Reply #26: Very little of what middle America (or lower) spends is negotiable [View All]

[SmileyRose]

We can control every budgetary item we spend on to some extent. A smaller house in a not as good a neighborhood, turning down the thermostat, conserving water, buying used instead of new, joining a gardening co-operative to hold down produce costs, there are gazillions of ways to be more frugal.

But when it's all said and done middle America chooses to be frugal for minimal savings. Eventually the money gets spent on SOMETHING. Maybe college for the kids, or retirement, or job loss, or a vacation -- but people tend to be frugal so that they can spend on something else.

I'm on the lower end of the spectrum - my family income is under $35,000 and we manage fine on that. We even save a small bit -- but then we pay $100 a month toward medical care premiums and have been in our house 25 years so it's paid for. My employer pays about $900 a month for my family health premiums for Kaiser HMO. So we come in at $12000 a year for premiums. If the government wanted to see my on paper income raised to $45,800 and then tax me $4580 for medical care -- OR they can tell my employer they have to pay 10% of my gross to Medicare - meaning $3500 - either way I end up with either $1200 more a year that I won't have to contribute to premiums for my other expenses or I end up with a whopping $6220 that my employer won't have to spend on my behalf for premiums and can pay that to me instead.

To me and to most people I know who eventually spend every cent they will ever make, it's just a matter of getting the best bargain so there's a few pennies to do something we'd LIKE to do instead of what we HAVE to do.