I have never bought DW flowers, so her dad sends her flowers from time to time hoping that I will take a hint. I have bought her other things that were sometimes quite expensive (at least by my standard) out of season (not birthdays or xmas) because I thought it made sense (e.g. could be classified as an investment ;O) )

With me we went Dutch. I hate being “indebted” to any guy. So we started off splitting everything and well it’s never ended. So technically he’s never treated a woman! Trust me he proudly announced this fact about his cheapness.

But I still love him. And he pretty much lives by the same rules you do. Do you still wear clothes from high school? He won’t gain a lb because he refuses to buy new clothes. And for his job (also a phd) he wears exactly what I bought him almost 3 years ago with a determined set of 10 polos, 5 khakis, 10 long sleeved shirts, and 10 undershirts. Same jacket from 8 years ago and same one pair of shoes.

So I guess I should stop calling him cheap and say he’s thrifty.

http://financialplan.about.com/library/weekly/aa060901a.htm

Just curious - are those stats (”Each week parents on average spend less time with their children than they do shopping for more stuff. Each year more Americans file for bankruptcy than graduate from college.”) for real or just illustrative? Scary stuff!

@ fathersez - humans are also different because that can consume resources exogenously. Animals can only eat so much, but we can scale our consumption until we run out. I remember reading somewhere that humanity at its present stage control/use 50% of the entire biosphere.

@ brooke - good luck with the nagging We move every 2-3 years as well which is one of the reasons I don’t like to bogged down with too much stuff.

Even nature has these rules. Bears and squirrels do this.

It may be sad, but it appears to be an unfortunate truth that humans have an default setting to self destruct.

So people like you will be seen to be going against the common tide and seen to be off centred.

But the fact is, you are just living the way you want.

And there are a number of people, who like me, get inspired by people like you.

“Each year more Americans file for bankruptcy than graduate from college.”

Yes, there are more BK’s then graduates but I think it’s really misleading when the majority of people graduating are in a narrow age range (22-24), and anybody of anyage can file for BK. If you broke it down by age range it wouldn’t be as shocking

@ debbie m - one thing I did when I started compacting was to look into hobbies that did not take up so much space. For instance, I used to compose music with a keyboard hooked up to the computer. Instead I picked up a good recorder (flute) at a flea market and learned how to play that. I have done some online volunteering. And there was the home gym thing where focused on power endurance rather than size. Fortunately, I can get interested in pretty much anything, so it was not so difficult. With book cases, I’ve found that if you “file” your books horizontal as well as vertical it is possible to reduce the needed amount of shelf space by about 25%. With camping, there’s ultralight backpacking. Usually there’s always an interesting light weight or space saving alternative.

Of course there are also some hobbies that traditionally take up a lot of space but don’t have to. Knitting and sewing don’t have to take a lot of space if you can keep a lid on the fabric and yarn stashes, though you’ll occasionally need a large space to cut fabric. Readers may benefit from a bookshelf or two so they always have something on hand if they also have access to a library, but many have loads of shelves and more books than will fit on them.

But if you have a lot of hobbies, it can really add up. This is the issue I’m working with. Mostly I do this by having one big room that can be used for carpentry or sewing or practicing cha cha or having a dinner party, so long as I clean it up again between hobbies. Then keep the supplies to the minimum (a few high-quality tools, and no going overboard on the raw materials). Another good idea is to recognize when an old hobby no longer interests you.

I’m on the look-out for more strategies, though because I’d really like the two of us and our guitars, piano, suitcases, sleeping bags, dance shoes, climbing shoes, cleats, sewing machine, DVD player, bookshelves, etc. to be more comfortable in our 1000-square-foot house.