Post by rachelserine on Oct 3, 2010 23:42:10 GMT -5
We lived with a lot of the frugal ideas espoused in this article when I was growing up. If my family had had the money I doubt we would've lived with 10 people in a 1,400 sq ft house or had five boys and three girls sharing rooms or waited through two MN winters to change out a cracked window in the girls bedroom...
But it WAS qf type ideas that contributed to our $10,000/year below-poverty-line income and lifestyle. The "don't go into debt" idea and the "mothers shall not work outside the home" idea.
Now my mom is working from home making more than your average woman doctor in the states and my younger siblings have all kinds of exciting things.
My husband and I, on the other hand, are pretty frugal, but in more mainstream ways. We only use the dishwasher when it's full. We take shorter showers than we want to - but still at least 15 minutes. We buy used cars, we don't eat out much and we clip coupons. We have three kids in diapers so we basically HAVE to use cloth diapers or we would be broke. One of our friends just got a raise at work - and her raise was equal to what we make in a year. For us, though, it's a temporary situation. We don't plan on living extravagantly once we're past this stage, but we do plan on living with heat, water and a dishwasher. And we hope to save money carefully and give away as much as possible.
Even though I really really appreciate frugality and appreciate others who don't go all out extravagantly on themselves but share with those less fortunate I absolutely do NOT understand making this excessive-uber-frugality into a self-righteous-holiness thing. Or a competition. Everything is a competition with these people!!
But it WAS qf type ideas that contributed to our $10,000/year below-poverty-line income and lifestyle. The "don't go into debt" idea and the "mothers shall not work outside the home" idea.
Now my mom is working from home making more than your average woman doctor in the states and my younger siblings have all kinds of exciting things.
My husband and I, on the other hand, are pretty frugal, but in more mainstream ways. We only use the dishwasher when it's full. We take shorter showers than we want to - but still at least 15 minutes. We buy used cars, we don't eat out much and we clip coupons. We have three kids in diapers so we basically HAVE to use cloth diapers or we would be broke. One of our friends just got a raise at work - and her raise was equal to what we make in a year. For us, though, it's a temporary situation. We don't plan on living extravagantly once we're past this stage, but we do plan on living with heat, water and a dishwasher. And we hope to save money carefully and give away as much as possible.
Even though I really really appreciate frugality and appreciate others who don't go all out extravagantly on themselves but share with those less fortunate I absolutely do NOT understand making this excessive-uber-frugality into a self-righteous-holiness thing. Or a competition. Everything is a competition with these people!!