It's been a week of first world problems.
DD2 phoned to tell me that whilst she was babysitting for a wealthy family that she knows she'd got soaked to the skin helping them when the gears went on the machine that rolls out their swimming pool cover.
Then there was the drunk who was upset about the provenance of the leaves littering his garden.
Next a colleague was in tears because she wants her house redecorated and the colour she wanted has been discontinued. I personally can't tell the difference between the current Celtic Cream and the previous Linen Cream and I have a reasonably good eye for colour.
Even Froogs has done a post about watching the exchange rate.
20 comments:
Well, I won't be popping over to read That post.
Thanks for the smile
LOL �� yes it's hilarious!!!!
How can somebody write a frugal blog who has a holiday home? How condescending and out of touch with reality. But you get silly followers saying " ooh Froogs you deserve it". Pleeease!!!! .....
you would not believe the amount of laughter that has been directed at a post starting...reading the currency markets has caused in our house i think some folk are getting above their station
tess
Wow...quite surprised at the derision and venom directed at this blogger's post.
For me frugality is living well within ones income level[whatever that level may be]and being aware of every cent you have, where it goes, and getting the best value possible, staying out of debt and planning for the now and the future while living your life at your values for your needs and wants.
If two middle class earners were in debt past their arse and whingeing about their retirement or furnishing their holiday home people would be happy to deride them, but when they manage to get a grip and watch their finances like adults making specific and well researched decisions, plan each penny and live well within their means to achieve the same ends ...people are happy to deride them.
We need to decouple from this idea of money and money management equating station in life and look at money and money management as tools and nothing more. Looking for the best prices of rice and beans, new work shoes, mortgage rates or FX rates is one and the same... it is proper stewardship of ones funds and life.
I live alone on a really, really small pension but manage to do quite well by watching, planning and evaluating my needs, wants and the reality they meet in. However, I get snide or incredulous comments about living above my station or having a secret trust fund, from people who earn the same or 3 to 6 times what I do.
It seems you just can't win.
I grew up very very low income and never made more than a middling income in my best years. If I were to get a sudden, unexpected bequest such as this blogger did you can be sure I would research the @@$^% out of all of my options and put it where it was most needed or wanted for my future and get the very, very best value for every blasted penny.
By the way, while I am aware of this persons history and evolving situation, I am not a follower or even a fan... I a just someone who uses the tools at hand and strong discipline to move along in my life.
Frugality is a tool, a means to living YOUR life in an intelligent, orderly and secure fashion.
i wondered how long it would take one of fg hench woman or even herself posing as someone else to turn up and tell us all the error of our ways...many thanks for putting me right 'jill'
tessa
No Jill there is no derision or venom on my part and many other peoples part. She like i CHOOSE to live frugally, for many in times like these there is no choices. Her blog in the early days was informative, entertaining etc, and we cheered her on from the sidelines, admiring her hard work and sacrifices to turn around a mountain of debt. But of late too much product endorsement, blog awards and preachy "i know best" Kathy
Kathy, this person has always been overly didactic, arrogant and at time highly erratic, sometimes bordering on the obnoxious...as I said I am not a follower or a fan.
This is and has been for a good while a monetized blog...thus the awards to increase blog awareness and product placements..it helped pay debt the same as a second job or overtime. Many bloggers do this, not to my taste, but the point was paying the debt wasn't it?
The fact remains that doing the same jobs at essentially the same salaries, through frugality, minute forward planning and discipline, they have gone from a deficit to a positive and then with the addition of strategic downsizing and even more planning and compartmentalizing now have a surplus. So why can't you write a frugality blog and have a summer/eventual retirement home, if frugality and extreme stewardship allow you to do just that?
What does "station" mean exactly when you are the same person, in the same job, at the same salary...just not in debt and using the surplus for things other than interest and debt payments? Who or what are you a traitor to exactly?
We all use every means available to us to cut costs from bank rate sites, supermarket comparison sites, utility rates and gas station comparison sites etc. FX comparison is the same.
I have friends with elderly parents in the UK, Canada and Europe and a cousin who travels often for her small business. They all use FX comparison to make sure they are not wasting precious dollars when traveling. Why is the one ridiculous and the others savvy consumer shopping?
The point of frugality is not only managing when you are broke, have debt and are just hanging on by your finger nails, but to make the absolute most of everything that comes into your purse even, no, especially if it is a an unexpected windfall. To do otherwise would be a huge waste and a great foolishness.
'jill' may i point out that the person in question has purchased a second home from an inheritance and i dont think that has a thing to do with financial stewardship
tessa
I agree with Jill. I have always lived frugally, and because of this I managed to privately educate my two daughters, and now have enough money to enjoy a good retirement. At the moment I am spending two months in the Spanish sun, I will be back in the UK for a month then back to sunnier climes for the rest of the winter. my daughters friends think I am rich until she explains no way would I buy a coffee when I am out, etc. Frugal living does not mean we are poor, it means value for money.
In the words of Fonzie, FQ has jumped the shark.
I don't care if the house was bought by an inheritance, it was the blatant "oh you can rent it in the future" ad in of her posts that pushed me over the edge.
Why are there no more mentions of her work in the community teaching cooking and planning to people? No mention of her charity or religious work, anymore?
What happened to Foster Mummy? Her Best Friend for years and now no mention?
Fame. That is all I can think of to justify the changes.
Though Jill and jim make valid points regarding frugality being a tool to manage your finances sensibly and quote personal circumstances te illustrate this which are admirable i believe that in this instance they are missing the main thrust of anonymous and my posts.
For example do we hold in regard MP's who take 10 per cent pay increases and then expect the electorate to be "grateful" for 1 to 2 per cent NO!! "..........; Urgo do people want to read monetized blogs about people who have acquired holiday homes ( i appreciate in sad circumstances but NOT through financial stewardship) and are now advertising them for future rental on their blog where people come to get help and ideas for frugal living. Now to top it all they intend to furnish it with items from freecycle. Please should not these items be left for people who are not going to make an income from them (especially when one has 2 professional incomes).
Anonymous makes a very valid point where is the mention of her community work and video blogs about financial help.?
Sorry that post above is from me
Kathy
kathy couldnt agree with you more...it really annoys me when smug tight sorry frugal folk start boasting about their wealth aquired from years of not buying a coffee out and charging your own son to stay with you but letting him lay a new floor for you gratis....what a cheek using free cycle for furniture for a shack sorry house you plan to rent out...
oh and dont get me started on needing quinoa and pots of tea in waitrose...the benefits of using coinstar and how wonderful mccains ready cooked jacket pots are
way and moral compass lost i think
tessa
I don't care how people spend their money, it's their business. Jim, we understand the need to spend money wisely, that's why we read blogs which
may extend our knowledge of how to stretch the pennies. I gave up on the
blog in question after the post in which the author declared that she had a secret which she did not want to disclose. It reminded me of the playground behaviour of five year olds so I signed off. I was also sick of the author requesting comments then being tetchy if someone dared to disagree with her. Then we have had other bloggers getting involved and giving patronising advice on the laws of libel!
Just not worth my time as I was learning nothing nor was I being amused !
Hester, you make me laugh!x
the advice given on libel was one of the most upsetting things i have read on a blog and felt very sorry for the blog author who already felt bullied and then one of the hench woman twisted the knife...shocking way to treat someone imo
tessa
I missed the libel thing and can't be bothered to look for it. But the bully thing isn't new. In fact I was beginning to think it was only me who thought it.
I found some of her foul mouth rants a few years ago odd for a professed Christian.
Her way or the highway after a public telling off. I guess Foster Mummy must have committed a crime in the Queen's eyes and been axed.
yes anon i think you are on the money there
tessa
I'm not fussed on that blog - too preachy in terms of 'don't do what I do, do what I tell you to do' Also, she used to be so against monetising the blog - had banners up saying 'Ad free' and said she didn't agree with it and wouldn't promote products etc - yet that is what she does a lot now. Plus she has previously moaned about people renting out holiday homes in Cornwall - pot and kettle springs to mind.
Foster Mummy has blogged on and off for a while. Most definitely in an 'off' bit at the mo. I have no idea of details but she alluded to frequent cyber bullying by an ex friend.
Just want to say that I too stopped reading that blog when the holiday home was acquired because I just felt that I then didn't have anything in common with that blogger.
We manage on 2 small pensions and I enjoyed the blog because it was then helpful and informative, but I don't feel that it's relevant to me now - I wish the blog writer well - we all change and have different priorities at different stages of our lives.
Some very interesting comments and points of view here too - thanks Hester
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