Living paycheck to paycheck on $350k/year

[bae]

Fortunately, the January strawberries taste like crap so I don’t buy them. But late season red raspberries can be decent.

We have wonderful berries here in the PNW, but the season is somewhat short. I make lots and lots of freezer jam, regular jam, and preserved pie filling during the brief, wonderful season, and thus have berry-stuff the rest of the year.

As an experiment when covid began, I put in a couple of blueberry plants in planters on my deck, and I'm getting a reasonable harvest from them without much fuss, as long as I keep the birds and my dog from savaging them. I'm tempted to increase the number of plants once I think through the setup.

[Tybee]

To be fair, maybe she has YMOYL'd the situation and decided that she doesn't particularly enjoy having a big house with all the work and money that goes into maintaining one, but does enjoy taking the family out for dinner from time to time. (It's also possible that her family think she's a lousy cook... )

I told my husband this story and he said maybe the in-laws steal the silverware, and they've learned not to invite them to the house!

[ApatheticNoMore]

Berries are the healthiest of fruits though. So I have to take my medicine. But if I can only get imported berries I wait until they are back in season. Frozen fruit is an alternative then but it tends to just sit in my freezer, so I don't bother.

[ToomuchStuff]

Well, one of my favorite quotes is something that my son told me: "A luxury, once tasted, becomes a necessity." This is one of the reasons doing anything about climate change and the devastation of the planet is that it's almost impossible to walk people back to consuming less. Things that were considered luxuries a few years back: AC, color TV, oranges from Florida if you live in the North, power windows in the car, even electricity itself--these are all "must have's" now. That's why there's energy consumption creep, and that's why people, like your friend, is blind to it.

Yesterday I asked DH, what would happen if the global economy just stopped. What if our country had to depend solely on its own resources? We couldn't get stuff from China or Europe, or even Canada?

His immediate response was "We would die!"

So I dug deeper... Why do you say that? He said, "All the car parts are made overseas!" So I replied, you don't die if you don't have a car. Obviously the answer is more nuanced--some people could die if they couldn't get to work and couldn't buy food or medical products, etc etc. But, strictly speaking, there are SO MANY THINGS we don't "need"--we just want them. Transitioning to a less consumerist society which would, in turn, reduce electricity consumption, would have to somehow overcome this barrier--people would have to be convinced that fresh raspberries in November is not a need to be taken for granted. It's a "nice to have"

Or would it?

It could also speed up the transition to higher electrical use, with things like 3d printing, etc.
I also expect computers would be used more (probably with open source software to prolong their lifespan), until they died (then go back to books/library, etc), as people figure out how to fix/do things for themselves.
Then you might have a resurgence in smaller stores as the supply chain's run dry on national chains, with people who still have old skills (cobbler, etc).

[flowerseverywhere]

To be fair, maybe she has YMOYL'd the situation and decided that she doesn't particularly enjoy having a big house with all the work and money that goes into maintaining one, but does enjoy taking the family out for dinner from time to time. (It's also possible that her family think she's a lousy cook... )

Well she said the reason she was.moving was unaffordability, and I just question the wisdom of making such a choice. After all, the economic future is very unstable right now and for those close to the edge its time to buckle down

Meals with friends and family can be really simple. It's the company after all.

Every day we all make decisions we have to live with. Everyone can do whatever they want but don't complain about optional decisions that could have a very adverse effect like homelessness. Regardless of who is in power difficult decisions about Medicare and social security will be made. it could spell disaster to many old people.

Personally and as nations the time to fix the roof is when the sun is shining. Lifelong frugality is the only key to surviving the inevitable storms

[jp1]

Well she said the reason she was.moving was unaffordability, and I just question the wisdom of making such a choice. After all, the economic future is very unstable right now and for those close to the edge its time to buckle down

Meals with friends and family can be really simple. It's the company after all.

Every day we all make decisions we have to live with. Everyone can do whatever they want but don't complain about optional decisions that could have a very adverse effect like homelessness. Regardless of who is in power difficult decisions about Medicare and social security will be made. it could spell disaster to many old people.

Personally and as nations the time to fix the roof is when the sun is shining. Lifelong frugality is the only key to surviving the inevitable storms

The flipside of whether she was making a wise decision is that housing costs go on forever. As do the savings of moving to a cheaper home. Decisions about meals out with family can be made one after the other depending on if one can continue affording them. It's a lot easier to stop inviting your family out to dinner than it is to deal with a home that is no longer affordable.

[Teacher Terry]

Spending 450 for a dinner with a few people makes my head hurt. I am making Hungarian goulash for my DIL’s birthday dinner and the meat alone cost 17.

[Tradd]

I will spend money on my diving - like the $10K rebreather with $1600 for training and probably another $750 for travel (to WI from IL) for training, hotels, food, needed incidentals and consumables for the rebreather.

At the same time, I try to take my lunch to work (even if it’s just a can of soup), use instant coffee in the morning so I skip McD’s, and eat at home. Contemplating shorter hot baths (I dislike showers and soaking is a good stress reliever) to save on the gas bill from all the hot water use.

I drive a base model 2018 Ford Escape I’ll have had for 4 years in January. It’s got over 95K miles on it from all the driving I do to dive. Sticker was $25K, but the dealer had it for $18K as they were trying to get rid of it. They gave me another $1K off as I was a repeat customer at that dealership.

I do have some credit card debit, but I’m paying it off. The rebreather and associated costs were paid for in cash.

[Teacher Terry]

Tradd, it seems to me that you are spending according to your values which is important. You are cutting in some areas to afford what’s important to you.