How high is your Ugly Tolerance?
I really loved the link Revanche shared from Fruclassity about how high their tolerance for ugly is.
Basically, if you are able to deal with ugly things and not repair, fix or replace them, you can save a lot in the long run.
I love that Ugly Tolerance idea.
OUR $$ SITUATION
We have zero debt, and own a house outright (no mortgage).
I only pay taxes & condo fees on our place, which is half the price of the rent I was paying before.
I have a little over $100,000 saved in retirement & cash, and am planning on beefing it up to a million before I retire. Or more.
Not too worried about it, I have about 35Â years left to save that, or less if I want to retire earlier.
Meh. Who knows.
I’m liking my current situation (work a bit, chill out a lot.. work again.. chill out a lot and hang with Baby Bun).
So.. we kind of have the money if we wanted to do things like replace cars and so on, and it wouldn’t really hurt us terribly.
THINGS I HAVE THAT ARE UGLY
- Furniture — No one will ever call these things beautiful but they do the job and work for now. I am not keen on replacing any of it until the really important stuff is done.
- My car — My next one will be just as ugly too. It is rusted, it is dented, and I dun care.
- Closets — We wanted to do custom ones, and then buy some Closetmaid stuff but in the end, I think we’ll just throw up some thick, inexpensive sturdy garage door racks & call it a day
- Painting the walls — Neutral, white and light? Done. It stays the way it is! I am not redecorating.
- Decoration in general — Aside from Baby Bun art, we won’t be hanging much on the walls, nor decorating with anything, really. I hate dusting, I hate cleaning and I would die if something I loved broke.
WHAT I HAVE THAT I WILL ALWAYS REPLACE IF IT’S UGLY
- Clothing. Obviously. See above. 🙂 I’m an addict to it, but am converted over to the thrifted dark side.
- Electronics — I don’t mind if it’s ugly and it works, but once it starts slowing down, my blood pressure rises and I am extremely impatient. I thus far, have had the same Macbook for about 5 years and counting now, so as long as I buy quality stuff, I won’t have to replace it yearly.
- Pots & Pans — We are huge freaks about cooking, and what we have not only matches, but is the best quality we can buy (taking into account Teflon and all other fears of plastic, chemicals, etc)
That’s pretty much it aside from consumables like food, toiletries, etc.
4 Comments
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Fruclassity (Ruth)
So glad you liked the Fruclassity post : ) You are in a fantastic financial position! And your lack of addiction to material “prettiness” (with one well-earned exception – and thrift at that) bodes very well for your future. You’re going to be in a position of financial freedom way before those 35 years have passed.
Michelle
Cor, that’s food for thought!
We’ve recently moved back into our house – a brand spanking new one after the old had to be demolished following the earthquakes – and I find that my tolerance for ugly has certainly decreased in the face of shiny newness. It battles with my frugality daily (especially because we haven’t bought any new house stuff since the earthquakes so we have a lot of mismatched and damaged and just plain ugly things!)