Ask:
1. Have you always been frugal? Where did you learn your thriftiness?
2. When you see raises or jumps in income, do you spend it or see it as a way to save even more money?
3. Are you saving for anything in particular?
4. Any comments on the spending habits of those around you?
Here are my responses:
1. I've been a tightwad my entire life. I come from a long line of thrify moms so it should be no surprise I turned out to be one too.
2. When dh gets a raise or we see more money coming in than we are used to, we usually use it to sock away into a savings account or use it to make home improvements. Occasionally we'll take a trip (but only if all other things are taken care of first!)
3. We save quite a bit for retirement. I would love to pay off our house early and have that added financial security as well.
4. I think a lot of my peers use loans and easy-access credit to buy things like furniture, trips, cars, etc. I wonder how much they actually are saving for the future.
Answer:
Originally Posted by Kim
1. Have you always been frugal? Where did you learn your thriftiness?
2. When you see raises or jumps in income, do you spend it or see it as a way to save even more money?
3. Are you saving for anything in particular?
4. Any comments on the spending habits of those around you?
Here are my responses:
1. I've been a tightwad my entire life. I come from a long line of thrify moms so it should be no surprise I turned out to be one too.
2. When dh gets a raise or we see more money coming in than we are used to, we usually use it to sock away into a savings account or use it to make home improvements. Occasionally we'll take a trip (but only if all other things are taken care of first!)
3. We save quite a bit for retirement. I would love to pay off our house early and have that added financial security as well.
4. I think a lot of my peers use loans and easy-access credit to buy things like furniture, trips, cars, etc. I wonder how much they actually are saving for the future.
My reply is pretty much identical to yours...the only difference is we don't do too much travel with extra cash because I am deathly afraid of flying and my dh gets two vacation allowances a year from work so vacations are usually paid for.
Answer:
1. Have you always been frugal? Where did you learn your thriftiness?
I have always been frugal. I'm sure my friends would call me a tightwad or cheapskate! I was poor off and on growing up so learned how to stretch a penny. My parents also taught us to look ahead to what we wanted in life which helped me plan education, family and money issues.
2. When you see raises or jumps in income, do you spend it or see it as a way to save even more money?
The last couple of years I have used raises to bump up my retirement savings and to systematically (instead of sporadically like before!) save 10% in an emergency fund.
When I was married, my DH worked a second job for a while and we put every single check from that job into savings. It would have been so easy to stop being frugal and just spend that extra money but we saved every single penny. We were then able to take that $$ and do some badly needed home improvements without taking out any loans or credit card debt. It took persistence and restraint but it was what was for the best for our family.
3. Are you saving for anything in particular?
Goals right now are to pay off car within 6 months (3 years left on the loan), pay off house early and continue to save for retirement. I'd also like to start saving for my DS college fund again.
4. Any comments on the spending habits of those around you?
I don't see anyone else around me saving or being frugal. All my friends and coworkers are spendy spendy spendy. A lot on just waste - eating out 10-12x/week, buying every new gadget, waaayyy overspending on kids toys and clothes.
I am a single mom with not much income so it always bugs me when people making more than me can't seem to get it together.
Answer:
1. Have you always been frugal? Where did you learn your thriftiness? No I have not. Recently I have learnd to be much more frugal than I have in the past. I have found it to be worthwhile and have worked harder at it.
2. When you see raises or jumps in income, do you spend it or see it as a way to save even more money? My husband is the one that is always in spend mode. I try to save as much as I can. I have been known to 'hide' money from him so he won't spend it on me before we can save it or use it toward a bill.
3. Are you saving for anything in particular?just for ourselves. I would like to refurnish my house someday, I want to be able to send my kids to college.
4. Any comments on the spending habits of those around you? My MIL spends quite a bit on my kids and I'm constantly telling her she shouldn't or she doesn't need too. She inststs its something she enjoys and won't take no for an answer. I have had to put my foot down about some things, because my childrent just do not need anything, AND I hate to see anyone spending too much money on stuff they don't need. I'm constantly saying "no don't get that, its too expensive. I just can't have you spend that much money"
Answer:
1. Have you always been frugal? Where did you learn your thriftiness?
I have not always been frugal. My MIL taught me. When I first got married she taught me about coupons, bargain hunting, all that. She taught me to never spend a dime more than I have to.
2. When you see raises or jumps in income, do you spend it or see it as a way to save even more money?
Any extra money we have goes to bills. We don't really have a savings, we apply everything extra to pay things down. I would like to be able to spend it, but I can't let myself. I worry too much.
3. Are you saving for anything in particular?
We bought 5 acres last year. We are not really saving but are trying to pay off as many things as we can. That way when we build our house, we won't have a lot of bills.
4. Any comments on the spending habits of those around you?
My MIL is very frugal, but really she is the only one I can think of. Everyone else I know just spends and spends. All I can say is it must be nice!!
Answer:
1. Have you always been frugal? Where did you learn your thriftiness?
Pretty much, although to varying degrees. I have always wondered why people shop in designer stores when you can hit yard sales andthrift stores and get the same things for less.
2. When you see raises or jumps in income, do you spend it or see it as a way to save even more money?
Depends on our needs and DH. I try to split it and let him have some extra money for him, since he is the only one formally employed. The rest we try and save or put towards outstanding debts, if any.
3. Are you saving for anything in particular?
Retirement, college funds for children
4. Any comments on the spending habits of those around you?
My firends (and often DH) think I am cheap. I think I live frugally, not because we can't/won't spend money on certain things, but because I can get many things cheaper than store cost by bargain shopping. Most people I know spend, spend, spend and if they don't have the cash it goes on charge - not for me!
Answer:
1. Have you always been frugal? Where did you learn your thriftiness?
Yeah, I have always been thrifty. I guess I learned it from my parents. I never realized how little money we had until I was applying for financial aide for college.
2. When you see raises or jumps in income, do you spend it or see it as a way to save even more money? We have pretty much always needed the money to live on. Now, I think our family has stopped growing, maybe we can save some money some time soon! (Last year, my dh got a small cost of living type raise which we used up by upping his contribution to retirement)
3. Are you saving for anything in particular? Nope! I would just like to pay everything off some day!
4. Any comments on the spending habits of those around you? I get really mad when people complain all the time that they have no money and then spend large amounts on stupid things like going out gambeling, drinking and buying alcohol and ciggarettes.
Answer:
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1. Have you always been frugal? Where did you learn your thriftiness? i became thrifty out of a need to be money got tight because we were spending to much so we did it to our selves but i have to say i enjoy the hunt of bargains and the cheapest way to do and get things.
2. When you see raises or jumps in income, do you spend it or see it as a way to save even more money? usually dh's raises are offset by the rise of our health insurance cost so we maybe see a whole $10 dollars a week. what ever we have extra goes to bills..
3. Are you saving for anything in particular?just for ourselves. there are alot of things i would love to have but its just not in the cards right now..so we just save for college and we are just getting an emergency fund started.
4. Any comments on the spending habits of those around you? Alot of people we know always are buying new furniture new cars every couple years eating out all the time ect.. we just can't and will never even once the debt is gone do that i don't ever want to be in that position again...
Answer:
1. Have you always been frugal? Where did you learn your thriftiness? I have ALWAYS been frugal. Growing up, I got "reduced lunch" and at times we were on food stamps. I never really asked for much growing up and thought that it was stupid when the style became to wear brands that had their names on the the outside instead of just on the inside lable. My mom is the queen of buying on the clearance racks - but I think that even she buys too much - who cared is the shirt only cost $3 when you can't even fit another thing in your closet??
2. When you see raises or jumps in income, do you spend it or see it as a way to save even more money? It depends. Before we had kids and I was working, we paid sometimes 3 times the set amount on our monthly mortgage. We have paid off all our school loans (we both went to private colleges and I went to a private college for my masters - very expensive) and done tons of improvements to both of the houses we own, we also have over $20K in mutual funds. Right now, we save $350 a month for buying a new vehicle in cash whenever one of ours breaks down - which will be a long time from now, and we do retirement and matching thru dh's work, oh, and we save $50 a month for vacation (yeah right) and that is all we can afford to do. We wish we could do more, but....it isn't in the budget. I'd love to get our house paid off earlier. So as more $$ comes in - we will put some there and to continual improvements on our house as well (siding and roof come next - we've done kitchen, 2 baths, laminate floors, shed, finished the basement and painted every room, new furnace and new a/c).
3. Are you saving for anything in particular? See above.
4. Any comments on the spending habits of those around you? It drives me crazy!! We have friends who have basically decided that they will never get out of debt and keep making STUPID money choices!! We are raising our children to respect money and to understand that things are "things".
Answer:
1. Have you always been frugal? Where did you learn your thriftiness? Yes, I have been frugal all life. My mother and father raised four girls on my fathers small salary. If we need something dad would work a four job. Dad always had three jobs (firefighter, bartender,and maintence worker). My parents never had a credit card until 1997 and never had a checking account. THey had a saving account and paid cash for everything. My parents build a house in 1970 and paid cash for all but $5,000. All our cars were bought for with cash. When I was first married our big night out was a pizza and a 12 pack of beer with our friends.
2. When you see raises or jumps in income, do you spend it or see it as a way to save even more money?I try and put it in our retirement fund but most of the time it goes to pay down a bill(cc,car, trailer, house).
3. Are you saving for anything in particular?Right now I am saving for some property up north and a cruise in 2008.
4. Any comments on the spending habits of those around you?Most of my family and friends are frugal/tightwads. There is just a few people that I hang around that are spender and they are at work.
I would not change anything in my life. I love my life and the way I live. My parents taught me right.