Coping with peoples scorn

puss14

Oh yes and if people are rude enough to comment on your financial situation then I dont think they deserve a response. Id say "Mind your own business". The one thing I have taken from this difficult time is realising who actually is a true friend and who isn't. Your real friends wont care if you spend a night in with a home cooked meal and have a yak or play some games.

Norman_Bean

puss14 wrote: »

real friends wont care if you spend a night in with a home cooked meal and have a yak or play some games.

Is yak a cheaper meat at the moment?! :rotfl:Sorry couldn't resist x

phizzimum

hi carefullycautious

it's a difficult situation when you're getting comments from people you work with. They're not your friends but you're stuck with them so it's hard to just ignore what they say.

what aspects of frugality are they commenting on? I'm imagining it's maybe things like bringing a packed lunch rather than nipping out to a sandwich shop.

I guess how you deal with it depends on your personality. If you have the confidence you can have some smart replies - but a wimp like me would just never mention money as a reason for why I do things.

Zazen999

carefullycautious wrote: »

Noooooo Im not a tightwad the opposite in fact. The tight comment came from someone who admits that she is going to spend every penny she has on having a good time in life and anyone who does not live like she does appears to be tight with money (and that money is going to run out very soon if she doesnt address this)


I just wondered if anyone else had comments about their chosen way of life and how you all deal with this.

comments mainly come from fellow workers so havent got much chance of escaping this at present.

being frugal isnt about being tight with money its about living within our means.

Silly moo!

Perhaps it is the way you say it; I'm very non-apologetic and talk about our way of life with gusto. I'd rather be at the lottie or home making jams and jellies than handing my hard earned cash over to a pub landlord each and every night.

I took a load of tomato plants in and sold them all for pennies; ditto chilli plants given away in another office; when the family come round in the summer I'll stop back once they wander back in, pick some peas and we sit and depod them when we get back in the house. Don't try and explain it, just do it!

People are really just scared of frugality; just be bold and do what you want and be proud to be in the Frugal Gang.

Gigervamp

Primrose wrote: »

Our value systems are all different. We have a perfect right to live the way we choose and our way happens to be less selfish and more environmentally friendly. We don't have to justify our choice to others.

This is so true. Hubby's boss was asking him how much we pay for milk as we get it from the milkman. When hubby told him, the reply was "Oh, we couldn't afford that.".

His boss is earning about 15-20 grand a year more, and his wife works too. :eek: Of course they could afford it, but they prefer to spend their money on consumables.

We prefer to spend our money more ethically and don't buy all the latest *must haves*. And because we do things like cook from scratch and shop around, we do have some spare money to spend on whatever we like.

And that's the way we like it!

Butterfly_Brain

I would just ignore them - One day they may be in a situation that requires them to be OS - Especially now because jobs are getting harder to keep and harder to find with more and more people having to put up with low wages and rising bills.
I have a friends who are as OS as I am and come to me for tips.
I also have friends who can't quite get to grips with the concept but accept me the way I am because I am OS because of neccessity as much as choice.
DH and kids are getting as bad as me for looking for bargains and get a real rush when they spot a good bargain. My DD and DS love charity shops too.
The only debt we have is the mortgage and it is surprising how good it feels to get rid of credit card debt - we paid ours off last year after years of struggling with the debt and the card was only ever used for the car and dentist bills :eek:

foxgloves

Your lifestyle is quite simply no-one else's business. I started out on the thrifty lifestyle to get rid of debt and having almost achieved that, we are now sticking to it because we find it a greener more ethical lifestyle. We have also managed for the first time ever, to start a little regular payment into a 'rainy day' fund to help with the sort of emergencies which we always chucked straight onto a credit card in the past. Our new lifestyle does not mean that we go without things. We've just re-evaluated exactly what that is. We still buy things but we save for them first. Our new rule is that if something has to go on credit or involves an overdraft, then that's someone else's money so we obviously can't afford it. I see this as a way of being able to have some of the bigger things we'd really like to own, one day, i.e a lovely campervan, rather than frittering our money away on little bits of tat every week. If anyone wants to make comments about my chosen lifestyle, then bring it on, I say! I've tried the 'Spend more than you earn' approach and didn't like the end result!

Grebe

I am with the others, I couldn't give a monkeys what others think of my OS way of living. I usually smile sweetly and "really"? while in the back of my head is this quote
""Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery."

Never were truer words written.

LameWolf

Well said, Grebe.

LOL most of the people I know think I'm eccentric anyway; I don't dress like them, I have different beliefs; quite frankly, I don't give a tinker's cuss!

What we have is paid for; what we can't afford, we don't have.:o

And (this is the bit that tends to bemuse people) we enjoy cooking from scratch together. There are a lot of tasks my disability makes difficult or downright impossible (think peeling veg:eek:), but Mr LW is always happy to do them for me, and we have a good laugh along the way.

I reckon people who look down their noses at it are secretly jealous.;)

BitterAndTwisted

To be free of "want" rather than "need" is the dearest freedom to be had. I agree, those who claim or pretend not to understand it are jealous. Or very stupid and in denial as well. Think what the day of reckoning is going to be like once all of those who are scathing now have their LBM. They will be on here or DFW crying out for tips and you'll all be giving them, I'm sure.