Cutting expenses—your best money saving tips?

[skipro33]

Sometimes you gotta spend money to save money. Installed solar 3 years into retirement back in 2015 and have not paid an electric bill since. O.K. one year I paid 16 cents, but other than that, nada. To keep the solar install cost down, the cheapest solar is the solar you don't need to buy. I upgraded my appliances to energy efficient ones, converted to LED bulbs, insulated the attic better, awnings on west facing windows and screen doors to take advantage of breezes. This cut my solar design down to 5Kw from 7Kw I would have otherwise needed to run everything.
Bought a fuel efficient car and kept my diesel truck, which is now 15 years old and works fine. For groceries, I go to SAM's and ask the butcher for cryovac sealed larger cuts of meat. Beef short ribs normally $8 or $9 a pound I get for $4 a pound. Bone-in rib roasts I get for $6 a pound on sale and break them down to rib eye steaks they sell for over $10 a pound. Their $5 roasted chickens can't be beat. We'll make a batch of chicken enchiladas and make several meals from one. A 1 gallon jug of coconut oil is $20 from Amazon; https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00A2A88ZW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
It's sold as popcorn oil, but 100% unflavored coconut oil is still coconut oil.

Turned down the water heater temperature. Fill the propane tank, 500 gallons, in July when the local distributor has a $1 a gallon sale.

I do all my own landscaping and a little gardening (deer are too hungry to leave my plants alone and fencing gets me huge bucks with lots of wire tangled in their antlers...) But my wife has been successful growing all her own herbs.

We play host at a campground in Oregon as tour guides to a lighthouse along the coast. 4 hours a day, 3 days a week. Another couple do another 3 days with one day closed. 9 weeks for free. Lots of time for side trips.

Motion lights outdoors and some inside, like bathrooms. Automatic humidity sensor for the bathroom fan too. Turns on and off on it's own. Clothes line to dry laundry. I love that one! I like my bath towels a bit stiff from line drying. I feel invigorated after a shower and scrubbing down with the bath towel to dry off.

Started buying flower seeds instead of plants to garden with. Probably saving at least $500 a year on that alone!
I have 10 hanging pots and a couple dozen other ground pots as well as flower beds with annuals that I now just seed instead of using potted plants from the nursery. There are 10 pots in this photo alone;

.

 

[brett]

We review and evaluate the need and the cost of recurring charges on a regular basis. It has saved us a fair bit of money and the savings go forward each month.

We have always shopped for value. I do not like shopping so I tend to buy things that last longer. I am more than willing to pay for a longer lasting, well made product.

When it comes to technology, I always buy one generation back...which can sometimes mean 6 months or a a year. I am not willing to pay a premium to own the latest cell phone. My $120. Moto cell phone is four years old and works just fine for me. Especially since it will only be the latest and greatest for 9 months max. Same with all electronics.

I wanted to avoid the barber during covid. Ordered a hair clipper set in May 20. Been using it ever since. The barber shops where we live are closed again for another month or so.

 

[teetee]

Another thing I found helpful to keep myself in check is to realize how expensive it is to declutter. I recently found it costs $7 at our local dump station to get ride of a small appliance (e.g. microwave) and more for appliances that use refrigerant (window AC, dehumidifier).

It costs to buy, it costs to run, it costs to maintain, and at the end of the life cycle, it costs to discard.

 

[GravitySucks]

Still the best money saving tip!
By TravelLover:

https://www.early-retirement.org/forums/showthread.php?p=1478169


Rarely bathe. Drink Sterno straight from the can.

 

[SmallCityDave]

Best advice would be do a zero based budget and live by it for a while, it's crazy how much we spend on items that aren't on the budget.

 

[Koolau]

One of our cars recently failed to start. I assume it's either electrical (maybe a coil - not too expensive to fix) or fuel pump (maybe a grand or more to fix.) As it's a '99, we made the (not too) painful decision to "delete" it from our inventory. Not counting what we would spend on maintenance, this will likely save us $1000/year JUST in tags and insurance. We decided that we VERY rarely actually NEED 2 cars. We may just be able to rent our extra parking space for $50 or $100 per month. SO, minimally, getting rid of a car may well save us $1500/year or more. YMMV

 

[Aerides]

I am much more comfortable with BTD than cutting, but:

I make sure I am taking advantage of all the benefits/offers, etc. that can come attached to credit cards. Even if the card has a fee, good bene's I actually use can be well be worth it. Things like ride share discounts, streaming credits, partner offers.

When eyeing a new purchase, I always sign up for newsletters for that merchant and wait - get a 10-25% coupon to use for a first order within a few days. Buying things full price is almost always a bad idea. I'm in the middle of replacing a lot of furniture right now. I stake out everything I want, and wait and pounce during sales and specials. Doesn't require too much patience.

I use Rakuten for cash back online, usually just 2-4%, occasionally up to 15%, but it really adds up if I'm good about it. They will also find online coupons and automatically apply those if I missed them.

When I do buy something non-trivial I will check the price for a couple weeks after in case the price drops. And I will call for a credit, or return and repurchase if I have to.

And thursday mornings, because it is the law in florida, I peruse the weekly publix flyer. I will load up on a BOGO or really good deal if it's one of my staples.

 

[Trailwalker]

I didn't even need to watch a video to cut my hair with these!

I have one of those, lol. One of the first things I did upon retirement was to decide to give up on commercial haircuts. With my receding hairline, the costs didn't justify the benefits. I like the simplicity of this little tool. Also, no brushes or combs to buy.

 

[Nick12]

I bought a Norelco 360 degree self cutting unit that is no longer made. It sells on eBay for 6x the price. I bought it 10 years ago new at Target for $20. I have not paid for a monthly hair cut going on 10 years.

 

[38Chevy454]

Late to this discussion, but my main cost saving methods are pretty basic:
1) Buy on sale when it makes sense to stock up.
2) Do almost all of my house and car maintenance myself.
3) Use coupons when I can. Not too proud to use a BOGO or whatever discount is available.
4) Can shop thrift stores, garage sales, or other secondhand for some items.
5) Just being conscientious about what the true cost of something will be. Consider recurring costs as mentioned previously by other replies.

 

[harllee]

I buy many things cheaper on Ebay than I can get from a store or from Amazon. Just this morning I was looking for a certain brand of toothpaste. Could not find it in the local store and it was pricey on Amazon and Walmart.com. I found 3 tubes of the toothpaste on Ebay for the same price as one tube on Amazon. You do have to watch out to be sure items are not expired on Ebay.

I wear an expensive shoe because of foot issues. I bought the first pair (for $160!) at a local retailer. I have bought more pairs on Ebay (usually new or slightly worn returns) for less than half the price.

 

[qwerty3656]

Thrift shops like Salvation Army/Good Will/St. Vincent DePaul

 

[daylatedollarshort]

Mason jars - Since we are into sustainable living, I use mason jars for as much as I can. They last forever, the glass is recyclable, and they are interchangeable. I use mason jars for foods storage, cut flowers and organizing around the house, like holding office supplies. I have solar light tops for outdoor lighting, shaker tops, soap dispenser tops, a lamp kit and shaker tops. The shaker tops hold baking soda which I use for cleaning. For hand soap I buy Dr. Bronner's Castille soap and dilute it in the mason jars with the pump top lids for hand soap.

I make my own non-toxic cleaning supplies with ingredients like Dr. Bronner's soap, baking soda, essential oils and vinegar: Dilutions Cheat Sheet for Dr. Bronner’s Pure-Castile Soap – Dr. Bronner's (drbronner.com)

 

[daylatedollarshort]

Thrift shops like Salvation Army/Good Will/St. Vincent DePaul

+1. In our are there are also some very nice boutique type thrift shops from local charities. I found them using the thrift shop ratings on Yelp.

 

[Koolau]

Honestly, I know of several ways we could cut expenses, but have become lazy. It COSTS to cut expenses - that is, you actually have to use your brain and maybe a bit of braun to save most money. It may even take MONEY to save money.

Examples might include:

Phantom Electricity - I'm guessing 15 or even 20% of our electricity is "wasted" because of "instant on" features, all those little converters (they look like battery chargers) that make the cable box work, that make the internet box work, that charge the electric shavers, that keep the printer and TV "hot" at all times, on and on. There are folks who "gang" these on a power strip and turn the strip off at night. Doing so saves a few hundred watts of electricity which becomes several kilowatts by the end of the month. BUT on the off chance, I can't sleep (or DW) and get up to play on the computer for a couple of hours or maybe watch TV it takes anywhere from 3 to 6 minutes to make things "work" again. SWAG: We could save $15/month since our electricity is expensive.

Drying clothes: We used to religiously hang up clothes - right in the apartment as the trades came through and gave a great drying effect. Now that we're old, we say "I'll pay the money to just transfer to the dryer and save the 20 minutes of sorting undies to the rack, shirts to plastic hangers, towels and shorts across the backs of chairs, etc. etc." SWAG $1/load could be saved for 15 minutes work (net - stuff still has to be hung up.)

Fridge: Our fridge probably uses the most electricity of all the appliances (as we don't use the stove much and our HOA dues pipes in our hot water without a meter.) We could get rid of the current 10-year-old fridge and buy one of the newer more efficient models and pick a smaller one as well - what's the use of freezing a bunch of stuff that we could WALK to Costco (fat chance) and buy every other day or so. BUT, looking at the COST of a new fridge, we can "waste" a lot of electricity and come out ahead until the thing dies. AND we have heard - The newer the fridge (or, pick an "efficient" appliance) the shorter its projected life time. SO my SWAG: We might "save" $15/month at a cost of $1000+ to replace a working fridge with one that won't last 10 years.

CARS: Mentioned earlier, we're getting rid of one - but the other one only gets 25mpg in our hands. We could double that with a Prius cause our upstairs neighbor (who drives like a maniac from Boston - which he is (maniac on the road) and originally from "BASTON") got 50 mpg. But when he moved, he wanted (and got) $16K for his used Prius. My car several years back cost $13K and I only drive it (pre-Covid) 4000 miles/year. You do the math and it probably doesn't work for us but COULD save a commuter a BUNCH of money 50mpg vs 25 mpg.

COOKING: We already save a bunch. We "cook" with a microwave and a toaster oven. Everything here is electric, so its all about watts. Cooking a burger or chicken breast on the stove or in the convection oven costs way more watts than using the toaster oven. DW has it down to a science now. Nuke the frozen (whatever) to thaw. Stick it into the toaster oven for X or Y or Z minutes. Check it (just because ole Ko'olau is fearful of Sam and Ella visiting) and throw it on a paper plate (with sauce.) I'm guessing we use half the electricity of heating up the "big" oven to do the same. (By the way, waste heat here just makes things "hot" - even in the winter. It doesn't mean you save heating fuel.)

AC: Yeah, we could use it a few days a year, but the (maniac) upstairs had one of the rollable "window" in-and-out units for his DW who had asthma. I think it was maybe 1000 watts or some such. We just strip to underwear and turn on the fans those few days when it's truly hot - when the trades die.

Haircuts: Okay, that's work. DW does it TO herself and TO me. MOST times it looks okay and, hey, it'll grow back! BUT, the real reason I do it is to avoid going to the barber. I just hate that and can't even explain why. Now, I sit on the shower chair (you "old" people know what I'm talkin' 'bout) and DW does her thing - then I turn on the shower and I'm good to go.) Savings: at least $10 plus a trip to the barber. YMMV

I'll quit until inspired again.

 

[Scuba]

We haven’t been particularly focused on cutting expenses since our ER. Other than 2020 when we spent much less due to COVID, our spending has been pretty consistent except for moving and remodeling our new home.

We initially thought about buying a vacation condo. After thinking about it, we realized that for us, a second home just adds costs and headaches. Instead, we purchased a nicer property than we would have if it were just a vacation home and moved to it. We kept our former home but rented it out to a long-term tenant so now instead of increasing our costs, we’ve actually increased our net cash flow. Not something we planned, but it is a nice bit of extra cash. And if we ever decide to stop traveling so much and live in two homes instead, we have the flexibility to do that.

We still have two cars, but cutting down to one may make sense for us at some point. Our cars are 15 years old and eliminating one would save us around $1,500-$2,000/year in insurance, licensing, etc.

As others have said, COVID made a difference that has continued to result in savings. DH now cuts his own hair with a bit of help from me. I stopped getting pedicures every 6 weeks and now only go occasionally. Neither of us has bought many clothes in the last 2 years. We do still enjoy eating out, but got in the habit of staying in more often, which is cheaper and healthier. Sadly, a few people we bought gifts for regularly passed away so we aren’t spending as much on gifts either.

Our spending on groceries has gone up a lot as prices are way up and we eat at home more often. We buy a lot less wine than we used to, mainly because we cut back to manage our weight. Our healthcare insurance has skyrocketed since ER, but when I did a search last year to compare costs, everything else that was remotely comparable cost the same or more.

Like most people on this site, we have never been “keep up with the Jones” types. We don’t penny pinch but we also make sure we feel like what we do spend money on is good value for us. Almost half of our spending is discretionary, so if we ever needed to, we could ratchet down pretty easily. Fortunately since our ER, the market has performed very well so we have a higher net worth than we did when we retired, despite living 100% off our portfolio for 4.5 years. Lucky timing!

 

[tb001]

Some really good suggestions! I watched the video posted earlier and don’t think I would ever be interested in living that extreme, but it’s interesting to learn about for sure!

I’m much more interested personally in making cuts that mean minimal change in our quality of life for a little extra effort. After moving to a prepaid phone plan, I now cringe at how much money we wasted over the years!

In reading the replies, a few more jump to mind for us.

Gel pedicures. They are about the same price wise but last forever.
While DH won’t let me cut his hair (though I think my cuts are better than some of the bad ones he’s gotten), I am cutting the kids hair since covid. And I need to start doing my own color. I did it once during the height of covid here and honestly liked it better than what my stylist does.

I also use poshmark or other used clothing apps for a lot of clothes. I haven’t used them for jewelry yet, but I have my eye on a few pieces. I need to clean out my closet and start putting some of my old work clothes on there too.

On my to do list is to put in more automation to cut energy use and rearrange when we’re using energy to maximize our $/kwh. So killing those phantom draws is on the list for us, though I suspect it’s far less than 15% of our use.

 

[street]

Very interesting thread. The frugal ad LBYM is a gene we all have so many of the saving tips and things we do everyday is who we are in general.

We still shop around, buy on sale and find the best possible price on all most everything. Many of the things that saves money that were mentioned is a natural thing for us to do.

With that being said, at this point in our life those things we are saving at means very little if any, that would change our quality of life or even change what we are worth. Most of the saving we do is habit from who we are. At this stage in the game saving a dollar here or there isn't going to break or make us.

 

[Koolau]

Very interesting thread. The frugal ad LBYM is a gene we all have so many of the saving tips and things we do everyday is who we are in general.

We still shop around, buy on sale and find the best possible price on all most everything. Many of the things that saves money that were mentioned is a natural thing for us to do.

With that being said, at this point in our life those things we are saving at means very little if any, that would change our quality of life or even change what we are worth. Most of the saving we do is habit from who we are. At this stage in the game saving a dollar here or there isn't going to break or make us.

All so very true. AND it STILL feels good to believe we got the best deal! Or it still feels good to "save" a buck, here and there. I think it must be THAT attitude that got us to FIRE in the first place. If I never lose that attitude, I'll still die happy AND my kids won't have as much stuff to shovel into a dumpster!!

 

[travelover]

I didn't read every post so this may be a duplicate, but I renegotiate our internet service every year. They have been ratcheting it up on me, but yesterday I backed off a price increase of $10 / month, to save $120 a year. Not bad for a 10 minute phone call.

To save on flea and tick stuff for the dog, I buy the generic version in the size for extra large dogs, then give my medium sized dog half the vial every month.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I didn't read every post so this may be a duplicate, but I renegotiate our internet service every year. They have been ratcheting it up on me, but yesterday I backed off a price increase of $10 / month, to save $120 a year. Not bad for a 10 minute phone call.

Our main ISP won't usually negotiate much on rates for existing customers, so we either switch ISPs or rotate the account name between DH and me every year to get the new customer rates.

 

[tb001]

Our main ISP won't usually negotiate much on rates for existing customers, so we either switch ISPs or rotate the account name between DH and me every year to get the new customer rates.

Ah, that’s a good tip to use your spouse’s name! We have a good deal on our internet, but I know it will go up in august, so I’ve been looking at alternatives. So far I haven’t found any cheaper options. Will have to see if we can just shut off and re-establish service in his name.

 

[Nick12]

When in I was in college I lived in an apt and I had no meal plan on campus. When I worked in the cafeteria I ate for free.

DYI on car repair , You Tube is your friend. My Honda dealer charges $90 for a cabin air filter replacement. The part is $30. It takes less than 60 seconds to change it.

 

[tb001]

I didn't read every post so this may be a duplicate, but I renegotiate our internet service every year. They have been ratcheting it up on me, but yesterday I backed off a price increase of $10 / month, to save $120 a year. Not bad for a 10 minute phone call.

To save on flea and tick stuff for the dog, I buy the generic version in the size for extra large dogs, then give my medium sized dog half the vial every month.

I wish I could convince DH to do this with the flea meds! We use the generic, but buy the smaller dog size. He’s too worried he won’t split the dose correctly. The cost differential is annoying!

 

[Sunset]

Ah, that’s a good tip to use your spouse’s name! We have a good deal on our internet, but I know it will go up in august, so I’ve been looking at alternatives. So far I haven’t found any cheaper options. Will have to see if we can just shut off and re-establish service in his name.

A few yrs ago, when the cable company came in to set up our internet as we were switching from a different provider, the tech assumed our switching was from Wife to Husband. He said a LOT of people do it.
Less folks actually switch companies.