I had the mixed blessing of being raised by moderately well-off people who'd been extremely poor when they were young and never forgot it -- depression babies. Being hungry when you're young puts a whole different spin on life. They -never- assumed that there would be "more where that came from," because when they were young -- there usually wasn't. By their middle years, they were living much more secure lives than I am now, but their habits were set. Even now, in her '80s, my mom doesn't have a credit card. Not even a debit card. They never bought a thing on credit except houses.
Sometimes they took frugality to a fetish, which bugged me -- my dad, when shopping for something, would always confuse "cheapest" with "the best deal," and you know that's not always true. But like them, I always pay cash. I do have a debit card for convenience and an Amex _charge_ card, not credit card, for traveling and emergencies. But I've never taken out a loan for anything. This whole idea of "leveraging" your wealth with creative debit never made sense to me. So I guess I'm a true grandchild of the depression. If you want it, save up for it.
Money-saving hints --
*Buy a decent car with a good reputation for reliability and drive them forever. Eschew expensive options. If you can buy one that's a year or two old, it's even better. Our Hondas are 12 and 13 years old, respectively. I know people who've had two, even three cars in that time.
*Shop consignment if you've got the patience. If not, go to stores like Ross or Marshall's and get last season's clothing for 60 percent off. My work outfit is generally a Hawaiian shirt and a pair of khakis, and I can generally get such an outfit for under $30 at Ross.
*In my area, (SF Bay Area) we have a rather well-developed Craigslist site, with thousands of things for sale at any given time; the ads are all free to seller and buyer. Often times, these are expensive items like furniture that are on sale for excellent prices by people who are leaving the area. I could furnish an entire house for $500 on Craiglist, including refrigerator and stove. For a grand or two, I could furnish a house _really well._ Many of the forsale items have pictures. If you live in SF Bay area especially (the LA and NY sites are also good), I highly recommend looking at Craigslist. There are actually dozens of regional sites; and while the traffic on some of these are low, the for sale boards are always worth a look. I have used Craigslist to buy, but have also used it to see furniture at prices that were more than anyone would give me at a garage sale, but still a real good deal for the buyer.
www.craigslist.org.
Bargain matinees. Can't remember the last time I went to the movies _at night._ And I bring my own candy.
*Cook at home as much as you can. We're into beans right now, but we do buy quality food; it's still cheaper than restaurants. When you do eat out for fun, eat out for breakfast or lunch at good restaurants. Some restaurants basically serve the same thing for lunch as for dinner but leave out one course and cut the price by 40 percent.
*Join a church. I'm not kidding, nor am I proselytizing. But when you're part of a close-knit community, religious or otherwise. there's always somebody who's in plumbing or insurance or cars or some business who can either give you a good deal or give you advice on _how_ to get a good deal or who's reliable or not reliable in a certain business. With the church, you get the added bonus of the annual or semi-annual rummage sale, where every contributes stuff for sale. Church members always get first pick, of course, and we've picked up a lot of useful stuff over the years for not much. We've also given up stuff we didn't need that other people wanted, so I think it all balances out. And I will reiterate that it doesn't really need to be a church; I meet with a small group of guys weekly for yoga and a meal, and we operate as a community and share tips, borrow stuff from each other or give stuff to each other we don't need, and so on.
*Join the Friends of the Library. If you want cheap books, books on tape, and so forth, this is the place. The Friends in most communities have a regular book sale or two every year -- in our town, it's massive. Squishor, you live in Santa Cruz, same as me -- the local Friends fill the entire Civic Auditorium with books once a year or more, mostly on sale for $1.50 a pound. Ever been to one of those?
If you join the Friends for $10 or $15, even if you don't volunteer, you get to go to the members only pre-sale and get first pick. I have gotten some great books from the Friends. At any given sale, look over at the children's table and you will find a whole lot of middle-aged women (and a few men) loading up on high-quality picture books. They're teachers, and they pretty much have to buy every book in their class that isn't a textbook. They'd go broke without the Friends. I do actually volunteer with the friends: the average volunteer is a 70 year old lady, and they are great people and can do just about anything except lift heavy boxes of books. That's where I come in.