Where would you pinch pennies if you had to?

What if your income suddenly shrank a few sizes? Do you have any clearly identified luxuries that would be first on your list of items to go?  Or would you have to scour an already streamlined budget to get by?

I’ve been asking myself these questions lately as the French media and the French population mull over various ways the government could control its debt. In recent light of the Greek crisis, responsible solutions promoted usually involve cutting spending (raising costs to average people) or raising taxes income and sales tax. . . or both.  Of course, there will be squabbling about where to make cuts and plenty of political battles, yet one thing seems certain: here in France, spending power looks like its going to go down–again.

I’m curious to know if the mood in the States is the same–if people are resigned to pinching pennies to help pay down the government debt. I follow US news, but I haven’t noticed the same ruminations about a coming “tightening of the belts.”  Perhaps Stateside, people are holding out hope that a nice upshift in the economy will shrink the government debt.  Or perhaps its the knowledge that the dollar is easier to deflate if needed than the Euro.

What can you live without?

While a cost of living increase or a decrease in income are never a welcome prospect, I’m optimistic about my abilities to keep living a happy life. After all, most of us in the blogosphere have a higher standard of living than many, many people around the world.  And we also have a higher standard of living than people of most other time periods as well.  It’s always hard to take a pay cut, or to stop indulging in certain habitual luxuries . . . at first.  But I’ve seen numerous examples of people living quite happily on far less than we spend each month.

My strategy for pinching pennies if needed:

Although I don’t know exactly when/if cuts to our income could be coming, I have already started to look over our situation to figure out the possibilities.  Here are my steps:

1. Take a look over our monthly expense spreadsheets and see if I can spot any ‘leaks’ in the budget.
2. In our case, I’d say our grocery bill is a little high–ahem 300-400 euros for two per month.  We’re lucky actually to have such an easy area to streamline.   We could probably save 75 euros a month easily here.
   
3. I’ve also got to admit that I’d be targeting our ‘fun’ category. Likely spots for cutting would be my pottery classes (sniff!) as well as a little pinching in the area of wine tasting. . .um, yes, that’s part of our budget actually.  Here, we could save about 50 euros a month without causing ourselves too much pain.
   
4. If I wanted to be even bolder, I could make plans to lower our rent.  We splurged on a very nice apartment last year in a rather pricey location, but we certainly have the option of taking a lower-rent place–without getting ourselves into trouble as we did in Marseilles!  We’d probably stand to save at least 100 euros a month by accepting a slightly smaller place.
   
5. Cutting commute distances is another way we could potentially save, assuming my husband doesn’t mind teaching in the same town he lives in–he sometimes gets picky about this.  I can’t completely blame him Still, living closer to DH’s work would cut our living expenses by close to 50 euros a month.
   

Well, that’s 275 euros a month.  Considering our living expenses are currently at about 2000 a month, that’s a little over 10% of our budget.  If you have a bigger budget, you might be thinking that 275 euros is just a drop in the bucket–to which I’d argue that you might have an even easier time pinching pennies.  If you’re used to living on 4-10,000 a month, you most likely have even more leeway than we do.

So how would you pinch your pennies?

Maybe you have no need to tweak your budget at all. . . or maybe you’re considering changing jobs and taking a lower income or even facing a layoff. Regardless of the situation, I’m curious to know how you’d go about losing the ‘fat’ in your budget if you found you needed to.  Where could you cut painlessly? Where would cuts take a little more creativity?

Radical simplicity, frugality–for couples only?

Last week, in the discussion following the post, Risks you’d take to live your dream, Maus posed a question that deserved a post in its own right:

Patricia’s story, as well as that of Trisha’s here at SIF and Jacob’s at ERE, makes me wonder if living at the edge is easier (or at least easier to contemplate) if you have a spouse or partner. While I have no qualms about living a simple life, indeed I embrace it; I am held back by the prospect of loneliness or isolation, especially in the later stages of life. It is one reason that I remain rooted in outrageously expensive California. There are no (habitable) houses for $250 a year; but my family and friends are nearby. To me, the prospect of real hardship can only be borne with the knowledge that I can draw on the support of friends and family.

What do others think? Is the single versus coupled dichotomy a false one with respect to radical simplicity?

Couples, simplicity and frugality: practical considerations.

Simple, frugal--easier for couples?

Immediately after reading Maus’s comment my mind began to mull over all the ways in which I’ve found that living in a couple makes it easier. Financial advantages of living in a couple include shared lodging and entertainment.  Less tangible benefits such as moral support and companionship can make situations comfortable and happy when they would otherwise feel austere.  Should you fall on hard times, you (ideally) have a partner or spouse to help boost your morale or support you.

Honestly, though, how many people have you heard complaining on blogs and in real life that they would love to indulge in radical simplicity, if only their spouse or partner would agree? While I admit this is not my particular experience, it’s not difficult to find examples of people who feel that their husbands,wives, partners stop them from achieving the degree of minimalism they seek, from spending less or from ‘dropping out of the rat race.’

Sometimes couples support each other during hard times, but not always. I’ve also seen couples fight over reduced incomes, money troubles or simple discrepancies in how money should be spent.

Do radical simplicity, frugality and social isolation go hand in hand?

Maus seems to draw a link between simplicity and “loneliness” or isolation, but does one really follow the other? If you look at Patricia’s example, she and her partner left the UK to resettle in a rather rural (read remote) area.  I left many of my friends and all my family behind to move to France.  Jacob from ERE is also living a somewhat uprooted lifestyle, although he left his native Denmark years ago.

I suppose that one could conclude that leaving your native culture and moving someplace new requires that you leave behind your connections, however, I’m not sure that leaving family behind is necessary. At least one of the examples above, Jacob, happens to live in an extremely high-rent area.  He certainly hasn’t found himself forced to move and leave it all behind in order to simplify.  Patricia and I have moved and simplified, but if you remember from Patricia’s story, she has a lot of local friends and a very rich social life in Portugal.  As for my husband and I, we now live much closer to his family and our friends in France, so we hardly find ourselves alone–quite the contrary.  As DH recovers from his accident we’re surrounded by family and friends.

If you think about societies where social isolation occurs, do you think of radically simple ones? I personally think of affluent societies. I’ve never been  to Cuba, but whenever I watch a documentary on that country, I see people living lifestyles we’d probably consider quite radical by US standards, and all the while, they find themselves tightly connected to the society around them.  For example, in Cuba, I recently learned that drivers are required to pick up hitch hikers and that taxis can’t leave until they are full. That’s just one example of the way societies can be simple in terms of material goods and highly complex in terms of interdependence and relationships.

Sharing resources and living a simplified life can bring all kinds of contact with others. Patricia found herself bartering with neighbors; Jacob has theorized about sharing large tools between neighbors.  The most radically simple lifestyles I’ve ever currently witnessed were in Madagascar–where people were appalled to learn that occasionally in the US, an elderly person can die at home and the fact can go undiscovered for some time.  In Madagascar, this is unthinkable.

What do you think about living simply and frugally?

Is it possible when you’re single?  Is it easier in a couple?  What are your experiences in this area?  Does simplicity lead to social isolation?  Does living in a couple protect you from the precarious nature of life?

Risks you’d take to live your dream

In a recent discussion following the post, Have you Ever Felt Poor?, Patricia, a long-time reader of this blog and a citizen of the UK who now resides in Portugal, made a rather incredible revelation in the comment section:

Strangely enough I felt poorer when I was in a good job, earning a relatively good wage, than I do now when I earn practically nothing. At the time both myself and partner worked long hours, earning high wages, but also had that ‘hamster on a wheel’ syndrome, we also had a mortgage, insurances, utility bills, car & fuel bills… it just went on and on, it seemed the more we had , the more we felt we ‘needed…

So we got off the wheel… and here we are 4 years on… living on about 4,000 euros per year… and happier than I’ve been in years.

As I’m always interested in seeing how people live on shoestring budgets (4,000 euros a year is pretty good, if you ask me!) the comment lead to an email back and forth between the two of us, which Patricia agreed to let me turn into a post.  I’d like to take a moment to share Patricia’s way of life with you–the nuts and bolts, the risks and the benefits.

The nuts and bolts of Patricia’s shoestring budget:

Re-purposed boots: in the spirit of frugality.

Patricia and her partner live just outside the village of Figueira in a home they bought cash and fixed up.   As part of their renovations, they created a cottage that they can rent out for income, her partner also gets the occasional odd job to bring in money.  A great deal of what allows them to live on such an unstable income is their fine-tuned frugality and the ability to do things themselves:

• Most of the fruits and vegetables they eat are home grown
• Patricia has worked out a barter system with a few locals to get “eggs, honey, books and other odds and ends”
• They turn the fridge of 10 months of the year, relying on their stone built house to keep things cool.
• A log burner stove allows them to do the cooking, heating and drying clothing in winter  using wood they collect from the forest.
• They make their own bread, conserves etc.
• Their water comes from a well in their garden
• Their mode of transportation is a scooter, used on occasion.
• Patricia invests one third of everything they earn through renting their cottage in food staples like flour, pasta sugar and vinegar. . .for weeks, months without income.
• They have no computer, TV or radio, instead enjoying the local peace and tranquility, a good game of cards, or visits from their many friends in the area.

Risks and insecurities of living abroad on a tiny income:

I especially appreciated Patricia’s willingness to detail a few of the struggles she and her partner faced in the pursuit of their dream:

It’s hard to describe how we live really, most people recoil in horror when I tell them. The insecurity of our lifestyle is incomprehensible to most.

We sold up all we had , gave up good paying and secure jobs  to come here, live in a semi ruin  with, at that time, no water, electricity, sewage, plumbing … anything at all really except the bare shell of the house and the land… It cost us more than we could really afford, and took the rest of our capital to make it partly habitable…

As Patricia went on to explain, living on minimal wages from odd work here and there can be precarious even when you’ve fine-tuned your budget to the extent she has.

When I say we often have no money, I dont mean we are just a little broke or that we don’t have any to spare… I mean we REALLY HAVE NONE.

I was also surprised to learn that Patricia and her husband have had serious difficulty qualifying for Portuguese health care. I thought that people within Europe would have an easier time, but apparently, Patricia and her partner have been caught in some red tape (oh, I’ve been there in France too).  They could receive emergency care, but would have a hard time covering costs of tests, x-rays etc.

The benefits of knowing how to live on almost nothing?

As much as the above mentioned concerns may seem a little out of the comfort zone, I bet we can all imagine some of the benefits of living the way Patricia and her partner do. After hearing about all the trials and tribulations they’d faced, I asked if Patricia thought it was all worth it.

Our peace and tranquility and quality of life is wonderful, we gave up an ugly, dirty crime ridden stressful life to come here.(plus good job and mortgage).. and I’d starve rather than go back to that rat trap…

Here I can take joy in different things… today I heard a cuckoo for the first time this year… we hear woodpeckers a lot too… I have time to bake, cook and grow… I can take joy in the special time I have with my partner now too. . . just sitting by the kitchen range with a book…

I could go on forever…

So what do you think?

Do you find yourself ‘recoiling in horror’ as Patricia puts it? Do you have our own dream that you’d go to great lengths to achieve? Or have you done it already?

Special topics in extreme frugality: move in with the in-laws.

How long do you think you could live with your in-laws? I’ll be moving in with mine sometime in February.   For some of you, this will bring on feelings of dread, images of over-bearing mother-in-laws and father-in-laws who roam the house in boxers and tell the same story again and again.  Fair enough: for some folks out there, staying with the in-laws would not be worth the savings on rent and utilities–even for a few short weeks.  I’ve stayed with my in-laws before, though, so I know I’ll be fine.  Below you’ll find a few reasons to stay with family (for the frugal-minded) and some survival tips.

The only thing that scares me about living with the in-laws: the weather. That's the window in the room I stay in--completely covered in snow.

Staying with family–a practice in frugality. First off, my in-laws have several spare rooms in their apartment AND don’t mind me staying.  Since DH is in a rehabilitation center (completely paid), my moving in with my in-laws for a while will save a lot of money on rent and utilities.  I still have to eat and will definitely buy food and make meals for my in-laws, but I would have spent that money anyway.  I figure the savings will be close to 1000 euros a month.  I’ll also save money on transportation by bus to go and visit DH since his center is close to my in-laws.  Is saving money the only thing in life?  Well, no, but since our lives are already turned upside-down, if I can put a little extra money in the bank by doing this, well, why not?

Sharing a home means sharing duties and saving time. My mother-in-law was very happy last weekend that I came to stay because I took some of my spare time to organize my husband’s old bedroom in her house (that could be a post in and of itself, so I won’t go there today).  Since I love to cook and bake, it lightens her load in that respect as well.  My in-laws are neat freaks–like me–so when we stay together, I find that the time I spend on household chores and cleaning is cut at least in half.  Grocery shopping is also streamlined.  Things are more efficient this way.

If you get along with your in-laws, staying together means support during hard times. I’m generally doing well, of course, but all of us are sad to see that DH will have to spend so long recovering from his accident.  It’s hard sometimes.  I have paperwork to do, lawyers to call, and a husband to visit at the hospital.  My in-laws are worried about their son, but don’t want to ‘impose’ on him by calling him and visiting him all the time, so they like getting news from me–I’m not afraid to impose.

If you want to stay with family, particularly in-laws, you must be respectful and flexible. You can’t expect that things will be the way they are at home.  I know that the TV will be on often (that’s something I’m not used to since we have neither).  I will need to share the bathroom.  I will need to get up early or sleep late so that my mother in law can have her ‘alone time.’

Consider also, how respectful and flexible your family members are before you try this at home! My in-laws are pretty accepting of my crazy ways.  They have no problem with me bringing my ‘hot box’ and making stews and chilis–even though it looks like a garbage bin.  They are even showing interest in some of my local eating and cooking techniques and my father-in-law and I have begun to bake together.  I sometimes can fool people into thinking I’m more extroverted than I am, but I will go insane if I don’t get my time alone–my in-laws allow me that time and space for myself.  If I retire to DH’s old bedroom to meditate, write or do yoga, they will not come and bother me or ask me what the heck I’m doing.

Don’t bring too much stuff. I’m not going to be at home, am I?  So I’m organizing most of my things to go into storage.  I’ll keep enough clothing to wear during the next couple of cold months and live out of a small suitcase.  This way, I won’t be invading my in-laws space and taking over their home.

Keep an open mind. DH and I have lived with family members before as we’ve moved from place to place.  It’s important to remember that things will not always be as you expect them to be when you live with other people.  Still, life has a way of working out anyhow.

And now for your experiences? Who else out there has lived with family?  In-laws?  How did it go?  Or perhaps you’re someone who would never consider this move.  I’m curious.