Super Scrimpers

song_of_calliope

Excuse me but could those people criticizing the one lady on this show for being fat please cut that sh$t out? That is not cool at all. She may have a disability, a thyroid problem, or whatever, and I think it's way out of order for us to criticize her appearance and size when this is not a diet program but a program about saving money. I wouldn't be surprised if she's reading this thread (as this is such a well-known moneysaving site) and it's wrong of us to say such hurtful things that are totally off the subject of the show. I thought she looked just fine and also thought some of her tips were pretty good.

I like the show. Yes most of us have heard all the tips before, but there are so many people out there who need this information and a prime-time tv show is a great way for them to get it. There really are many people out there who have no clue about money! I have two good friends who are both surgeons, making absolutely buckets of money but they rent their place and have no savings. It's incredible to me and I don't understand how people can live this way, but the fact is these people are out there and need help.

ceridwen

More to the point as a tv programme on scrimping would be "A week in the life of the Frugals" and show several different households going about their business as normal - but explaining that "normal" as they go. EG:

- here is hubby doing overtime and me doing a second job of an evening (ie - so that we can pay the mortgage back quickly or get rid of debts from our previous Consumer Days)

- here is me making homemade bread - and I do this regularly you know

- here is our garden - which we have turned over totally to growing food and BTW - do you want to see the chart I've worked out as to how to get the maximum foodsavings possible - so I'm growing this variety, rather than that variety and I've made sure I have both an "early" apple tree and a "later" one (ie so that I have homegrown apples for a larger part of the year)

- here is me on a website comparing prices of goods at two different supermarkets and I'll get some in the first one and some in the second one accordingly

- throws open wardrobe doors and saying "Here is my capsule wardrobe - I worked out what is the minimum number of clothes I needed and I buy my clothes in these sorts of styles and those colours in order to have them as flexible as possible. Do you want to come and scan the racks of the local charity shop/clothes agency with me?"

- here is me at the local LETS Trading Event and I took along surplus garden produce and came back with x/y/z

- here is me showing you my empty garage - I got rid of the car, as I worked out I was spending x number of hours per year working to keep the car on the road and I decided to have some extra sparetime instead (or have more money to pay the mortgage back early).

MUCH more use to everyone:cool: - and still with some good "picture opportunities" - cue someone having a wallchart up where they tick off each £1,000 they have paid off the mortgage as they do so and we see them smile with satisfaction because they've just ticked off another £1,000. Maybe a queue of people waiting to see the hairdresser at the LETS event to get their hair trimmed for another couple of months (yes....an actual scene duly witnessed ITRW...).

patchwork_cat

It is an awful programme. I don't care how fat a money saver is, but I do think they could do a lot better. Honestly the dyed underwear! You can't dye bras as they come out looking dreadful. Much better would be to show that napisan or 'sterident' (input generic brand form home bargains!) can whiten greying bras etc. or buy cream to begin with! In my opinion it is badly researched and the scrimpers ought to be a more representative age range and look smarter. This programme is not going to encourage anyone IMO.

patchwork_cat

ceridwen wrote: »

More to the point as a tv programme on scrimping would be "A week in the life of the Frugals" and show several different households going about their business as normal - but explaining that "normal" as they go. EG:

- here is hubby doing overtime and me doing a second job of an evening (ie - so that we can pay the mortgage back quickly or get rid of debts from our previous Consumer Days)

- here is me making homemade bread - and I do this regularly you know

- here is our garden - which we have turned over totally to growing food and BTW - do you want to see the chart I've worked out as to how to get the maximum foodsavings possible - so I'm growing this variety, rather than that variety and I've made sure I have both an "early" apple tree and a "later" one (ie so that I have homegrown apples for a larger part of the year)

- here is me on a website comparing prices of goods at two different supermarkets and I'll get some in the first one and some in the second one accordingly

- throws open wardrobe doors and saying "Here is my capsule wardrobe - I worked out what is the minimum number of clothes I needed and I buy my clothes in these sorts of styles and those colours in order to have them as flexible as possible. Do you want to come and scan the racks of the local charity shop/clothes agency with me?"

- here is me at the local LETS Trading Event and I took along surplus garden produce and came back with x/y/z

- here is me showing you my empty garage - I got rid of the car, as I worked out I was spending x number of hours per year working to keep the car on the road and I decided to have some extra sparetime instead (or have more money to pay the mortgage back early).

MUCH more use to everyone:cool: - and still with some good "picture opportunities" - cue someone having a wallchart up where they tick off each £1,000 they have paid off the mortgage as they do so and we see them smile with satisfaction because they've just ticked off another £1,000. Maybe a queue of people waiting to see the hairdresser at the LETS event to get their hair trimmed for another couple of months (yes....an actual scene duly witnessed ITRW...).

Agree or for those of us with no local LETS yet, going to the local college for hair and beauty.

lostinrates

sp1987 wrote: »

YES!

No disrespect to anyone with an ugly looking house, but if you are on £100+k a year you have the ability to buy something a little pretty without a short RAF runway for frontage.

Worst thing is I bet they didn't get it cheap.
.

I'm starting to feel very, very unwelcome on this board.

Last year a colleague of dh's in his thirties bought a two bed ex LA flat in a dubious part of London: because its what he could afford and could get a mortgage for (there is a whole social issue about where the people who the flat was built for could afford to live but...). We have a good income too, but live about 90 miles from where dh works and he rents a not terribly attractive room four nights a week.

We are really very lucky to have a good income, and I don't underestimate that for a minute, but it still all goes. Property IS expensive, even after the property prices dropped a lot of people, even good earners, can't borrow so much as many seem to think.

lot of people on big incomes haven't always been on them, dh's income doubled after he qualified but we had pretty erratic incomes before he became a lawyer.

There is no way any person on a six figure number is strugling like many: but the demands are different too. e.g.....we would not spend anything like £250 on christmas for just us, but that's the amount dh gives his secretary for Christmas, in line with company policy. We also feel it ou duty to contribute in ways we can to our local community (this week its the village hall.) I have been made feel very unwelcome by this ''they earn lots the wasters'' comments, because despite being naturally OS and having a decent income its not always what it seems. e.g. dh's income is big, mine is negliable ad thats after years of not earning diddly squat through ill health (for which I asked nothing because I felt it morally wrong to ask for money from the state while dh could feed and clothe me). Like many people our age (early thirties) who earn well, a huge percentage of our income goes on commuting expenses and housing. We are incredibly lucky t have some choice around that and the remaining money, but many o the comments in this thread suggest I should have the temerity to want to strive to be OS.

When people whinge about old style ways this board is quick to say that a lot of being OS is choice, environmental concern, having money to do other stuff well as well as necessity and just good common sense. But it seems that in practise its not true: and that good earners should be roundly whipped for their good luck (and hard work). That's not to say they aren't idiots, I didn't see the second one but thought the first programme was terrible, but more sad to me is that the comments here about people not needing help when very cleary people with that scale of overspend on that scale of income need a great deal of help...maybe not just financial.

alec_eiffel

song_of_calliope wrote: »

Excuse me but could those people criticizing the one lady on this show for being fat please cut that sh$t out? That is not cool at all. She may have a disability, a thyroid problem, or whatever, and I think it's way out of order for us to criticize her appearance and size when this is not a diet program but a program about saving money. I wouldn't be surprised if she's reading this thread (as this is such a well-known moneysaving site) and it's wrong of us to say such hurtful things that are totally off the subject of the show. I thought she looked just fine and also thought some of her tips were pretty good.

I like the show. Yes most of us have heard all the tips before, but there are so many people out there who need this information and a prime-time tv show is a great way for them to get it. There really are many people out there who have no clue about money! I have two good friends who are both surgeons, making absolutely buckets of money but they rent their place and have no savings. It's incredible to me and I don't understand how people can live this way, but the fact is these people are out there and need help.

I agree, having a go at someone because we don't like how they dress or are overweight is not necessary. Ok, you don't like the show, you don't like her delivery but her weight - it's not really on. I'm sure not everyone here has an amazing figure and fantastic dress sense, doesn't make what they have to say any less valid.

And I live in a house that most people wouldn't think was attractive but it suits my style so that's all that matters.

laineyc_2

Lostinrates, I know what you mean. I feel very uncomfortable sometimes when I read scathing comments about high earners. We are in a fortunate situation financially, but I strive to be OS to cut down on waste, reduce comsumption and lead a simpler life. We were not always as secure financially. I often feel that I should feel guilty because this is a choice for us as a family, not a neccessity.

I value all the information and advice on the OS board. Overall, I think it is a very helpful and friendly board. However, I am often reluctant to join in when threads take a certain turn. I enjoy reading the tough times thread. But I feel that perhaps because my situation is different, that I shouldn't really post.

Sue14

ceridwen wrote: »

More to the point as a tv programme on scrimping would be "A week in the life of the Frugals" and show several different households going about their business as normal - but explaining that "normal" as they go.

I love your ideas, something like that would be much more useful.

lostinrates wrote: »

I'm starting to feel very, very unwelcome on this board.

We are really very lucky to have a good income, and I don't underestimate that for a minute, but it still all goes. Property IS expensive, even after the property prices dropped a lot of people, even good earners, can't borrow so much as many seem to think.

There is no way any person on a six figure number is strugling like many: but the demands are different too.

We are incredibly lucky t have some choice around that and the remaining money, but many o the comments in this thread suggest I should have the temerity to want to strive to be OS.

That's not to say they aren't idiots, I didn't see the second one but thought the first programme was terrible, but more sad to me is that the comments here about people not needing help when very cleary people with that scale of overspend on that scale of income need a great deal of help...maybe not just financial.

Hi, I don't think anyone is criticizing high earners, just those that are stupid enough to waste their money, and I don't think you would come into that category or you wouldn't be a regular user of this site, so please don't feel that you're not welcome here. Wealth is relative, OH and I have always been poor and had to struggle and save for anything we want, but we probably have more disposable income than a lot of people. As I always say to OH when he moans that we're poor 'we have a roof over our heads, the bills are paid (although it's a struggle), we have a meal on the table every day, and we're reasonably healthy, a lot of people are not that lucky'.

As for the show, I finally watched the second one on 4od this morning, and I agree it's not much help to most of us on here as we already know most of it, but I do like programmes about saving money and it always amazes me how stupid some people can be with their money, and the couple on the show who hadn't thought about making a list! As for having a blackboard to write it on, you wouldn't take that to the SM so why not just write it down on a piece of paper? I don't even buy paper for this, I use the back of junk mail if it's blank or any other scrap paper I can get my hands on, as I'm sure a lot of other people on here would do.

Of course as others have said, this one is nowhere near as good as Spendaholics!

Ida_Notion

laineyc wrote: »

I enjoy reading the tough times thread. But I feel that perhaps because my situation is different, that I shouldn't really post.

I'm not blessed with a fortune (moneywise), but I think those that are better off are just as entitled as I am to feel frustration because their money does not go as far as it used to, or to want to stretch it further - that seems like common sense to me however much you've got.

Those of us who are skint or have less to play with hopefully don't plan on being that way forever, but I imagine the experience would have taught most of us not to be careless or stupidly extravagant with money when the better times roll round. When they do, I'd hope that we were all considerably more comfortable but just as savvy.

So... when you think of it, the first sign that the 'tough times' thread has been a success will be when *everybody* who posts on there is like you. So you're not out of place at all, just an indication of the shape of things to come

Larumbelle

I am an in-betweener. When I first found MSE it was when I was at rock bottom, looking back it seems amazing but we were in a ton of debt and the first I knew about any of it was when bailiffs turned up on our doorsteps.

There is absolutely no doubt that my OH had behaved incredibly stupidly, but ignorance was not an excuse and I had never questioned whether we could afford things or whether bills were getting paid.

The fact is, it's very easy to stand on the outside and wag your finger. They should have done this! Why didn't they do that! And it is human nature to perhaps feel a little bit smug that you haven't made that exact same mistake, or have made it to a lesser degree, or have made it but for whatever reason haven't ended up in quite so much trouble. But we all make mistakes. That's fine. It's how we learn. I expect most of the people on the OS board, even those who now consider themselves dyed-in-the-wool OS'ers, had to learn a few financial lessons the hard way.

I was not massively impressed by the programme either, but we're hardly the target audience. It's a mass-market programme aimed at the vast majority; those who have never even thought about old-style ways to cut back, maybe never had to until now, maybe just dismissed them as being 'wrong' for them. If the programme makes a few people stop and think, then want to learn more, then it is a good thing. I agree that Ceridwen's programme idea is much more appealing and I think would be much more informative, but there you go!

After a bit of scrimping, you may be lucky enough to find yourself well off, or at least in the situation my partner and I are in today, which is not wealthy by anyone's stretch, but enough for us. I would hope that the fact that I don't 'need' to be frugal is no barrier to my being accepted here, and I am horrified that people who contribute a lot to our little MSE OS community are feeling unwelcome because of comments people have made, probably without thinking. Don't forget that the Tightwad Gazette made Amy Dacyczyn a millionaire - but it didn't make the advice any less useful or relevant, did it?

As for comments about how someone's house is ugly or someone is fat, I'm sorry but they just come across as shallow and silly.

This board has always ended up getting a little judgemental at times. It's not as bad as it has been in the past, but there's still an undercurrent of it from time to time and it's very unattractive. OS is for all. Lets keep it that way!