What it means to me to not keep up with the Joneses

I have been thinking about this lately. What exactly does it mean for one to "Not" keep up with the Joneses?

One big step is to pay cash as you go. A couple of years ago our vehicle was a 1991 dodge caravan, matter of fact we just sold it this past spring and bought a paid for cash 2003 pontiac grand am for $3900. Before we sold our caravan however there were a few incidents where someone would say for example; "Hey, look at the great deal we just got on this car to "Lease", you should go do the same, it only costs $359 a month for 5 years."
Don't you just love it (Not!) when someone else tries to spend your hard earned money? Or you hear, "I needed that" I just think "No, you wanted that".

We don't have a big fancy house, our choice, but it is homey, easy to heat in the winter and keep cool in the summer.

We "usually" have an emergency fund set aside, yes it has been depleted while moving to help bring the mortgage down but, I still have a couple of hundred set aside for that "just in case" and I will have that up and running in no time flat, I have no doubt. We are not in a situation where we are robbing Peter to pay Paul, all of our bills are paid on time so no interest charges.

I really love the fact that when school fees come due that we can pay with cash. There is no writing cheques or calling to make arrangements to pay at a later date. I also love it when as soon as say, our phone bill comes in or our hydro bill I can pay it on that day.

There are other things we do as well to stay ahead of the "Rat Race", stockpile,cook from scratch, I cut our hair, have a change jar, vegetable garden (although not this year with the move).

We are not perfect but dh and I try. We havn't always lived this way either. I remember the time when we had the car payments, saw something we "wanted" and just bought it before really thinking on it among other things.

I did have a friend however a few months back ask me what our secret was. I said "secret?" She said that it just seemed like we always have cash to pay for things and if the kids need something we can afford to pick it up etc.....We sat down and I told her that it was no secret, we just live below our means :)