This is not a joke, it is hip to appear poor. How much sympathy can one get has become a contest, just look at all the pathetic figures on TV now, claiming they had consentual relations with their fathers, disgusting. When this society stops rewarding and idolizing saggy pants and prison tatts, then it will be hip.

I've never haggled about price before but in the last couple of weeks, I've done it twice.  The first time was over a motel room they wanted $90 for. I said, "Can't do it" then just stood there.  She said "I can go down to $67" and I said "I'll take it."  The second time was yesterday over a brake job.  Midas is notorious for up-selling, but I went in for a quote anyway.  They quoted me $288.  I said nope.  He offered to take off $20.  I said no again and he said he couldn't go any lower.  A friend of my daughter's who works at a car repair place told her to tell me he would do it for $70. The $218 I save is going to pay off the evil Bank of America Visa card.

Hi Donna,

Love your posts. I have always strived to appear poor and be enormously wealthy. After years of trying and raising babies....I can honestly say I am half way there.

Oh...and I love leg warmers. Knit a pair every year to keep my shins warm in the evening.

Please Donna, make this last. I want to be hip for as long as possible. What would you say if I told you I still have my pet rock?

Informative and funny as usual Miss.Donna!

I grew up frugal no choice there. I am still that way I cannot bring my self not to look for bargains.  I once paid $90.00(not a bridesmaid dress)It was a $500.00 dress marked down.   I tore the slevee it became sleveeless.  I stained the top it became a skirt.  I made darn sure to get my money's worth.  Who knew being frugal and saving in any way I can is hip.  I was cool all along and didn't know it. Love your stuff keep it coming

Donna - I have to admit I was stunned to realize how many people DON'T clip and use coupons for one reason or another. My mother shopped for groceries that way, and I started my coupon box when I was in college.

It never occurred to me that I was a "frugal" person and out of synch with cultural expectations until I started explaining to other people what I do and how I do it.

Now I'm hip? I had to get old to be hip? Go figure! When DH was in college (long before the days of hand-held calculators), I had one of those little red plastic clickers and took it to the grocery store armed with a list made from the weekly ads. As soon as the ads were in the paper on Thursday, I'd make up a menu for the next week with a good guesstimate of how much the groceries would cost. When that clicker got to $9.99, I'd start over at zero knowing that there was only another $5 max to spend, and that "max" was only at the first of the month when his GI Bill check came.

There may have been thrift stores back then, but I don't remember any. Kids clothes were pretty much what was given as gifts, then hand-me-downs and swaps with friends or what could be made over from clothes that were no longer usable for whatever reason.

Furniture was most often handed down from parents/relatives. A new piece of furniture was an EVENT! Cars? It was likely that a car was purchased used from parents or older relatives.

Since I lived that way growing up and through the years when my kids were growing up, it became the way I pretty much continued to live, although I admit to finally getting "flush" enough to buy a new car from time to time...and keep it until the wheels fall off!

My favorite word is "free" and my favorite way to shop for groceries is with coupons. When shopping for anything new and expected to last for years, my favorite tactic in the pricing is to ask "Is that the best you can do?" When it's gets to a point where the sales person is willing to let me walk away, I figure it really is the best they can do.

When the economy improves, there won't be an "old way" to go back to for me, but the jury's still out for people who have only just discovered the frugal side of life. I'm all for the wealthy and near-wealthy continuing to buy new so that there will be gently used things for the rest of us to buy. Where groceries are concerned, let's hope for continued competition among products/supermarkets so that we'll keep benefitting from using coupons.

Love your posts, Donna. It's helpful to have you as scout and point man!

Actually, I think the "frugality fad" is a good thing. I've used coupons and comparison shopped since I moved out of my parents' house, including when I lived in the dorms. Even a year ago, I was about the only person my age who I knew did things like that. Now, I have one or two friends call/e-mail me every Sunday asking for extra coupons.

Real frugality is about priorities, which is a vital part of well-run finances regardless of income. However, having less money to spend certainly encourages prioritization because, when finances are tight, the opportunity cost of buying things becomes much more poignant. The "frugality fad" during and after the Depression defined that generation - maybe the current one will take the fad to heart as well. I know I did :)

My husband and I chose 5 years ago to live on less.  We saw too much of our time being spent at work, so that we could trade cars every two years, wear designer clothes and eat out 5 nights a week.  We sold our house and cars and moved to a less expensive area.  We now are debt free.  We drive 6-7 year old vehicles and keep up with the maintenance schedules.  We do our OWN oil changes, yard work and house cleaning.  We eat out one meal a week and choose lunch time, because it's cheaper.  We shop at yard sales for a lot of our clothes (just bought two bags of newer designer clothes for $2 a bag).  We cut our own hair.  We don't need cable tv or internet (internet is free at the library).  We grow our own fruit and some veggies, but mainly fruit because it's expensive.  We are happier now than ever and we were prepared for this "recession."   I hope that others find the joy in frugality that we have found, it's fun and it means freedom (from debt).  I wish you all the best.  Also, a note:   Clipping coupons is great, but be sure to check the generics, sometimes they are cheaper than the name brand with a coupon!

Wendy you are so smart!  At your age to have already learned this and to be inspiring others!  

Thank you Gramma for your inspiring post as well!

Frugality for us is here to stay.  We clip coupons, take advantage of discount days at restaurants if we go out to eat, use local theater "birthday" promotions, use AARP discounts - you name it, if it saves money, we take advantage of it.  The key however is to avoid buying what you either really don't need, or want.  Having a collection of crap that doesn't get used is still a waste of money even if you got it cheap, so discipline yourself and think before you buy.  Impulse buying is the death knell to any pocket book, and chasing fashion trends really is nothing buy impulse buying.  

Saving on small things adds up, but don't overlook the substantial money to be saved on big ticket items.  The amount of money that is out there to be saved is sometimes amazing.  The manufacturers and the dealers are going to hate this post, but let someone else who is willing to spend the extra money take the depreciation hit for the privilege of being the first owner of things like vehicles and boats.  

Over the years we've purchased a number of cars, and have avoided new cars like the plague.  Sure, we made exceptions, but there had to be compelling reasons that made economic sense.  We've purchase a hybrid Camry when there were next to no used ones anywhere on the market, and those that were for sale did not offer a substantial enough discount compared to buying new at the end of a quarter from a dealer that had overstocked (a smaller rural dealer two states away) for slightly over dealers' invoice and less than Consumer Reports claimed it could be purchased for.   Some people will argue that hybrids don't make economic sense ever, but they'd be wrong.   The vehicle consistently gets 40 plus mpg in town, and on cross country trips we often get 48 mpg.  While my wife was still working, gas expenditures were nearly cut in half, and in our area gas was at a high of $4.89 a gallon for regular.  More recently for a toy car to enjoy on weekend road trips we bought a new Miata, for zero down, zero interest for four years, and several thousands off manufacturer's invoice through a combination of internet pricing, loyalty programs, and, again, end of the quarter timing.  Savings that were realized by buying used vehicles (some only two or three years old and still under original warranties) have also been amazing.  Although some people dismiss used vehicles as buying other people's problems, the reality for us has been that we've never ever had a problem with a used vehicle, and instead, the lemons were new cars that we had bought in the early years of our marriage before getting wise to avoiding new vehicles unless there really was a compelling reason.

We've just retired and for several years now had planned to spend several weeks or even months at a time visiting national parks and scouting out other places to live in our retirement, and do that while our youngest was away finishing college.  Getting an RV was the ticket to cutting costs, and getting a smaller Class B RV (that she could drive and with gas mileage in the high teens, and some even in the low 20's) was the way to go.  The problem was that these vehicles new cost as much as $100,000, and some even more.  So, after familiarizing ourselves with what was out there, befriending a man who had a RV repair business who could tell us what issues to look out for and what features mattered more than others, we undertook our search.   After two months of looking we purchased a four year old Class B motorhome from a couple a few years older who could no longer use the vehicle due to unfortunate health issues.  The price for a vehicle with under 20,000 miles and in near pristine condition with everything in perfect working order (and the balance of the OEM warranty) was only $48,000, while the original owners price tag on the vehicle only three years ago was $98,700.  That $50,700 savings will easily let us spend time on the road seeing whatever parts of the U.S. and Canada are accessible by road (no way would we be heading to Mexico with its unrest and drug killings in so many areas), and when we are done, the vehicle will still have a significant resale value. When it comes to RV's, and particularly in this economy, there are tremendous amounts to be saved if you do your homework, if you buy used, and if you avoid the dealers, most of whom are selling used on consignment and do not even come close to giving you the best deals out there.  

Motorcycles are another area where used makes so much more sense than new.  If you're in the market for a fast "crotch rocket" type street bike you would be amazed at the people selling two and three year old models with a couple of thousand miles on them (after they realized for one reason or another that this really was not for them).  If big cruisers are what you want, seek out areas where the economy had experienced growth and prosperity but is now deeply in the slumps, and bargains are everywhere.  I can't imagine why anyone would buy a motorcycle new as there are just far too many "new buyers" out there who have, for one reason or another, a need to get rid of their bikes (many of which were themselves impulse purchases in the first place).  If you really want a motorcycle, why be the sucker that pays the "new" price, when so many others have made that mistake and are only too ready to sell their bike?    

Once we've decided were to relocate in our retirement (it will be near water as we both love to sail), we'll use the same process to buy a used sailboat.  Again, with doing your homework, knowing what you are buying, and being willing to spend the time and effort, there are incredible deals out there to be had, and it also involves avoiding the dealers.  Friends of ours recently purchased a 1989 sailboat from a couple that had lived aboard it for seven years while exploring most of the western hemisphere by boat.  Their cost of $55,000 for a reasonably equiped, electronically up to date and otherwise very capable boat was a fraction of what new would have cost, and when the sale of their land home is considered ($580,000), this couple is years ahead in retaining money for retirement spending, doing something active that  contributes to their overall health, and are doing something they always wanted to try.    

In just the list of things I've mentioned above, buying used and wisely has more than enabled us to get much more bang for the buck than had we bought new.  Although not quite, the savings that can be had almost allow you to do the next thing for almost nothing as compared to what would be left in your wallet had you bought new.  We can also honestly say that we've never once regretted having saved the money instead of having lined the new dealers pockets (or, for that matter, the tax man, who makes out like a bandit on money you spent foolishly).