Money Saving Tips / Ideas

[fngTony]

You guys have me intrigued with these off name cell companies. I too have been stuck with Verizon for far too long. A few years ago I tried AT&T out and their coverage in my state is not as good as Verizon, especially in the woods. Is one of the no name companies better than the other?

Some are better than others. For us xfinity mobile won’t work with Verizon’s roaming partners but that’s a very small footprint. In general the piggyback cell providers are the first to get throttled in a high traffic area. Definitely not a deal breaker though considering the savings.

 

[Bluumoon]

Safety razor, good brush, double milled soap. I’ve had that soap for like 5 years. Buy feather razor blades like once a year for $15.

 

[Billy Goat]

Remember wtf you were going to town for.



So you don't need to go back to town later to get it.
Maybe I'm the only one who is reforking stupid tho.
Lists help.

 

[MuleyFever]

I don't use my cell phone much. I have the 5GB a month plan with Mint and pay $15/mo.

Shameless plug- If I email you a referral you get $15 credit.

 

[TaperPin]

Get new quotes for insurance every few years. 4 years ago we switched and saved over $2k, and this year we get better coverage from another place and save $1k.

Buy in bulk. It drives me nuts when my dear wife buys smaller containers to save money, when it’s much more per unit. Food prep.

Get an old used phone that still works for what you need it to - I haven’t had a new phone in 15 years.

Get an airline credit card and charge as much of you life as you can on it - the free airfare really adds up. The wife travels just enough on paid tickets in addition to the points that I qualify as a companion animal and fly for free.

Track your spending - after seeing how much I was spending on lunch from the local 7/11 or McDonalds, it was clear that I could bring a steak from home every day for less money. Stop drinking soda and going to Starbucks.

Drive a less expensive car - I drove the wheels off a 2005 Hyundai, because it was dirt cheap - best car ever. New ones are designed to fail, but that first year of production was built like an old school car. Dear old mom drove the wheels off her mini van - 300k miles and great mileage made it the cheapest kid hauler in existence. We found a mint 2005 Toyota Corolla with barely 100k miles for $3k - if you combined it’s costs with that of a new car, the average cost per mile is almost cut in half over just the brand new car alone.

Stop shooting out the barrel of your $2k rifle to practice with, and buy a used trainer for $300 - before the barrel in the trainer is used up, sell it for what you paid and buy a new used one.

Buy slightly used clothes and boots on eBay. I just paid 25% of new for my favorite light weight boots, and a Patagonia fleece.

Get rid of 75% of your lawn. Our dogs love pooping in decomposed granite, lawn mowing cost is down, water bill is down, and added bushes and plants look nicer.

Paint one side of the outside of your house each year. It doesn’t seem like so much work that you want to hire painters, and in only four years you won’t need much prep.,

 

[cnelk]

If you’re interested in buying/selling used phones, check this out

Swappa

Swappa - Buy and sell used and refurbished tech

swappa.com

 

[KsRancher]

Safety razor, good brush, double milled soap. I’ve had that soap for like 5 years. Buy feather razor blades like once a year for $15.

Thanks. Going to look into this

 

[Vaultman]

Wife's and my auto insurance for last 10 yrs ≈$700 /6 mo.

Son gets License right before we renewed last time now ≈$1400 /6 mo.

Time to renew this month, after son got his own car ≈$2200 /6 mo.

You'd think he got a Porsche for his first car. Time to shop insurance!

Oh yeah... Daughter gets her permit middle of this mo.

 

[Bubblehide]

never eat out, prepare all your food yourself.

Your looking at it wrong, it's much cheaper to eat out.

By the way, I'm stopping by your place for dinner tomorrow, and the next day. Oh hell, I might as well stay for breakfast and lunch too.

 

[*zap*]

Burgers with cheese on top served with sesame seed buns and mustard

 

[Hat745]

Don't let your wife near the credit cards .

 

[Tjdeerslayer37]

Everyone knows cable/internet providers are a bunch of scam artists and jack up your price at every opportunity. something ive been doing for years is each time my bill goes up, i check out their current new customer offers for the same plan i have. generally its quite a bit cheaper than what im paying so i call up customer service and give them the line "i see that the new customer price for my plan is $X, since i am a long standing customer im wondering what we can do to get to that price" if the first guy doesnt cave, ask for the customer retention team and theyll hook you up. Ive done this 6-7 times in as many years and it works every time.

This applies for other bills as well, cable is just a prevalent scam.

ps this advice comes from "i will teach you to be rich" by ramit sethi, good read.

 

[Tjdeerslayer37]

heres one If youre trying to tackle some credit card debt. find yourself a credit card with a promo 0% interest on balance transfers. usually these will last for ~18 months or so and cost a one-time 3-5% transfer fee. do the math on what payment you can afford monthly and transfer a higher interest balance to this card. it is importnat to religiously make this payment so it is paid off before the promo period ends, otherwise you will pay the interest on the entire balance you originally transferred.

 

[MallardSX2]

Cutting back drastically on alcohol and quitting tobacco was a huge savings for my family. I don’t remember the last time we bought meat and we also rarely eat out.

 

[summs]

Thanks. Going to look into this

Do it, I got a cheap safety razor 5 years ago, and a 100 pack of blades for $9. I still have 50 blades left. I shave 1x/week

Cut my face up pretty good when first using. Tiny learning curve compared to the plastic stick razors

 

[Zdub02]

I allocate a small percentage of my paycheck via direct deposit to an additional account that's not what bills get paid out of. Try not to touch it often and it can add up. Use that when the classifieds start calling to you. Or just go to the "cheap gear that works" thread.

 

[WiscoHoundsman]

If you use a credit card and are paying it off each month the rewards can be better on certain cards. Example I have a Cabelas card 1% back in point to use at Cabelas but I have switched to using a Fidelity card that is 2% back on everything if the cash back is deposited into a fidelity account. I then take my rewards and invest it into VOO or another index fund. It slowly builds up and then the investment makes money. I can always choose to take that and go to Cabelas if I want something there.

 

[TaperPin]

Get rid of cable and buy a good antenna. Go to your buddy’s house to watch sports. Lol

 

[Davyalabama]

Lots of good advice has been posted on this thread. I won’t go over what’s been posted already.
1) Make a budget with your wife.
2) Review said budget monthly.
3) Pay off debts starting with smallest, get some wins under your belt. Don’t celebrate wins by spending more money.
4) Teach your kids how to make and live by a budget.
5). Remember, it’s God’s money, we are just entrusted with it. He gets the first 10%, extra if you can, put that at the top of your budget.
6). Invest in old dividend stocks.
7). If you’re not married and looking, look at some websites that have 100/200 questions to ask each other before marriage. Go through that, don’t let the Im in love get you in with someone that is not right for you. God has the right one planned for you in His time.

 

[The_Jim]

I'll get some pushback, but using a debit card instead of a credit card really makes you think about an impulse purchase knowing that money is coming directly out of your account. I'm not a big spender anyway and I'm still confident that were money ahead of the Scheels points we used to accumulate.

We also have a few different bank accounts(savings, tithe, insurance, checking) and each paycheck gets divided into those accounts. It's easy to spend extra money when its just sitting in a checking account.

Insurance has been mentioned a few times, you really need to shop around regularly.

My phone is a company phone, but my wife uses puretalk for like $20/month.

We only use 1 streaming service at a time and cancel them May-November because were usually outside anyway.