A quote for spendthrifts and savers alike

As a young widowed mother , I suffered many obstacles in working and managing our needs. Having had an extremely frugal mother, grandmother ,and great grandmother I appreciate their extreme frugalness. Having lived in orphanages during the war and depression, the grandmother's could bleed turnips. Years ago, I spent part of my life with a man where money was no obstacle. His income allowed me to buy anything at anytime. It is an incredible feeling to live with no restrictions. No worry ever. Given a choice to stay or leave, I left. I also left with nothing but a 100 dollar bill in my hand. I didn't even take my car. Quality of life is necessary and money can't buy that. People often comment on me leaving the man, money, mansion and my new mercedes. I have always known how to be poor. I have a lovely home and car that were frugal purchases but are mine. Paid for and I am at peace. I found all that money to be evil. I tend to hoard food and other needed items but couponing controls the actual money spent. I imagine that is an insecurity issue. We always have what we need.

"What do you think being enslaved by saving looks like?"

For me, I think it's when I see people spend three times the amount of time to save a dollar as it would to make one. I mean, saving money can practically BE a full-time job if you go overboard.

I love to save money.. It gives me a sense of security.. but I do try and balance the time it takes to save the money versus just buying what I want/need.

~ darlene :)

I think I do feel enslaved by saving sometimes. I just don't know how much savings is enough. "As much as possible" worked for me when I was single, but now that I am getting married and combining our finances, I have much less money to stash away each month (my fiance is a graduate student) and there are two people's preferences to consider. We are doing fine living on just my salary, but when we have to start paying for his health insurance this summer it will put us uncomfortably close to not being able to put anything away, unless we make other changes. I don't feel like we live extravagantly, so I feel bad asking my fiance to cut down on non-essentials. We also would like to have a child, but it's stressful figuring out where the money will come from. Does anyone know of a forum or something where you can post your budget and get feedback?

I have friends who are enslaved by saving money. They made a plan to pay off debt & save for xx number of years so the wife could quit a job she hated & either get a different job or go back to school to do something else. They made a lot of sacrifices to get it done too. Now they've met all their savings & time goals, but she still can't/won't quit because they have to keep saving. Seems a little pointless to me.

I think the best way not to be enslaved to either saving or spending is to create a realistic budget. And then once you have allocated enough to your designated savings categories (ie. retirement, college, emergency, whatever), spend the rest! As your circumstances change, re-visit your budget to see if it still makes sense. And spending the money doesn't necessarily mean that you have to spend it all on yourself. There is no limit to what you can give to people in need.