1) When it comes to groceries for your family, always buy in bulk. You can get more for less food and will save more when you no longer have to dine out to eat.
2) Instead of paying outright for heat or air conditioner in an apartment, buy a portable heater and air conditioner and keep your room heated or cooled when you’re there instead of paying extra to the landlord for heating/air conditioning. Since a lot of places charge extra for that, you can cut down on expenditures for that with a portable one.
3) Buy from Ebay. I just bought stamps in wholesale sheets (70 stamps for ten dollars) and the same with envelopes. I also found a Donna Karan wallet for less than ten dollars as well.
save for later...
1. Check.
2. Check.
3. I might be interested in another roommate, but my wife wouldn’t like the kind of roommate I’d be interested in.
4. Yes, I’d love to do a garden.
5. Opening windows isn’t an option in Phoenix in the summertime. Already have a big tree on the west side. Already use time-of-day electricity pricing, minimize air conditioning during prime time. Foam art boards are a neat idea, except that they’ll annoy the hell out of the cats.
6. Most of my entertainment comes via the Internet. Hard to cut back there. My wife likes cable TV and the DVR. I wouldn’t mind cutting back there, but she has some say about it, too.
7. Almost impossible to live without a car in Phoenix. Son at UCLA seems perfectly happy without one, however. Big saving there.
8. Ditched the landline back in 2003, but we love our Androids. And our cats. Fortunately, they’re very healthy, and they’re happy to eat Costco cat food in the 25 lb. bag. One just had an abscess from a fight with another cat, but we handled that with children’s antibiotics that we bought for a few dollars in Nogales — no veterinarian needed.
9. I like a daily drink (just to maintain a healthy heart, mind you), but generally make do with three-buck chuck from Trader Joe’s.
10. Goals? My goal is to make more money, not spend less. I like the Chevron executive’s idea of shared prosperity rather than shared sacrifice.
We get our books at the library, and most of our food at Costco, or whatever’s on sale at the other grocery stores.
We’re pretty thrifty — what we need is tips on making money, not so much on cutting expenditures.
BTTT with thanks...
We bought this old farm house because if need be my adult children & grandchildren can come back here to live. I hope not but you never know. We feed the horses by scrapping metal we see on the road. Most people are happy to be rid of it. When shopping for a large item I never buy it the first time I see it. I think about it for a few days to make sure I really need it . Then I bargain the price down. I never buy anything unless its on sale. I save money home schooling too. One week of school lunches pays for the online school. I buy my books at the library discard shelf for less then a dollar. I got a clothes line which is great. We've learned stuff isn't as important as it was.
Sage advice for the times we live in.
My question would be why do any of the above? I don’t throw money away but if the economy colapses what good is money anyway? I can’t be without a car because the nearest anything is 10+ miles away and there’s no public transportation. I like my Harley and my truck. The only entertainemnt we do is eat out occassionally, my bad habit is beer, I’ll continue to be bad and do both. I’ve stocked up on many things I may need including guns & ammo to protect what I have but otherwise I’ll be enjoying life until the shxt hits the fan.
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If you own a house, rent it out and sleep in the backyard in a tent.
After a while, you will fit right into the line at the local mission for free hot meals.
If your state forces consumers to put a recycle deposit on cans, collect those during your free time.
You can afford a second home. Look for a dry box they slip refrigerators in.
Paragraphs are our friends.
No. TAXES are.
Not only that but TAXES are my second biggest expense too.
ML/NJ
Been doing more of the food shopping of late and find that this is not necessarily true if you use coupons. Especially with a coupon that doubles.
That is why I advocate parents renting out the family home for income and buying a one bedroom condo when the last kid leaves.
That, plus I can earn a buck setting it up for them!
8^)
ping
We lived thrifty when I was a kid. It was fine because we did not know any better. We were dirt poor but I thought we were rich because we gave canned food to the church food pantry.
Since the socialists came to power, I have been doing it again. It is really just a state of mind as long as you have enough to cover your basic needs. If you don’t, it is a state of worry.