For me at least, what makes a budget item a necessary or discretionary expense is whether I can accept living indefinitely without it and not regret it. At its most mundane, I would regret never eating steak — but I can (and do) live indefinitely without eating porterhouse or filet mignon. At the other end […]
I buy most of my food on sale. In fact, I will not buy meats, cheeses, breads, lunch meats, spices or any frozen foods unless they are on sale. Yet at home I always have a full selection of all of those things to choose from. What makes that possible is that I use my […]
What do you like to do? The key to finding satisfying frugal hobbies is in the answer to that question. I literally sat down one day to write out a list of what I liked (or would like) to do. Not surprisingly, I saw that doing some things on my list would cost nothing, some […]
I drive a 1996 Dodge Dakota pickup truck and have no desire to buy something newer or fancier. When I go to the grocery, my mind no longer even registers the price of rib-eye steak as I scan the meat case for chuck steak, our preferred selection. When I want to shop for books, I […]
Why would I pay $4.69 for a 42-ounce container of Quaker brand rolled oats when I can have the grocery store’s generic brand for $2.60? Why would anyone? When there is no appreciable difference between the actual products, it is financial blindness not to opt for buying generic brands and banking the cost difference. So […]
I separate my retirement spending, practically — and even more importantly psychologically — into a baseline budget for basic living expenses and a discretionary fund for optional disbursements. My baseline budget covers what I have decided is the minimum lifestyle acceptable to me. The Discretionary Fund functions as a super flexible pot of money […]
Frugality without sacrifice is my spending motto. But does the “without sacrifice” part sometimes push me over the edge into unfrugality ? I took a close look at where my money goes and found quite a few items I could spend less on. So here is the rundown on what those items are, how much […]
How does one strike a balance between saving for retirement and spending now? Where does one draw the line? Is it as simple as following the traditional norm of saving 10% of one’s after-tax income – and then being off the hook to spend everything above that until it’s all gone? The answer is a […]
When you own your own home, you have to be ready for unexpected repair costs at any time. And sometimes that can get expensive. But home warranty policies have kept my repair costs way down and made it easier to get things fixed. Here is my 14-year experience. I learned about home warranty policies when […]
The most accepted rule of thumb for cashing out your retirement stash is to take 4% of your stash’s beginning balance each year and withdraw that to cover that year’s expenses. That means basically that for every $1000 of your annual expenses you need to have $25,000 socked away. And it is that little formula […]
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