Ok, I’m not sure if I’m gonna get up or downvoted for this, because this story ends with me buying my wife a Tesla, which does NOT sound frugal, but hear me out.
Wife and I are both 40, been married 19 years, and I’ve been a minister for 18. In our 2nd year of marriage we started a car fund of $200 per month. We were a one car family for ten years, even after 3 kids, and when we bought a second car it was a 2003 civic that I drove until 2 years ago. I never made much money, the average across my entire ministry so far would likely be around $45 - $50k. But every year I get a 3% raise, and so I raised the car fund by about $25 or so. We always bought 5 year old cars with no less than 70k miles, always paid cash, and always used the car fund to fix them when they broke. The longer the cars lasted, the nicer car we got next time. After 18 years of living like that, the fund grew to $450 per month, and every month I put it in a brokerage invested in good growth stock mutual funds. I would also throw a bit of my tax refund in there.
Fast forward to last week when my car fund actually topped over $50k, and I paid cash for a 7 seat Tesla model y for my wife and kids to enjoy life in.
I know it doesn’t sound frugal, but at some point we need to step back and say “I haven’t been irresponsible, and now it’s time to reap the benefits of a long disciplined march in a single direction.”
Could we have gone cheaper? Sure. But rules are made for people, people aren’t made for rules. Am I still frugal, or nah?
March 19, 2021 at 12:13AM
