Comments on: Part III – evolving frugality

By: Festival of Frugality #166 - The Winter Is Almost Over Edition | Student Scrooge

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 13:34:41 +0000

[...] Almost Large shares her experiences with an evolving frugality and discovering what works for her — a refreshing story that reminds us that being frugal [...]

By: LivingAlmostLarge

LivingAlmostLarge — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 14:18:36 +0000

Joe, yes and no. It does matter. I have meet people, in particular on the saving’s advice board, who live in really LCOLA. Eating out cost less than you can imagine. It’s like $2-3 for a full breakfast.

That’s cheaper when you are single than buying everything to make the breakfast. I couldn’t argue when they get that sort of deal and the same meal where I live costs $10 at least.

My roommate used to live in a LCOLA and eat out every meal. Where he would get meals for less than $2 even dinner! Now, he says he has yet to find the same sort of deals, so it’s more expensive than cooking for sure. Previously it wasn’t.

By: JoeP

JoeP — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 03:44:34 +0000

LAL, I don’t know if my area is HCOL or LCOL. My point is that going out is an expense, regardless of how much it costs.

By: LivingAlmostLarge

LivingAlmostLarge — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 23:38:19 +0000

Frugality is definitely an acquired taste!

By: LivingAlmostLarge

LivingAlmostLarge — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 23:34:10 +0000

JoeP, do you live in a HCOLA? I do. We’re not talking about a MCOLA, like most of the US, we’re talking cities you name on one hand in the HCOLA discussion.

That in itself contributed to $400/month eating out. You couldn’t get an entree for less than $20/per person where I live. But then again when it’s $10/beer then it puts it all into perspective.

And $400/month is a lot of money. Like I said, we were spending a lot of money in general.

By: JoeP

JoeP — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 20:03:59 +0000

$400/month eating out? What is this you speak of? In all honesty, this could easily be dropped to $100 every other month, but it requires a lifestyle change. May I humbly suggest making meals in advance and then freezing them? Don’t get me wrong, I like eating out occasionally, but $400/mo seems like a lot of money.

By: Kristy @ Master Your Card

Kristy @ Master Your Card — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 05:53:51 +0000

I’m not naturally frugal myself, so I understand needing to make the conscious effort. I find myself slipping as of late, ahem…I bought a $350 blu-ray DVD player. I didn’t need it, but I wanted it. On the plus side, it streams Netflix so it will help me get more out of my membership. However, it was $350 I didn’t budget to spend and I didn’t save up for. So, that money could have been put to better use.

By: Fabulously Broke

Fabulously Broke — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 13:32:15 +0000

I am not frugal by nature either, but I did find that thinking twice about my purchases helped. Like “Do I really need that?”.. or “Would I use that?”

I still don’t do the coupon thing for eating out, but we do try grocery coupons

My Achilles’ heel is when I see my sister….