living a frugal life

Recently I had someone say to me "I just don't understand how anyone can live on $50,000 a year."  Now this person has a gorgeous McMansion, two fancy new cars and all the latest toys. They work hard for what they have and I don't begrudge them one cent, but of course they couldn't live on $50,00!!  Since the average family income is $51,000 per year in America and a fraction of that in most of the world millions of  people do live at that income level.  The same week someone else made a comment about my new car.  It's in great shape, low mileage and five years old..  It replaced  a twelve year old car with 200000 miles on it,  Chances are high that it will be driven until it has at least that many miles or more before I get a different one.
Both comments got me thinking about how AH and I have lived frugally and well under the $50,000 mark over the past 40+ years.  I have had many comments over the years of our 'rich' life style.  I thought I would share some of our frugal living tips.

1 Live below your means as much as possible  sometimes just paying the bills and feeding everyone are all you can do, been there done that, but do the best you can
2 Fix up, use up, recycle  Almost nothing in our home is new but most of it is really nice
3 If you don't have the skills, learn.  Ask a neighbor, friend or family member to teach you how to do projects and simple repairs.
4 Use credit sparingly a mortgage, a car  cash for everything else except an emergency.
5 Save for what you want
6 Forget what others may think of you.  If they are bothered by what you have, drive or wear that's their problem not yours.
Give back to others.  No matter how bad things look for you, someone else is in much more need.
7 Learn to cook and eat at home.  One of my sons complained about spending over $600 in a month on meals out.  The average family spends at least $300 per month eating out, most of that is fast food.  What could you do with all that extra money if you only ate out once a week and skipped the trips through the drive thru?
8 Trade with neighbors, family and friends.  Whether it's skills, tools, child care or anything else someone you know probably has what you need.
9 Learn the difference between want and need.  We've had many conversations on this subject at our house.  I want what I want when I want it!!!  Most of the time I just am not willing to go into debt to have it.  Usually if you wait one week before buying something  you'll decide it isn't really necessary.
10 Always have your own money if possible.  If I want a rummage treasure or book I pay for it with my own money without having to explain it to AH.  He has the same privileged.  We do ours mostly in cash for the month and when it's gone no more spending.
11 Cheap is not always the best way to go.  Yeah I'm cheap.  I rarely buy things that are not on sale.  What I do look for is quality.  Yes I do have a lot of quantity on some things but I got those things real cheap.

I can see the people who know me well and are sure I could shop for a career laughing at this post.  No I don't like following the ideas all the time and we both mess up occasionally but when we live almost debt free, can pay cash for our next trip, travel  like we do, live like we do, it does make the little sacrifices unimportant.  We have never gone without something we needed for very long.  Most of what we want comes along eventually or those wants change over time.  Now we need to start saving for that trip to Italy we want to take.