Ran its course, now in the weeds.

[Nick87]

They get free school lunch. Wife and I are home so leftovers for us.

Biggest shift is stop shopping at Costco for premade stuff and just cook.

I have two large freezers running, canned cubby full, and a pantry with dry goods. We don’t need more microwave breakfast sandwiches and frozen ready to eat box meals.

Totally get that we try to really stay away from that. Wife and I go round and round on that. But with a 5 and 7 year old. Sometimes convenience wins.

 

[Addicting]

Totally get that we try to really stay away from that. Wufe and I go round and round on that. But with a 5 and 7 year old. Sometimes convenience wins.

It did in our house, too. Now with me home most of the time prioritizing convenience looses. 2026 will have me working a budget.

I drive school buss here and there in the evenings. This summer I will work part time for an excavator company. But otherwise I am a primarily Dad now.

 

[Addicting]

I have plenty of meat and fish in the freezer. Trying to make different things with what I have.

Same, I had to purchase another garage freezer this year. I wasn’t going to have space if we fill all the tags in the house. Fish, pork chops, chicken, elk, mule deer, and antelope all sit there. I want to get it back to one that is mostly empty by the time season gets here in September.

 

[Nick87]

It did in our house, too. Now with me home most of the time prioritizing convenience looses. 2026 will have me working a budget.

I drive school buss here and there in the evenings. This summer I will work part time for an excavator company. But otherwise I am a primarily Dad now.

Same. When I'm off for weather or weekends cooking is a lot different. I usually just take care of dinner unless I'm hunting the evenings. (We're an eat early, go to bed early bunch)

 

[SAJ-99]

I think that correlates more to what you eat. After all, the shit food is the least expensive. I know that's what your chart says but I dont think im buying foods been on the decline. I guess im a conspiracy theorist or whatever. But when your food costs start to outweigh your mortgage and we eat out maybe twice a month and thats counting picking up a pizza.

I figured you would have that view. All I can say is the chart measures the numbers not the feelings. It certainly would feel that way over the last five years, but I can confirm the numbers. Part of the reason may be the demographics, like decrease is the overall size of the household over the decades (few kids, more empty nesters living longer).

 

[Nick87]

I figured you would have that view. All I can say is the chart measures the numbers not the feelings. It certainly would feel that way over the last five years, but I can confirm the numbers. Part of the reason may be the demographics, like decrease is the overall size of the household over the decades (few kids, more empty nesters living longer).

You know ill be honest my view may be skewed. Up until the last few years. I only had myself to pay for and was a single guy making great money. If i wanted something, i just went and bought it. Now I watch every god damn penny lol. So I could be entirely wrong.

 

[SAJ-99]

You know I’ll be honest my view may be skewed. Up until the last few years. I only had myself to pay for and was a single guy making great money. If i wanted something, i just went and bought it. Now I watch every god damn penny lol. So I could be entirely wrong.

The other thing is globalization. I worked at a grocery store in the high school. All fruits were seasonal. strawberries and grapes in winter were like buying precious metals. Now days you can go to the store and get these items year round. Prices still fluctuate a little, but nothing like back then. Americans have it good in many ways. Capitalism wins.

 

[Forkyfinder]

Americans have it good in many ways. Capitalism wins.

@SAJ-99 the Reagan republican

 

[Bowhuntrben]

Debt free here also. Paid off the house about 6 months ago with a lump sum payment from my inheritance from my father.
It’s a great feeling for sure and sprung my soon-to-be retirement forward about 2 years.

We became debt free just over a month ago. We put off putting as much in savings for a year and busted our butts to try and put everything we could into the mortgage. Maybe it made sense or maybe it didn't looking at the numbers. I can say it definitely relieves a lot of stress and made sense to me and my wife regardless of what numbers may show.

Now it just pisses me off that I still have such a large monthly payment just to live somewhere I own for property taxes and insurance. We're evaluating moving someplace with low/no property taxes now. Not sure I'll get to the point I want to change jobs and lose benefits to switch states just to save on this cost though...

 

[SAJ-99]

@SAJ-99 the Reagan republican

It’s spelled different now. Spelled independent.

 

[LCH]

Than they did in the 1980s/early 90s? They absolutely do, not even comparable. How many vehicles of that era were hitting 300k? It’s fairly common now.

Side note, but when my parents had a car with a major mechanical problem, they junked it and bought a new car. Usually around 150k miles it seemed like, the transmission usually went first. Spending serious money to fix it was not even a consideration.

A lot of people today, myself included, can't afford not to keep a car on the road for 300k miles. The repair bills hurt, but not as much as new vehicle payments.

 

[Nunjagottam]

Has anybody explored or taken the HELOC route to pay off your mortgage?
Requires high LTV and usually more brutal interest rate but you get the flexibility of using the loan equity like a credit card. It worked for me. That, and some sweat equity, along with the favorable real-estate market has catapulted me into my dream home debt free.
For the HELOC to be effective EVERY PENNY OF INCOME MUST BE APPLIED TO THE HELOC AS IT IS RECEIVED. This maximizes the advantage of principle reduction against the daily interest accrual. All bills must be paid on auto pay and you can't spent more than you make. But it does work and not having payments is pretty awesome.

 

[Addicting]

Has anybody explored or taken the HELOC route to pay off your mortgage?
Requires high LTV and usually more brutal interest rate but you get the flexibility of using the loan equity like a credit card. It worked for me. That, and some sweat equity, along with the favorable real-estate market has catapulted me into my dream home debt free.
For the HELOC to be effective EVERY PENNY OF INCOME MUST BE APPLIED TO THE HELOC AS IT IS RECEIVED. This maximizes the advantage of principle reduction against the daily interest accrual. All bills must be paid on auto pay and you can't spent more than you make. But it does work and not having payments is pretty awesome.

That seems like you are one financial hiccup away from disaster.