Julie Marquez , Congrats on the pending birth of your child. There are many interesting perspectives that have been presented, all of them good. I commend you for your frugality, because the alternative, I think, is worse.
I can offer a suggestion that is off topic, but I think is helpful. What is the goal of your frugality? You've mentioned before that it is to save and buy your next property. But that's the next step, what is the end game?
Andre Agassi, and maybe you don't know of him, was a dominant tennis player in the 90's and early 2000's. As a young man he became the number one tennis player in the world, yet it brought him no joy, and eventually he settled into drug use. At his low point , probably rock bottom, he changed his purpose. Interested in helping disadvantaged youth, he created a foundation to assist them. Returning to tennis, he again found success , because now he realized he could use his winnings to help fund his foundation. While not as successful during his younger days, he didn't need to be. He was still earning a great amount of money, and he knew that any amount helped benefit his foundation. In other words he didn't need to win, but knew that if he did, the more people he helped. And either way, his new goal was more sustaining (he writes of this in his autobiography, Open).
Julie, If you hit the magical $2,000 a month figure, fantastic. But if you fall short, realize it's still okay, because you're that much closer to buying your next property.
I hope you found some value in my post.
