How much of a "scrooge" are you?

I

IFBB

Just thought this would be interesting to talk about.

How miserly are you / were you when saving up for deposits for houses?

My gf is always asking me where my money goes, why i dont buy all designer name brands etc, and would much rather go online and get clothes. Also the mates ask me why i dont get another car (have a VX SS Commodore atm, so its perfectly fine to me).

I happily live well below my means, if it means i have the funds there to get that next IP when i think the deal arises.

What things have you done in order to save some pennies for a deposit?
 
Many people over the years have called me a tightarse which is pretty accurate.

But its not that I dont spend money as I do buy what I want to buy, the key is I dont want to buy much. (clothing, dvds etc) :)
 
MangoMadness said:
Many people over the years have called me a tightarse which is pretty accurate.
Click to expand...

You are not alone. My current gf actually asked me we first went out, where does all your money go. She now knows and she's getting the bug from me. We are planning to move out of her PPOR (we are still not defacto yet) and move back into a 1 bdrm apartment after she calculated how much she could save by just turning her PPOR to an IP. All this she did in the middle of the night. Accountants..... hehe:p
 
After a snapped achilles and diagnosed with cancer within six months of each other (9 months ago), I don't even blink when it comes to spending money.

Life is short.

Enjoy it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
MangoMadness said:
Many people over the years have called me a tightarse which is pretty accurate.

But its not that I dont spend money as I do buy what I want to buy, the key is I dont want to buy much. (clothing, dvds etc) :)
Click to expand...

I'm pretty much the same - don't have much interest in stuff and have an active dislike of the shopping process.

I used to see something I wanted to buy, then ask myself how many hours I had to work to get it. If I wouldn't have worked that long for it, I didn't buy it. But I don't do that any more - as my income has increased over the years, the calculation doesn't work nearly as well and I would find myself buying everything!
 
My spending is my downfall at times. I like toys
Cars,bikes,boats,planes,i eat out and enjoy life.
Party( well use to) $1,000 per weekend was common for me.
Pulled my head in a bit now but still enjoy life.
Its not all about saving for retirement. lots of living to do before then.
:)
 
Ill make up for all of you and keep the economy going then. :p

Been there done that watching every cent when I was first married and renovating our first house. Property investments have been good to us. I also work FT and am happy to spend money on overseas holidays, nice clothes, good schools, eating out, etc. We have a late model luxury car and we live in a rather expensive location. What can I say I have champagne tastes :)

That said I dont live on debt and I make wise spending choices. I dont think I WASTE money but there would be plenty of people that would perhaps spend there money differently to me. Different strokes for different folks I guess.
 
Was a major tight **** when I was starting out and it was all about the next deposit and working overtime/second job. Worked for maybe 7 years nearly every weekend OT/2nd Job.
Now I'm a bit older and earn a little more and have more important things to do than making money, I've loosened the purse strings a little. Pretty much anything I really need I buy and "wants" are given a priority in my head - the thing I've noticed is that if I wait long enough, the "wants" disappear or change.

When I was batching by myself, it was
cook lots of pasta on Monday
Eat Monday's pasta Tuesday
Eat Monday's pasta Wednesday
Eat out cheap (veg out in Fitzroy st) Thursday
On the P1xx Friday w/e with plenty of take aways to start the nights preceedings.

Starting out and being a tight **** is no1 when it comes to accumluating ip's. Beats wasting $ on new cars and other "stuff" as long term you'll be miles in front - trust me on this.
Now I'm just a "lucky" property investor.
 
I do have champagne taste too, so when we do go out, its somewhere very nice. When i need to buy something such as a suit, its top quality. I just try to limit what i spend, and aim to put away about 75% of earnings. Im into bodybuilding, so a bit of money goes towards supplements, but am very fortunate to still live at home, so food is paid for (do put some money towards it though - eat 20-25 cans of tuna a week for example haha.

Some family say to go overseas now while i can, but id rather wait it out a little longer, and hopefully put myself in a good situation when i move out, get married, have kids for example.

Another reason is what i think the market is going to do over the next 2-3 years. I dont see a lot of growth, a price correction. If / when this happens, it would be great to be able to snap up a few IPs in a short amount of time.
 
Used to be pretty frugal with money back in uni and when I started (around 3-4 years ago). But after a while the smaller things don't matter as much any more.
 
Like most here, we were pretty tight when it came to saving for our first deposit (and holiday and car) We had a strict budget and used to pay for everything in cash 20 yrs ago to avoid overspending. Worked a treat back then when we only had $100 a week for the food bill :D Also didn't have to engage in any dieting.....!

23 years on and things have obviously changed. The budgets gone and the temptation of an offset account has been difficult at times... but then again I'm a little older and can now afford the little luxuries of being able to cook steak every night if I wanted to :D Old habits die hard, however, and I still like to buy things on sale, minimize takeaway and eating out and browse second-hand shops (always interesting finds if you search hard enough!)

I grew up with the mentality of always asking oneself "Do I need it or want it?" for many years (blame my parents) and still have trouble splashing out when I can afford it. Always have that PPOR mortgage in the back of my mind I guess :D
 
We broke down and replaced our 1997 Rav4 last week..after owning it for 11 years.
Now have a 2006 Kia Sportage.

I have very little material wants. Buy whatever we want.
We did the years of scrimping, which never really seemed like big deal.Kids were small and easy to please.
 
I'm a tightarse on things that I don't care about or that just don't matter that much. But i also have no problem splurging either. I don't want to sacrifice too much for the future - so I look at all aspects of my life and decide where it is best to scrimp and where I want to spend. (ie, I have cheap crappy internet - because I cann't justify to myself spending more then I do; about $130 for 12 months ;) , but I will spend $$$ on things which add to our life experiences; like taking the kids ice-skating for the first time last weekend).
 
I've always been pretty good with money without being a TA, and have always saved some of my income.

If I really want something because it improves our life or leisure time then it's worth buying and money well spent.

I won't however spend money on useless/wasteful things or buy poorly ie. things I'll have little use for or probably won't enjoy that much, or expensive items instead of an equally good alternative cheaper items.

I also hate shopping, and especially hate malls (I'm in and out), which helps alot.
 
First house was the hardest... 2002. Sold it 2 years later and freed up some capital. So, for those 2 years, being single and putting up with interest rate raises every month or so, I could hardly afford a long neck on the weekends. Still managed to have a lot of fun.

9 years later, wife and I have 3 IP's altogether. Nothing to write home about, but friends keep wondering why we never buy late model cars.

I guess we have both lost interest in rapidly depreciating assets (or rather, liabilities????), plus, I'm a motor mechanic by trade - although I haven't worked in the industry for over 10 years, but I know how to fix most things.

Funny how the same people that used to call me a TA 5 years ago now come to me for investment advice... :S

Not sure, but does moving to Denmark in order to get cheap flights to the rest of Europe make us more of a TA?... Actually, don't care.... we're enjoying it here :)
 
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