dculberson wrote:Chris_V wrote: To be honest, this "I'm cheaper than you are and spend less money than you do" competition is as bad as the "I spend more than you do" comeptition. It's the flip side of the same love of money coin, and can be just as ugly in it's judgemental posturing.That's actually a really interesting point. I hadn't thought of it that way, and honestly I think you're right. I'm in the "I spend way less than I can" camp and have to keep your point in mind when bragging about it. :-)
Yeah, and I'm trying not to be judgemental in calling it out, and that's a hard task.
I grew up below the poverty line and know how to live frugally. But having to live that way with no choice means now I don't want to CHOOSE to live that way, and yet at the same time, I don't like spending a lot of money if I don't have to. Makes it hard as a car guy because there are $100 cars I like, $1000 cars I like, $10,000 cars I like, and $100,000 cars I like, and I could justify spending $1,000,000 on the right car. So if I want a $18k used car and can afford to make the $300 a month payments on it, then I see nothing wrong with making those payments to have it. Even as just a toy, which my Mustang is.
I'm also going to try really, really hard to keep it more than 5 years (which would be a first for me), but I don't want my wife in an out of warranty car anymore, so yes, I've resigned myself to having at least one car that always has payments. Which is why I've turned to leasing as a way of reducing the cost of always having payments on a new car that we also like. I only pay for the part of the car I use, and don't have to deal with idiots when I move on to the next one.