This is a biggie for me. Especially cars and stuff like that. Have to sleep on it. And yet the dealers always try that "what can I do to get you in this car Today?" stuff and I look at them like they have 2 heads.
That’s because the majority of high profit sales are impulse buys. But it is smarter to do your homework before the purchase, which is essentially sleeping on it for a few days or weeks. So when the salesman ask that question, I know exactly what to answer. Then I watch his face drop as he realizes “dang it, an informed buyer”. You have to be able to say “nope” & “no thanks” and walk away. The key to remember is the situation must be that they want to sell the car more than you want to buy it. If not, you are at the losing end. They sell cars every day. You might buy once every 5-10 years. Who is better equipped for the sale?
I do many of the things here, and always have because they are green and I despise waste & pollution. When I bought our retirement home, energy efficiency by design was very important. High efficiency tankless hot water heater saves a small fortune, as does all LED lighting and super insulation. HE washer (agitatorless top loader, front loaders suck) and dishwashers save a lot as well.
Forget the bacon grease stuff, the health consequences way out weigh the cost saving.
About the only cost saver actions not listed that I do are to buy the much cheaper non RFID inline filters for the refrigerator and I transferred the bypass RFID to the fridge itself. So the fridge always says “unfiltered water” when it use, but it saves a lot of money when a 2 pack of GE filters is $60 vs a 3 pack of non RFID name brand filters for about $15. When we get a lot of fuel points at Krogers due to specials, we bring both cars when near empty and I fill them consecutively to hit closer to the 30 gal limit. On 90cents/gal discount, thats $9 on 10 extra gallons.
But for the most part, I do most cost savings/environmental conscious things that require little to no effort. (Yes, my shower still has hotel shampoo in it, but DW is VERY picky about her products). But really, I am not frugal to save money vs enjoyment or health. I don’t blow dough for the sake of spending to feel good, or like most here, I wouldn’t be where I am.
But I’m not afraid to spend one bit. So we don’t own inexpensive cars when bought, but have only bought “new” (twice) when they were dealer demos or last years models. And I do all my own maintenance but it sure is nice to have 3 years of maintenance covered for a break. I even bought a low rise lift 12 years ago, that has paid for it self and saved me thousands doing repairs that cannot be done easily without one or allow me to rotate tires and change oil in no time vs taking it somewhere and paying for it. And I can sell the lift tomorrow for 75% of what I paid. Good tools used often have a great ROI.
If I can save (thereby make even more since payments are after tax) a $100/hr doing it myself, well why wouldn’t I if it’s something in my wheelhouse. I won’t shingle a roof or hang (a lot of) drywall, but I installed a quiet TOTL disposal and bathroom fans, to replace the contractor grade crap installed in the house, that they wanted INSANE prices to have done.
