We Are "Weird" as Dave Ramsey Puts It

My husband gets made fun of at work for some of the things we do to save money.   They include movies, videos, eating out, heating the home, home-repairs, vehicles, etc.  It’s funny, because people cant imagine living like we live (planning where our money goes,) and I cant imagine living as they live (NOT giving every dollar a name!)

We cannot justify spending $7 a person to watch a movie in the afternoon.  Todd’s co-worker goes out with his wife a couple times a month for dinner, a movie, and popcorn.  This is a $50+ night out for them.  We spend less than $20 for two tickets to the dollar theater and lunch.  We are morning people – we cant stay up past 9 or 10 at night.

We see NO VALUE in buying DVD’s. Nor do we see the value of going and renting a DVD at $3 or $4 at the local movie rental place. Todd has a couple of new DVD’s, but they were bought by my mother for his birthday or Christmas, and he watches them frequently.  They are Avatar & StarTrek.   We get the majority of the new release movies from the library for FREE about 2-4 weeks after they come out on DVD.  I’m glad we do this, because a lot of them are so D-U-M-B; I would be TICKED if I paid $4 from the movie rental place to see it.  However, we DO subscribe to Netflix.  We like having millions of movies at our fingertips whenever we want to watch something different, and the $7.99/month is worth it to us. 

Eating Out:  We mainly eat out with coupons or at lunch-time.  We love a hibatchi-style restaurant in Akron.  We went there just the other night for dinner.  The thing is, we use our Entertainment Card and get BOGO.  We both order waters, and we get the cheapest thing on the menu, and we can eat there for $20 including a nice 25% tip.  This meal includes soup, salad, a few pieces of shrimp, our chicken & rice, and sherbert with fortune cookie for dessert.  Todd’s co-worker keeps telling us we need to go to a place called Wasabi.  The prices are really high, and I don’t see the point in going when we can get the same experience (and we know we love the food!) at our favorite place.

Vehicles:

Todd and I both love our vehicles.  They get the best gas mileage in their class, and they both cost around $12,000.  Todd constantly tells me about a hybrid car that gets LESS gas mileage than my vehicle and costs TWICE (or more) as much as mine did. It boggles my mind.  I am so spoiled with Bianca that I don’t know if I could ever get another vehicle that gets worse gas mileage.  Plus, she is so cute.  I could never imagine paying more than $15,000 for a vehicle. 

I am lucky that Todd agrees with me on all of these areas of our life.  And he even wanted the fixer-upper we now live in.  Not many husbands would get themselves into the mess we got into with home.  We paid $35,000 for our home knowing it was worth a lot more when fixed up.  Now, 4 years later, it has been appraised at $94,000, and the renovation isn’t even complete.  The mortgage on the home is currently at $56,000 (we took money out for the new septic that was needed at $16,000 and a new roof at $5500.)  I couldn’t imagine having a mortgage of $100,000+, even with our income.  I LOVE watching our principal go down every month, and look forward to the day that the mortgage is paid off completely.

We are definitely frugal.  Some people would call us cheap.  But I don’t see our attitudes about money changing even if everything was paid off and we are making what we make at the moment.  

Green With Envy

I know of several people who are envious of others.  There is a woman where I work that owns a $250,000+ home in a nice neighborhood and acts as though their family is broke.  They built this home 12 years ago and now have 2 kids.  She talks frequently of who has what, who is driving what, who makes what on their street, and the expensive vacations everyone is going on in their area.  Mind you, they went on a 2 ½ week vacation to Italy where her husband still has family.  That COULDN’T have been inexpensive.

My father is the same way.  He lives in a modest home with his wife, granddaughter and my step-sister.  My father has always been into “toys.”  We had jet-ski’s growing up, a pop-up camper, dirt bikes, street bikes, etc.  Before he was fired from his job last year, he was making a six-figure income, but always wanted more.  Wanted a bigger house, wanted a better motor home (Todd and I could LIVE in his motor-home, by the way,) newer vehicles, nice vacations…you get the point.

It makes me wonder why people are so “green with envy” when they already have SO MUCH.  The only answer I can come up with is that they are not content with their belongings or with themselves.

There is one person that I look up to, and that is a co-workers of mine who lives in a modest home with her hubby.  They are in their 50’s. She works – he is a stay at home husband.  They have no children.  Some think this set-up is odd, but I don’t see anything wrong with it. They own one vehicle, are debt free (including the house!), and live a very minimalist life…by CHOICE.  They have over a half million in the bank, but are able to continue to save every month on just ONE INCOME.  THIS is what I look up to.  It is these types of things I strive for in MY future.

I am perfectly happy with our $35,000 fixer-upper home.  Our mortgage is $57,000 because we needed to put in a new septic, a new roof, and some other home repairs, but we are still happy with the place.  I love my little Bianca and Todd loves his Rondo.  We don’t have much other than these things, but we are happy with them!  We have nothing to prove to anyone!  Todd’s mother said we live like “trailer trash.”  What would warrant her saying something like that to her own son?  Because she thinks we need to spend more money on food!!  Yes…you read correctly.  We do things we enjoy…on the cheap!  To be honest, if that warrants us as “trailer trash,” I’m proud to be it!!!  By the way, I don’t feel there is anything wrong with living in a trailer.  Obviously, others do!

Contentment

I can sit here and honestly say that I am content with everything that Todd and I own and what we have done to improve our relationship with one another. That’s not to say there aren’t any things that I wouldn’t mind completed (like the house projects!), but I am content with how far we’ve gotten in the 3 ½ years since we moved in.

I would love to travel more, but this year, we really cut back.  There were no extravagant week-long vacations to a tropical island or two.  Instead, we had a few 3-4 day weekends out of town, used a gift certificate for one of them which cost us $14 out of pocket to stay overnight in the woods in a beautiful log cabin.  Another, we went to Washington DC to visit a friend of mine, staying the night at her house and eating out only once a day.

When people walk into our house, they oooh and aaaw about some the items we own.  Guess what?  We are cheap frugal! We buy items from garage sales, flea markets and auctions.  We get a lot of free furniture from his father who worked for a storage facility.  He would pick up items that people were throwing out and either keep them himself or give them to us.  Our kitchen lamp was a free find from Todd’s father. 

The only large furniture item we have purchased new since we’ve been married is our mattress.  Instead of getting a cheap one (as we both had before,) we got one that is top of the line from a local mattress company.  We couldn’t be happier. 

Somehow, because we merged my home with his, and then added from his parents and mine, everything all works out in our home! 

It is not just our home that I’m content with, but even our vehicles.  After getting married, Todd purchased a large conversion van, and then bought a beater car because it cost so much in gas for the van.  We replaced both vehicles with his 2008 Kia Rondo.  This is the vehicle I have been chipping away at the balance part of this year.  And my beautiful Bianca, she has over 108,000 miles on her, but I wouldn’t even WANT another vehicle.  I want to drive her until she doesn’t drive any more.  I don’t even think about what other car I’d want to own.  Bianca is perfect for me. I’ve been spoiled with her.  She is fuel efficient, inexpensive to maintain, reliable, and not to mention, ADORABLE!

Our neighborhood – I love where we live.  We live in a Township, just 3 blocks away from being “in town.”  This means no public water, and no natural gas, but it also means there is a little bit of land around us.  We live on a dead-end street with just 3 houses on it.  We own two of the three houses.  The last house is an 80 year old woman who lives about a half acre away.  Across the street – all trees.  Needless to say, it is extremely quiet where we live, until the wolves start to howl.  Yes, there is a family that owns 3 wolves, and they howl some nights.  The neighbor behind us used to own a deer.  Only in Newton Falls can you find wolves, deer and pigs within a country block.

So, all in all, life is good.  We don’t make anywhere near six figures, but we are happy.  We don’t like our jobs, but we know that we are taking the right steps to financial freedom where we can one day say “see ya later!” and find more fulfilling positions closer to home.  I think we are on the right track.

Quote:

“Buy it used, wear it out, make it do, or do without.”

Author Unknown

Quote: Content

"Success is getting what you want.  Happiness is wanting what you get."
~Dale Carnegie

Jeff Yeager    The Ultimate CHEAPSKATE'S ROAD MAP TO TRUE RICHES