S/O $150k a year- low food budget- how??

amother

↑ Moccasin

Today at 2:44 am

amother OP wrote:

It definitely skews frugal.

I don’t know anyone IRL who wears the same wig for 10 years and never buys new clothes or yogurts.

You dont really pay attention to when everyone you know is buying clothes or a shaitel. Really. There are many tiers of status among friends.
Why cant someone wear a shaitel for 10 years straight? How long are you married?
I used to think it was crazy to go 7 year bt hey I am at year 8 and I am still happy with mine and do not want to buy new. I cannot justify the cost although if I wanted to at this time I could probably pay the amount. Mine are totally find and functional, might need a dye soon - first time in 8 yrs. Rly color looks ok bt I know it was darker before.
Clothing? Up until last year I never bought clothing for years. literally. Had no money for that. Even last yr it went on Credit Cards. BH this year we had money for clothing and I bought some things during summer sales. I absolutely have no desire to shop before every Yom Tov. Shopping 1-2x a year for myself, if that, is a lot for me. Like I said - I never used to shop for myself at all because of money and had to make do and knew how to pull it off well.
I posted above re yogurts too.

I really dont believe I am alone. Many people struggle with finances in some ways. If some ppl are buying wigs, clothes and yogurts and are in debt, they are not affording it yet managing for now.
I do not believe in going into debt over yogurt or a wig. Yes at times a wig is necessary however often a wig repair or freshening up with little work goes a long way when affording one is out of the picture. Small cost compared to a wig.

In any case, I wish you always to be in good financial status that you should always be able to buy what you want and need. At the same time, please keep an open mind to those who may differ from you.

amother

↑ Azalea ↓

Today at 3:04 am

amother Raspberry wrote:

I know this is off topic, but genuinely curious. Do you literally mean rice and beans? Or euphemism?

Long story short, during the 9 days I did a milchig taco bar because I was running out of options (we have some dairy free and some gluten free)- put out beans, rice, cut up veggies, cheese/fake cheese, taco shells, chips etc, and the kids loved it and declared it their favorite dinner and requested it replace schnitzel night.

amother

↑ Azalea

Today at 3:08 am

kids can be taught the concept of “I bought 7 yogurts for you this week, if you have an extra today then one day you’ll have to skip a different day” without knowing it’s because money is tight. We have that rule about bananas , not because bananas are expensive, but because I got tired of buying the wrong amount and wasting them, so now we buy 1 per person per day.

amother

↑ Amber

Today at 3:37 am

amother Lilac wrote:

OR, the people who spend like you are not responding on these threads. There are hundreds of women a day who peruse imamother, if a few vocal posters make a statement that is really not a large percentage.

I do happen to know some really poor people IRL, some who literally can't afford wigs or clothing.

They all spend a decent amount on food though What

and the only families who literally count yogurts - that I know IRL - are pretty dysfunctional people in other ways as well. (I'm talking about families with children). Sorry, but this is what I see. So please don't make this about residual childhood trauma.

Sorry but not having unlimited yogurts does not make someone dysfunctional. What is normal to you is odd to someone else.

I don't buy wigs. I have been married over 12 years and just got my first since my wedding. Some people "it's their thing" but others don't.

We qualify for wic, not food stamps. Only ok yogurt is a single big tub a month. We get tomchei so randomly we have a lot of yogurt now (I think someone donated surplus from a store or something as it was unusual.). But yogurt isn't a staple like "counting slices of bread".
We don't spend a ton on clothing. My kids each got 1 outfit if they needed something that fit. We happened to have growth spurts in the last month or two so I saved their new outfit for YT. Nothing matching, nothing from a frum store. It is from shein. And not everyone got something.