I dust my car when it seems to be begging for "wash me" to be written on it by some passer-by. I'm anything but a car person, as anyone can tell by the fact that I drove an unreliable 75 VW for thirty years...
I dust my car when it seems to be begging for "wash me" to be written on it by some passer-by. I'm anything but a car person, as anyone can tell by the fact that I drove an unreliable 75 VW for thirty years...
I'm jealous of your nursery finds!!!! Congrats. And, yes, it's wonderful to have good neighbors!Originally Posted by catherine
To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer." Mahatma Gandhi
Be nice whenever possible. It's always possible. HH Dalai Lama
In a world where you can be anything - be kind. Unknown
My husband made my son a dining table for his backyard, out of wood he found in the woodshed at the new house. He cut all the pieces here and then took his tools and assembled it yesterday at their house. Wish I had taken a photo. We are going to paint it with leftover paint we bought seven years ago in Michigan at Habitat for Humanity.
We are definitely using things that we have saved all these years. That feels really good.
So cool! Handmade furniture, especially from a loved one, is such a wonderful thing.
"Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
www.silententry.wordpress.com
I will finish the month slightly below budget barring a disaster today. This is the first time this year that's happening, in part because I have an aggressive goal to spend only 52% of my take home pay. I would like some of my savings go to capital improvements on the house but my son is again talking about moving out so I am holding off as it will be easier if he is not here objecting to everything.
I did have a little extra at the end of the month so got some needed clothes at decent prices, including three T shirts at Penney's for $7 each. Every store I have been to is mask optional but lots of them still have their fitting rooms closed. I have read this not only saves on labor costs but reduces shoplifting and really has nothing to do with covid.
One New Year's resolution was to meet my budget 8 months out of the year but with computer, car repairs, water heater, and new car I missed the first four months. So I aim to live frugally the rest of the year but we shall see.
That is a strong goal - 52% of take-home into savings. Wish you well on your journey as I know it can be tough with interruptions as life happens.
As Cicero said, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.”
We lived on 30% the last 5 years I worked. We lived on hubster's take-home plus $1000 of mine putting the rest into cash savings. Max pre-tax investments to drop taxes as low as possible plus Roth for future tax-free income. Save all wage increases. Pay off debt and remain debt-free. Don't increase style of living. Save cash for wants. Very doable.
It's maybe doable if you don't have any play money (entertainment, vacations etc.), that's why Elizabeth Warren's book had 50% necessities, 20% savings, 30% discretionary. There is no hard rule against saving the discretionary.
But getting necessities much below 50% on a single person's middle class income (I don't talk about a lower paid working class income - there is just no way), very hard, even 50% may be impossible if you throw in irregular expenses like dentists, car maintenance etc.. It might help to be honest about necessities as well, if you are really going to keep the gym membership no matter how unemployed you are then it's a necessity in practice. Of course the whole plan really works better on two incomes anyway (to deal with unemployment etc., unless you are both unemployed, without that unemployment will drain savings and be scary, just the way it goes). I wonder what it would have been to go through life really ever planning to marry or anything. I almost think I was born to late.
Last edited by ApatheticNoMore; 5-31-21 at 1:48pm.
Trees don't grow on money
I suspect the pandemic will serve as September 11 did to justify a wide range of rules and regulations that really serve other purposes. Fitting rooms and public bathrooms will remain closed, less popular or marginally unprofitable products will disappear or be relegated to on-line ordering, etc.
I helped my mom buy a new microwave oven Saturday (hers chirped its last on Friday). We ended up at a remodeled Best Buy that seemed to have half the sales space of old and a lot of what us graphics-type people called "creative white space". Some display items in each department (only the popular models), very little inventory on the sales floor, no physical media (music, DVDs, game cartridges) I saw available for the taking, and lots of aisle space.
The explanations offered were about social distancing and having fewer items to have to sanitize (not like I saw any sanitizing for the 20 minutes we were in the store and not like fomite transmission has been proved a big vector for SARS-CoV-2). But the "hidden bonuses" to BBUY of not having to move inventory as far from the delivery dock, not having product out there to look presentable (or "shrink"), not "burning" a product by making it a display model, and being able to consume less store real estate likely will never be admitted as reasons why this remodel will stick.
Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. - Booker T. Washington
Yppej, that’s a fantastic savings feat on a single income. Congrats! Tybee too bad you didn’t take a picture of the table your husband made.
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