I keep buying stuff. Are we ever finished?

[4RNR]

Yea but…

There are times when going against conventional wisdom makes sense for an individual due to individual needs. One of my employees just bought a house. Everyone says she’s an idiot to buy right now, except that her rent nearly doubled and her mortgage is about what her old rent was.

Forgoing credit cards may cost you in terms of built-in credit card fees with pricing, losing out on rewards, and generally making people behind you in line at the grocery store want to stab you to death with an altoids tin (if the teenage cashier doesn’t murder you with her glare and sarcasm first), but if that’s what it takes to keep from over-spending then it may save someone money in the long run.

A guy I know at work literally puts cash into envelopes for various budgets so his stay at-home wife keeps them within their means. Envelope for groceries, envelope for entertainment, etc.

Many years ago, when I was finishing grad school, most of my friends had graduated and moved away, and the internet and internet shopping was becoming a thing, I got myself into some credit card debt. Leaving grad school and making $42k/year then made me feel like a millionaire, which meant I wasn’t interested in doing much to pay it down. IIRC the nut eventually got to be around $10k. One of the problems I had was that I had memorized my credit card number, and as such it was super easy to just type it in and get a new crescent wrench, or Harley muffler, or holster… eventually I had them re-issue a new card with a new number (told them the old one was lost) and managed to keep myself from memorizing it.

Of course now they’ve hacked that hack and they’re happy to store you information to make future check out easier. Which always seems like a good idea at the time.

My wife grew up “spoiled”. Whatever she wanted or needed, her dad got her and then some. Almost any family trip they went on, her and her brother each brought a friend. There was always more than one hotel room involved. AFAIK nobody had an allowance because you simply had to ask and the new thing showed up. My brother and I never took a friend on vacation, the whole family always stayed in one room, often the “vacations” were to go visit family somewhere, we both got allowance and were limited to pretty much that, and even our Xmas and birthday gifts had a stated dollar limit.

I tend to over-shop. I’m better off than my parents were, I grew up “wanting” and also “comparing” to the other kids and families that got or had more than we did. For someone like me, the temptation of the latest YouTube video combined with the means to obtain just about whatever I want plus an “optimizer” (vs “saticficer”) personality has me constantly “shopping” even when I don’t realize it.

I think that spending is like dieting. You have to allow for some amount of fun in the here and now. Our financial adviser tells us we are on-track for our goals based on our current investment situation and future plan. To me, that means that my “budget” needs to mean simply “pay off everything at the end of every month without dipping into savings”. If I over-spend in July buying a new planer for the shop, then I need to tighten it up a bit in August. We keep enough “cash” in hand to allow for that ebb and flow.

I also think that it helps to be self-aware, and also to keep an eye out for the signs. When I learned to ride a motorcycle they said “ride with the mentality that everyone in a car is trying to kill you”. I try to think the same way about the internet, YouTube, etc. sites like arfcom (and even this one) may not exist express.y to sell you one product or another, but they have sponsors, and at some level there is a desire by someone to sell you something. No individual member starts a “fans of Spyderco” thread to try and sell more knives, but the ‘knife center” sponsor sure ain’t mad about it. It helps to keep those things in mind when browsing. Otherwise, like me, you wind up with two new Salt series (plus a Microtech from another thread) all in the single month your wife and kids are out of town…

Think I mentioned this here before. Buddy of mine is retiring in a month and moving overseas where he bought a large property in a secluded area and built a house. He's 43 and not a millionaire. He was smart with his money and didn't use credit cards as if they were gift cards. Sometimes you have to use a credit card sure.... sometimes.

Paid college out of pocket until his last year when he took some loans in order to finish faster. Bought a modest house in 04 when he was 24/25, paid it off last year. In the same time frame he owned 3 cars. All combined were around $10k, maybe slightly more. All cars were paid for by bank check. They weren't bad cars just not show off cars. Good, solid, reliable transportation. They were all used but low mileage well maintained and typically inexpensive models. Some were stick shift. His current one has manual windows. He doesn't care because windows are almost never used. A few times a year when it's really nice out he can open his window for the 15 min ride home!

He owned a few handguns and a few rifles. Had some ammo but didn't go chasing gear or ammo.

The money he didn't get CC rewards on was money saved and not having constant debt, with the exception of a mortgage, allowed him to save a lot of money for early retirement, property purchase overseas, with no investments. Plus the housing market was really in his favor and added a hefty sum.

I think that the recommendation to avoid credit cards could be that one may not want to leave electronic bread crumbs, for others to follow. These “others” may not, necessarily, be .gov, but could be banks/credit card issuers with a particular belief system, who may “see something, and say something.”

^

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[Shotgun]

Stuff I didn't realize I "needed" but now that I know they exist, I need them.

There ought to be a word coined for that. "Consumerism" doesn't fit. The new word would blend awareness with need. I think most all of us experience that. You are thumbing through a catalogue and then see something you had never even thought of, but now that you have seen it you need it right now. It dang sure helps run the economy.

Here is another gear occurrence, at least to me with regard to gear for the outdoors. You buy something that is wonderful and that perfectly suits the need, and you use it so much that you wear it out. Then, when you try to buy the replacement, that same product is no longer made.

[4RNR]

That comes down to discipline. I don't buy a lot of things, but we put everything on a credit card and pay it off every 2 weeks. Rewards vary. If you're getting 1 cent on $10, you suck at rewards. Any decent cash back card is 2% base now.

We swap cards as needed, and get 5% back on groceries and 5% on gas by default.

We get 'offers' through the cards. 10% back at one purchase at BP as an example this month. 10% off a tank of gas for the truck is about $9 right now.

We travel a lot, and the travel rewards for free hotel stays, airline miles, free upgrades, not paying baggage fees, etc. adds up very quickly. I flew my MIL roundtrip to visit us for $11.50 and some accumulated airline miles.

I know a guy that does that. EVERYTHING in CC, including mortgage. Pays it all of at the end of the month.

I don't know if it's exactly 1 cent. That was just figure of speech. I get something like 2% on everything 3% on groceries and 4% on gas. But I don't buy much. I don't know what I'm supposed to be buying. Groceries? I have always bought bulk and on sale so I'm stocked for a good foreseeable future. I mean veggies are a weakly purchase, although I guess I can stock canned veggies but that doesn't sound as tasty. But I can forgo meat purchase for at least a few years as long as electricity doesn't go out forever.

I kinda need new kitchen chairs. The table is good and I like it but the chairs are getting pretty worn. I have repaint my deck this fall but that one bucket of paint. So far this year my biggest single purchase was a new cell phone for $300 but I am looking at possibly a smoker for under $500. But i do have an AR on layaway so that's going to be my biggest purchase.... $1275.

The only reason I bought a new phone was because the screen from the old one was pealing off.

Gas? I don't drive a whole lot and tank lasts me 2 weeks on avg. Sometimes not quite 2 weeks. But when I drove daily 50 mile round trip a tank would last a week.

I don't lease or finance cars or change them every few years. Especially the cars today. None of the tech interests me so im not willing to spend money on gizmos I don't use. My current car I've had since 2017 and it was 10 years old when I bought it.

On top of that I avoid any woke/anti 1&2A/ESG companies, pro communist companies. Made in China stuff and companies that donate to woke or push a certain agenda. Or companies whos owners are straight up douchebags. So that eliminates a whole lot of things I'll never own. And yes, before anyone asks, even if it means living under a rock.


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[the Schwartz]

So, 1^st world problems?

[Glenn E. Meyer]

Knives, flashlights, books, coins.

I have stopped building a pyramid of ammo, esp. in calibers, I will probably never shoot in those amounts. Esp. the 32 calibers that are not allowed in shooting sports - Hey, allow 32 cal revolvers!

[Spartan1980]

Knives, flashlights, books, coins.

Tools. You forgot tools.


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[fatdog]

Tools. You forgot tools.


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and watches

[Glenn E. Meyer]

Too kluzty for most tool usages. I live by my mother's mantra to the father: Now, will you call the man to fix it?

[RevolverRob]

Tools. You forgot tools.


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Fuck me, I've spent more on tools than anything else; my toolboxes have toolboxes at this point. When I moved to Washington - ALL of my tools fit into my large rolling Kobalt box.

Now, I really need another rolling box. - I've lived here 14-months! And I bought one two sizes too big on purpose. I'm increasingly convinced I could buy a new toolbox every year and fill the damn thing up before the next year.

[Le Français]

Not using credit cards is literally leaving money on the table. Most prices already have the cost of credit cards built in, you're losing out when you don't use a credit card and don't have access to the "rewards" programs.

See: https://www.bostonfed.org/publicatio...es-canada.aspx

Yup. If you have poor self control, credit cards may not be for you. But that problem is costing you money every time you buy something.