content: When my wife and I decided to have children we made sure that we had a focus on being a close and tight knit family unit.  Step one was to reduce our overhead costs so we could survive on one income. That is easier said than done. First we needed to abandon consumerism as we knew it. We went from 2 newer cars to 1 used car. We needed to be satisfied with the stuff we already had so, no new phones every 2 years, no new big screen TVs, no computer upgrades every year. No credit card debt because of interest. Step 2 was making "Mend and make due" have a whole new meaning. Don't look at someth  5ebe  ing of little value as it sits with little value. Look at the cost of replacing it, than the value is more. I am a tradesman so I began doing our auto repairs saving hundreds a year. I do our home improvements, saving even more. I learned how to knit, taught my wife to knit and we started making hats and scarves when we lived in the cold weather, saving money in the process. Our dining table and chairs were looking horrible because they were discount furniture, $600 is $600. So I sanded and refinished the table top and it looks like glass now. I recovered the cushions on the chairs with upholstery vinyl. For less than 100 bucks our dining room set looked better than new. Wife cracked her phone screen, bought the parts fixed it myself, good as new.  Step 3 was portion control. Eating out is 100% out of the question so my wife learned how to cook solid, healthy meals. I pack my lunch every day. We monitor food in so we aren't over eating. Consuming extra calories per day just so you can stay fat is a huge waste. We are vegetarians/vegans so we buy a lot of produce at pretentious stores like Whole Foods. As a family of 4 we eat between $150 and $200 of healthy plant based meals per week. Breaking that down we average 7 dollars per day per person, think about that when you go to a cafe for lunch and buy a 6 dollar sandwich. Once we became used to this lifestyle we noticed we actually had more money than what we thought. Stretching a dollar is quite easy if you can minimize the number of new purchases. The key to spending less is having lower expectations, which leads me to the unintended consequence. We never intended to "look like rich people". Since I can repair autos and we only buy used the entire market became our playground. After looking at loads of used cars we decided that we were not going to spend more than 10% of our annual gross income on a car and that car had to last us for 5 years. That gave us a price range of no more than 8k with 7.5k being ideal. So you want a solid, well built car for that price that isn't trashed. Well I found a one owner 2003 Mercedes E500 Sport for 7500 with 105k miles on it. It needed some minor work, my specialty. After a few hours of work and $400 in parts we ownes a very luxurious vehicle that many peope think is worth far more than what it is. Another instance was I wanted a hot tub for soaking sore muscles. Found a 6 person tub that needed work, for FREE. Transported it myself with a friend, repaired it for a cost of $250. Now we have the feeling of a $3k or more hot tub for less money. My lesson with the tub and the car has been solid. Once you understand how consumerism works you can work it to your advantage. How is it that a $60k car can be worth 7.5k 12 years later? There is no market for it. People who buy new Mercedes are people who get distracted by the next shiney car to pass in front of them. 3 year leases or 5-6 years owning and they want a new car. If you are going to drop 30k on a 6 year old car MANY people would opt for a cheaper brand and get it new (thanks big banks!) So the used, higher mileage luxury car market is not as strong due to the clientele and their preferences, so the prices drop accordingly. Also no one wants to fix a Mercedes because of the perceived cost. Look at the same for muscle cars. Bastardized and beat up cars still go for substantial money because there is a solid market. If you don't mind picking up the dropsies from "rich" people you might be surprised at how far your dollars will go.