What is 'being MSE'
Goldiegirl
Forumite 8.8K Posts
I've been a MSE member for just over 6 months, and in that time I've enjoyed the community part of the forum, got myself some advice, and hopefully made a few helpful suggestions based on a lifetime working in the financial sector, and just a lifetime of living.
My main financial driver is to make the most of the money that I have to enjoy life now and to prepare for an early retirement in about 3 years time.
However, I often see the the phrase 'it's not exactly MSE', usually deployed when someone spends some money.
After further research I'm led to believe that being MSE involves
Wasting the banks time to open multiple bank accounts which you never use, to get benefits worth a negligible amount each month.
Obsessing over your credit score.
Trying to think up ways you might have been mis sold any financial product in the last 30 years, in order to get compensation, and failing, because you weren't mis sold at all.
Being apologetic about spending anything on something that isn't a complete necessity for survival, even if you can afford it.
If that's what 'being MSE' is all about, then I'm so not MSE!
What do you feel is 'being MSE' ?
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My main financial driver is to make the most of the money that I have to enjoy life now and to prepare for an early retirement in about 3 years time.
However, I often see the the phrase 'it's not exactly MSE', usually deployed when someone spends some money.
After further research I'm led to believe that being MSE involves
Wasting the banks time to open multiple bank accounts which you never use, to get benefits worth a negligible amount each month.
Obsessing over your credit score.
Trying to think up ways you might have been mis sold any financial product in the last 30 years, in order to get compensation, and failing, because you weren't mis sold at all.
Being apologetic about spending anything on something that isn't a complete necessity for survival, even if you can afford it.
If that's what 'being MSE' is all about, then I'm so not MSE!
What do you feel is 'being MSE' ?
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Early retired - 18th December 2014
If your dreams don't scare you, they're not big enough
If your dreams don't scare you, they're not big enough
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Good luck with your early retirement, you will either have too much money or not enough, but at least you wont be in the rat race.
So having a takeaway when you could have cooked at home isn't very MSE. The money spent could have been put to better use paying off debts / building up an emergency fund / paying into a pension / paying off mortgage / etc.
See Martin's Money Mantras (http://blog.moneysavingexpert.com/2010/10/12/money-mantras-never-leave-home-without-them/).
It sounds like you aren't skint, so the big question when buying something is "Is it worth it?". The question is "is it worth getting a takeaway, or would I rather cook now and bring my retirement forward by two hours?".
If there is no better use for that money than a takeaway (or whatever it is you are buying that some think isn't MSE) then that _is_ MSE. If there is any better use then, technically, is isn't MSE.
If your dreams don't scare you, they're not big enough
If you can afford to consider a Beefeater (YUK) fish and chips is MSE, but not as MSE as cooking at home IYSWIM.
The mantra says "Have I checked if it's cheaper anywhere else?". If the fish and chips the OP buys from the chip shop is the same as the fish and chips she could cook at home for cheaper then it wouldn't be MSE to get it from the chip shop.
But if it's not the same then you can't say it's not MSE for not going for the cheaper option.
It would only be not MSE not going for the cheaper option if the increase in price wasn't worth it. I.e. what would the OP do with the spare money if they went for the cheaper option? Would _that_ give as much value to the OP as the fish and chips from the shop?
From what the OP has said, the answer is no. Which, for the OP, makes fish and chips from the chip shop the MSE choice for the OP from time to time.
Yours are constantly on show, Edmund.
Yes... in the vain hope that others will reciprocate.