Another Ottawa Mustachian

[Milkman666]

Hello Everybody!

I am 41 years old, with a wife (who is even more frugal than I am), and two beautiful daughters. I didn't even know I was Mustachian until stumbling upon the MMM blog a few weeks ago.

I am constantly blown away by the way people around me spend money. Some of the real examples that drive me crazy:

• My part-time Secretary brings in a doggy bag from the previous night's restaurant meal 2 or 3 times per week;
• A couple we are friends with have owned SIX brand new cars in the six years I've known them;
• My wife's cousin has lived in THREE houses in five years, each one smaller than the last. Her husband has to fly to Alberta for 4 out of every 6 weeks to try to make more money (she has an above average paying job too). They purchased a brand new camper and park it on a rented lot less than 1 year after considering bankruptcy as their only option.
• The most popular "advice" I hear from people is that since I have a defined benefit pension plan, I'm all set and shouldn't worry about a single thing. The upside is that I love to see their faces when I tell them that I don't want to wait until I'm 55 to retire... so I'm moving to get out sooner!

I'm not shy about my financial position. The way I see it is that everyone else seems perfectly comfortable talking about their poor decisions and how much they don't have, so I should be comfortable in discussing my situation too. I almost never start the conversation though!

At any rate, it's good to be on board.

[lauren_knows]

Welcome to the forums!  I can relate to having friends that are completely off their rocker when it comes to spending.  I do have a few frugal friends that help balance it out, but I live in a county where the median household income is over $100k, so there is no shortage of outrageous spending.  I have a friend who recently went to a financial planner with his wife, and the FP mentioned they needed "about $6M to retire".  I almost shat myself.

There are many on this board to commiserate with :)

[beav80]

Yay, Ottawa!  I really think Ottawa is a great place to be older than thirty and frugal.  The night life isn't the greatest so you're not missing anything and the town is full of government workers who make good money but are generally miserable in their work so should (you would think) want to save a lot and get out of the workforce.

I'm still up for a meet-up at some point, maybe we can try again with the meet ups sometime soon.

[Kamikaze Emu]

Welcome!

Good to have another Ottawa member on site.

Maybe we can keep each other in the loop on sales/deals/services, etc in the city so we can stretch our dollars as much as possible.

Also, if other people are up for a gathering I could be interested. 

[kdms]

Yay, Ottawa!  I really think Ottawa is a great place to be older than thirty and frugal.  The night life isn't the greatest so you're not missing anything and the town is full of government workers who make good money but are generally miserable in their work so should (you would think) want to save a lot and get out of the workforce.

I'm still up for a meet-up at some point, maybe we can try again with the meet ups sometime soon.

+1 to this....speaking as one of those miserable (not really, but I gotta admit I was kind of hoping to be one of the ones affected by the recent cuts ;) government workers, I am definitely motivated to stop spending 2hrs a day on OC Transpo.  Do you know that 2hrs a day on the bus works out to 21 days of your life a year?  I don't like OC Transpo that much.

If anyone wants to do a meet-up I'm up for that....

[Milkman666]

It sounds like there's a bunch of us that want to get together.

I'd post something in the Meet-ups area, but I've only been in Ottawa for 5 years and have had very young children and babies the whole time, so I don't know very many places to meet up.

I should mention that my favourite place to meet up with anyone about anything is the Carleton Tavern, which may or may not be ideal for everyone concerned!.

[Ascend]

Hi Milkman (and others),

Both Beav80 and I are trying to organize a get-together in in Ottawa the next few days/weeks either at someone's place (I offered to host the gathering) or at a central location downtown.

If you and/or others are interested in participating, send me a private message with you availabilities and if you have 'preferred locations' to do so.

Ottawa is indeed a good place to be frugal, especially when it comes to transportation. For 8 months of the year I get to ride the bike path to and from work and enjoy the beautiful nature and the Ottawa river.

[Phemur]

Hi there,

I'm Yet Another Ottawa Mustachian (YAOM). I'd be interested in meeting other local mustachians. My schedule is a mess for the next two months, so I can't provide any availability. But if you share when / where you'll be meeting, I'll do my best to make it.