Scrimping now vs. scrimping then

[Thevail]

So I was wondering, where do you "cut the budget to the bone" now?

And do you forsee that being different at a certain point in the future?

Depending on your stage of life..

What will you scrimp on once you have kids?
What will you scrimp on when the kids leave?
What will you scrimp on after the house is paid off?
What will you scrimp on once you're retired?

[forHISglory]

Ah....... scrimping.

Honestly, I think that when one has a frugal mind set, scrimping becomes so second nature that it is not thought of as much.

People tell us that we scrimp. I am astonished. So what if we don't spend money on certain things? That's not scrimping; that's our lifestyle!

So what do we scrimp on? Partying. Drinking. Clothes buying. La-di-la shopping trips. Big doctor bills (we stay healthy by watching diet, exercise, supplements). New furniture. Junk food. Entertainment costs ( we can entertain ourselves very well). New vehicles.

Really...... I don't think I'm missing much in life! And our "scrimping" on all those things, leaves us time and money to do what we really enjoy.

[DJ1972]

I will confess, I am not an extreme frugalite. We don't have a "bare bones" budget, but we do have a budget, and we do tell our money where to go instead of wondering where it went.

If I need to scrimp for a specific reason, I cut back on the blow money, and the grocery budget.

For example, I want to pay my car off. We only owe $3900 on it (1500 of which I am sending them next week), so I am cutting out any extra spending and paring back the grocery budget for the month of April so that I can just be done with the car on May 1st. This will leave us with only the mortgage ($35,000) left.

The things I do scrimp on....furniture (as long as it serves its purpose, I don't care what it looks like), clothes (thrift stores), vacations (we would rather take a weekend and go camping), going out to movies (we would rather rent one), and books (library or thrift store).

We could definitely cut back more in several areas to be able to save more, but we chose to still have blow money and some extra budgeted for the kids activities.
It definitely depends on where you are in life, what your goals are, and how fast you want to reach those goals.

[Spirit Deer]

Excellent question.

Does one put off today the trips and other experiences in favor of taking them tomorrow, and then look back on that decision with regret when one spouse dies, or the kids grow up, or whatever, and the trips never get taken? And how does one decide which experiences are not worth taking for the sake of a few hundred dollars more in the bank?

I'm not talking about situations where there truly isn't any money for any kind of luxury like a trip.

[Thevail]

Our family tends to scrimp on the day to day stuff like seeing a new movie (we'll wait to see it at home), or buying new cars (we buy used and drive them until they drop dead), cut out expensive food items (cake tastes just as good without being wrapped in cellophane), etc.

So that when we decide to do something big, we can. We took DD to Disneyland for a whole week, nice hotel and new digital camera and all when she was 11 (old enough to ride everything, old enough to remember everything, and still young enough to care).

But that's basically the only real vacation we've taken in 15 years. {DH and I actually found Disneyland to be a particularly annoying experience, but we figured, what the heck she's only little once}

We hope to travel and do cool things that we like once she's out of the house. *fingers crossed*

[marjorie]

Sometimes it's having the money now to take advantage of something I wouldn't have had money for before. As an example, I found a killer airfare for a trip to England in 2006. I'd promised myself I'd go 30+ years before, and everything came together at once. I found very cheap flight, sister's friend agreed to put me up, and I could pay cash for everything. So what if I worked a little more and brown bagged much more than usual? It was well spent to me!

[Spirit Deer]

We hope to travel and do cool things that we like once she's out of the house. *fingers crossed*

We're the opposite. One of our biggest regrets as parents is that we didn't camp more and travel more when the kids were home. That chance is gone now. But even now looking back, I don't know how we could have done things differently because of job schedules, their activities, and lack of money at the time.

[Thevail]

We do go camping etc. with our little one (well not so little these days). I meant DH and I getting a chance to go to places we'd like to go that she would find monumentally boring

[mauimagic]

Travel has always been an important part of my life - before and after marriage. As a family we have and do travel to the mainland a lot and it has been worth it for keeping in touch with family and with expanding all of our lives. I have found it amazing that people on the mainland don't realize that the planes fly both ways for all lol!!

[Thevail]

LOL..I don't suppose you've got a spare bedroom do you Mauimagic??

I've always wanted to see Hawaii..especially wanted to hear the kumulipo chant..sorry if I spelled it wrong.