So I was interested in this story: "The Buy Nothing Year: How Two Roommates Saved More Than $55,000."
They spent the first three months... phasing out all consumer items, such as household objects, electronics and clothes. Then, they cut out all services, including dining out, salon haircuts, and gas and instead began hosting lots of dinner parties...I guess they bought food.
... and biking or walking everywhere, even during Calgary’s long, cold winter.... They made their own laundry detergent and surface cleaners....These 2 were making a public show of it, tweeting things. I think some of this is silly.
During the last phase, meant to start this July, they intended to stop buying food and grow their own with their aquaponics system and garden, but couldn’t produce enough to feed themselves....Oh, now it's turning into "Portlandia." Anyway, this is something you can do, but do it in your own way. It can be kind of a game, and you can play it at different levels of severity. You can make it fun, or you can take a no-pain-no-gain approach. You can infuse it with spiritual notions and environmentalism, or you can be very utilitarian and write down numbers and set goals. I kept it simple, just using my mantra whenever I got into a situation where commerce was possible.
Posts
50 comments:
I have done that, to various extents, off and on since I was in college. Chicks don't dig it, not even hippy chicks. That's the main downside. Otherwise, no problem.
The prices of certain things has gone totally haywire...
A sack/bag of ice at a gas station? $2.49
5-6 peaches at a farmer's market? $5
A modest sized bag of potato chips? $3.69
3 men's plastic combs? $3-4
A small container of screws, eye bolts? $3 or so.
And fuggedabout buying anything at a sports event....$10 for a hot dog or beer!
Don't buy anything the Man tells you, either.
Agreed! Works for my wife and me as well. But we also approach life with another mantra. Carefully choose the venue and then enjoy yourself. The first finances the second. And for us that means we happily live very very well.
Saved $55,000? Spending that much day to day in a year is ridiculous. I hope those folks would not be considered "normal" these days.
in my head was that mantra: Don't buy anything. It worked.
I've lived that way my entire life. Yeah, I'm weird, call me Scrooge.
I, on the other hand, refuse to be terrorized by terrorism of lying journalists and exorbitant college expenses.
For instance, when, in 2001, a guy named Frank Pellegrini, a writer for TIME magazine, lied that Bush had asked Americans to "keep shopping," I marched right down to the mall and bought as many sub-prime mortgages as I could get my hands on.
Big mistake.
Next time, I'll buy an internet connection and buy myself a little fact checking first.
Of course, if EVERYBODY stops buying stuff, Prof Althouse can kiss her forthcoming public employee pension good-bye as the economy and stock market investments on which pensions depend go down the tubes. Need to think the longer-term ramifications of some of these posts out a bit, I'd say.
My default condition is not to buy. I financed my retirement nest egg that way.
"Of course, if EVERYBODY stops buying stuff, Prof Althouse can kiss her forthcoming public employee pension good-bye as the economy and stock market investments on which pensions depend go down the tubes. Need to think the longer-term ramifications of some of these posts out a bit, I'd say."
Isn't it what we're supposed to do to help with the global warming problem?
Back in the 60’s this was much easier. Buying clothes and furniture at the Salvation Army along with no visits to the barber were just some of the actions to take to save coin. Hamburger 19 cents a pound, 10 loaves of bread for a dollar, cheap pasta and tuna, peanut butter, Boones Farm and cheap smokes went a long way. Those were fun and adventurous days.
Ah, ha! So you were the one who created the recession of the early '90's!!!
But agree. We tend to accumulate too much stuff, mostly junk **think Ikea**, and then feel suffocated by it. And the rapidity of new technology creates more obsolescence in shorter increments.
Thought similarly this morning when I saw the picture on page 3 of the Charlottesville newspaper (affectionately referred to as the "Daily Regress"). It was freshmen moving in day at UVA and the dad and son were carrying in boxes (new stuff) with a Bionaire Combo Tower Fan and a Keurig coffee maker. Spoiled and Entitled. But will help the stock market and Chinese manufacturers.
Having had to not buy stuff out of sheer fiscal reality for a long, long time, I'd be quite happy adopting the mantra of Go ahead and buy it! You want it! if by some miracle I came into a large pile o' dough. Houses in several locales, Bugatti Veyrons, you name it, I'll take it.
I am up to my eyeballs in people who gush over not spending, small houses, Priuses, and all manner of NeoStoic blather. Enjoy what you have and no more damn guilt about it!
But, hey, that's just me!
They made their own laundry detergent and surface cleaners
Out of what? Presumably they had to obtain raw materials from somewhere.
"You can make it fun, or you can take a no-pain-no-gain approach. "
Or you can turn it into a public exercise in sanctimonious moral preening and greenie/anti-capitalist one-upmanship. Or you can just act like a Canadian (but I repeat myself!)
My wife takes a different tack: Never buy anything brand new.
Used car.
Used furniture.
Used clothes (except underwear and suits, ties, belts for me).
People donate good stuff to Habitat, Goodwill, the Salvation Army and sell good stuff at yard sales.
A little bit of refurbishing or re-imagining and you have what you 'need' at very low cost. And leave the things you 'want' at the stores for other people to buy.
Now that we're over 60 we buy our clothes at up-scale consignment/thrift stores. One of the cool things we do is start on a trip with the clothes on our back and buy what we need as we cross the country...except underwear, shoes and socks. We buy those new.
Paco Wove:
Ammonia, baking soda and other very cheap household items do wonders.
Very cheap!!!!
Addendum - only in America. No where else seems to have "thrift stores or consignment. We spent a month in Italy and found zero thrift/consignment stores.
Paco: We make our own laundry soap as well. You need 20 Mule Team Borax, Washing Soda and Fels Naptha.
A 128-load batch of this breaks down to about $1.76. Buy some essential lavender or citrus oil to add to it and the price goes up a few cents but still ...
It works. Takes out every stain and leaves clothes very clean and fresh.
The next time you are in your local mega-mart compare that with the cost of a box of Tide (or even the cheap store brand) laundry soap.
I'll spend the initial investment of $7.50 ingredients to save the difference.
Very thrifty billionaires.
Warren Buffet "still lives in the same modest Nebraska home he bought in 1958 for $31,500." The Founder of IKEA "furnishes his home with Ikea’s affordable merchandise" and "the only luxuries he splurges on are the occasional upscale cravat and Swedish fish roe." Jim C. Walton "drives a 15-year-old Dodge Dakota." Azim Premji "stays at budget hotels when traveling in India.... wears non-branded suits and flies economy" and had "Paper plates... used at a luncheon in honor of his son Rishad’s wedding." Lots more at the link.
$38.5K bought a LOT of house in 1958 Nebraska.
Correction - $31.5K bought a LOT of house in Nebraska in 1958.
Very Thrifty Billionaires
Interesting article on how some Ubers live. The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko is an excellent read and it’s available on Amazon.
Not buying anything is unpatriotic! Our economy depends on borrowing money to buy things we can't afford!
I use this method: walk away and if you're still thinking about it the next day, and thinking about it enough to go back over to the store, then go ahead. I almost never go back.
Don't buy what you're not willing to work to get.
But specialize and trade, usually via money, is the only way wealth is created.
A $3 men's comb is worth it to you if you consider making your own comb as the alternative. It's better to flip a few burgers and buy the comb than to make the comb yourself.
If you need a comb.
I always start repeating as I walk down the ice cream aisle, " Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death...." Does that count?
Throw some vinegar in with that ammonia and baking soda and you can clean most anything.
"it’s available on Amazon. "
Or probably in the library. Most of my spending is on books.
Having a female in the house is expensive too.
Throw some vinegar in with that ammonia and baking soda and you can clean most anything.
Throw some bleach in with that and you could put an end to all of your cleaning problems. (And everything else.)
Mary Beth and Christy are just showing off, now.
:-p
We use those things too. And bleach kills/cleans everything. Here's another pro-tip: Mix fabric softener that smells good with water and spray your couch/chairs/beds/linens or whatever. It's better than you know.
SAVE FIRST THEN SET HARD LIMITS ON YOUR SPENDING.
First, pay yourself. Get direct deposit for pay checks. Tell the bank to put a fixed amount into a savings account up front before the rest goes into a checking account. Save enough to cover annual large bills such as taxes, plus a small contingency fund. Tell your employer to take out the maximum for 401k plans.
Take a fixed amount of cash out of the checking account every week. Break it down into envelopes: gasoline; food; eating out; etc. Use only that cash to pay for those items, nothing more. Allocate a small amount of cash to a personal allowance. If you see something you really want to buy, save money out of your personal allowance on a personal lay away plan. After a while you may find that you really don't want to buy it. If you still want to buy it, check out alternatives while saving out of your allowance.
Never, ever use your debit card. Pay recurring bills such as mortgage, cable, electric, etc., through your credit card (get the one with the most cash back). Pay off the credit card balance every month to avoid interest.
Anyone can prosper by living this way. If you do not make enough to pay your expenses, look for a second job. There are plenty of opportunities if you look. If you don't want to work a second job, find a way to cut your expenses.
Warren Buffet "still lives in the same modest Nebraska home he bought in 1958 for $31,500." The Founder of IKEA "furnishes his home with Ikea’s affordable merchandise" and "the only luxuries he splurges on are the occasional upscale cravat and Swedish fish roe." Jim C. Walton "drives a 15-year-old Dodge Dakota." Azim Premji "stays at budget hotels when traveling in India.... wears non-branded suits and flies economy" and had "Paper plates... used at a luncheon in honor of his son Rishad’s wedding." Lots more at the link."
Bunch of pretentious jerks. The rounding factor on the interest their wealth generates is enough to live at top .001% style.
cokaygne,
I hear that! You forgot to say "... and retire at 55." We did, and we weren't even public employees!
The only thing I didn't do was the envelopes.
We use those things too. And bleach kills/cleans everything.
But don't mix it with ammonia. I was joking - kind of dark humor - it could end your cleaning problems by ending you.
I had been saving $50K/year for retirement; when my wife left me I had to figure out how much of that I could continue and how much I'd
have to cut.
Here's my monthly budget:
Mortgage (tax, insur) 1600
Utilities (elect 100, nat gas 100, water 50, internet/phone/cable 160): 410
Insurance (long term care 135, life 110, car 140): 385
House repairs upkeep 150
automobile and gasoline 100
drugs medical
church/donations: 250
House cleaning: 200
Total (same every month): 3200
Food: 600
Miscellaneous: 400
Total: 4200.
I'm not writing to whine. I live a comfortable life.
I'm writing to show how little leeway I have. 4200 per month is 50K a year. (And of course I save 30K a year for retirement and pay 20-25K in income and payroll tax). (And for that matter I could reduce my mortgage by paying off over a longer period; but I'm on pace to pay it off over 30 years from initiation.)
H
The minute you are able refinance with a fifteen year amortization. The savings are huge and if you can get a better rate then the out of pocket may not be as harsh as it sounds.
The billionaires saving pennies are preening for the most part. If they are in operations and setting an example then fine, but if they are investors then it is purely a show off move.
The roommates had a huge accumulation of "stuff" so they did not need any clothes or electronics or household objects. In five years they will actually start to need replacements for vital broken objects such as coffee makers. That said, I liked what they they did because they became so positive about it. I'm furnishing an apartment and trying to avoid spending money - my idea is to focus on getting to simple comfort but no more. And then to fill bare spaces with carefully selected objects or else just leave them bare as if I were Japanese. All the rest of the time and space allotted to me has to be filled in with my life (or,I admit, with my bookshelves and my books.)
Was $31k modest in 1958? I don't think so knowing what my parents paid for their 1600-1800 sf house 10 years later. Unless he bought a lot of land with it?
Just to keep the irony juices flowing in the slavering jaws of the hellhound known as consumerism: I just for the first time bought 4 items going through the Althouse Amazon portal, after reading this article. But this is absolutely the last time ever I buy anything on Amazon, ever again. I pinky promise.
Who knows how much money he's put into the house since he bought it?
I bought the house we live in back in 1986 for about $120,000, but I've done some big renovations and have put that much again into the house. Or more. I'd have to get out all the paperwork and add it up, which I will some day.
My two cents worth-
Save and invest early, use the power of compounding to build your wealth over time. Invest right after college, rather than buying that new car.
Save most or all of every monetary windfall, i.e. bonuses, unexpected refunds, gifts, etc., and invest these amounts to build more wealth.
Live below your means. This doesn't have to mean watching every penny, but not buying "wants" just to keep up with the Jones.
No thanks. I lived like that in College - involuntarily.
The problem with thrifty scrooges is they never let up. At age 65 they're still saving and scrimping as if dying with the most money is somehow a great accomplishment.
"'I ask your continued participation and confidence in the American economy,' Bush said in an address to the nation on Sept. 20, 2001."
That comment, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, is very odd.
Why would he even feel it necessary to specifically urge Americans to continue their "participation in the American economy?" What did he think we were going to do? What alternative did he think we had? Were we going to avoid all shopping districts, all stores, all areas of commerce, out of some exaggerated fear of...well, something, and start growing our own vegetables, making our own clothes, butchering our family pets for protein, chopping down the trees in our back yards for to make paper, crushing berries to make ink?
Bush's meaning was clear: he was telling us, in other words, to "keep shopping."
"Was $31k modest in 1958?"
No, it was not.
However, to be fair, given the proclivity of even non-millionaire Americans today--those who are not homeless--to build themselves oversized (and ugly) McMansions, a handsome home that cost $31K in 1958, probably with smaller rooms and a smaller overall footprint, is modest in comparison. Buffet could have moved or built himself a much more expansive and expensive house as his wealth accumulated, so his staying in his old house does show frugality on his part.
Bush's meaning was clear: he was telling us, in other words, to "keep shopping."
No, his meaning was clearly what he said: continued participation and confidence in the American economy.
Your meaning is also very clear: We Americans brought the 9/11 attacks on ourselves. We deserve to be terrorized.
surfed wrote: Addendum - only in America. No where else seems to have "thrift stores or consignment. We spent a month in Italy and found zero thrift/consignment stores.
You mean like the 25 in Rome found on Yelp?
Google lists more, including a post from the Italy Takes Two blog with details and photographs (the post is called "Thrift shopping in Italy rocks!")
"Your meaning is also very clear: We Americans brought the 9/11 attacks on ourselves. We deserve to be terrorized."
That is incorrect.
Actually when I was a student I bought no furniture or stuff (only books and of course food). Recently I read an article on a university blog on "how to decorate your dorm room with 200 dollars". Well, all the stuff they described I actually found on the streets when people dumped them, often in perfect (used) condition, if not, a lick of paint or a screw here and there would do the trick. I've lived and worked in countries where buying was just not an option and gazed wide-eyed at how people could create stuff literally from "nothing". And then countries pass legislation against dumpster diving. So they can put the stuff into incinerators, then into landfills. Crazy.
Post a Comment