One of the mental shifts we had to do when we moved to Costa Rica, was move from the “buy anything you want/do anything you want” mentality to being more frugal.  How did we do this?

Well, for starters, when Greg & I both quit our jobs at the same time, bam(!) – all income was immediately eliminated.  So, with our DINKS status (dual income no kids) being totally taken away (well, at least the DI part), we didn’t have much choice but to revamp our entire budget.  Hey, we were revamping our entire life anywayby moving from the States to Costa Rica, so it was as good a time as any to change up our budget and lifestyle.  Here’s what we did, and how we did it.

Every time we see a cute old Toyota Landcruiser from the 70’s/80’s, my hubby ogles it and talks about wanting to buy one.  These Toyota’s are everywhere here.  And I have to admit, they ARE pretty darn stinkin cute.  But then I think about actually paying for it (price of cars here, even older ones, are a lot more expensive than the States), the required basic insurance, the annual inspection fees, extra insurance, maintenance (which hey – with something this old, might be almost every day)…  it’s just not worth it to me.