Comments on: Don

By: Ron

Ron — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 15:46:52 +0000

Excellent! When things go bad nobody comes to say “Here, let me give you a helping hand”. So why should you bend over when things are good! Cheers my friend! Keep it up!

By: Brooklyn Girl

Brooklyn Girl — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 03:48:23 +0000

Wow! Where do you live that adult people behave this way? You don’t expect comments like that from anyone above the age of 5. By 6 they are taught better.

By: Shelley

Shelley — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 08:35:59 +0000

I’m appalled at the behaviour of your ‘friend’. She doesn’t seem to understand what is selling. Next time she should just invite everyone over and put out her begging bowl; then you could contribute without taking home something that would just clutter up your house.

By: Michelle

Michelle — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 15:04:57 +0000

By: Caroline

Caroline — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 23:12:36 +0000

My approach to saving money is similar to yours and I’m still comfortable in this economic downturn as you are.

This being said, I think you should have bought something from the catalogue and donated it to a thrift shop.

If you try to control your money *too* tightly it simply controls you. Not to mention the possible bad karma for years to come. Anything can happen, so although improbable, the tables may be turned one day.

By: Maureen

Maureen — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 20:24:33 +0000

People are complainers and they love nothing more than to complain about the fact that others have more. It’s a sad reality but at least you will stand up for yourself from now on. Why do people push you to spend when you don’t want to? It’s happened to me outside of the situation you were in so it wasn’t going to benefit anyone. I agree that if someone were to actually ask me to help them I’d be more than willing to but people won’t own up to their own mistakes and instead choose to blame those who’ve made it. Good on you!

By: Slinky

Slinky — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 16:56:42 +0000

Good for you!

I try to be open about my finances too. Like you said, don’t brag or anything, but don’t hide it either. If it inspires one person to try harder or ask for advice it’s totally worth all the mean comments.

By: ThiNg

ThiNg — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 17:54:42 +0000

You are battling with the same question that all of us seem to be:

“Are we better than other people because we planned and prepared?”

I was taught the fable of the Ant and the Grasshopper from a young age. Nowhere in that story does the Ant shut the door and leave the grasshopper to starve and nowhere does he get to say “I told you so”. IMHO, the proper thing to do is just to offer to help.

The opens his door and allows the Grasshopper to come in and eat.

P.s. If someone accuses me of having money I won’t part with, I just list the things that I want that I don’t have yet. e.g. “I don’t want to buy any ‘crap’ from the magazine because I am using that money to buy my first Ferrari”

By: Jen

Jen — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:40:46 +0000

I agree that in this case it was envy. I’ve found that a good number of people, some of them are my friends, even, resent those who have more money, and there’s not much you can do.

I would have been really offended that my neighbor felt entitled that I should help her out by buying stuff! But, I think in this situation the best response would have been “I just don’t see anything I need. Maybe next time.”

I would be careful about phrases like, “I guess we just spend our money differently,” because it could be interpreted as snobby and make the situation worse.

By: Jackie

Jackie — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 23:18:37 +0000

Good for you! Even if some people think they are just teasing you (possible), it’s still something you don’t need to hear all of the time and certainly nothing to apologize for.

My two older sisters used to make a lot of comments around me about how our parents have so much money saved up, that it’s probably more than we even think it is – usually in some kind of conversation about how my parents can afford to buy something but have chosen not to. Now I’m as guilty as my sisters when it comes to encouraging them to splurge a little more, but sometimes it sounded almost like my sisters were personally offended. Anyway, they finally stopped making those comments when I told them “Good! We should be glad if they’ve saved so much, because that means they’ll be able to take care of themselves in their retirement since none of us have done half so well as them.”