I've gone through 2 buzz-cutters (shears) in the past 15 years. Total cost $25, you recoup it in 2 haircuts. Also useful if you like to keep a trim beard, or uh other areas. Also cut my kids' hair.

I don't have a cell phone. My wife has a prepaid phone for emergencies, we spend less than $40 a year on it.

We don't have a landline phone, we use Skype, $60 a year.

We don't have cable/satellite TV (except football season, we get DirecTV Sunday Ticket + base package).

We've never owned a new car, and we're down to 1 car now.

We shop in bulk (sam's club) and at Walmart.

I haven't had a new bike since I was 16 (and that was a scratch-and-dent Trek on sale for $300).

We try our best to live under our means which means for us a house that's less than what we could afford, cars less prestigious than we could be driving, grillouts and drinks at home instead of expensive five-star restaurants, driving to visit family (800+ miles away) instead of flying, etc.

We were notoriously cheap when dating - her a grad student on a stipend, me an undergrad with a minimum wage job - we'd cook each other dinner and go to each others' place and watch TV and do things young people in love do. No bars, very few restaurants, no movies, etc. We still had a lot of fun. A bottle of wine and 2 young people... you find fun

Our paycheck the first x% goes to church/charity/insurance/investments. We don't even see it. After that we pay the bills and put most of the rest into savings. We do have fun but family trips are things like driving and camping.

Living cheap is fun. I also think it's an important value to instill in kids. No, I'm not going to buy you a new toy because you broke it, I will fix it as long as I can but you need to learn to be careful with what you have. I will spend money on you where it's important (durable shoes, education, life experiences). I think it sends a good message.

-philip