are paying for the experience KWIM? The time to chat with each other, the time to enjoy a dessert but not make 16 of them so I can have one (better for my figure), etc.

What I try to do with things like tax returns, windfalls, etc. is to spend 1/2 on something we want but wouldn't ordinarily do and 1/2 to savings or our cushion or if we need car repairs, whatever. Ok I should probably add this is usually about 300-400 bucks and not mutliple hundreds/thousands of dollars.

Originally posted by kerc
My friends laugh at us but my dh and I go out for dessert often. We spend maybe 15 or 20 bucks -- more than dessert would cost at home, But we figure we are paying for the experience KWIM? The time to chat with each other, the time to enjoy a dessert but not make 16 of them so I can have one (better for my figure), etc.

DH and I have started going to lunch every Wednesday. The boys can stay at school for an extra hour, which costs $5. Then we have a lunch in the $20-$25 range. We get to sit in a nice restaurant, have someone take our order and bring us our food, and talk. It makes it so much easier to stick to our eating our budget because lunch is cheaper, plus by having a "date" every week we are less tempted to ask my parents to babysit spur of the moment while we go for an expensive dinner.

We also came to a realization that eating out had become to commonplace for our boys. So we are working to make eating out a very special treat for them. These days they only eat out if we are on the road and/or on vacation. We are no longer eating out just because I'm too tired or busy to cook. I keep a package of spaghetti noodles on hand and I know that I can make that without any work and get the food on the table faster than we could eat out.

Peace,

Kimberly