I've been reading "How to live like a millionaire on a retirement budget: Priceless strategies for living as if money were no object" by Elizabeth Dunkel. Many of the ideas in it will be very familiar to frugal bloggers but they bear repeating.
Her basic philosophy is that creative, stylish thinking, feeling and living is the way to celebrate a life in retirement. Or to quote Coco Chanel, "There are people who have money and people who are rich". Her hacks are not so much about money saving as about rethinking how to look at money and luxury. Simple ideas like eating outdoors (or lighting a candle if indoors) to make a meal into occasion even if it is eaten alone. Or a single flower in a slender vase.
I hate it when my environment reminds me that I am careful with money. Actually I'm glad (and maybe a little proud) when I look at my accounts that I am careful with money but I don't want to feel cheapskate when I walk around my house. So, as a contribution to luxurious stinginess I am offering just one idea.
Like many people I cut open tubes to make sure I get the last smidgen of a product out, even if the product was itself super value. Some people just pop one end of the cut tube over the other and continue to use it but when I see a tube like that in my bathroom or on my dressing table it looks a little bleak. Instead I save old face cream pots and when I've cut the bottom off a hand cream tube I scoop the remaining hand-cream into a de-labelled pot. Hand-cream budget range from Wilko, face-cream budget range from Lidl (or maybe Aldi, can't remember which).
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| Luxury method |
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| Quick method |
