Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)

[okisok]

I was disappointed when I got the call to go back to work. I live pretty frugally anyway. Without driving to work locations, having to dress in 'work appropriate attire', going to networking events, social events, going out to eat, etc, I've increased my savings rate to unprecedented levels. This is the most relaxed and happy I've been in my adult memory. I wish I was already FI!! But I have to act happy that I can get back to having a paycheck and 'getting out'. My workplace is pretty small and everyone else is thrilled to be back.

[LennStar]

I was disappointed when I got the call to go back to work. I live pretty frugally anyway. Without driving to work locations, having to dress in 'work appropriate attire', going to networking events, social events, going out to eat, etc, I've increased my savings rate to unprecedented levels. This is the most relaxed and happy I've been in my adult memory. I wish I was already FI!! But I have to act happy that I can get back to having a paycheck and 'getting out'. My workplace is pretty small and everyone else is thrilled to be back.

I wish you all the health you can get!

I hope at least everyone wears masks.

[Gin1984]

I'm still employed, but I'm not saving much (more) money as a result of social distancing. I didn't eat out at restaurants much before the pandemic and I walked or biked almost everywhere. I've saved the small amounts I would have spent on the occasional bus ride, but my electricity bill has gone up slightly and I'm doing laundry more often.

Meanwhile, my spendy colleagues are surprised by how much money they have left over in their accounts now. They've become involuntarily frugal.

I actually pay more now. Electricity, heating (luckily not much now) and even food (because the company heavily subsized the warm meal)

Because I'm not shopping sales our groceries have gone up over 50%!  I can't keep up with that.

[pdxmonkey]

I've been out once to get groceries. Otherwise I've been finally eating all the stuff that's accumulated in my cupboards. My spending is at least temporarily down. Although I did hire a lawn guy this year. March was my 4th lowest spending month out of 27 I have tracked starting on January 2018. April looks like it's going to come in at #6.

That's with consciously increasing my baseline monthly spend on thing like the lawn guy. Otherwise they'd be 2 and 3.

I'm nearing my number/year and I'm supposed to be figuring out the numbers for the lifestyle I would like long term and this situation is making it hard to get accurate numbers as to what my no longer minimal lifestyle looks like. I have a good idea of what my minimum spend looks like from the last 2 years which were very frugal with almost no extras beyond the necessary as I did very little behind work. It's somewhere around $16k annually.

My mpp is...I know I have enough to survive, but this is making it hard to figure out how much I WANT in the stash before I retire.

A very nice problem have as problems go.

[BicycleB]

^Agreed!!

[exterous]

Not really a problem but one of my friends couldn't figure out why my wife couldn't stop laughing at his comment. He mentioned that during these times I could even take out money from my 401k with zero penalty for some nonessential home improvements. My wife just starts laughing because that's how uncharacteristic that would be for me to do. I don't talk much about our savings habits so it took some explaining. Even then I don't think they quite got why that would never come up as a consideration

[Sun Hat]

@Imma I'm happy for you that you're getting your exterior walls insulated! I got mine done two years ago and have been wowed at the savings on heating and cooling, as well as at how nice it is to have fewer cold drafts in the winter! I also hope that you're able to talk your office into letting you work from home indefinitely.

[ysette9]

Insulation is well worth spending on for comfort alone. We insulated every wall of our house (except the one between the kitchen and living room). Inside, outside, floors, ceilings, everything. It is great for making the house quiet also.

[AnnaGrowsAMustache]

Overcharged at the supermarket. Now I have to go back to retrieve my $2

[BoostJunky]

Insulation is well worth spending on for comfort alone. We insulated every wall of our house (except the one between the kitchen and living room). Inside, outside, floors, ceilings, everything. It is great for making the house quiet also.

What does something like this run you? (Obviously size of home is dependant on cost just looking for a ballpark).

 Did they use spray foam? We are looking at doing this as well.

[ysette9]

They couldn’t do spray foam in our attic space because it was too low. You can only do it in walls if you are opening them up, so new build or gut job. We went with spray in fiberglass. They drill these rounds out of the wall between each stud, blow the insulation in, and plug the whole. You then obviously have to repaint over the patches.

For the attic we had a bunch of insulation blown in. For under the floor we had fiberglass batts places between the floor joists.

We have a small house and maybe we paid $4-5k for all of that?

[Dicey]

We had a gutted house with completely open walls. DH did a lot of research and ultimately decided against spray foam. The prime reasons are that, as @ysette9 well knows, our ground moves quite a bit. This can cause the rigid spray foam insulation to crack and settle over time. So you've spent a ton of extra money and you can still end up with cold spots. We went with Eco-batt insulation and did all of the interior and closet walls and between the floors. It really made the house warmer and quieter and it's more forgiving when the earth moves.

[ysette9]

That is an interesting thing to consider. We didn’t get far enough down the road of even considering spray foam to realize that was a downside in this area. Thanks for sharing; this has mitigated my sense of missing out. ;-)

[okisok]

I've run out of "Tupperware" (repurposed butter tubs, cream cheese containers, etc) because I have so many leftovers and prepped foods in the fridge/freezer.

[Poundwise]

I bought an extra 50 lb bag of flour for a friend who didn't end up needing it, so then I had to wait until I finished up my own 50 lb bag before I could reclaim the closet space taken up by the other bag...

I have to choke back comments like "so what? I've been doing that for years!" when people start gushing to me about how they are growing scallion ends or making their own chicken broth or whatever...

We needed an extra laptop so all our kids could do class Zooms at the same time, so I assembled one good one out of two old broken Macbooks... but the resulting laptop is still so old that many websites don't support the browsers...

[Dicey]

That is an interesting thing to consider. We didn’t get far enough down the road of even considering spray foam to realize that was a downside in this area. Thanks for sharing; this has mitigated my sense of missing out. ;-)

And saved you a big pile 'o money...MO'MO, not FOMO, for the win!

[LennStar]

We needed an extra laptop so all our kids could do class Zooms at the same time, so I assembled one good one out of two old broken Macbooks... but the resulting laptop is still so old that many websites don't support the browsers...

Huh?
Upgrade the browser??

I have no experience with Macs (because I like to be able to do things with the things I own), but even those should allow you to install a recent browser.

We had a gutted house with completely open walls. DH did a lot of research and ultimately decided against spray foam. The prime reasons are that, as @ysette9 well knows, our ground moves quite a bit. This can cause the rigid spray foam insulation to crack and settle over time. So you've spent a ton of extra money and you can still end up with cold spots. We went with Eco-batt insulation and did all of the interior and closet walls and between the floors. It really made the house warmer and quieter and it's more forgiving when the earth moves.

You can also insulate using dried algea. The long ones from the ocean. No chemicals at all and still not burning because of the high salt %.

But of course that is more expensive and there may be no one in your area that does this anyway. I only know of one company in Germany.

[marty998]

Overcharged at the supermarket. Now I have to go back to retrieve my $2

This always makes my day. I like being overcharged at the till, you get the product for free when you point it out! :)

Pity that Coles and Woolies are much better now with pricing. Not as many errors.

[Poundwise]

We needed an extra laptop so all our kids could do class Zooms at the same time, so I assembled one good one out of two old broken Macbooks... but the resulting laptop is still so old that many websites don't support the browsers...

Huh?
Upgrade the browser??

I have no experience with Macs (because I like to be able to do things with the things I own), but even those should allow you to install a recent browser.

These Macs are so old, that Google Chrome/Safari/Firefox no long support them. I know what I'm doing, I'm an IT professional. :D Next stop could be installing Linux, but it would be a hassle as kids want to keep their game licenses, etc.

[LennStar]

We needed an extra laptop so all our kids could do class Zooms at the same time, so I assembled one good one out of two old broken Macbooks... but the resulting laptop is still so old that many websites don't support the browsers...

Huh?
Upgrade the browser??

I have no experience with Macs (because I like to be able to do things with the things I own), but even those should allow you to install a recent browser.

These Macs are so old, that Google Chrome/Safari/Firefox no long support them. I know what I'm doing, I'm an IT professional. :D Next stop could be installing Linux, but it would be a hassle as kids want to keep their game licenses, etc.

How old are they?
I mean too old to support old versions of browsers that barely support the stuff you want to run? Even IE11 does most stuff, and in computer terms that is nearly ancient browser. Maybe Early Middle Ages.

[lemanfan]

These Macs are so old, that Google Chrome/Safari/Firefox no long support them. I know what I'm doing, I'm an IT professional. :D Next stop could be installing Linux, but it would be a hassle as kids want to keep their game licenses, etc.

As an IT professional, do you really want software without updated security patches connected to the Intertubes?  ;)

[Plina]

I'm still employed, but I'm not saving much (more) money as a result of social distancing. I didn't eat out at restaurants much before the pandemic and I walked or biked almost everywhere. I've saved the small amounts I would have spent on the occasional bus ride, but my electricity bill has gone up slightly and I'm doing laundry more often.

Meanwhile, my spendy colleagues are surprised by how much money they have left over in their accounts now. They've become involuntarily frugal.

I actually pay more now. Electricity, heating (luckily not much now) and even food (because the company heavily subsized the warm meal)

I have increased my use of electricity by 20 kWh per month but because the electricity has gotten cheaper I actually got paid to use the electricity. The only thing left on my bill was the fee for the environmental certificate and the tax. All adding up to a 1 USD. I have a separate fee for the grid, about 14 USD. I actually felt sorry for the electricity company because it cost them probably more to bill me for those 90 kWh then I paid them.

[Reynold]

Because I'm not shopping sales our groceries have gone up over 50%!  I can't keep up with that.
[/quote]

DW has the same problem, she routinely apologizes when she comes home with food because it wasn't all bought at the sale prices she usually gets due to a combination of (1) the grocery stores are running fewer sales, and (2) things may not be there on her next trip, so she gets them when they are there.  I roll my eyes as I point out that this entire epidemic is clearly her fault, sigh. . . :) 

Same issue as AnnaGrowsAMustache, overcharged one time by over a dollar (she cross checks all her receipts) and wondering if it was worth going back.  I advised against. 

[Poundwise]

These Macs are so old, that Google Chrome/Safari/Firefox no long support them. I know what I'm doing, I'm an IT professional. :D Next stop could be installing Linux, but it would be a hassle as kids want to keep their game licenses, etc.

As an IT professional, do you really want software without updated security patches connected to the Intertubes?  ;)

No, which is why this is a MPP!  Too cheap to buy new laptops... too cheap to buy new software... I'm stuck! :)

While MOST websites work, as you say, it's not safe. Plus some of the websites that the kids are supposed to use for their schoolwork no longer support the old browser versions, and come out funny looking.

[dragoncar]

These Macs are so old, that Google Chrome/Safari/Firefox no long support them. I know what I'm doing, I'm an IT professional. :D Next stop could be installing Linux, but it would be a hassle as kids want to keep their game licenses, etc.

As an IT professional, do you really want software without updated security patches connected to the Intertubes?  ;)

No, which is why this is a MPP!  Too cheap to buy new laptops... too cheap to buy new software... I'm stuck! :)

While MOST websites work, as you say, it's not safe. Plus some of the websites that the kids are supposed to use for their schoolwork no longer support the old browser versions, and come out funny looking.

User name doesn’t check out

[Poundwise]

These Macs are so old, that Google Chrome/Safari/Firefox no long support them. I know what I'm doing, I'm an IT professional. :D Next stop could be installing Linux, but it would be a hassle as kids want to keep their game licenses, etc.

As an IT professional, do you really want software without updated security patches connected to the Intertubes?  ;)

No, which is why this is a MPP!  Too cheap to buy new laptops... too cheap to buy new software... I'm stuck! :)

While MOST websites work, as you say, it's not safe. Plus some of the websites that the kids are supposed to use for their schoolwork no longer support the old browser versions, and come out funny looking.

User name doesn’t check out

Sorry, I don't understand your comment?

[BicycleB]

These Macs are so old, that Google Chrome/Safari/Firefox no long support them. I know what I'm doing, I'm an IT professional. :D Next stop could be installing Linux, but it would be a hassle as kids want to keep their game licenses, etc.

As an IT professional, do you really want software without updated security patches connected to the Intertubes?  ;)

No, which is why this is a MPP!  Too cheap to buy new laptops... too cheap to buy new software... I'm stuck! :)

While MOST websites work, as you say, it's not safe. Plus some of the websites that the kids are supposed to use for their schoolwork no longer support the old browser versions, and come out funny looking.

User name doesn’t check out

LOL

All in good fun, @Poundwise!

[Poundwise]

User name doesn’t check out

LOL

All in good fun, @Poundwise!

Ohhhhh!! I get it!! 😆
Slow on the uptake today.  I should try to live up to my name!

[ixtap]

On Facebook and bogleheads, everyone is talking about how much money they are saving with the shutdown.

[Just Joe]

I bought an extra 50 lb bag of flour for a friend who didn't end up needing it, so then I had to wait until I finished up my own 50 lb bag before I could reclaim the closet space taken up by the other bag...

I have to choke back comments like "so what? I've been doing that for years!" when people start gushing to me about how they are growing scallion ends or making their own chicken broth or whatever...

We needed an extra laptop so all our kids could do class Zooms at the same time, so I assembled one good one out of two old broken Macbooks... but the resulting laptop is still so old that many websites don't support the browsers...

Throw Linux on it. There are really bare bones versions that will have modern browsers but a small OS hardware requirement. You can also skin them to look like OSX.

[Just Joe]

Just saw that you know about things like Linux... ;)

Good luck with the project!

[Plina]

I can’t decide if I want to leave my job and boss or wait another year when I have even more money socked away and a better picture were this coronathing is heading. As long as I can work from home it is pretty ok. I have a pretty secure job in a city that is now in a downturn due to a crappy virus.

[Alternatepriorities]

Mint sent me this email advising I could save money but I can't understand it...

You can save $630 in just 3 months. What are you saving for?   
      
Are you finally ready to get a place of your own? Or are you hoping for the wedding of your dreams without going into debt?
 
Whatever it is you’re saving for, it’s right within your reach. We know because we’ve already done the math for you, and you have an average of $700 left over each month.

The numbers are made up but the ratios are the same...

I think they are trying to tell me that with their help I can save less in three months than is currently left over every month? The only explanation I can come up with is that buying VTI isn't "saving".

[jinga nation]

I bought an extra 50 lb bag of flour for a friend who didn't end up needing it, so then I had to wait until I finished up my own 50 lb bag before I could reclaim the closet space taken up by the other bag...

I have to choke back comments like "so what? I've been doing that for years!" when people start gushing to me about how they are growing scallion ends or making their own chicken broth or whatever...

We needed an extra laptop so all our kids could do class Zooms at the same time, so I assembled one good one out of two old broken Macbooks... but the resulting laptop is still so old that many websites don't support the browsers...

+1. Installed Lubuntu on an old 3 GB RAM Intel Core 2 Deo box. Fast enough for my 2nd grader. Now to plug in a USB Wifi and it's all good.

Throw Linux on it. There are really bare bones versions that will have modern browsers but a small OS hardware requirement. You can also skin them to look like OSX.

[ixtap]

I was looking through pre-retirement checklists this afternoon. I keep thinking there must be something more to be ready, besides spend money on the boat. The checklists ended up providing more amusement than edification.

One said that I have to commit to saving more each month. Don't think about what you could spend the money on, just commit to save more every month from now on. I shared that one with DH so that we could have a good laugh.

Meanwhile, I can't figure out how to participate in the July 7th spending blackout, because most days are no spend days.

[Poundwise]

Just saw that you know about things like Linux... ;)

Good luck with the project!

Thanks! 

In the end I managed to get the thing to work by upgrading stepwise all the way from Snow Leopard to El Capitan... it was very painful.

I'll probably put Linux on the cannibalized Macbook eventually, once we pick up some new parts for it. 

[ysette9]

Freaking hell.

At a hotel now and being the person that I am, I chose to take the stairs instead of the elevator. Except the stairs down exiting to the street trigger an alarm when the final door is opened. Okay, so I go up one floor to exit through the hotel but the damn door back inside is locked from the outside, so I’m stuck. Stupid Americans can’t fathom in designing buildings that people might want to us their legs to walk.

[ysette9]

Other MPP I encountered the other day:

I was setting up utilities at our new place we are moving to and called to have the power transféréd over to my name. They couldn’t figure out how to navigate the concept of me not working, not collecting pension or SS, and living off my assets. So I had to pay a deposit to get the lights turned on because they had no option to let me show I had X assets in a bank account. Hah

[LennStar]

Other MPP I encountered the other day:

I was setting up utilities at our new place we are moving to and called to have the power transféréd over to my name. They couldn’t figure out how to navigate the concept of me not working, not collecting pension or SS, and living off my assets. So I had to pay a deposit to get the lights turned on because they had no option to let me show I had X assets in a bank account. Hah

Strange. What do all the thousands of (multi)millionaires do? Buy a power plant?? Not to mention artists etc. who have no regular income.

[Alternatepriorities]

Freaking hell.

At a hotel now and being the person that I am, I chose to take the stairs instead of the elevator. Except the stairs down exiting to the street trigger an alarm when the final door is opened. Okay, so I go up one floor to exit through the hotel but the damn door back inside is locked from the outside, so I’m stuck. Stupid Americans can’t fathom in designing buildings that people might want to us their legs to walk.

I've had that happen to me before.

[ysette9]

Other MPP I encountered the other day:

I was setting up utilities at our new place we are moving to and called to have the power transféréd over to my name. They couldn’t figure out how to navigate the concept of me not working, not collecting pension or SS, and living off my assets. So I had to pay a deposit to get the lights turned on because they had no option to let me show I had X assets in a bank account. Hah

Strange. What do all the thousands of (multi)millionaires do? Buy a power plant?? Not to mention artists etc. who have no regular income.

I know, right? I guess they all pay a $100 deposit. I didn’t care because we are trying to hit a spending minimum for credit card points, but otherwise it would be irritating.

The other utility I called ran a credit check and then was happy to give me service with no $ exchanged.

[Roadrunner53]

Okay, this is probably the dumbest cheapism ever but here I go!

Bought a new slow cooker back in January. About March I had used it a few times and it was not cooking hot enough on high. I have used them for years so I know what to expect from low heat and high heat. Took the temperature too and it was low. Anyway, I would have taken back to Walmart but with the virus I was under the impression they were not taking returns. So, I called the 800 number in the book that came with the cooker. The person said they were all working from home so it would take time to resolve the issue. Whether to send me a new cooker or refund me $59.96. Well, months later (today) I got a check in the mail to cover the cost of the cooker. However, they of course couldn't refund me the sales tax since I bought it from Walmart.

The tax is only $3.81 but it irritates me that the state got my money for nothing! I am sure it would take too much work to recover the money and I should just let it go! But GRRRRRR, that makes me mad!

[mm1970]

Freaking hell.

At a hotel now and being the person that I am, I chose to take the stairs instead of the elevator. Except the stairs down exiting to the street trigger an alarm when the final door is opened. Okay, so I go up one floor to exit through the hotel but the damn door back inside is locked from the outside, so I’m stuck. Stupid Americans can’t fathom in designing buildings that people might want to us their legs to walk.

that sucks. 

[Loren Ver]

Freaking hell.

At a hotel now and being the person that I am, I chose to take the stairs instead of the elevator. Except the stairs down exiting to the street trigger an alarm when the final door is opened. Okay, so I go up one floor to exit through the hotel but the damn door back inside is locked from the outside, so I’m stuck. Stupid Americans can’t fathom in designing buildings that people might want to us their legs to walk.

This has happened to me many times, and as an American I hate it.  I don't like elevators and much prefer the stairs.  Waiting for an elevator bothers me so much and I am fast on the stairs.  I have been stuck in some really stupid places.  Parking garages are some of the scariest.  I've also gotten routed through some employee sections of hotels to avoid alarms.  Oops, found the laundry.  :).

[dragoncar]

I know that feel

Used to live on second floor of a high rise.  Had to take the elevator one stop every time because ground stairwell was a fire exit to the street. 

Made sense because it wouldn’t be secure to leave open but I guess they could keycard it or architect could have had a lobby connection

On the plus side I didn’t need a stair master and could just take the stairs all the way to the roof

[Morning Glory]

I’m a stairs-taker too :). This is mostly encouraged at my work but some areas have locked access so then you have to go down a floor and over to the next building then back up. I have also gotten locked outside in winter with no coat several times.

I got stuck in the lobby of the psychiatric unit once. I had gone with security to transport a patient there which involved a convoluted and unpleasant route through a tunnel under the street. Thought I could just take the stairs down and walk back across the street to my building. Instead the stairs came down to a lobby and my badge did not work to get outside or the rest of the way into the building. Security had to physically come look at my badge before they would let me out.

My slow cooker runs too hot, even on the low setting. I have to go unplug it and plug it back in multiple times during the day or it burns things.

[turketron]

Ugh, the stairs in my office are the same. Pre-covid, I bike to work as much as possible during the summer, and my office has nice bike parking in the garage below the building, with a great shower and locker room on the Lower Level (one floor above the parking garage) of the building. What's super frustrating is that there are NO STAIRS from the garage to the Lower Level- I have to wait for the elevator with all the other folks going up to the various other 10 floors in the building, instead of just a quick hop up a few stairs to the LL. Once on the LL there's a stairwell all the way up to my office but it's just silly that they didn't extend it one level deeper!

[zolotiyeruki]

My last job had the same issue with stair exits--you could (and many of us did) take the stairs down, and exit into the lobby, but IIRC, you couldn't get back into the stairwell from the lobby.  And taking the elevator to the 2nd floor just so you could hop out, badge through the door, and go over to the stairwell to walk up the next two floors was impractical.

At my job now, I'm on the 2nd floor, and there is no elevator :)

[LennStar]

Ugh, the stairs in my office are the same. Pre-covid, I bike to work as much as possible during the summer, and my office has nice bike parking in the garage below the building, with a great shower and locker room on the Lower Level (one floor above the parking garage) of the building. What's super frustrating is that there are NO STAIRS from the garage to the Lower Level- I have to wait for the elevator with all the other folks going up to the various other 10 floors in the building, instead of just a quick hop up a few stairs to the LL. Once on the LL there's a stairwell all the way up to my office but it's just silly that they didn't extend it one level deeper!

Here in socialist Germany ;) that would be illegal because of fire. You know, where everyone tells you to not use the elevator?

I am surprised you dont have regulations like "there have to be at least two ways of exits".

[dragoncar]

That was my first reaction but then I realized there is probably an external fire exit to the street from LL and like my situation it’s locked to the outside and will alarm if you leave