It’s true as the post says that anyone can make changes in any situation, but the options for being frugal are much more limited in high cost areas.

You can cut back SOME, but the basic problem is that the high cost of everything is built into everything, like a giant catch 22. If housing prices and property taxes are high throughout a region, there aren’t really any low cost housing options. The same will be true of clothing, car repairs, insurance, child care, entertainment–the general high cost of operating in the area is reflected in everything.

It may be that the most effective thing you can do if you live in such an area is to move out. But that’s asking more of people than they may be prepared to do.

Living in a lower cost city, there are always cheaper options for what you need or want to do. But in high cost areas, the options do tend to be more of a challenge.

I have learned a great deal from this blog and it never even occurred to me where you live Trent.

And I am a city boy!

Silly people, grow an herb!

I learn a LOT from you and the other commentators on this blog, and am surprised that someone living in a city would not find a lot of value.

Much of what’s said here and elsewhere may not apply directly to me, but I really don’t find it that much of a stretch to re-interpret it by taking core concepts and seeing what in my situation could replace the things that don’t apply. Doesn’t always work, but it’s this diversity of experience and opinion that allows me to find solutions where I probably otherwise would not have if I kept ‘to my own’.

I write a blog about trying to live a productive life as a creative self employed person – I write with a Caribbean perspective, but by no means does that make all of what I say irrelevant to any creative person, anywhere. Even when I ‘rant’ about local situations, my overseas, non-Caribbean readers are often the ones who comment positively on the insight!

I love the blogworld for just this – the ability to dip into perspectives that we otherwise may never have been able to benefit from.

I guess all I want to say is – Thanks. For this city reader, the cultural divide is not so great that it makes your blog less worthy of my time.

I hated home ec in hs and swore I’d never sew. A full twenty years later,my sofa needed a slipcover and the local thrift store had a sewing machine for $20. Learning never is wasted (although I’m still waiting, after nearly 40 years, to try out that algebra?

Write about anything you want to, Trent. It will help somebody now, and may help someone later down the road.

Your silly self-righteousness about trivial points of language did not buy me one doctor visit, nor did it put one bite of food into the mouth of any starving person.

On the other hand, the kind of detailed frugality advice Trent and other folks like Amy Dacyczyn give is what makes it possible for many of us to avoid outright beggary. And as a bonus, they don’t go around denouncing people. So put a sock in it.

But that’s the case with any blog. Not every article will resonate.

I read The Simple Dollar because I like to hear how you think, Trent, your perspective. Doesn’t matter if I agree or disagree, I like hearing how someone like you “thinks” their way through to choices and behavior. And I like your stories.

Your work is not superficial, or auto pilot and it always comes across with your voice. That’s what I look for in a blog.

Plus, you have an open mind and always accept that your way is not everyone’s way. It’s like you make a meal, you share it. Some will enjoy it, some will not. It’s the thought that counts.

FYI: Very few so-called city blogs hit all the city dwellers. If you live in NYC, there are many, many different circumstances (professionally, financially, culturally) and lifestyles. No single blog hits all the spots.

And although I do not have children and am not married, I read blogs about children, about raising them and about married people in the burbs. Why? Cause I do want to hear what those people think and feel and are going thru. How can you care about people and NOT want to learn more about their daily lives?

What’s amazing to me is how many people have next to no interest in how we single, not young, not sex in the city-type, city dwellers live. I know far more about my suburban/country friends lifestyles and interests and activities. They know next to nothing about mine, because they’re so wrapped up in their own lives.

It’s always important to keep open to how everyone else lives. One of the best things about where I live is the diversity. In any given day, I can meet people from around the world and learn about THEIR lives. It’s one of the many reasons I live here. I don’t want to live in a community where everyone is alike–no matter what the similarities are. (Don’t ever have to worry about that. My apartment building alone is a very global mix by geography, lifestyle, income, etc. And I’m glad about that.

sure, people tend to hang with people “like” them or those who share at least some of their interests. But life is such that you meet people, care about them and then your lives diverge. Do you stop caring or relating? Sometimes, you do.

But you can retain connections by being open to learning about the changes and differences. Blogs can be a great way to do that.

Plus, you rarely learn from people who think the same as you do.

If you really want to keep learning, it’s all about finding those “A Ha!” moments wherever they surface.

Sometimes, I learn as much, if not more, from the comments, as the original article. Which again proves you’re doing a “good thing.”

You *never* know for certain where your life will go or how it will turn out in the future. Those big-city folks might very well find themselves living in a rural farmhouse one day, and then they’ll regret not paying more attention to your gardening posts! ;)