Category Archives: Frugality

Frugal Activities

The Cost Of Being Rich And Famous

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Most of us wish we were a rich and famous celebrity, idolizing every step they take, constantly watching them in the news.

However, the cost of being rich and famous may be greater than we imagine. I would go as far as to say that the star celebrities are constantly on a kind of public stage, always being photographed or badgered by adoring fans (not to mention stalked).

Now granted being wealthy and a celebrity has its advantages, but my concern is about all of the great things that they’d miss out on that the average middle class family experiences!

Here’s a list of the things a celebrity would miss out on:

  • A casual walk in the mall, or really anywhere in the public eye.
  • A quiet evening out with their spouse.  Even when they are at a private room in a restaurant, there is someone trying to take pictures or get an autograph.  And there is always the nasty process of going and leaving the establishment.
  • Travelling must be done in disguise, and even then, they are often recognized.
  • Since they are busy with an acting gig, or away on a business trip, they miss large segments of their children growing up.
  • They often adopt children rather than have their own kids, possible fearing that they might lose their million dollar looks or body.
  • They’ll miss out on the sports that a child might play (if they play any at all).
  • Their kids are bound to feel like they are entitled to have the same stuff other rich kids like them have.  The celebrity may not experience the hugs from a child when they come home from work.  Or at least not as many opportunities.

So while I wouldn’t mind being rich or financial independent, I don’t think I would really want to be famous.  I think the costs would be too high, and you would give up too much in the process, especially if you have kids.

What do you think?  Would you like to be Rich And Famous or just discretely rich (my preference)?

-MR

Related Reading:

Check out Everyday’s tips and thoughts‘s article: Who Needs Yachts and Islands, it was my motivation for writing this article.

Living With Your Parents While Being Young, Successful And Married

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My wife once worked with a young, successful, preppy, attractive girl that recently graduated with her MBA degree, let’s call her Sally.  She was working full-time in a VP of marketing position (or something similar) making much more money than my wife did, back when my wife worked at this company.  She was recently married and her husband was even more successful than she was! 

At first I thought my wife was telling me the classic story of two young DINKS (Dual Income No Kids), setting out to conquer the world…  

But these two DINKS were a bit different!  You see, both of these highly educated, successful adults were living in the basement of Sally’s parent’s house!  I said “WHAT”, thinking that I misheard my wife, but she confirmed it again!  Apparently, my wife was shocked too, and she asked the pretty VP to go into greater detail, explaining the young DINK’s logic…

Sally told my wife that her parents are rich, so the basement was finished with a kitchen and bathroom and plenty of room…  Sally and her husband were socking away all of their money and living as cheaply as possible.  Kudos to them for living a frugal life way before it become popular right?  Not so fast!

You see they were saving for a million dollar house, and while they might be able to afford it, it would have been a pretty tight squeeze.  I should mention that where I live, a million dollar house is a very BIG house!

So their plan was to live in Sally’s parents house for a five year time span, saving all the money for a huge down payment on the million dollar house.

A clever way to go, and I’m sure Sally’s parents house was big enough…  But still, that would be incredible awkward for me, especially if I were her husband!

What would you do, would you mooch off of your spouse’s parents while saving money?  In some ways I applaud them, even though it leaves a nasty taste in my mouth!  But, Sally’s parents are filthy rich, and they didn’t seem to mind…  So, why not!?

-MR

A Frugal Solution To An Expensive House Problem

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I have a family member (lets call him Bro) with a small problem with the design of their recently purchased house.  You see, their house is a decently sized house (about 2,500 square feet), but their furnace/air conditioner is designed for a 1,800 square foot house.  So, the upstairs rooms are way too hot in summer and too way to cold (about 45 degrees) in winter.

A new furnace/air conditioner would cost thousands of dollars, which my Bro doesn’t want to pay for.  So instead, he is contemplating installing floor board heaters and room air conditioners.  This would make the rooms look presentable (although the room air conditioners wouldn’t be that nice looking)! 

But I think I know of a better solution!  What if instead, a small fan was place over the vents, then turned on to suck the air out from the vents.  When the fan is not in use, it can be stored under the bed or in the closet.  This would be the cheapest solution of all the options.

Perhaps there is a company out there that has a more elegant solution than my fan idea.   Maybe someone already makes a fan that replaces the grill so it’s is more aesthetically pleasing to the eyes and less hassle!

In the rooms that are not in use, my Bro can just keep the fans stored away someplace until needed.

Do you think my frugal solution will work?  Have you ever come up with non-conventional solutions for major flaws?

-MR

Frugal Tricks, Making Broken Things Work

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When things break for me, I try to find a solution to make them work a little longer than typical.

I’ve blogged about fixing my lawnmower before, but what about other things in my house?  Yes, I’ve done the same with many other things in my house!

Here are some of the techniques I’ve used to get a bit more life out of things:

Numerous flashlights:  Usually the problems with these are the spring is cheap and needs bent so it makes contact with the battery.  With a few flashlights, I had to take an eraser and rub the contacts for a better connection.

My AMD Desktop:  A few years ago, my primary workstation at home was an AMD desktop.  Unfortunately, the fan on the CPU wore out and the workstation would then go black  after a half an hour.  Luckily, I was able to figure out the problem, once I took it apart and tried to start it a few times.

Since I didn’t have a CPU fan on me, I unplugged the old CPU fan, and found a small house fan.  I opened the case and aimed the house fan at the CPU, and surprise it worked!  A few weeks later, I bought a CPU for a few bucks and it’s been great ever since.  Surprisingly, the CPU wasn’t damaged…

Laptop Fan Problem:  My daughter’s laptop wouldn’t work because of a fan error.  Since she is only 6, I didn’t want to spend the money to get a new one, so instead I figured out a work around.  What I do is blow at the fan when it boots up and everything is fine after that.  It’s not that much of an inconvenience, especially considering it’s an older laptop and now worth the money to get a new fan.

TV:  Our main family room TV has been on the fritz for the last year.  The problem is sometimes it just goes black (after the screen wiggles for a little first).  Other than those rare occasions, the TV works excellently!  At first when it started breaking, I would switch the channel a few times and the screen refresh seemed to make a difference.

Sometimes the kids would leave the TV on and go play.  When they would come back, the TV would be black.  I then would have to turn the TV off for a while and try it again, that typically would it.  Once it was so bad, I had to remove the AV cables from the VCR on the back of the TV and that did the trick (I put them right back on…).

Ottoman:  This recently broke with a lethal drop knee provided by my son.  Instead of just throwing it away, I took off the protective sheet from underneath it and determined that a support wooden block was broken!  So I’m planning on fixing this myself saving a hundred or so dollars.

These are just a few things that I’ve been able to fix for free or with minimal cost to me. With electronics, it’s worth it to me to try and get them last as long as possible, because electronics get cheaper and better all the time.  So the idea is make what I have last then buy something better for less later.

I’ve also had to fix other things like the washer and dryer, but I’ve already blogged about them.

Do you have any pearls of wisdom (or tricks) with respect to extending the life of things you have?

-MR