What’s Your Proudest Money Saving Moment?
by Katy on August 21, 2025 · 20 comments
Today’s blog post is a bit different than normal, as I want you, the reader to provide the content! You already know how I stretch my dollars, but now it’s your turn:
What’s your proudest money saving moment?
Here, I’ll start — my entire house and garden are my proudest money saving moment. From everything I curb picked or thrifted, to our DIY upgrades and maintenance, to our completely functional yet outdated kitchen. We’ve never borrowed against the equity to keep up with the Joneses and get compliments whenever anyone stops by.
Now your turn!
Katy Wolk-Stanley
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{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
I raised two kids, now young adults, on mostly second-hand items and paid off our house mortgage at the same time. Debt-free now for 10 years, and it feels good! I still live frugally.
I’ve been consigning and shopping second hand for almost 40 years. “Everything old is new again”
If I had to pick one moment, I would have to say the first time I bought a car with cash. I had never before even seen that as a possibility. It was a used Honda Civic, in great condition and about four years old. It felt so good to turn down the loan spiel and write a check.
Married in 1982, we bought our house (fixer-upper) in 1990 for $57,000 when we both had jobs. After 10 years of infertility doctors, surgeries, etc., I got pregnant in 1992. When I was 5 months pregnant, the company I worked for closed our office. Not planned, but we scraped by & counted pennies so I could stay home with that baby & the one that came three and a half years later. I read the Tightwad Gazette books & newsletters religiously! I’m so proud that we made it through the hard times so I could stay with my girls. Now that my husband is retired, we’ve started working on long-awaited house plans doing most of the work ourselves, of course. I don’t think I could be a spendthrift now if I tried!
I feel you on the infertility thing! For me, a lot of money was flying out the door during that phase, but I don’t regret it.
You should have ended your story “…and we lived happily ever after.” So nice to hear such a positive story, complete with princesses in it!
1. Having my 3 semesters of my MA and my PhD entirely paid for by working for the university from which I earned my degree.
2. Bought my condo/house as a single female and paid it off in 15 years.
I am an intuitive FIRE person, meaning that I had the same goals before it had a name. I’m debt free and I retired early.
I’ll say that, not only did I have to fight the “keeping-up-with-the-joneses” mindset, but also, I’ve had to endure hurtful comments from people who are aggressively critical of my frugal habits. I have a sister-in-law who is a textbook keeping-up-with-the-joneser, and she has been extremely critical of our home, cars, Christmas gifts, clothing, etc. It’s been hard to deal with, but I’ve learned to frame it as, “this unhappy and bitter person thinks it’ll make her feel better if she is cruel to us.”
I’ll add that it’s important to not deprive oneself. We still have fun. We go out to eat on occasion, go on vacations and stay in the clean hotels, go to shows, go to sporting events, visit museums, support local small businesses, donate to charity, and buy some new things, etc. The goal isn’t to win the cheapness game. The goal is to feel financially secure, know my limits, contribute to society, and never pay interest.
I’m on the same path as Li. I am so grateful that my dad made saving money fun. I started receiving a regular paycheck when I turned 14. He taught me to save 75%. Drive a sensible car, get good grades, pay for college. Be independent. I went one step further than my parents and built up a good passive money stream. I am almost retired from nursing.
I am so grateful to my younger self in doing the side hustles, investing well and living way below my means. Knock on wood, building generational wealth for my heirs.
My 2 older brothers did exactly the opposite. The oldest sold his business and retired early. The second oldest spent all his money, spent others money and died early. But he was the life of the party.
I haven’t bought anything new with exception to computers and my appliances when they break since 1999.
I raised 2 kids and fostered 19 more until my husband died 4 yrs ago.
Blue Gate Farmgirl, I am in awe of your fostering 19 kids. Kudos to you and your husband for doing that!
19! That’s impressive, and such a great way to give back. Good for you!
We built a new house 35 years ago and gradually finished off some of the rooms as we could afford to. My husband is handy and did some of the work. We paid the mortgage off in 13.5 years by increasing our payments each time we refinanced and eventually switching to making a payment every two weeks instead of monthly.
Many of the nicer things we have came from thrift shops. That said, I probably have wasted money by acquiring too much because it was a good deal. Now my hobby is shedding items that are no longer useful or needed in this chapter of life.
One thing I wished I had started sooner was making Roth IRA contributions for my children once they had W-2 income.
The moment I accepted the job offer at the organization where I worked my entire career. I was only 20 years old and did not yet appreciate the benefits that would save or make me money over the years, like educational assistance, promotion opportunities, matching investment contributions, and finally, the monthly pension.
Yes!!! Similar here – shortly before my 19th birthday I took a job as a 911 operator because I needed health insurance and they had tuition reimbursement, I figured I’d work nights for a few years while going to college during the day, and then get a “real” job.
Finished college and never left, ended up staying 20 years until I took early retirement to stay home with my kids. (2 parents doing shiftwork with last minute overtime was a scheduling nightmare for childcare).
Mortgage edition:
This is the third house I’ve owned.(I own it, not the mortgage co.) Three out of the four were paid for free and clear and the fourth one (the first one I ever bought) was almost completely paid for.
House #1 — First Time Homebuyers Program. Didn’t know any better so I took out a 30 yr fixed rate mortgage (18% back then), and did not refinance. However, I always, always, always paid ahead on its principle. For instance if I got some freelance writing money or won a competition, that cash went toward the mortgage. Also, I budgeted my electric bill for the highest months of the year –July, August, and September — and if I wasn’t charged the full $280 I budgeted, any leftover cash went toward the mortgage. By the time I went to sell this starter house, a dozen or so years later, I got oodles money back. — much more than I expected. They told me I’d almost paid off the whole thing!
Also, I had that house from the early 1980s until 1997. IIRC, the mortgage aws about 300 or 400 dollars and change; I know for a fact it was UNDER $500. Turns out I was paying less for a 3 BR 1 BA starter house than my friends at work were renting for. Plus, my dad built me a large backyard deck to cover the little concrete steps at the back door. I got the oak floors refinished and Berber carpet in the front room and a used dryer and brand new washing machine (someone won and didn’t want, so he sold it to me).
Hos#2. Paid for free and clear due to inheriting it from my parents. Way out in the country: their dream, my nightmare. Don’t like living by myself so far from police protection and dislike having acreage to mow. Not recommended! But the bottom line is, I’d much rather have my family than a big house.
Frugal fail: when I moved out of state, I tried renting it out using what was represented to me as a very fine local property management company. No it wasn’t. The first tenants just wanted a place to live until their dream house was built, so they rented my place. No problems with them. However, (didn’t find this out until much later:) the second tenant was making crack cocaine on my mother’s kitchen stove. And the jerk running the property management place did not evict them that December when they failed to pay rent the 2nd month in a row because he “didn’t want to ruin their Christmas”. Meanwhile, the crackhead was ruining my house! (What about MY Christmas, you creep!?!)
3. Sold #2 and bought a house in Florida, where I was working. Very nice little house. Wish I could have moved it with me. It held up through 3 hurricanes in 2004, and was just enough space for my single BFF to rent a room from me, she was a lovely roommate and it all worked out great.
4. This house. It was in a nice neighborhood, the swankiest in town back when it was built (1960s). It’s in a bad school district so it was hard to sell this large of a house; unlike me, most empty nesters want to downsize. I don’t downsize, so I snapped it up right when the property taxes came due. The owner had inherited this house and had no plans to move from California. Since they weren’t living here, they could not get homestead exemption on the property taxes. They had lowered the price twice, rather significantly, and I bid something like 40 % lower than that. It was a case of “never mind the cheese, let me outta this trap” for the heir, and I got a nice house for well under $200,000. I’ve refied twice, and got the required payment really low….but I kept paying the higher payment + any unexpected cash I got (see #1). When I quit full time teaching, I took my teacher retirement money and some cash from a 401K and paid this sucker off! (I refuse to take out any loan that has a prepayment penalty; I am impatient and like to pay off debts ASAP.) Alas, while it is bigger than #3 and could easily handle a roommate, I got a very bad one and had to evict her. Talk about a nightmare! From now on, it’s just me and then dog.
Bonus: House #4 is very well built since the “Greatest Generation” guys were in their prime and still building nice houses. No shortcuts for them! No PVC pipes or particle board anywhere!
Election year bonus: my back fence, a wooden privacy fence, backs up to a busy street. Last year, it sported a great big HARRIS sign. And other big signs for “blue” progressive politicians. This year, we have a Democrat running for state legislator and another one for the U.S. Senate. Maybe other Democrats, too, but I haven’t heard yet. I once again have volunteered my fence for the cause. The campaign signs go up Labor Day. (And I’m four houses down from an intersection with a red light camera….let’s see the guy try to tear down my campaign signs in back!) (No, we still haven’t found out who.)
I knew my parents could not pay for college — so I worked various jobs before highschool, and four years of part-time at a hardware store during high school. I picked up any jobs I possibly could during college, and paid for room and board at grad school by taking care of a family and living in their attic. (My parents, bless them, filled in the cracks and covered tuition during one year of grad school.)
I never thought NOT to work…it was what our family did. Husband and I taught our girls the same thing (which they did), and urged them to save. (Which they didn’t much, sadly.) But we lived frugally during both the good times and the bad…that was called “being a Hollander,” after my Dutch farmer Dad.
The upshot: we were able to pay for this current home, #3, in cash. (We did hold back $20,000, which we borrowed from our kids, and paid them higher than normal interest. That loan was paid off a year ago.) We don’t have fancy upgrades or new furniture — but we own this place lock, stock and barrel!
Paying my student loans off early, paying for travel and working with my fiance to get him out of debt and buy our first house at 25/27. That house absolutely saved us when I was disabled after the birth of our child. The interest rate was 11% but we were able to refinance when rates fell.
Bought an older home further out of town than we preferred for less than we were approved, got a very good deal (for Australia – our housing is way overpriced). Each year we fixed something up and always paid cash or did it ourselves if possible. People always comment on how beautiful our home is. We have no consumer debt. Have always paid cash for our cars, even the last one, which was new. Will be on track to pay the house off 15 years early. It is now worth more than double what we paid for it in ten years. That is partly the property market but also what we have done to it. When we first saw it I didn’t want to buy it because it was so ugly, but my husband convinced me that we could make something of it – he saw the potential and he was right. Once it’s paid off, I’ll be on track to retire early.
The other frugal thing I did was to invest hard in my retirement savings. I started my career late as my kids have disabilities and needed me to care for them at home. Once I hit the workforce I invested every extra dollar I could in my retirement fund. I could do it because I didn’t spend money on other stuff. All my work clothes were secondhand etc I’m now well ahead of most people in my age group and am on track to retire comfortably. It’s never too late to save for retirement.
Finally – we gave up drinking alcohol almost long time ago. Alcohol is expensive and it wastes more time than you think.
All of the cooking over so many years. Packing lunches. Taking drinks with me. Freezing leftovers. Not wasting food. Shopping multiple stores to get good prices. It all adds up.
Both of the my parents are the children of coal miners, so frugality comes easy for me. It’s just natural.
My husband is also able to fix nearly everything and I have learned to thrift over the years and I just don’t want a lot of things and haven’t for a long time.
This is a great prompt, Katy! It really made me think.
I think my proudest moment was 21 years ago when I took a huge leap of faith and moved alone to from Houston to San Francisco. The financial services company I worked for at the time was opening an SF office, and I lobbied HARD to get a promotion and help establish the new location. I was elated to be chosen, especially as I was a junior staff member in comparison to my co-applicants. The company paid all of my moving expenses with the caveat that I stay in the position for at least a year. I truly hated the job and worked 80+ hours a week at it for nearly a year when I closed a client project and received a just under six figure bonus. I wanted to quit so badly as a 25-year-old with almost $100K burning a hole in my pocket, but I stuck it out until the year was over. As a young person working in finance, I originally thought I’d use a hefty portion of that bonus to upgrade my car (a 2003 Honda Civic) as that’s what the higher up’s at the company always did, but the Mercedes I had my eye on was more than the bonus after taxes (!!!), so I paid off my Civic, maxed out my 401k for that year, and quit the job. I realized in the 3.5 years that I worked there that the folks I looked up to in the company were at the office more than I was. They even brought their kids in on the weekends! Moving across the country opened my eyes and set me on a new path. I would use my lunch breaks to walk along the Embarcadero and marvel at my view of the Bay and Golden Gate bridges. I’d made friends who did more than just work and talk about how much money they made.
From a young age, I was highly motivated to make money (fueled by my parents declaring bankruptcy upon the eve of their divorce when I was just coming of age to work), and still am, but not just for the sake of appearing “rich”. I learned that life is more than work and “keeping up” and now am proud to lead a frugally-rich life.