Live within your means!

[JP_]

the economy would surely nose dive?

Maybe it can't get any worse... I've always lived within my means, but then, I regret not having the nice holidays that so many friends have!

• People stop buying/leasing new cars every 3-4 years and only change once a decade or more.
  • I'm on my 4th car, been driving for 31 years

• New sofa and furniture for the house every few years? Nah, we'll do that once a decade at most.
  • Hmmm, on second main sofa, owned my own property for 23 years

• Holidays abroad? Nah, local camp site from now on.
  • Not holidayed abroad since about 2004, apart from visiting a friend in Switzerland for a weekend. Had a lot of UK holidays in camp sites, caravan sites, and a couple of cottages in Cornwall.

• New clothes? Nah, charity shops from now on or new stuff only when absolutely needed.
  • I never use charity shops, but I rarely shop either. My clothes have holes in before replacing.

• Bigger house on that new estate? Nah, we'll stay put and do nowt to improve our current place.
  • I think you've seen enough of the 1930s pile of rot I bought!

• Food? No more luxury items and we'll only buy what we absolutely need.
  • I like my food. But my body no longer allows me to enjoy it so much, so I am eating a lot of basic food these days! And no wine, no whisky, very little beer ...

 

[Dork Lard]

Living outside your means is unsustainable, 'cos eventually your line of credit is maxx'd out & most of your expendable income goes to servicing the debt. I've no doubt folk do it but they only do it for a short period before it bites their backsides. Poor financial decisions on the other hand seem to becoming more common. I remember the first time I heard Martin Lewis giving financial advice on the radio & thanking the Gods that my replacement as chief financial advisor to friends & family had arrived.

Buying things on credit . . . . Well that's an important part of the economy. Buying things on credit that folk can't afford, well that's a part of the economy too tha' knoze.

The "tightening of the belts" which I'm sure most folk are doing at this time . . . . The economy will adapt much like it has always adapted & always will adapt.

When the current Mrs. Lard moved in I promised to take on the task of sorting out her sisters hopeless financial situation, over 3x her income in high interest credit card & bank loans, months behind on rent & very nearly at the point of spending all her income just on servicing all that debt. What happened when we finally hit debt free day . . . . You guessed it, £500 handbag, 55" TV, foreign holiday etc etc etc.

 

[Deleted member 292770]

living within your means has a whole different meaning these days. Now it means being able to service huge mortgages loans and credit cards to keep up with the neighbours.
They actually glorify the abomination by giving you a bigger ‘score’ for having more debt.

 

[gas112]

living well within your means doesnt mean you dont still spend money benefiting the economy

 

[diy_fun_uk]

Maybe it can't get any worse... I've always lived within my means, but then, I regret not having the nice holidays that so many friends have!

• People stop buying/leasing new cars every 3-4 years and only change once a decade or more.
  • I'm on my 4th car, been driving for 31 years

• New sofa and furniture for the house every few years? Nah, we'll do that once a decade at most.
  • Hmmm, on second main sofa, owned my own property for 23 years

• Holidays abroad? Nah, local camp site from now on.
  • Not holidayed abroad since about 2004, apart from visiting a friend in Switzerland for a weekend. Had a lot of UK holidays in camp sites, caravan sites, and a couple of cottages in Cornwall.

• New clothes? Nah, charity shops from now on or new stuff only when absolutely needed.
  • I never use charity shops, but I rarely shop either. My clothes have holes in before replacing.

• Bigger house on that new estate? Nah, we'll stay put and do nowt to improve our current place.
  • I think you've seen enough of the 1930s pile of rot I bought!

• Food? No more luxury items and we'll only buy what we absolutely need.
  • I like my food. But my body no longer allows me to enjoy it so much, so I am eating a lot of basic food these days! And no wine, no whisky, very little beer ...

Comes back to what I mentioned before, 'to spend or not to spend' is a gamble, unless you're fortunate enough to (genuinely) have money to burn. I have savings and investments, not a huge sum but it's something towards my retirement. Now some might say 'spend it, life is too short!' and to an extent they're right. However if I'm fortunate to get to 60 and be in good health, I'd sooner have (at that point) money to see me through an earlier retirement as opposed to having much less due to spending it on more stuff now, meaning I'd have to work x years longer, if that makes sense!

 

[JP_]

There's a lot to be said for a less materialistic lifestyle. If you can be happy with nothing then you will save. I think one problem is that the younger generations now are growing up with tech and gadgets all around, it is the norm. I feel, being born in the 70s and growing up in the countryside, part of the last generation to know what it is to be bored and having nothing to do.

In fact, kids today aren't allowed to entertain themselves - if kids are spotted messing about in a park or woods without adult supervision, the FB keyboard warriors are soon on there with "whose kids are these messing about!?" messages complaining that they should be out of sight, indoors, presumably watching TV or playing xbox. No wonder so many only ever do that these days. And all the while they are doing that, they are consuming.

If you thought the highly regulated adverts on ITV were bad, just imagine what kids are exposed to today - constant images of perfect looking teenagers in designer clothes with iphones etc. etc.

We, and yes, that means adults that are generally moaning about it, have built a society based on wealth and consumerism. Now we seem shocked that the next generation are addicted to debt and the latest gadgets.

 

[JP_]

Comes back to what I mentioned before, 'to spend or not to spend' is a gamble, unless you're fortunate enough to (genuinely) have money to burn. I have savings and investments, not a huge sum but it's something towards my retirement. Now some might say 'spend it, life is too short!' and to an extent they're right. However if I'm fortunate to get to 60 and be in good health, I'd sooner have (at that point) money to see me through an earlier retirement as opposed to having much less due to spending it on more stuff now, meaning I'd have to work x years longer, if that makes sense!

Yep, makes sense. This year, when my bathroom and hallway is done, it is going to be a big save time - as we want one family holiday to Italy before the kids grow up too much and leave home. But that is going to be done by working and saving, and hoping to get a good deal.

 

[gas112]

Got an uncle who has been frugal his entire life he is now 94 and has coming on for 60k in the bank and has suddenly realised what a fool he has been in the past by not spending it to make his life during retirement easier

 

[JP_]

At least I can proudly say, I haven't a penny to my name!

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Full disclosure, I live alone, no family to appease, and I do tend to live frugally. It's not really an intentional thing as such i.e. I don't feel I'm suffering due to it. Me and my old mum often joke it's a good job not everyone's like us as we generally don't spend that much on 'stuff.'

I think of 5 year old trainers as being new

I have pretty much always lived like that, I have never been one for spending what doesn't need to be spent, buying usually only what needs to be bought, wasting nothing and I have never found a need to be in debt. It's not at all hard, I don't feel deprived - I am happy with what I have, I have a lot more than most and plenty in the bank if I do spot something I might need.

 

[Deleted member 292770]

my Living room LG tv came from a job I was on . £40 and that’s about 5 years ago.
The spice boy next door is paying £400 a month for a bmw i4 he’ll never own. It’s sat on the drive at least 5 days a week.
I have no mortgage ,money in the bank and pick and choose when I want to work.
He’s a slave to his employer because of his stupidity.
He’ll always have a mortgage and be up to his neck in debt .

 

[JP_]

I think of 5 year old trainers as being new

Maybe that says more about your fitness program and less about spending!

My trainers tend to last quite a while too

 

[diy_fun_uk]

my Living room LG tv came from a job I was on . £40 and that’s about 5 years ago.
The spice boy next door is paying £400 a month for a bmw i4 he’ll never own. It’s sat on the drive at least 5 days a week.
I have no mortgage ,money in the bank and pick and choose when I want to work.
He’s a slave to his employer because of his stupidity.
He’ll always have a mortgage and be up to his neck in debt .

Yeah it's crazy, they reckon a significant % of new cars we see on the road are leased. Each to their own I suppose, again for me it depends on things like overall income. Using that specific example (cars) my current one is a 2008 plate. I'm hardly using it due to WFH and generally not having much of a social life these days! If it dies I'll be forced to replace it but won't be spending any more than circa £17k on its replacement. Not pennies granted, but the intention will be to run the replacement for another 10-15 years

 

[JP_]

Cars and phones, both the same it seems. I remember a conversation with a young woman in the office about both.
She thought she had a great deal on her new Fiat, paying about £500 a month for it, and also on her amazing iPhone, which with contract was another £50 or so.

I mentioned that my Chev Estate (now deceased, replaced with a Focus Estate last year) had so far cost me about £50 a month, and my £150 Moto phone that would last at least 2 years, works out £6 a month, plus contract.

Her response - well, my car and phone are better.
How so?
Because they cost more, obvs!

OK...

She probably still doesn't own her own flat. She was renting one for about £1200 a month, again, she thought it was a great deal.
And then she split up with boyfriend, and was left with a massive TV bought on finance, and living with her parents again.

When I bought my first property (tiny 1 bed in Walthamstow for £56.5k in 1999) the only furniture I bought was a teak table and 6 chairs, which I still have today. The bed we already had bought for a previous rented bedsit, and only replaced 3 years ago when I renovated the bedroom - decided to have a king size. My parents gave me their nice garden chairs when we moved in, and then later, they bought a new leather sofa, so I had the armchairs that they bought in the 60s. We only got rid of them in around 2013 when I did my living extension, and got a new sofa.

All that, and I still can't afford a summer holiday abroad!

 

[Bod ...]

Mottie, treat your wife with as much kindness and loving tenderness as you can! Bow down to her every whim and fancy.
You don't want to throw your future away on a spur of the moment rashness!

I thinks he's saying keep it between your legs..