Last year I asked folks here what was one way that you became more
frugal lately. We got lots of great answers, with people making big and
small changes to their lives to be more frugal. (mine was saving plastic
bags from cereal boxes, and plastic bread wrappers to use for lunches,
etc., so I don't have to buy sandwich bags as often)
This time around, I'm wondering what your guilty pleasure is? You
know, something that sort of bothers you because it certainly ISN'T
frugal, like most of your life, but you still want it enough to do it
anyway.
I have two:
A) comic books. I didn't subscribe to any of these as a kid, but I did
get to read yard sale copies a lot at an aunt's house. These days,
cover prices have gone up to about $3 a copy, and I subscribe to about
30 different titles. Of course, I've figured out a way to get them for
about 85 cents each. Never pay full price! Still, we're talking about
a hobby that costs me over $300 a year.
B) restaurant food. Yes, I realize that you end up paying 3-8x as much
eating out. However, I'm a stay at home Dad, and I fix a lot of the
meals, so this gives me a break. Once or twice a week, I eat out,
probably wasting about $100 a month that I could be saving for hard
times. On the plus side, I did turn it into a sort of hobby, by
starting a restaurant review blog, (www.DaytonDining.com) which also
lets me have some fun writing about my experiences.
How about you?
Ohioguy wrote
> Last year I asked folks here what was one way that you became more frugal
lately. We got lots of great answers, with
> people making big and small changes to their lives to be more frugal. (mine
was saving plastic bags from cereal boxes,
> and plastic bread wrappers to use for lunches, etc., so I don't have to buy
sandwich bags as often)
> This time around, I'm wondering what your guilty pleasure is?
I dont have any. I do have plenty of pleasures, but no guilt about any of them.
> You know, something that sort of bothers you because it certainly ISN'T frugal,
Nothing like that bothers me at all. I do whatever I feel like doing.
> like most of your life,
Most of my life is frugal. I just prefer to do things like that.
> but you still want it enough to do it anyway.
> I have two:
> A) comic books. I didn't subscribe to any of these as a kid, but I did get to
read yard sale copies a lot at an
> aunt's house. These
> days, cover prices have gone up to about $3 a copy, and I subscribe
> to about 30 different titles. Of course, I've figured out a way to
> get them for about 85 cents each. Never pay full price! Still,
> we're talking about a hobby that costs me over $300 a year.
I dont bother with comics, I read lots of real books.
Some I get at yard sales and church fetes etc and Vinnies etc, some
I buy online used, some I buy new, some I read from the library.
> B) restaurant food.
I bother with very little of that. At one time when I was running a course
in computing, the woman who did the office stuff would organise a
decent meal every semester in a restaurant and I did attend all of
those, but dont bother with restaurants much at all otherwise.
I dont buy much fast food either. At one time I did have pizza delivered
quite often, but my house doesnt look much like a house from the street
so it wasnt that convenient to keep a watch out for the pizza delivery ape
and when they jacked their prices up too much, I buy the pizzas
uncooked at the supermarket and cook them myself instead.
I've been meaning to get into making them from
scratch but havent gotten around to doing that yet.
I did get into making marmalade from scratch this year, because the
operation that made the commercial marmalade I liked most stopped
making that marmalade and I didnt like their replacement as much,
so I made my own and end up with as good as they used to make.
> Yes, I realize that you end up paying 3-8x as much eating out. However, I'm a
stay at home Dad, and I fix a lot of
> the meals, so this gives me a break.
I dont need a break, I've got the meals down pat and they dont
take much effort at all. I do use some pre prepared uncooked
stuff like chicken filo parcels etc, and only have to cook them.
> Once or twice a week, I eat out, probably wasting about $100 a month that I
could be saving for hard times.
We wont be seeing any real hard times, we've recovered from the
clowns completely imploding the entire world financial system again fine.
> On the plus side, I did turn it into a sort of hobby, by starting a restaurant
review blog, (www.DaytonDining.com)
> which also lets me have some fun writing about my experiences.
> How about you?
I basically buy whatever I feel like technology wise, have the lights
and heaters etc all fully automated, have replaced the VCRs with
a PVR that I assembled myself and record almost everything I
watch, so I can watch it when I feel like watching it, not when its
broadcast etc and so I can skip the ads etc. I record everything
that I might want to watch and buy currently 1.5TB hard drives
to store that stuff on since I watch less than I record.
I may well get an iphone since there is an app that makes a very
good X10 controller. Bit hard to justify what is essentially a rather
expensive remote control, but I'll likely do it anyway just for the
convenience and because I like technology.
I'll probably change the DSL router for one that includes voip support,
mainly so I will have a completely integrated phone service, even tho
I cant justify the cost. I currently just have two cordless phone bases,
one on the voip service and one on the POTS service. A fully
integrated voip router would just be rather more elegant.
I will completely redo the kitchen. I physically built the house quite
literally, doing almost all the work myself, but never did get around
to having the most comprehensive special purpose made drawers
etc for everything. Cant really justify it in the sense that the current
shelves work fine, but I'm into fancy design and that much more
interesting than say a coffee table etc.
I have previously done plenty of stuff like owning a light plane etc too.
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