Chapter 72 Taste life, start from thrift

Nowadays, there are such a group of people in modern cities: They were originally beauty-loving angels with a lot of income, but they spend their money carefully, and sometimes they make hard bargains; sometimes they buy hundreds of thousands of dollars with a smart signature Commodity housing.They are definitely not misers who are reluctant to eat and wear and know how to save money, but spend hundreds of thousands when they should spend, and be frugal when they should not spend a penny. On the contrary, they live a healthier and more comfortable life. I used to save money because of material scarcity, but now I advocate saving because of material abundance.However, New Frugality is by no means a miser, not an inability to consume, but a consumerism that has the ability to consume but does not follow fashion.They are calm and relaxed, throwing away all the excessive luxury and excessive cumbersomeness, and pursue a simple, healthy and happy lifestyle.Compared with their predecessors, they don’t actually need to spend carefully in order to maintain the minimum standard of living. They are more fundamentally different from misers in the traditional sense—paying more attention to planning the future and optimizing the allocation of their monetary income.It can be said that the essence of the new generation of frugality is to arrange life more rationally.

The so-called "new frugality" is actually a rational and pragmatic attitude towards life!Never be stingy with what should be spent, and never waste what should be saved. In other words, spend money wisely.A premise here is to reasonably analyze the composition of living costs such as prices, and then implement "frugality" accordingly.Please remember, rationality + planning + a little bit of trouble = new frugality = ordinary people's happy life. Cathy thinks it is stupid to simply spend money, and using money to regenerate money is the guarantee of quality of life.She doesn't think thrift should count every penny, but focus on the big picture and let the money spent far exceed the value, which is called thrift.For example, she bought a house the year before last for more than 40,000 US dollars. After renovation, the monthly rent was more than 500 US dollars. In two years, she paid more than 10,000 US dollars. The house was sold for $60,000, which is equivalent to the money of another house.

You may say that this is called making money wisely, but Cathy thinks it is called frugal rightly.Because in her opinion, she can spend the money on luxury goods, more than 40,000 US dollars, and immediately disappear without a trace. The reason why Cathy has never bought a car is that buying a car is an endless expense. After spending the money for the first time, a lot of expenses will be added to the money spent in the future, but the value of the car is Reduce, this is waste.True frugality is not about not spending, but about spending where it is worthwhile, where it can create more value.This is frugality as Cathy understands it.From her, can we understand the true meaning of "making money wisely and frugal well"?

Lisa doesn't like to read books, but always likes to watch movies and TV shows. In her opinion, in the age of electrical appliances, who still uses their eyes to read words.Therefore, buying electrical appliances can always be done in one step. Take the color TV as an example. The color TV bought the most luxurious 25-inch right-angle flat panel at that time, the video recorder bought a brand with recording and playback functions that can automatically flip, and the washing machine bought a fully automatic dryer. Turbine workers, who knows that they have not been used for two years, have all become recycled goods.After learning these lessons, she summed up the principle of "lag 15 months" that household appliance consumption must adhere to, that is to say, keep a distance of 15 months from products with the latest technology, and wait for the technology of new products to mature. The price has been doubled, and the price has been reduced by half. It is affordable and safe to consume.

In terms of clothing consumption, Lisa's principle is to be rich and colorful, but also to pay attention to benefits.She divides the money for buying clothes into three equal parts: spend a small amount of money to buy classic famous brands, most of which are bought during seasonal discounts, which can be half cheaper; the other 1/3 of money is spent on the most fashionable popular brands, such as striped sweaters, flash Colored shirts, etc. This part of the investment can keep you up to date and keep your image from lagging behind; the remaining 1/3 of the money is spent on cheap nameless clothing, such as unique T-shirts, white shirts, and sports jackets. Choose according to your own aesthetics.Sometimes an unnamed sports jacket is paired with brand-name casual trousers. The creative play of "owned by her" shows vision and taste.In this way, you can buy classic famous brands without losing the fashionable image, and you can spend less money.

Susan, 24 years old, is a fashion magazine editor. She earned $3,000 a month when she first started working, and handed over $1,000 to her family. Although her salary is not high, her identity as a fashion editor gave her a higher taste in clothes.In her own words, famous brands are also made by people.For example, two days ago, she took a fancy to a classic Chanel tweed suit, so she printed the picture from the Internet at work, bought the material according to the measurement, and found a tailor she knew to order.As for the cost, the total cost of handwork and fabric is only 300 US dollars. If it is a genuine product, it will cost more than a thousand dollars.Talking about her own life, she is really one set: In terms of beauty, internal adjustment is always more important than any expensive cosmetics for external use, so it is better to use more food supplements to benefit; pay attention to the distribution of clothing purchased every month: 1/3 classic Famous brands, 1/3 are popular in the season, 1/3 are small stalls, so that you can not only sell high-end places, but also reflect your own style; make clothes and shoes according to your favorite famous brand styles; it is better to spend money to hire An aunt cooks, and then brings lunch to the company by himself, which is healthy and hygienic; taking a taxi to and from get off work is worse than taking the subway, and taking the subway is worse than riding a bicycle. If conditions permit, you can walk within the starting fee of 10 dollars, which is both relaxing and exercising , beneficial to physical and mental health.

Accumulating wealth is nothing more than two ways to increase income and reduce expenditure. It takes more time to increase income and reduce expenditure is simple and easy.Some "stingy experts" offer us the following tips for frugal money management: Constantly allocate part of the money from the salary, 5%, 10%, 25% can be saved anyway; Find out where your money goes every day, week, and month, that is, list your budget and expenses in detail; Check and check all receipts to see if the merchant has overcharged; Keep only one credit card, and it is enough to prove your identity, and you must pay off the debt every month;

Commuting by public transport saves on parking, gas, insurance, and time spent looking for a parking space; Read more "practical manuals" about repairing and investing to get rich, it is best to borrow from the library or download from the Internet to save money; Simplify your life, make your house smaller, buy a used car, shop at bargain stores, auctions, etc.; Weigh the value of what you buy and think about "is it worth the money?" Cheap goods may not be worth it, and expensive may not guarantee the quality.