Comments on: What is a Necessity

By: DDFD @ DivorcedDadFrugalDad

DDFD @ DivorcedDadFrugalDad — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 13:46:52 +0000

It is surprising what people view as necessities these days . . .

Cell phones,
Bottled water,
Cable,
Over-sized vehicles, . . .

By: FinanciallySmart

FinanciallySmart — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 09:18:13 +0000

Sometimes we see things as a necessities but if we really looked at it from a different angle then we will see that we can save more. You have highlighted the garbage bag but there are a lot of things that we deemed as necessities that are actually things that if we put our innovative skills to task with we will be shock to find out the things we can do without purchasing.

By: Play Games Win Prizes

Play Games Win Prizes — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:33:52 +0000

First of all, there are many things that you can think of.

1. how big is the family
2. how far is your trash disposal from your house
3. how much can you withstand the stink and the bacteria growing right next to food you are cooking.
4. lastly, what are you cooking?

-Mike

By: marci

marci — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 17:51:18 +0000

@Steve – My grandkids arrive for their overnighters with clothes in plastic bags still Here on the rainy coast, we just call it rainproof luggage. And, the nice thing is their dirty clothes can go back home in the same bags.

I’ve had people comment on how small (1025 sq ft) my house is – and I tell them, but it is Big Enough for me…. and More than I Need I am delighted in it! And Content.

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:13:43 +0000

Pretty much everyone agrees food, shelter, and clothing are necessities. But one of the wasteful tricks we play on ourselves is to use a true statement (like food, shelter, clothing) to justify something we can’t afford. We eat fast food (nutritionally poor and expensive compared to home cooked) by saying, “Hey, I gotta eat!” The housing debacle and current economic meltdown was driven in large part by people buying more house than they could afford. No doubt at some level they all said, “Hey, I gotta have shelter!”

We all do it. The frugal mind simply adds a dose of reality to the self talk. “Yeah, but if I pack my lunch (reusing the plastic shopping bags 8^) I can save some money and eat better.” BTW, we used to send our kids on overnight trips with clothes packed in plastic bags. My wife called it hillbilly luggage.

About half my wardrobe comes from Goodwill. My wife found 3 Jos A Banks shirts ($100 each new) for $3 each. Whom ever donated them had just picked them up from the dry cleaners, they still had the tags on them. I just hung them up and wore one the next day. It is definitely possible to be frugal and still have nice things.

By: Jerry

Jerry — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 14:09:23 +0000

I guess I’ll comment on the grocery/garbage bags, too. I buy garbage bags. I view them as a necessity. However, I’ve also reused grocery bags, as well. I believe in recycling and think that it is insurance for our earth. And, it also leads to spending less, too. That’s a bonus, too. But, if there are some things like garbage bags that enhance your standard of living by a small margin, why not? The grocery bags were never deep enough for me
Jerry

By: Best Savings Account Girl

Best Savings Account Girl — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 22:05:14 +0000

glasses are a necessity because it’s necessary for you to see. buying garbage bags are necessary because grocery bags are sometimes way too small for all the trash that accumulate. but i agree with marci – the basic necessities are food, felter, water, and i’d add in warm clothes

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:22:45 +0000

Around here we can buy large paper “lawn bags” for yard waste. They are bio-degradable and I can take them to the city composting station. 5 bags for less than $3. I have 6 large oak trees on my property and my back yard is a city park with 30-40 more large trees within 100 feet of my property line. In the fall the leaves don’t respect the property line and all seem to wind up in my yard. Way to many to bag or compost myself. Luckily, if I rake or blow them to the curb in front, the city comes around a few times in the fall and early winter to pick them up and take to the city composting station. No charge, other than taxes. In the spring I can go back and pickup compost for my garden, for free!

By: marci

marci — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:03:32 +0000

Re: Garbage in bags – I can actually take the garbage myself in any old container to the dump (transfer station) and just dump it on the tipping floor without being in a plastic bag, and keep my container. (But then I have to waste water washing out my container…) Maybe if you haul your own garbage to the dump you’ll find you can do that also.

By: marci

marci — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:59:29 +0000

I think the basic necessities are food, water, shelter, warmth, oxygen. But – not all are necessarily an expense if you can find a way to do any of them without spending $$, which can be done partially or in whole on some of them. I think to classify it as an actual “need”, one should go back 200 years and see what the actual needs were then – if something didn’t exist 200 years ago, it is probably not an actual “need” now. It would be more of a “want”. At least that’s how I distinquish between wants and needs – go waaaayyy back!

I’m with you on the garbage bags question. While I do use the canvas bags at the store as much as I can remember to take them with me and thereby get a nickel of credit off my bill, my total household garbage fits in less than two little grocery sacks per month. But then I compost, recycle, and burn some of mine also. That might not work for a large household.

Obviously you are not a homeowner with large deciduous trees in your lawn – the large garbage bags are nice if you want to get the piles of leaves out of your yard and aren’t allowed to burn them and have too many for composting. Well I guess one could actually sew up sheets for sacks if one was going to dump them oneself, but if they are set out for gargage pickup, they’d have to be in a garbage sack.