If anything, the booming economy has increased the pressure on the Stogdills to work long hours, and Vicki Stogdill, who is 35, handles child care by taking the couple's only child to the store. Jonathan, now 15 months old, is growing up in a playpen in his mother's crowded office. And the savings in child care, a major cost for middle-income families, helps to keep the Stogdills in the black. So does their frugality, which surprises people aware of their income, Vicki Stogdill said. If I don't need new shoes, I don't buy them.
Most people do.
We drive old cars. But we have not gone out and built the new house yet. Bankers are trying to loan us the money. They tell us we are nuts, build it now. But we want to wait until the loan for the lot is paid off.