are you all rich or just have a lot of debt? - Page 4

[Double A]

I am all about thrift. my kids get new outfits at christmas and Easter, and they will be on sale. lol
i can not bring myself to buy clothes new and not on sale or clearance.
We are a one income comfortable family, and will hopefully be debt free in 4 years. meaning the house payment.
I am thankful to be able to buy new and used dipes to continue our search for financial freedom. Its so much easier buying new dipes vs. new clothes...although i dream of a shopping spree at macy's. :LOL AN 8 HR SHOPPING SPREE.
MAYBE ONE DAY. opps just realized i was yelling at ya'll

but like its been mentioned, true richhes come not in the form of manipulative stuff, unless its you dh or kids themselves.

[jmofarrill]

I wasn't going to respond to the thread, either, because I was offended at first, but then I decided to get over myself. :

We have a lot of student loan debt right now, and a bit of credit card debt, too, from early in the marriage. Throw in two car payments, rent, daycare, utilities, insurance, groceries, etc., and we have a lot of money going out each month. Fortunately, dh is a teacher making a great salary, and I just changed jobs and received a substantial salary increase.

We have about four months of living expenses set aside in case "something" happens, dh and I are both insured and the $$ is set to go into a trust for Anwyn in case either or both of us die before she's 21, and ALL of our debts are scheduled to be paid off in less than 4 years (this includes the regularly scheduled car payments AND the massive student loan that is still in the grace period and is supposed to take 10 years to pay off).

After all the bills and debts are paid each month, we have a good bit left over. Some goes into savings, and Dh and I have found that we need unaccountable money in order to keep from going crazy, so mine is spent on clothes and diapers for Anwyn. I will really be easing up on the spending in the next few weeks, so I believe I'll be redirecting the money towards both increasing the savings and paying more on the debt so that it will be gone faster.

Oh, and dh gives weekly private music lessons plus occasionally tutors students in math. It's ready cash that I never include that $$ in the budget, so we go out to eat and buy books and games with it.

[stacey31]

Well, I feel thoroughly irresponsible after reading your posts (which I knew I was already). You all are so awesome with money & frugality & savings, etc...that I feel like I need therapy. :LOL
Money is a tough one. We are always way over our heads with expenses but we do not live an over the top lifestyle...I mean, we have one bathroom for Pete's sake!!.
Anyway, it has been good for me to read all your stories. Maybe I can strive towards being more reasonable in my spending although I have never been good at frugal~it's just not my nature. But, I sure do admire you all!! Food for thought, right??

[mcsgo]

are you all rich or just have a lot of debt?

It all depends on what your standards are. DH and I have a set of spending priorities (and non-spending priorities). Moderate spending on DD is something that we've included as an okay. Not to say that we run through thousands of dollars of diapers and clothing for her.

Diaper expenditures are just a tiny glimpse into someone's budget and how they spend their income. You could be spending money on something that other people would consider outrageous.

[Free Thinker]

I too have often wondered how so many people bought so many diapers! I must say that I do feel rich, and we are comfortable $$ wise. In our case, DH and I are both savers :LOL We love to save our $$ up and then buy something really nice. I feel I have spent very little on CDs. I have $13 a week that I get in cash everyweek. When I was PG I bought baby stuff or CDs with it. I like to save it up for several weeks, then place a nice order to save on shipping (and usually buy w/ free shipping). I am also a TP addict, and trying desprately to stop.

[stacey31]

I wanted to add that I am blessed beyond belief in riches beyond what I ever dreamed.....Joey, Anna, Sophia, & Henry. Rich, no. Blessed, yes.

[mom2jack]

I wouldn't consider us rich by any means but we are definately comfortable and make quite a bit more than an average income. I am able to work 30 hours per week and only be away from DS for 2 days (I work at home 2 days). My husband stays home w/ ds one of the days I go in. We also own both our cars, have payed off all student loans, and have no credit card debt. That being said my parents are fairly well off and have helped quite a bit (they help all us kids evenly even though we are doing well). They paid for my college, gave us a car, a boat, a ton of beautiful furniture, almost all of DS's clothes... Cloth diapering is my only hobby and I allow myself to spend money on it. DH and I aren't big spenders anyway we put a lot of money into savings, retirement, and DS's college and saving fund. When we want something big we save for it (right now we are saving for a new car and will pay cash). We have been super fortunate!

[oceanbaby]

If we lived almost anywhere else in the U.S., we'd be considered well off, but where we are we just manage to get by with one income.

I don't go into debt for cloth diapers, but I often spend money that I shouldn't - our bank account gets too low before dh's next payday sometimes. And if I was more furgal (not just with CD, but with everything) we'd probably have more in savings and more paid off on our credit cards. So I do feel a little guilty about not being good at frugality.

We do have CC debt, but it's for big stuff - car repairs, house repairs, property taxes, stuff like that. We tend not to use it for small things like retail purchases and dining out.

[carrietorgc]

Interesting thread. We are very comfortable although in a high cost of living area with insane housing costs.

THe only reason I am still working is b/c 1) we put a contract on a new house and it is insanely $ 2) it is part time and I can do some from home 3) dd goes with me to the daycare on sight and I can nurse her on demand (so total hrs away from her per wk are only 15).

I spent about $400 initially when dd was 3 mo to switch to cloth and probably another $100 since then. I could easily spend way more but realize that I shouldn't. I probably haven't spent more than I would have on disposables, so we aren't losing $. DD also has tons of nice hand me downs from her cousins

We don't have cc debt, although I do have college loans. But we are able to save a good chunk each mo after paying living expenses, and we also have education funds for dd and investments, along wiht 401k's.

[thundersweet]

Thats a tough question. We are not considered rich by any means. We may appear to be from the outside. We have a very nice house in and exspensive area and both drive brand new cars and send our dd to a really nice preschool 2 days a week. But my dh has to work his tale off for us to have the things we have. We would be much better off if we did not have the cc debt and chose to live in a smaller house in a different area but for the most part we do fine. I am lucky enough to be able to stay home with dd and dont really plan to go back to work even though dh would love for me too. I just think no one will love my child and treat my child the way I do and I want to be there for my kids even when they are in grade school. So if that means less money to spend freely thats ok by me.

[girlzmommy00]

I'll be honest and say that we definately are below the poverty line. I'm a single mom to 3 girls. (Dh walked out on us last fall, I've had to leave my part time job since the girls aren't dealing well with all that's going on at home) Thankfully I unloaded our debt last summer by filing for bankruptsy (I say thankfully since if we hadn't, I'd be stuck paying that off now since Dh would have dumped that on my head).

I've always been a bargain shopper. For the last 3 years, I worked at Baby Gap. So I was able to stalk their awesome sales and got a discount on top of that. Lily was wearing pants today that I'd bought brand new at Baby Gap for 33 cents! Plus having 3 girls helps, since there are always hand me downs for my younger 2 girls. Luckily, the Baby Gap I worked at was attached to a Gap Kids and adult Gap store, so I was able to buy all of our clothing at a deep discount. I also was able to use my discount at Old Navy and the Gap outlets. LOL just about every gift I've given over the past 3 years, came from the Gap.

I also shop sales, use a ton of coupons and do plenty of ebay hunting. I've also received some great things through the swaps that are run here and at AW.

We do have thrift stores here, but they are nothing to get excited about. All are so over priced. I could find cheaper things brand new on a sale rack at a store, than at the local thrift stores. We live in a wealthy area (with a high cost of living), so most things are usually over priced here. The main reason I live here is that my mom is around the corner and I was born and raised in this area (central NJ).

As for diapers, I still have diapers from Lauren's stash that Lily uses now (Cotton Kisses, I've had them for 3 years and they are still going strong). And I rarely buy anything brand new. I usually sell off a few things when Lily needs something new and use that $$ to buy the "new" items that I found on the different trading/resale boards. Honestly, I rarely try anything new either, since I can't afford to buy something that doesn't work.

Lily mainly wears Fireflies with Motherease Airflow covers. Not the cheapest system but I got 1/2 of her Fireflies through swaps and the other 1/2 were purchased used. Plus I know these have a good resale value (both the fitteds and the covers), so I should be able to recoup most of what I've spend on them when Lily's done. I defiantely figure resale value in when buying something.

I also agree with the other posters, that when you figure how much you would be spending on disposable diapers, that puts cloth diaper spending in a different light.

[ryansmom02]

Are we rich.... Nope we are military..... (which should tell you we dont have lots of $$$)

My Dh makes a decent living...We both drive nice vehicles That are paid in full. own an RV again paid in full. Dh races motorcross which cost about $200 a month easy... We have no credit card debt ........
We did how ever receive a bit of an inheritance when my Dh mom died last year..... which helped pay off all the little debt that we were struggling to pay... now our only bills are cell phone, cable and car insurance.... oh and GAS at $2.10 a gallon. Being military we live rent free and have no utilities..... are we rich NO comfortable yes........ I do have one outstanding husband of 10 years... a great but mouthy 9yr old dd and a very cute DS who is 2 tomorrow and my life is happy.......

[sarahbay]

We are how shall I say... dirt poor, compared to most. Ok we've had less, but we're still strugglin along!

I have had the genetics of my Grandma to be a super thrifty mama, and the upbringing of my tighwad father, and the upper class taste of my Antique Dealer mother.

yep caught in a bubble, so being a Sahm I have the time to get the really good bargains. I know the good stuff when I see it and grab it up.

Most of my diaper stash is either hand me downs from my ds#1 or from my sewing abilities. I see a cool dipe online, I can't afford it. I find it another way. TP board, ebay, or I take a trip to the fabric store.

I've built up a huge stash of fabric now and have a PT wahm business that funds my addiction.

Besides what's wrong with spending a fortune on CD's probably no where near what we'd spend on DD and if it is who cares. Most wahms use that $$ to put food on their family's table!

Still a better hobby than gambling or something