Paid off my car ($400/mo)
Threatened cable with moving to Hulu Live. Kept all same cable services saved ($100/month)
Refinanced house to 2 point lower rate ($140/month)
Bought some needed nice furniture at 66% discount and 48 months to pay with NO INTEREST!
I sold my 2004 BMW and bought a 2003 Suburban.
The BMW is far better in fuel efficiency, but the Suburban is far more useful. I traded the BMW to my mechanic in exchange for work (I owned a BMW. I had a mechanic.) The maintenance on it was “worth it” (230hp, 35 mpg and a decent collection of features) but it costs about $500 a month to maintain properly. Couldn’t do it anymore.
But with the Suburban I now don’t have to say “no” to things. I have a small trailer and can now do dump runs, pick up coal for my furnace and jump on cheap furniture that I couldn’t before.
So I kept the same values, but lessened my load in reliability and got a bigger bang-for-the-buck vehicle instead.
It was 2012-2016 that I REALLY saved money. I reduced my expenses, monthly, by about $2000. Rid of TV, moved from a liberal state to a conservative one, stopped caring about cell phones (I have a used Galaxy S4 now) and was able to collect an impressive amount of supplies for emergency.
I retired on 12/31/2016, so all of 2017 I saved on anything associated with work or commuting to and from work.
voting for trump.
Greatly increased the contribution to the 403b.
I save money by not spending it.
And painted entire condo myself for $140 worth of paint, versus quotes ranging from $1650-$3000.
I saved a lot of money this summer by eating barbecued food.
My neighbor’s think it’s a raccoon grabbing their steaks and burgers.
I got a fully loaded cable 3-pack for $165 to go along with my new 75” Samsung QLED, audio monitor speakers and denon integrated receiver.
Lots of it.
In the attic.
I did nothing.
.
PJ I hope you are putting all that savings into some kind of savings acct. Stocks, Bonds, Tax free savings...my deceased husband was like you about getting bargains and he invested those savings. He left me comfortable.
Biggest money saving move in 2017 was to trade in my 2007 Pontiac G5 with check engine light and probably burned exhaust valve, for a 2017 Spark for $7700 out of pocket including tax & license plates etc. Spark averages 37MPG in town.
Started baking my own bread (about 1/2 the price of buying).
Made the most of Black Friday, planning my purchases for weeks and combining discounts, coupons, etc. for multiplier effect.
Virtually stopped eating out, making nearly all of my own food from scratch.
Getting most of my prescriptions from Express Scripts, at a fraction of most pharmacy prices.
Step-son sent one to my wife for her birthday. We've only had it for about a month and I'm still learning, but it's amazing what all is there. If AT&T plans to raise our dish price next month, I may tell them where to go, lol.
Chicken is cheaper than hamburger if you have an Aldi near you ($1.99/lb for boneless /skinless breasts).
Can buy eggs at Aldi sometimes for 59 cents a dozen. Buy three or four dozen & boil them. Extremely cheap protein, and quick, and no pans to scrub.
If you have a "get money off your gasoline by shopping with us", then when you go to the gas station, and you have more than one car, fill up both cars: the savings usually lets you get the discount for 20 gallons of gas.
My wife learned to make her own Green Tea Frappucino at home for ~$1.70 instead of the $5.50 Starbucks charges.
I refinanced to get rid of the siding and central air conditioning installation bills -$350.00 per month.
Unfortunately, my sewer main crapped the bed last week and they had to replace it. That’ll be another $15,000 job.
So.....Guess what I get to do again NEXT year!
I also called Comcast Business and told them I was thinking of moving to some other service for my Internet, so they immediately bumped up my network speed and lowered my monthly bill by $30/month.
EveryDollar budgeting app. Cancelled cable and internet.