Originally Posted by iBarna
I just go to the laundromat on the block. They have better machines I could ever own. I don't even own my own detergent or softener, I buy those little "1 Load" boxes at the laundromat.
Ouch! Next time you're at the store, look at prices of laundry detergent and figure cost per load. Even the fancy expensive stuff is usually quite a bit cheaper (per load) than the one load boxes they sell at the laundromat. (For instance, I recently figured my current bottle of detergent runs about 15 cents a load - the boxes at my laundromat are 75 cents, some places they're even more.) This is a good example of something that can nickel and dime one to death - it might seem fairly cheap to buy the little boxes there, but when you figure up how much you're actually paying over, say, a year - you can really save a lot. As with many things, the bigger bottles/boxes are cheaper (per load) than the smaller ones. I buy the huge jugs of whatever kind of detergent, and to avoid having to carry the whole thing with me when I walk or ride to the laundromat, I decant one or two loads' worth into a smaller bottle.
Since I threw in with this comment, I'll answer the original question while I'm here. I think I live fairly simply - no TV; cook meals and very rarely eat out; rarely visit the bar unless to shoot a few games of pool with my neighbor; I no longer have a cell phone, just a land line, mostly because I have to to have DSL here; don't drive of course, I walk or bike almost everywhere. I traded my PDA for an older model MP3 player, don't know if that helped simplify or not. All that being said, I don't live very clutter-free. I'm a pack rat from way back, inherited that from my mom. Six moves over the past five years have cleared out quite a bit of stuff, but I'm a sucker for thrift stores and dumpster diving. I need to wean myself off of quite a bit of the clutter, but do tend to keep it pretty neatly organized, and there are several things that I simply don't want to live without. I have a job now that I don't particularly care to stay at "forever" but it's okay for now (I just recently moved here). I don't make much, I imagine I would officially be considered to be below the poverty line, but it pays the bills and I have a little left over. In fact, I don't think I have ever made this little (while living on my own) but I also have never been happier. Books, music, friends, and of course the good old internets - cheap entertainment! Who needs SUVs, megaplex theaters, shopping malls, big box stores, and urban sprawl? After living in The Big City for a few years, I'm back to the same sort of small town I grew up in (even smaller, in fact) and loving it.