As a contractor do you sometimes lose perspective when it comes to money?!

[Robinho]

My attitude to eating out is - if you are going to worry about the cost; what's the point?

Having a better/more sociable meal than at home without bankrupting yourself?

[darmstadt]

I'm a cheapskate, always go for the house wine as it's their reputation at stake if its tulip.

Ordering the second cheapest on the list is a noob mistake.

Just go to places that have 2 wines, a white and a red and I'll have beer please...

[minestrone]

After graduating I lived with 3 of my mates for about 5 years, 2 had multi millionare parents, one guy came from a council estate and myself with parents who had done very well but could not be counted as 'rich'.

The dynamic of the flat was pretty weird. The guy who owned the flat had absolutely no idea how privileged he was, the guy that came from the council estate felt privileged to be the first from his family to get to uni. The other rich guy was fairly normal "I know I have money coming to me but I want to make something of myself first" but then the 2 rich ones had half million pound boats in the marina to be used when ever they wanted so the "I'm doing my own thing first" line never really had that much creedence.

[norrahe]

I'm a cheapskate, always go for the house wine as it's their reputation at stake if its tulip.

Ordering the second cheapest on the list is a noob mistake.

The "house" wine or wines by the glass is often whatever freebie they got from their wine supplier when they came in that morning for a tasting, which I found out was often the case at a certain Michelin establishment I was working at.

Depends on the establishment as to whether they care about what gutrot they are selling as house wine.

I enjoy cooking at home, but sometimes its nice to have someone else do the graft for you.

[Paddy]

I can still remember being in tears because someone threw one of my son's shoes in the pond and I had no idea how I was going to get the money together to replace them. He got second hand toys for Christmas and I made most of his clothes. I don't think I'll ever be complacent about money - it's nice to be in a position where I don't have to justify every penny, but I still worry about where I'll be when someone susses that I'm just winging it...

We had quite a bit of hardship in the 50s and occasional patches since then. However, outgoings were a lot less then and transport was cheap. With home cooked food even on a tight budget it was more healthy in 'the old days'. The problem these days is that once a person has hard times, all and sundry want to profit from it whether it is a bank, building society or utility company.

[SimonMac]

My attitude to eating out is - if you are going to worry about the cost; what's the point?

Grub Club once a month where I don't worry if I blow a hundred quid on a meal I don't blink an eye at, because I know most of the other times in the month I don't go over board.

Coming from my back ground where I had a lot of debt, I know the value of money more than some on here portray (I am careful to distinguish the way people come across on here and how they are in real life as i suspect there is a difference), I am careful with money, I try to budget but I know I usually have enough of a slush fund to pay upto say £200 on something without considering if the costs warrants the purchase

[Old Hack]

I've lost all perspective about money and it terrifies me. Trying to address it by buying a small holding, and growing lots of our own stuff, and rearing animals for food, but at the moment, we just buy things we need, with no recourse to how much it costs, or any impact, for there are none.

Trying to get soem perspective, but it's hard.

[Paddy]

Originally Posted by SimonMac

Its amazing how what I consider a small amount of money, I have been for meals with other contractors where the bill has hit £600 and no one
600 GBP? WTF! Anything above 10 EUR spent in a restaurant is already a pain for me.

600 GBP? WTF! Anything above 10 EUR spent in a restaurant is already a pain for me.

The mark up for restaurants is around 3x before taking overheads into consideration. It the meal costs £600, you should expect £200 worth of food. if the meal is too cheap, you better wonder where the meat comes from

[d000hg]

Most of the time my attitude to spending money is stuck in the mindset of a regular person on a £30k income, with the odd flash of "that's only 2 hour's income" largess. I'll scrimp over our spending but occasionally say "sod it" and throw money at a problem - understanding the ways you can use money as a tool has taken time.

I'm also pretty paranoid that I really shouldn't be earning this amount of money and someone else will notice; I'd much rather live frugally with a big surplus than live lavishly and risk running into problems because that kind of stress in the past makes all the fun leading up to it seem like bitter ashes.

[escapeUK]

I try to take the view that these high earning times are not for ever, so I am tending to live quite frugally with the aim of owning a big house outright.

Once I have done that, fitted solar panels, and have £50k tucked away (I could live on that for a long time with no rental / mortgage) then its time to splurge.

Money is a powerful tool, but more importantly its what makes you free. I just dont have to work, I could be fine for 10 years without working and thats a really nice feeling. I dont know how people live from pay check to pay check, I never did that.