keeping "down" with the jones'

i am beginning to wonder if this is a new phenomonen? rather than keeping up the with neighbours, the wealthier neighbours are dropping the levels of expenses?

was thinking about that today as i was doing the ironing. i live next door to a doctor and his wife who works parttime. they are not short of a quid - him being a doctor - and have recently come back from taking their 3 teens to italy for a month. the kids are all in private schooling etc etc.

anyhow - as a stay at home-er, who will do anything rather than "go out" to work, i do most of the chores around home including the mowing and edges.

i noticed this week that the neighbours has dispensed with their mowing guy and now are mowing their own. the wife also told me she is having a clothesline installed - everything used to go thru the drier but i hang everything out. there are a few other things, like we've been renovating extensively and the neighbour was out fixing his own deck last weekend - i didn't know he owned a hammer!

is this the new trend - keeping down with the jones' rather than up?
 
They just wanna be like you lizzie:)
You have given them a huge guilt complex.:D

I heard a saying today and l like it. l will share as it does seem to ring very loudly today.

You use to define yourself by what you have and what you have achieved.
Today you define yourself by what you don,t have and your failures.

Quite true, but quite sad really.
cheers
yadreamin

ps l hope you do those edges with a pair of sissors lizzie:eek:
 
lizzie

People don't feel rich anymore.

Our million $ houses, our super and our shares have all lost value so we'll have to live within our means for a while.....

I think times are still tough out there, the economy will take a long time to recover and prosperous years such as the ones we've had under the Howard & Costello government won't come back for a long long time.

In fact those years will probably stay in history as the best years of our century.

IMHO

cheers
 
I have been reading about 'Frugal.. the new cool' and similar headlines coming out of the US for a while now, thanks to the financial crisis.

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2008/10/age-of-frugality.html

On a shady lane in New Hope, Pa., a quiet revolution in American culture may be taking shape. Here, a family of four lives in a white, colonial-style house in a manner that once would have been considered All-American but more recently has been seen as just plain weird: They're frugal.

Meet Leah Ingram, Bill Behre, and daughters Jane, 13, and Annie, 11. They walk most everywhere, they rarely eat out, they sometimes buy clothing at consignment shops, and they turn the lights off when they leave a room.


Can't say I've really noticed it here yet, but I don't hang out with the Jones's so I might be missing the trend!
 
nothing new

Andrew - I think if you lived in the inner, bohemian type suburbs - this is the norm.

Your credibility dpends on how much money you have and how little you show it - its the new black! ha

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobos_in_Paradise

Quote

Bobos are noted for avoiding indulging in high acts of conspicuous consumption in favor of spending the greatest amount possible on the "necessities". Brooks argues that they feel guilty in the way typical of the so-called "greed era" of the 1980s so they prefer to spend extravagantly on kitchens, showers, and other common facilities of everyday life. They "feel" for the labor and working class and often rather buy American made goods than less expensive imported foreign goods. The term "bobo chic" was applied to a style of fashion, similar to "boho chic", that became popular in uptown New York in 2004-5.[citation needed]

Bobos often relate to money as a means rather than an end; they do not disdain money but use it to achieve their ends rather than considering wealth as an achievable end in itself.

Unqte
 
I agree, I think it's the new 'cool to be frugal' and I actually think about bloody time. Doesn't kill anyone to hang out their own washing, cut down on power use, grow a few veggies. It's not just about saving a few bucks but it just makes sense to use less energy (except kilojoules :) of course)
 
"Lamborghinis still turn heads"

Exactly the point - your words belye your true motives - nothing to do with value all to do with how you are perceived (turning heads).

Maybe one day you wont have to turn heads. That could be your greatest ever investment.
 
nice justification - plenty of things are beautiful that are freee. Feel free to worship the beauty of a depreciating machine and I will worship other kinds of beauty.

Somehow I have a feeling that you liking of a lamboghini has nothing to do with beauty!
 
Somehow I have a feeling that you liking of a lamboghini has nothing to do with beauty!
I like them, and its all to do with beauty. But I'd never buy one, too expensive... ;)

I think I've been Bobo for a while. Wow, suddenly I'm cool! And I only had to wait until I was knocking on the door of 40. :eek:

Cheers,
Michael
 
MW - Thats the point.

Anything can be beautiful but in absense of any other reasonable reason to spend 300k of ones own money on a car - beauty is an easy fallback. Lots harder to admit its about power, fear and snobbishness (the want to differentiate yourself from the masses)

I would respect people more if they just said that. That would be a great rock n rioll mentality - F You I drive it because I CAN! RESPECT.

Not because of all the other rubbish.
 
MW - Thats the point.

Anything can be beautiful but in absense of any other reasonable reason to spend 300k of ones own money on a car - beauty is an easy fallback. Lots harder to admit its about power, fear and snobbishness (the want to differentiate yourself from the masses)

I would respect people more if they just said that. That would be a great rock n rioll mentality - F You I drive it because I CAN! RESPECT.

Not because of all the other rubbish.

I don't agree at all. My favorite artist is monet. I can't afford to buy a Monet but the ones of his that I like are purely for their beauty, just because they cost millions neither enhances or decreases my perception of their beauty. I used to think that "waterlilies " was my favorite until I saw it in the flesh now I have a completely different one, because it is (to me) more beautiful. No idea what it would cost and it's probably not for sale anyway.

And I think lambo are beautiful too, much nicer than ferari, but my favorite would be an Etypr Jag from the 60s, love that body shape. Nothing to do with power, fear or snobbishness. (Datsun 260z is similar in body shape to etype but has a shorter bonnet and half the cylinders)
 
MW - Thats the point.

Anything can be beautiful but in absense of any other reasonable reason to spend 300k of ones own money on a car - beauty is an easy fallback. Lots harder to admit its about power, fear and snobbishness (the want to differentiate yourself from the masses)

I would respect people more if they just said that. That would be a great rock n rioll mentality - F You I drive it because I CAN! RESPECT.

Not because of all the other rubbish.

Well you did say that most people do not have no self awareness, so this sort of behavioural trait existing should be sort of expected.
 
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