Tell us a few little things you do to save money

[Amethyst]

We used to pinch pennies, but now are trying to pinch time, since we have less of that. Turns out, learning to cook well and eating at home can save both money and time (talking about a small family, of course).

 

[marko]

Is she available this Saturday?

Trust me. I'm saving you a world of hurt by not letting you know. She's 88 going on 18, drinks like a fish and can party you under the table.

 

[spncity]

No cable TV, just OTA, and prime.

I cut DH's hair. He cuts wood for the fireplace insert.

His only expensive clothes are Z-coil Hikers, Carhartt Tshirts and Duluth Trading Company underwear.

He does all the car repairs. Once we were on the road and the alternator in a Suburban gave out. We found an auto parts store and he asked if they minded if he did the work in their parking lot. I took video of him putting the new one on. He did it in e-l-e-v-e-n minutes... Even I was impressed and I see him do amazing stuff all the time.

Our trend has been to eat out less each year.

Going through a downsizing/decluttering means much less shopping is going on.

 

[Meadbh]

Cut cable 5 years ago
Dropped Netflix 1 year ago
Did not replace 20 year old TV
Use the library
Cook at home
Use coupons where applicable
Organize errands to minimize gas consumption
Golf discount card
Avoid retail outlets to the greatest extent possible
Exchange time at my vacation property with similar properties elsewhere
Credit card with travel or cash back rewards

 

[ocean view]

We cancelled our home delivery newspaper subscription (Sunday only) when the delivery part of the subscription fee was greater than 100% of the cover price of the paper. Now DH & I walk to the local Walgreens on Sunday mornings to get a copy. We started last Fall and I can only remember 1 week where weather made us opt to drive rather than walk.

 

[SpinDr]

Man, lots of stuff, sometimes big, sometimes small:

--Shop insurance every year
--Shop wireless/wifi acts every year
--Charge everything, even small stuff to get cash rewards and work the float
--Buy all gas at Costco. Big savings in Cali especially if you use their visa card
--Buy everything possible on Amazon, with their Amazon card. 5% back, free shipping and no tax in most cases
--Sunday movies at local Theater. 1st run movies $6.50 versus $13
--Eat out only once or less per week
--Make own coffee with whole beans from Costco. Great coffee, far less than buying out
--Buy all wine at Costco. Yes, we seem to like Costco : )
--Share a Netflix and HBO streaming acct with other family members
--Combine trips around town efficiently. No one-off trips.
--Turn over all liquid bottles near end to get all remaining product.

Many more, but good start.

 

[travelover]

Trust me. I'm saving you a world of hurt by not letting you know. She's 88 going on 18, drinks like a fish and can party you under the table.

Thanks, I'll cancel.

 

[DrRoy]

I shop around for the best price. I do my own yard work. DW and I put in a paver walkway ourselves. We are considering going from 2 cars down to 1.

 

[Oneparkatatime]

Always been a DIYer. When I was younger, it was a financial necessity, now I either have a hard time paying outrageous amounts of money for stuff I can do myself, or I'm just so fed up with the quality of work that I do pay for that I'd rather do it myself. Save quite a bit on auto repairs that lets me hang onto vehicles a long time, but also do most of my home repairs and improvements as well.


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[athena53]

1. Switched phone service to Ting a couple of years ago- monthly bill is typically $18. No plans to "upgrade" my 3-year old iPhone.

2. Dropped cable and landline, switched to Google Fiber Internet + Netflix + MagicJack.

3. Get my hair cut at Great Clips.

4. Clothing spending is $227 YTD.

5. I'm not as DIY as many here but I mow my own lawn, clean my own house and can tile, remove wallpaper and paint. Just about done resurfacing my deck. I know no one I paid would have prepped it right.

6. Freebies- I get discounts on gas through the use of a grocery store loyalty card, get Starbucks points from the blood bank and get Hilton points from e-Rewards.com. In general I'm very good with tracking and using loyalty program points. I once bought a $15 iTunes gift card through the American Airlines shopping portal to keep 100K miles in DH's account from expiring. Later we used those miles to fly to Spain in Business Class.

7. Sold the older of the two cars after DH died. Money in my pocket and less maintenance and insurance.

 

[freedomatlast]

Next time you are about to buy something from Amazon, check the price on eBay before you commit. I just did that and found filters for my reverse osmosis water system for about $36 as opposed to Amazon's $53.

I agree. It's very rare that I can't easily find an item at a lower price than what Amazon offers.

 

[brett]

Our largest on going savings recently have been from insurance. Both automobile and home.

Our auto premiums increased substantially for no apparent reason. Plus they slipped in an increase in deductable from $500 to $1000. Shopped around, spoke to others, and switched to a new carrier for a 35 percent savings.

Just did the same since we bought a new home. Premiums and coverage were all over the map.

I recently read a UK article (Money section of Daily Mail) about a survey of insurance rates. Apparently existing customers are subsidizing the marketing efforts to attract new customers. It was found that a new customer will pay considerably less than an existing renewal customer for identical situations. Both car and home. The advice was to shop your rate every two or three years, sooner if the renewal premium increases too much.

 

[Scuba]

Have you checked into the corkage fees at your restaurants of choice? (Assuming your local law allows it.)



We pay between $0-25 when we go out, which makes a big difference--and our cellar has better wines, not to mention well aged, than most restaurants.

+1
Bringing our own really good wine to a restaurant allows us to save at least $20-$50 per meal, and we drink a nicer bottle than we'd pay for at a restaurant.

I'm also a fan of using OPM (other people's money) as long as I can do so at a low cost. We take advantage of a 2% cash back credit card, 3.375% fixed rate mortgage, a HELOC that is still below 4% (used to be below 3%), and zero % credit cards that we pay off just before the promotion end date. Our portfolio has averaged several percentage points higher return and with compounding this has added significant dollars to our NW.

We drive 11 year old cars and we don't own a second home. We used to own 3 properties but divested a number of years ago and now own only our primary residence. Much cheaper to rent additional properties as needed and forego the property taxes, maintenance, etc. on them. Plus this gives us more flexibility.

Agree that the big 3 are housing, transportation and food. We could save a lot more on housing if we moved to a lower COL area but we like living on the beach in So CA.

 

[OldShooter]

I just negotiated a 10% savings for the wine package on a river cruise in Viet Nam next January. Of course that's only about 0.5% of the cruise & about half that % when the air fare is factored in. But, hey, savings is savings.

 

[Sojourner]

Get my hair cut at Great Clips.

+1

I'm not as DIY as many here but I mow my own lawn, clean my own house[...]

Yep, I figure I'm saving at least $700/year by doing those things myself. It's puzzling why so many people in my neighborhood shell out so much money for landscaping services, when all it takes is a basic lawnmower and an hour (or less) per week to keep it looking nice.

I get discounts on gas through the use of a grocery store loyalty card[...]

Same here, and since I use Amazon to buy stuff pretty often, I purchase Amazon gift cards at the grocery store to boost my gas discounts. I've gotten up to 70¢ off per gallon by purchasing Amazon cards and other gift cards during certain months when my local grocery store is running a "4X Fuel Points" special.

 

[ikubak]

Three things I do that save money that most people who live near me don't do...

1) I don't turn on the air conditioning much in the summer or the heat much in the winter. DW is out of town and electricity usage has gone from $5 a day down to $1 a day. I open the doors and windows when the sun goes down and sleep with the ceiling fan going. I figure people lived without AC for thousands of years before it was invented; i can do the same.

2) I air dry my clothes. I have some foldable wooden drying racks that I use. I check the weather and do my laundry when humidity will be low, stuff dries quicker and better that way. It saves $ and I prefer the way my clothes feel when air dried.

3) I use the razor extender for my Mach lll blades and that makes them last about 6 months, and that's shaving my head and my face.

Note, these are things I do that save $ but I don't do them to save $. I do these things because that's how I like things done. Big difference.

 

[Blue Collar Guy]

I thought of one new money saving idea this week. We scoped out the parking lots online for a music venue recently before we went. The parking lot next door had a big sign - $30 event parking. We walked a few blocks away and paid $4 instead and had an easier time getting out of the lot at the end of the concert.

, I thought you were going to say you stayed in the $4 parking lot and listened to the music from there,hahah

 

[Blue Collar Guy]

3) I use the razor extender for my Mach lll blades and that makes them last about 6 months, and that's shaving my head and my face.

.

Can you post a link to the mach lll extender? I only use mach 3 , I hate spending 30 bucks on the blades. I tried dollar shave club, there is a reason they are a buck , they stink. Thanks.

 

[ikubak]

Can you post a link to the mach lll extender? I only use mach 3 , I hate spending 30 bucks on the blades. I tried dollar shave club, there is a reason they are a buck , they stink. Thanks.

I'm sure there are lots of products on the market that do similar things to extend the life of the blades but I bought this thing called RazorPit Men's Razor Blade Sharpener on Amazon and it costs about $15. If you google the name of the product or go to Amazon and type in the name, I'm sure you'll find it. Also, I don't use shaving cream. I use a product called Shave Secret. It's basically oil with some herbal stuff in it. If you've ever wondered how people shaved before shaving cream, this is it. They used oils and water. Follow the directions and you'll see how easy it is. Finally, I mentioned I used this with the Mach III razor. I originally tried doing this with a Gillette Sensor razor, but it would get clogged with stubble. The Mach III is what I refer to as open air technology. It doesn't have a back piece of plastic holding the blades in place like the Sensor, it has three blades exposed to air on the front and back so when you rinse, all the stubble comes out and it's clean. I hardly ever nick myself anymore and I look forward to shaving. One last thing...while I change my blade once every six months, I only shave every 4 or 5 days and I store the blade in my office (dry place) vs. in the bathroom (humid place). That's probably a lot more than you wanted to know about razors and shaving, but every 4 or 5 days, I go through the same 5 minute routine and it works for me.

 

[rodi]

A lot of my stuff I started doing for other reasons (green, less toxins, etc).

- Clean with white vinegar rather than commercial cleaners... Although my house smells like salad when I'm done.

- Dry the big stuff on the line outside (sheets, towels, pants, t-shirts... too lazy to hang dry socks and undies.)

- Use and reuse items (shopping bags, water bottles, even reuse some ziplocks depending on what was in them...)

Another thing is I take full advantage of my sister's diets and better wardrobe than me... every 3-5 years she loses a bunch of weight and gives me her "fat" clothes. Eventually she buys new ones (or has so far)... She tends to have very nice, casual clothes... I just received a new wardrobe (10 or so nice tops, 5-6 pairs of pants) this past month!!!!

I've convinced older son that he can have more clothes/styles he wants if he shops at goodwill... so now our back to school shopping is done there. He likes retro gaming t-shirts and they always seem to have them.

DH does his haircuts with a flowbee. Older son gets his styled hair at great clips. Younger son is a dirty hippy and doesn't do hair cuts. DH trims my long hair on request.

 

[O2Bfree]

Cut my own hair, have done so for decades now. Good thing it's curly, it helps hide mistakes if I try something new.

DH cuts his at home too, and I finish up the back for him to get it straight (or so he thinks ).

 

[athena53]

Three things I do that save money that most people who live near me don't do...

1) I don't turn on the air conditioning much in the summer or the heat much in the winter. DW is out of town and electricity usage has gone from $5 a day down to $1 a day. I open the doors and windows when the sun goes down and sleep with the ceiling fan going. I figure people lived without AC for thousands of years before it was invented; i can do the same.

Forgot about that; I waited till mid-June to turn on my A/C and keep the temperature at 78 degrees-we had to keep it at 74 when my husband was alive because he couldn't tolerate warmer temperatures. I still hate the cold (very little body fat) but I keep the heat a but lower than I'd like in the winter.

Also- I cut DH's hair for years. He didn't have much, bless him, and I got pretty good at it.

 

[Amethyst]

The Goodwill in my area doesn't have anything I'd wear (yes, I've checked!), but I ordered some designer things from a consignment called "ThredUp" - an ad I saw on FB. Everything is lightly worn and sells for about 10% of the retail price. I have two cocktail/special occasion dresses that are nicer than anything I have ever worn in my life, and an Armani wool jacket for which I paid $98.00 - the original cost was $1450.

We started drying laundry on our deck railing when our dryer broke. Now we use the "solar dryer" nine months of the year. Couldn't do that if we had an HOA, though.

A
- Dry the big stuff on the line outside (sheets, towels, pants, t-shirts... too lazy to hang dry socks and undies.)

-
I've convinced older son that he can have more clothes/styles he wants if he shops at goodwill... .

 

[travelover]

...........
1) I don't turn on the air conditioning much in the summer ...........

I do this, too. Open the windows upstairs at night and run two box fans exhausting from windows in the lower floor. As long as it gets down to about 60 degrees outside at night, the house stays cool all day if I close the windows in the AM.

 

[rodi]

As for AC... we don't have it so I can't count not running it as a savings. LOL.