I wanted one of those... you know... 1970s commercial floor sweepers that every office building has kicking around in the back? These buggers:

http://i.imgur.com/rbmeoWtm.png

(Tacky 70s rug sold separately)

None of those fancy new "removable pads" you have to replace every damn time you use it... just a no-frills dual brush manual sweeper for floors and oriental rugs.

BAM

http://i.imgur.com/1n8pDFim.jpg?1

Best-selling non-electric by miles on both eBay and Amazon. Hundreds of 5-star ratings from customers who use it for dog hair, cat hair, back hair... whatever you've got.

$24 and free shipping. See? I can buy NEW goods every now and then!

Why don't you just get a vacuum cleaner like normal peo-... oh right.

What I want to know is how he affords all this ****. IIRC, he is pretty much skating the poverty line in terms of take-home income.

Quite right. Early on I made sure to hone my deal-scoring skills as a survival tactic.

I'm in the lowest tax bracket above poverty. And I've had to support both myself and my wife through a year of her unemployment.

Still, to my advantage:

1. I've never in my life owned a credit card. If I couldn't afford it, I didn't buy it.

2. I have near perfect credit for having paid all bills on time for 25 years.

3. I'm paying off my college loans in full this Feb and will be 100% debt free (mortgage aside)

4. I tossed out my car ~10 years ago(?) so I save a fortune on car payments, gas, maintenance, and insurance by working and living within 1 mile of my door.

5. I tossed out my TV in 1999 so I don't have to deal with a cable bill.

6. I budgeted $1,900 this year for music and have kept just under that limit.

7. And was able to buy a beautiful home built in 1924 with all its original hardwood flooring and gumwood trim intact, with a new gas fireplace, new hot water, new roof, new energy windows, new electrical, 24 free LED 12-year bulbs for all sockets, and the city came in and performed blow-in insulation at all levels for free and delivered a brand new fridge as a free upgrade.

8. And I keep a spare 5-7k in the bank at all times for emergencies.

Paycheck to paycheck is a tough gig, but I live quite comfortably in spite of it.

Okay. Things are making sense now.

I hear ya on several of those points. My wife and I have no credit card debt. Anything we buy with a credit card, we pay off as soon as the bill comes in.

We paid off our student loans within the ten-year span after graduation. We have only a mortgage, but that is cheaper than renting by $300 a month!

We have no car. Not necessary.

We have no TV or smartphones. We just pay for our ISP, which is $60 a month.

I keep $20k in the bank at all times, in case of emergency.

Totally read that as $20 and was like "wow we're more alike than I thought."

Could I have your bank pins and card numbers just so I know you're telling the truth?

It's a pretty mediocre position to brag about. :) Just demonstrating that a household income of $20,000 a year is quite comfortable given the right circumstances.

Frugality and sense will get you far in life. :)

Another thing: we stopped going out to eat so much. That shit's expensive, especially here in Japan. I used to go out with colleagues twice a week at lunch. Now I take a packed lunch from home...a bento, if you will.