The Frugal Family Guide (Back to the dark ages is good)

Newsweek.com ^ | Mar 7, 2009 | Steve Tuttle

[raybbr]

Last summer I was at my parents' cabin in rural Virginia and I noticed a dead mouse in a rusty old trap. I tossed it in the trash. Later that day I told my dad about the mouse, and he asked, "Where's the trap?" I told him it looked as though it were falling apart, and I'd thrown it out with the mouse still attached. He looked at me as if I'd punched him in the face. My mom chimed in: "We've had that trap since we got married!" I wasn't sure she was joking, and they got married almost 50 years ago. I sheepishly dug it out of the garbage and loaded it up with cheese again. Now it's become one of those perennial things they bring up every time I go home: "Remember when Steve threw out the mousetrap, mouse and all!?" This is followed by shuddering and head shaking, as they silently wonder where it all went wrong.

In today's cratering economy, my parents are looking pretty smart all of a sudden. President Obama talks a lot about personal sacrifice, and we all need to look for ways to cut costs these days. Maybe he ought to consider Bill and Joyce Tuttle as the nation's first thrift czars, because when it comes to pinching pennies and saving for the future, my parents are extreme.

Here are some real and true examples: my mom does not use a clothes dryer. "Why would I ever need that as long as we have the outdoors?" she says. (I'd like to answer that: there's nothing like pulling on a pair of frozen Fruit of the Looms straight off the line on a sleeting January morning. Thanks, Mom.) They don't own a credit card.

[raybbr]

I would ask exactly how much(my parents have saved), but my dad would refuse to answer, and instead would offer to kick my ass for asking. And he could, because he's so ripped from chopping all that wood.

I can hear his dad now, "I spent all that money on your college and all I got was a son who is an editor at Newsweek!" Well, if you weren't such a pansy you might be able to defend yourself.

I know there are some good ideas in here. Like hanging clothes on a line (which my wife refuses to do). But, the author sounds like a typical lib. "Let's all make sacrifices so the govt. can have what it needs".

[ottbmare]

Chopping wood is great exercise! A tree came down in our back yard and I’m ripped from chopping it up. And here’s the great part: I have had a very bad back, lots of time spent with doctors, physical therapists, etc. Between the horseback riding and the wood-chopping I’m not having any problems anymore.

[raybbr]

Are you actually chopping or using a chain saw?

[padre35]

Talk about crosspurposes, Thrift is the opposite of what Consumerism is all about, that money is not meant to be saved, not at all.

Obamao and his crack team are introducing inflationary pressures into the economy simply to force more spending and less savings.

[mosaicwolf]

"In today's cratering economy, my parents are looking pretty smart all of a sudden. President Obama talks a lot about personal sacrifice, and we all need to look for ways to cut costs these days."

But, but, but......this won't work. We have to consume, consume, consume to get the economy going again so we can bring unemployment down, pay more taxes, to pay for all the socialist programs don't you know! If we do smart things like sacrifice personally and use old mouse traps, how will we ever pay for all these great ideas?

[raybbr]

We have to consume, consume, consume to get the economy going again so we can bring unemployment down, pay more taxes, to pay for all the socialist programs don't you know!

Exactly. I hate it when I hear these idiots parrot the "we have to spend to get the economy going again" mantra.

What do we have to spend?

[saganite]

You can get all those good ideas from the Whole Earth catalog or just motor on over to the nearest commune to see how they do it. Personally, I passed on that stuff in the sixties and have no real desire to return to a “simpler” time.

[familyop]

"But, the author sounds like a typical lib. 'Let's all make sacrifices so the govt. can have what it needs'."

Let's see. If we are frugal and spend less, the government will get more revenues. No...sorry.

I'm not buying, and because of that, the government will get less. "Let's all make sacrifices," so we can get smaller government and better leaders. The tyrants we need to starve the most, are those behind the politicians--those who present us with big government candidates who care more about their communist "trading partners" than their own American neighbors.

[kittymyrib]

Oh, the humanity! If we all pinched pennies as our parents and grandparents did, how could our cities and states collect sales taxes to pay for services that buy votes for the pols?

[Mad Dawg]

The truth is, you couldn't do a lot of these things unless you live in the mountains, and you like hard work and lots of it.

And we certainly can't be expected to be able to do what we don't like.

This kind of thinking leads to divorce, dead children, surrender in war and .... Obama.

[ottbmare]

I cut it up into short logs using a reciprocating saw with a big blade. As a rather lightly-built woman I find it impossible to start a chain saw even though I’m in good shape. Then I chop each log with a spike and a ten-pound maul. I like the spike-and-maul technique better than using an ax because if I get tired and lose control of the tool I won’t cut my leg.

[padre35]

Well, the way they are setting things up, we will be forced to spend whether we like it or not, when inflation causes prices to rise, our savings become worth less and we are forced to spend more to live.

It’ pretty darn diabolical, spend it, or watch it become worthless, if one is old enough, we can recall a gallon of gas costing 98 cents, now it is 1.89 at least, meaning no matter how hard you try, life is going to cost more under Obama.

[raybbr]

I like the spike-and-maul technique better than using an ax because if I get tired and lose control of the tool I won’t cut my leg.

That's the only way to go. I split about five cords a year and you really couldn't do it with an ax.

Burn more wood. It helps cut down on tax revenue to the govt. when you're not burning oil or gas.

[EBH]

Starving the beast that is government is now liberal?

Finding ways to legally reduce your tax contribution is liberal?

If I spend less, I pay less in things like sales tax.
If I work less, I pay less in things like income tax.
If I hang my clothes on the line, I pay less in thing like the utility tax.

Being frugal is liberal? Keeping more of your own money is liberal?

I am confused.

[GeorgiaDawg32]

if one is old enough, we can recall a gallon of gas costing 98 cents If one is old enough, we can remember gas at 28.9 per gallon..(so I've heard..cough, cough)

[raybbr]

...we can remember gas at 28.9 per gallon..(so I've heard..cough, cough)

I can remember it at 25.9 a gallon. Cigs were 29 cents a pack. Milk was 89 cents a gallon. On and on....

Taxes were a lot less then.

[ottbmare]

Burn more wood. It helps cut down on tax revenue to the govt. when you're not burning oil or gas

I'm trying. I'm trying to live a very frugal lifestyle generally. But I am not finding any more windfall hardwood trees nearby that I can cut up, and I certainly don't want to pay for firewood. When I find something I cut it up and use it.

At local prices, five cords would cost about a thousand dollars. Does that sound right?

[GeorgiaDawg32]

Lowest I ever saw gas was 22.9 per gallon and it was that low because of a gas war between a sinclair station and one directly across the street called “Working Man’s Friend”..this was on hwy 422 right at the ohio/pennsylvania line..

[spodefly]

My idea of frugality for the new age of malignant leviathan government growth is not just to “save old mouse traps” figuratively speaking, but mainly to cut the number of projects I agree to work on, so that my income stays as low as I can make it while I still pay all my bills. I am not eating out, not wasting money on “entertainment”, fixing my 11 year old car rather than buying a new one, doing home repairs myself, learning to live with the absolute least amount of money I have to spend or earn, etc., etc.

My goal is to be sure there is not one spare penny left to pay to the bloated, rotting corpse of government.

[silverleaf]

I still remember all the dry teabags hanging in my Great Grandma’s kitchen beside her woodstove. She reused them until they stopped coloring the water! My mother has a closet full of old pieces of tinfoil to reuse.