Do's and don'ts

DH and I were chatting the other day about how people like to "judge" or "wonder" or whatever. Seems like a lot of it's been going on lately. Like how do we afford this house? We've heard comments "what? did you win the lottery?" "or "I'm not rich like you", or like the day dh was outside at the end of the driveway, dirty as heck while shoveling wheel barrows of rock all day. The garbage truck guy (a new guy) pulls up and gets out and has a "tag" and says to dh "we are changing our route time from afternoon to morning, could you give this to the owners?" Dh was like "ok" LOL. Then the guy says you just work here right? and dh says...ya...sure....ROFLOL. I guess dh doesn't look the part the guy expects, haha.

First off, they don't have any idea how much money I make a year. Second, (and third, and fourth...) they don't look at what we don't spend money on. And lastly, we do have a mortgage payment and it's large, but we don't have all the other payments a lot of people typically have....cars, boats, camper, credit cards. I'll bet if you add up what other people have in extra payments they are spending just as much between their mortgage/rent, other payments, as we are spending on our one payment. Our friends (who have a teenager in high school and a 19 yr old living at home) have 3 car payments. They have a camper trailer payment. They have lots of credit card payments. And they have a nice house (and payment), yet look at us like we are nuts. The two of them both work and from what guy has said in the past they combined make about what I make a year. I so badly want to say ya, but if you add up all your payments I'll bet you are spending the same if not more a month then we are on our house! Plus he drinks a lot and she drinks some. I'll bet their liquor expense itself is a couple hundred a month.

We don't have a car or rv toy payment. DH's truck is a 1999 (he's had since new) and my car is a 2011. My car was purchased slightly used with 4500 miles on it (it still had the plastic on the floor and smelled new)and we got it for half the price as new.

We don't smoke or drink - that can really add up, especially if you like to drink at restaurants or bars. A pack a day habit, at an average cost of a pack, costs someone about $200 a month. Imagine if it was both husband and wife. I really don't know what a couple who drinks most weekends will spend for booze a week. Wine can be pricey, too.

We rarely take a vacation. Our last vacation was in 2007 (or maybe it was 2008) to Disneyworld.  Besides, our new home is like being at a vacation spot year round :) (our friends mentioned above take one big vacation to Mexico or Hawaii every year)

I work from home, so I don't have commute costs.

We (as much as possible) do all our own home and car maintenance. Our neighbors hire a lot of it out and I'm sure that adds up. Like yesterday they had some guys there aerating their lawn. They hire to have it fertilized and weed control several times a year. Soon they will be having the guy come to blow out the sprinkler system before it freezes. This is all stuff dh does himself.

We don't go out all the time for dinners and entertainment. A handful of dinners out during the year is about it.

We cut our own hair. For his hair (what is left of it, haha) I have a some Wahl haircut clippers. My hair is about shoulder length, so easy to just trim myself (thanks to a youtube video how to)

We don't wear expensive designer clothes and we buy only when needing replaced. 

I'm "low maintenance". I wear minimal makeup, jewelry, don't get my nails done.

We have inexpensive interests to keep us busy. We both like being on our computers/internet, we watch some tv and movies (though don't pay for expensive cable/satellite), I read ebooks downloaded free from the library.

We buy older cell phone models and our plan is the minimum data plan. I have a 6s and his is a 7. Since we are home 95% of the time, we can use our home wi-fi for data, so a 3gb data plan is more than enough for us. It's $77 a month (with taxes added on). There might be cheaper plans with other cell phone companies, but here in our rural spot Verizon beats the others hands down for service reception and it's always been very reliable anywhere we go. 

Our internet service is through our phone company. Not super speedy by any means, but they do offer 3 different speeds. Rather than just assume I need to pay for the highest speed they offer I tried the lower speed and have no issues with it at all. I save $20-$50 a month compared to their 2 higher speed/priced plans.

I'm not too snooty to shop at Walmart. It's just cheaper for food/supplies than a regular grocery store, unless you want to have to constantly pay attention to what is on sale and when at the regular grocery stores. Not living close to the city it's just too hard for me to try to work around all the sales and shop at more than one store.

For everything thing else I shop online for bargains and always look for a coupon code before checking out. 

We put in a heat pump heating and a/c system. We have 3 "zones": downstairs, upstairs and the bonus room. We keep the bonus room minimal heat or a/c but the rest we keep comfortable. A/C all summer for this whole big house and my electric bill is barely over $100 a month. Winters are higher of course, but still cheaper than what I was spending a month for our small house in town, a 1/3 of the size. Our cost for the system should pay for itself in about 7 years.

There are lots of small things we do to save money, but you get the gist. I guess what dh was most feeling was don't judge a book by it's cover :) And what works for one couple/family might not work for another. We all make our choices that best fit us.