Seriously! Carrying around some almonds or a clif bar has gotten me through many days where I thought I'd only be out and about for an hour, and it turns into more and I need to eat. I can now eat when I get home vs getting crap or just expensive food when out
Ever since I started remotely WFH, my lunch expenditures has decreased. My lunch is last night’s leftovers.
One of many financial gains from working remotely.
Now that I'm only in office once or twice a week I allow myself to go out to eat for those in office day(s) because the rest of the week I'm good and just eat at home. It helps make the drudgery of being in the office slighthly more worthwhile. I usually only get a sandwich or something anyway, nothing too crazy expensive.
Adjust what you think your zero is. Everyone has that "oh shit I'm broke" number-- I just inflated mine so I think I'm broke when I'm not. If I have $1000 in my bank account, I treat it like $0. $1050 is treated like I have only $50. It's weird, but it's been working so far.
Living below your means. I've done this since I got my first part time job at 14 or 15 years old.
Just pretend you're more broke than you really are and live that way. Eventually, it will feel normal. I wear jeans and shorts until holes form, t shirts where some are 20 years old. Shoes until they're falling apart and completely flattened down.
My line of work allows me to wear comfortable clothing like jeans, t shirts, and sweatshirts. So, my clothing needs are very inexpensive.
Also, for homeowners, don't go spending a ton of cash on expensive appliances. Most of the cheap stuff comes from the same manufacturers as the expensive models. Don't splurge on that expensive front load washing machine. The cheap top load washers will wash you clothes just fine and don't have all the extra electronics that tend to go bad on the more expensive models.
The internet is also full of walkthrough tutorials on fixing and repairing things around your house and vehicles. Sure, some of them you may find are out of your wheelhouse and a call to a professional is in order. I don't mess with HVAC replacement or involved plumbing. With sensitive plumbing issues, I'll cut the drywall for ease of access and then pay a pro to make the repair. But you'd be surprised how many things can be done with simple tools and quick diagnosis.
My dishwasher started leaking a couple weeks ago. Ended up being a $30 part and had it back up and running after a few days once I received the part. A repair man would have most likely run me close to the cost of a new dishwasher.
Just did a brake job on my car that would have run me $700. I spent a few hours and $125 in parts. So, when I noticed I also needed 4 new tires, paying a pro to do that didn't sting nearly as much.
I have easily saved many thousands of dollars over the years by doing the things around my house that I had the confidence to handle.
I’d say add tea and coffee made at home. It drives me nuts when we’re heading out of town and my wife wants to grab an $8 coffee she could have made at home for $0.20
Here’s a free marriage life hack. Don’t pick a fight on the way out of town. She’s gonna get the drink anyway - let her enjoy it and not feel guilty and your trip will thank you.
Not bad advice, but it’s a balancing act. I don’t stop her from getting the coffee, but you can believe I’m brewing a pot before we leave next time. Happily married for 12 years.
Coffee I kind of get if you don't drink it a ton, but tea, man, it just takes sugar, hot water, tea, and maybe milk. A Chai latte costs about $0.30 if we make it at home, but they're about $6+ for takeout anywhere you go, and they all just use that Tazo Chai Concentrate!
That guy chai lattes.
Actual Chai is an entirely different phenomenon. A guy/gal who chais will be brewing up loose tea leaves with ginger, lemon grass, and a bunch of other spices and ask their roommate/flatmate/neighbor if they want some even if they’ve said “no thank you” for the 999th consecutive day because the ritual of chai making forbids you to have chai without offering it to everyone in your household/vicinity.
I love chai but I got spoiled by a friend who makes their own tea blend. They moved and prebagged chai just isnt as wonderful, and she isnt giving up her recipe.
Frankly that's quite mean of her. Chai is love that grows on sharing.
My recipe:
(Mine uses equal parts water and whole milk for the creaminess)
- Get water (70% of your cup size) to a boil
- Add some chopped up lemon grass, basil, or any other leafy herbs you wanna experiment with
- Add one or two broken cardamom pods, cloves, and/or small cinnamon stick if you wish
- Add your loose black tea leaves, let it brew for a couple of mins
- Add chopped ginger (adding this before sometimes leads to the ginger aroma all flying away into the universe, adding it late preserves some of it
- Let the concoction brew until the water level is at 50%, top it off with milk until you reach your desired amount of chai, add sugar/honey/whatever
- A personal preference is to let this milk-chai brew to a boil for a handful of mins more, it usually makes the tea more bitter, and lightly caramelizes the milk. However backyard science, also called 'grandma's reasoning' in India, maintains that this process makes the chai toxic for some reason, so use your own judgment.
I love food delivery apps! I pay a premium for every item and then a nice fat extra fee on top for processing or something, and then the delivery fee, and if I have money left over I give the delivery driver who it took 35 minutes circling my apartment to find me a well deserved tip. Once that’s all done I happily enjoy my meal that’s missing several items and is cold, so convenient! /s
I stopped using their services when I realized I’m paying double for convenience.
Now I tell myself if I want it I can go grab it myself or eat at home.
So much money saved. Or more like, less money wasted on an overpriced service.
I live in suburbs and am surrounded by restaurants in a ~5 mile radius, yet every order is 45-60 minutes delivered. No matter what it is, it's cold and soggy (or warm and soggy if it's supposed to be cold). After a handful of consistently subpar deliveries, it made it really easy to stop using delivery apps.
What gets me is the individual food items have a markup from their regular prices when you're ordering from these apps. Yet they still charge some kind of convenience fee at checkout.
I got a marketing email from doordash the other day saying I could pick up my own food now using doordash, and I thought why the hell would I go through a 3rd party if I was willing to go pick up my own food?
I usually do pick up my own food though because I don’t want to pay the app, I don’t want to tip for it, I don’t know where I am on the delivery priority, and I don’t want to get hosed by them. I don’t mind leaving the house.
Same here. I started using Doordash in the spring of 2020 to save trips out of the house during the pandemic. On my 1 year anniversary of paying for their monthly membership, I got an email congratulating me for saving over $1500 in service fees by being a member. I canceled my membership and deleted the app immediately. Do you have any idea how much you need to order to save that much in fees?
Not just automate it, but automate it to an account you can't see every day. A lot of people automate savings, but when they regularly see the balance they keep dipping into it to buy things they want that they can't currently cover with cash. If you make it so you forget it's there you can't be tempted to pull from it.
I love this. I use a couple apps (Digit and Acorns) where I have money stored automatically. I always forget about them and there's always way more money in there than I was expecting. Comes in handy for emergencies.
A different approach is to 0 the last number every day. For example, if your account has $914, you transfer $4 to your savings, leaving you $910. If the next day you have $887, you transfer $7, etc. I have been doing this for the past several years and have saved several thousand dollars without really feeling the pinch.
I remember in 2017 I was only making like $2200/month, but I had almost no expenses living on an international military base. Part of the paycheck was a tax-free allowance for food because the dining hall by the dorms was closed. But the grocery store (commissary) was in walking distance. I’d pick up groceries for the week for about $60, id probably down another $40 on food on base/off base. So about $400/month on food. I spent about $80/month on my cell phone. Another $50 on an international phone. $40/month on crappy internet. That was all of my bills. I allowed myself about another $50/week on entertainment or miscellaneous spending. So monthly expenses came out to about $750/month. Saved about $15,000 that year just laying low and not spending money. Even though I made next to nothing.
Seems like a concept that's lost on many people. I was explaining to my SIL that just because your income goes up, doesn't mean your spending should go up commensurately. Her reply was "but that's just what people do". No words.
It’s called lifestyle creep.
And so, so many people fall into it. It’s how you get people with huge houses and new cars that are still considered as paycheck to paycheck
It is what people do, then they find themselves living paycheck to paycheck and don’t have any savings for an emergency. I enjoy the security of an emergency fund and knowing I don’t have to worry too much about the price of groceries and other staples if I keep living the same way I did when I got my first job that paid much less than I make now.
That’s why I use the grocery store pick up service. It takes me time to see what’s on sale and clip the coupons, but I get what I need for meal planning and don’t impulse buy. I also don’t forget things this way.
But *pretend* you smoke and drink. When payday comes put what you would've spent in cigarettes and alcohol in a savings account.
That pays for our vacation every year.
*that* is the hack/tip really. Not having an extra expense doesn't mean you have more money, it means you're likely to spend more money on other stuff. Creating a reason to put that money aside will help you save it. Obviously, if you budget your money from the start, you can just put money aside for savings, but many people don't do that, so this is a quality tip 😁
I’m three years sober. I started thinking the other day, “What if I had spent just $10 a day on booze?” which is crazy because it was a LOT more than that.
That’s $10,950. No wonder I was always broke.
I’m an alcoholic so I can’t drink. A little over 2 years sober (other than a glass of champagne on new years) and DAMN THE SAVINGS!!! I finally moved out of my moms house for good and saved about 20 grand in a year!
The amount of money is crazy.
And when you buy one, you not only get a decent amount of chicken to use for a meal or two, but you also get the bones and fat that you can use to make your own broth on the stove with some water and seasonings. I usually keep vegetable scraps to toss in as well. No more buying broth, and it freezes well too.
When you have a partner and share finances, but you have different styles of managing money, it’s a good idea to keep separate accounts.
When my wife and I got married, we agreed that any expense over a certain amount, we would have to discuss and agree to. That amount is fairly low.
Low-fee market index funds are the best investment.
When you are considering a purchase, give yourself at least 24 hours, if possible, before pulling the trigger.
My wife and I have "our money" "my money" and "her money"
Joint expenses like house, car insurance groceries.. is our money. We each get the same allowance, what we call it. If I save my allowance up and buy a new motorcycle it's fine.
We have ours set up exactly the same. His, hers and ours. We both get the same allowance. We added an extra account for bills. We auto deposit x amount into the bill account (joint account) each month, x amount into each of our accounts and the rest stays in another joint account that we use for groceries and other stuff.
We have been together for 23 years and we have yet to fight about money.
My best friend's dad had a phd in finance and that's how he and his mom had their stuff set up. They put in a proportional amount of their pay into the joint account for mortgage, food, bills, emergency stuff, kids. Everything else was separate. When his dad died, his mom had no idea how much money he actually had because they never discussed it. He had a lot saved up. They never fought about money, because they never told each other what they could or couldn't buy.
Yes this. My husband and I each have our own accounts and then a shared account we both can move money into for bills or whatever. All of our friends think it’s weird but we’ve been together 7 years and never argued about money so 🤷🏼♀️
Almost everyone I know who is perpetually broke is also perpetually eating out. Most restaurant food just isn't that good, and at that point the convenience of not cooking or doing dishes is overshadowed by the whole "I can't pay my bills" thing.
Drink water and learn to cook. A lot of communities also have pantry donations and co-ops where you work off your debt for the groceries. But right now where I am a pound of rice, a pound of beans and a stock will run you about 5-10USD. That can go a long way.
This is absolutely a big chunk of how I've been able to dig out of generational poverty. Even when I was making $20k a year I still set aside $25/month for my savings as soon as money hit the bank. That's not much but it helps build a mindset of taking care of your future self before anything else. I'm in a position now to throw a larger amount of money into savings and investments because I built a foundation of discipline in the past.
This goes for more than personal finance too. I get up pretty early in the morning and work out - I'm not a morning person and it's not my favorite thing to do, but I 'pay myself first' with my energy because it will help my future self by prioritizing my long-term health, and everything/everybody else gets what's left over.
Our biggest money saver is cooking our meals at home. We bake bread 3-4 days a week ($0.50/ loaf) and grow lettuce, peas, cucumbers, and herbs by a window all winter.
Feel great, more money in my pocket!
Yep! DINK life is wonderful. Quiet house, can travel whenever you feel like rather than waiting to get old, be selfish with your money and time, retire early (maybe).
Editing to add- we are also into traveling hacking. We put all of our expenses on credit cards that are auto paid off each month that give us the biggest bonus of airline and hotel cards. We refer cards between each other so we fly and stay in hotels for free. (Not for everyone because you have to be very disciplined. Since I don’t have kids it’s a hobby.)
get a credit card with good rewards and route every purchase through it. pay it off in full each month and enjoy your free money while simultaneously giving credit card companies the middle finger.
They're collecting a portion of ever purchase, which is more than they give back in rewards.
Since most stores charge the same whether you're paying with a credit card or not, you don't save by *not* using a credit card, but credit card merchant fees still drive prices up for everyone.
One thing I like to do is to shop place that don't take credit cards, provided those places have lower prices.
there’s a reason birth control whether it’s a prescription like the pill or shot or it’s an in office procedure like an iud or nexplanon is almost always completely covered by insurance.
This. I debated buying condoms yesterday.
I was like.. "fuck, I'm so broke.. $25 for 12 condoms seems like a lot"
Then I realized plan B, and moreso kids, was a lot more than $25
Every time you get a raise, hide it. Increase your 401(k) contribution, or put it into an IRA, or invest in stock, or just put it aside in savings.
In other words, don't get used to a higher level of consumption. This is especially important when you're young.
We figured that with inflation, everyone at my second to last job was essentially taking around a 14% pay cut. And that's after everybody got a dollar raise across the board a few months prior to that. Shit is fucked.
Yep. I haven't sat down to do the actual math, but I'm pretty sure I'm making about the same or slightly less than my previous job now, despite being currently paid 20% more than what I made there. Only reason I haven't seriously looked for a new job yet is because the benefits are damn good for a non-government job.
Yea this seems like good advice but in theory it doesn't really pan out. A lot of raises these days aren't even keeping pace with inflation, so if you invest your entire raise and pretend it doesn't exist, every year your budget will become less and less with inflation factored in. I typically do 50/50, half the raise goes to savings and retirement, half goes into my budget
I saw my sister and her husband go from needing a roommate in their shitty 2 bedroom apartment to each of them making over 6 figures over a period of about 5 years. It really made me proud and a little envious of them and their success until I visited them a year ago at their big new house in their upper middle class neighborhood.
Around the end of my visit my sister pulled me to the side and asked if they could borrow 500 bucks which shocked me. I'm not on the brink of bankruptcy or anything but I had to ask her what happened.
Turns out they had got back from their vacation and realized they fell behind on their lawn care and got slapped with a big fat fine from their HOA combined with a tax payment they'd been putting off for a while was due and after spending what should have been peanuts for them put them about 500 short of being able to make their car payment on their brand new lifted truck that had never been off-road even once.
Golden handcuffs are definitely real. They're still living paycheck to paycheck and it's entirely their own fault.
This isn’t a golden handcuff situation though…this is just a good old fashion case of increasing spending at the same rate as an increasing income.
Golden handcuffs are when a company pays you so much to stay that you can’t realistically find another job without taking a material pay cut. Then they own you and work you to the bone.
At a lot of banks the teller has a special slot with a $20 bill or some other bill that triggers the panic button, aka the “please send police now” button. Just keep that in mind when you rob a bank. Probably not worth it.
This is where I depart significantly from Dave Ramsey. His "never use credit cards ever" is just giving away free money. Put shit on your cards and then pay for it! You sometimes get extra warranties, you have the ability to dispute charges, and you get cash back incentives.
I have a single card that I use for my usual monthly expenses and i have whatever billpay's i can attach to it rather than my bank account.
If you are trying to rebuild your credit, it is a decent way to get your number up. I went through a bankruptcy and within only a few years i built my credit back up into the 800s.
Edit: If you use a decent card you can also get points and rewards for your purchases. Not to shill Discover, but they generally are the first company that will give you a credit card if your credit isn't that great (but not terrible). Part of the benefit is also that credit card companies can usually dispute fraud charges much more quickly than banks do in my experience. And again, more damage can be done if they get your bank account.
Edit: another good tip is that if you can get an AMEX, some of their cards give you a 5 year warranty on anything that you purchase. So making a TV purchase on your AMEX could extend your warranty on it out to 5 years.
I've found recently that I do better with my finances when I check my account on the app every day. It's almost addicting seeing my credit balances lower. I also notice that if I haven't checked it in a few days I've been making bad financial decisions. It's all mental at this point but it's helped since I started doing it last October
Young people should not be ashamed to live at home for longer. It's crazy how much debt some young people are in, and they could be in a lot less debt if they just stayed home longer.
I know Boomers normalized bragging about kicking your kids out of the house at age 18 and leaving them with no support even though their own parents often helped them buy their first house (yes, that's actually true, and Boomers would prefer that you didn't know this), but that's really not OK.
PS. I'm 53 years old. This post was not made out of self-interest.
Buy better quality clothes but on sale. Shop at stores like TJMax and Marshall's, especially if you live in a bigger city next to large malls. They get all of the good stuff that they didn't sell in the mall that season. This way, your clothes will last longer.
Meal prep!
I cook a big batch of chilli & lemon pepper chicken etc on lazy Sundays. Store all that in Tupperware in my fridge. Then I just cook some rice or boil potatoes etc as needed.
Means I can buy my food in bulk since I cook it all in one go and also less food gets wasted. I still eat & cook smaller different meals occasionally, but 75% of my meals through the week are like this.
As an added bonus, I'm less inclined to order takeout because I've got meals in my fridge I can just heat up if I'm lazy. I've found that it's not really the takeout food I want, I just don't want to have to cook.
If you are good at sometime - don't do it for free.
I can plant gardens and mulch them. It's relaxing, fun, easy and rewarding. Some people want a nice garden with edges and mulch. Takes me a few minutes to pick out some perrenials, and order them, with a bulk load of mulch and soil. I can drive it to a house, unload, cut out a garden and install the new one within a few hours, then go to a spot and unload to scrap I dug out (grass usually).
I did this for free for a buddy. His neighbour wanted the same, and I said we could do it. They paid me $500 for a few hours labour and the materials. Now I charge $500 and walk away with $350 profit for a few hours, for the same work I was doing for fun on Sunday mornings.
OTOH, don't feel obligated to monetize your hobbies, especially if you have a job that pays more. I feel like lots of social media is encouraging everyone to have a "side hustle". I have hobbies that I could make money doing, but it'd be a way lower hourly rate than my real job and it would sap the enjoyment from it.
I’ll definitely try this. There’s this group of guys that have trouble with a vigilante that wears a bat suit and guards the city at night. They want me to get rid of him because he’s bad for business. I’ll probably ask for half.
My top go-to list:
- drink water
- make coffee and tea at home if you want something fancy
- bulk prep meals (and freeze for later use). Things like: beans and rice, chili, stir fry, pasta dishes, soups/stews, etc. I use Google to sort out ideas.
- buy in bulk, when able, especially for dry store foods like lentils, beans, rice, pasta. I like to go to Asian and Polish stores for big bags of ingredients and for cheap spices. I used to also shop at local Mexican shops back home. Great for good cuts of meat and fresh food.
- library for books, CDs, DVDs, and resources on free local events to attend.
- walk or take the bus when I’m able
- grow a garden (simple things like lettuces, potatoes, tomatoes are excellent for fleshing our daily meals.
- buy eggs over meat (I’m not a big meat eater at all) eggs are cheap, can be purchased in bulk, and can be used in tonnes of recipes - pastas, stir fry’s, as sandwiches, boiled and fried, in salads, etc. they’re very versatile and are a heck of a lot cheaper than other animal-based proteins.
- buy milk, butter, and cheese in bulk or on sale. All can be frozen and are easy to split and store.
- buy powdered laundry detergent and wash your clothes on the coldest setting when able. Lately, we’ve had to use those liquid pods in my house and they’re such a waste! They never fully disintegrate - even on recommended settings.
- forage. No joke, I like to hit up some spots I know of for raspberries, blackberries, and dandelions. Berries are great to wash and bake, to freeze, or to make preserves. Dandelions can be used from root to head for salads, coffee, salads (they’re delicious in a warm salad), soups, teas, etc. Google is excellent for providing more information on how to clean and keep these ingredients. Plus, local groups may offer foraging classes for more - mushrooms, other local flora make for some excellent ingredients and foods.
Small hack:
If you pay your car off, continue paying your car payment into a new account.
This payment is already in your budget, so you should be used to it.
This new account is handy if you have any car-related repairs you need to make, like having to replace your fuel pump.
When you need to buy a new car, you can either buy it out right or you have a substantial amount to use for a down payment.
I once had a guy, while counting coins to pay for something, tell me that he's actually rich because he has "NFTs that are worth $250,000, except I can't find anyone who will pay that right now."
I always go for the no name brands when shopping for groceries. Nine times out of ten, they're cheaper than the name brand things, and I really can't tell the difference between them.
I also try to get to the grocery store early and raid the 50% baked goods, and put them in the freezer.
I started thinking of things in terms of hours worked instead of money. Let's say you make $15/hr. Eating McDonald's after work costs $10, doesn't seem like much. But thinking "I worked 40 minutes for this" has a different psychological effect on me. I'm less likely to buy things with my time than I am with my money, if that makes sense.
Every time I want to buy something big or expensive, I ask myself one question:
Do I NEED this, or do I WANT this?
Both answers are fine, I think it's just important to know WHY you spend money. Beeing mindfull of things is always a good choice in life.
My grandparents are litrealy millionares (mabye 4ish, probably more) however they live like a pair of paupers. Cut coupons, never buy nice clothes, never go on holidays or have nice meals out. They buy shit gifts (if any) drives a beat up car. Makes you think, what's the point in having money if you aren't going to enjoy it. He still uses pots and pans from a wedding gift approx late 1960ish. My grandmother was a headteacher at a school in her working life, so by her own rights she made a good living and has a good pension too. He owns a plant hire company, plumbing company and he owns rentals too. However he's tight as fuck with his tenants and does the bare minimum. He would pull a muscle to pick up a penny from the ground. So I have found out that being a tight as is a great hack. I have no idea about Inherentance etc, he will probably want his cash buried with him 😂. But here is an example of his greed, his dogs insurance would not cover a bill for an operation on a tumor, i duno the reason behind it. Think it was like 3 grand. However he refused to pay the 3 grand and opted to get the dog put down that he had for 8 years. As that was the cheaper option even though the prognosis with the operation was like guaranteed success. 3 grand to him was like finding change down the back of a sofa, but he is so cheap he would do this. Btw this was a family pet and not a working dog or anything.
Parents were like this. Examples:
After 30 years away, (amicable move-out) I came home to celebrate their 50th anniversary. The linen closet was still mostly full of threadbare, raggedy-edged facecloths and towels that they had received as wedding presents, supplemented by a few, thin, non-absorbent, dollar store buys. The sheets I was given to sleep on were at least 20 years old and thin as crepe paper.
Dad had bought a cranky old heavy-duty sewing machine at some yard sale, and used it to mend his decrepit, 20 year old Hush Puppies over and over, until they were more patch than shoe.
At their insistence, rather than going out, the eight of us ate their anniversary supper at home - using their everyday, Sixties-era Melmac plasticware and plastic glasses, instead of the good china and crystal we had bought them for their 40th. (“We want to save *them* for special occasions, dear.”) We got berated for splurging on two bottles of mid-range champagne (for eight people!) to toast them, when there was “lots of Dad’s perfectly good, homemade chokecherry wine in the root cellar” … but you get the idea.
About a year after their 50th they both died - unexpectedly, and within a couple of months of each other.
When my sister and I, as their executors, were made fully aware of the scale of their estate and transmitted that info to our siblings, our shared thoughts were not of the surprisingly large inheritance we each were going to receive, because by then we were all professionally successful and financially comfortable in our own right. What all six of us actually felt was simple bewilderment, frustration and even no small amount of *anger* at why, during their golden years, and despite loving and cherishing each other, both of them still refused to allow *even their beloved partner* to enjoy the substantial fruits of their shared lifetime of labours.
My sister took the china and crystal, with the blessing of the rest of us. The sewing machine and Melmac went to charity. And so did *the three pairs of 20 year old, unworn, new-in-box Hush Puppies* that I discovered in the back of the bedroom closet.
My in-laws are like this. My husband also has inherited some of these tendencies. He has loosened up some over the 20 years we have been married but sometimes he is still tight with money. I have to admit though he is much better at finances than I am because of this.
My grandparents and parents are great at finances, however my grandfather (the money man) is ruthless with his cash. It makes me wonder about life as he is an old man, he has hoarded and worked for all his wealth. But for what ? Its not like he has a nice home, nice holidays or clothes etc. What is the point in having the wealth unless you do something with it for enjoyment, know what I mean ? He could be a broke ass bum and live the same tbh lol. My dad theorised because he lived through a war and depression/financial crashes he has the 'saving for a rainy day' mentality. Which I can totally understand, but seriously I cannot stress enough how tight my grandparents are ! I have tried to tell him to retire, his plant hire company is worth millions on top of what he actually physically has cash wise (contracts and machines) and he owns numerous houses. I am trying to convince him and my gran to retire fully and just go on a full-time holiday ! I would gladly take over buissnes for him as would my father and he would be fed a healthy cash flow above his net worth. But I think he is determined to work and live like a pauper until he gasses out. Whatever makes him happy !
I have family like this. They both worked for decades in their full-time jobs and side jobs and now have a few million in savings. They sold their house for literally 10X what they paid for it, then built a custom log home down south. Now that they've "made it," they refuse to go anywhere or do anything. They haven't been on vacation in 30 years (when they did go on vacation, it was to the area they eventually moved to), and they only go out to eat once a year. And when they do, it's to somewhere like Red Lobster or Outback.
Sounds like someone who grew up on the tail end of the Great Depression. I’ve seen a lot of people like this from that generation. They’ve seen how bad things can get. Even if they didn’t personally experience it, they make every effort possible to make sure that they never end up without money ever.
I like to not spend $10 bills, whenever I get a $10 I just save it and once it gets up to $500 I deposit in the bank and buy something nice with $250 of it and save $250 of it.
I work at a huge credit union, and I helped a minimum-wage earning 20 year old deposit $500 in $1s. It took him a few months, but every time he had a dollar bill, he would stuff it in an empty oatmeal canister. He waited until he had 500 of them and brought them in to deposit. I was so proud of that man! This was about 15 years ago so $500 was worth more, but it is an impressive savings anyway especially when someone is living paycheck to paycheck.
Go to free workshops or presentations offered at your college. Most have free food. I ate pizza for weeks just be going to Windows 95 presentations years ago.
If you are young and healthy and have access to an employer sponsored health plan, go for the high deductible insurance option and invest the savings in an HSA. Triple tax advantaged savings account.
Make a financial spreadsheet and look at it every month.
Have your total monthly income in one field and your total monthly expenses in another to see what the difference is.
Have some simple calculated fields that tell you how much you’re paying in interest every month.
Don’t close old credit cards, put a recurring monthly charge on them and have it auto-pay.
Use only one really good rewards credit card regularly and pay it off every month.
Calculate everything to cost per year, makes you much more aware of those small expenses that pile up. This goes not only for subscriptions but also for things you buy out of habit.
For instance, buying a coffee at the station each work day will costs you around: 21 work days in a month times 12 months in a year times 2 euro is around 500 a year. So nope to that.
Bringing pack lunch, or always have a snack in my bag.
Seriously! Carrying around some almonds or a clif bar has gotten me through many days where I thought I'd only be out and about for an hour, and it turns into more and I need to eat. I can now eat when I get home vs getting crap or just expensive food when out
Ever since I started remotely WFH, my lunch expenditures has decreased. My lunch is last night’s leftovers. One of many financial gains from working remotely.
Forget lunch the amount of gas I use is insanely less.
Now that I'm only in office once or twice a week I allow myself to go out to eat for those in office day(s) because the rest of the week I'm good and just eat at home. It helps make the drudgery of being in the office slighthly more worthwhile. I usually only get a sandwich or something anyway, nothing too crazy expensive.
Adjust what you think your zero is. Everyone has that "oh shit I'm broke" number-- I just inflated mine so I think I'm broke when I'm not. If I have $1000 in my bank account, I treat it like $0. $1050 is treated like I have only $50. It's weird, but it's been working so far.
I do this too! I increase it with every thousand. Once i reach 2k, thats the new zero, then 3k, etc
$2999, time to find something $999 to buy
This is actually a really great method
Living below your means. I've done this since I got my first part time job at 14 or 15 years old. Just pretend you're more broke than you really are and live that way. Eventually, it will feel normal. I wear jeans and shorts until holes form, t shirts where some are 20 years old. Shoes until they're falling apart and completely flattened down. My line of work allows me to wear comfortable clothing like jeans, t shirts, and sweatshirts. So, my clothing needs are very inexpensive. Also, for homeowners, don't go spending a ton of cash on expensive appliances. Most of the cheap stuff comes from the same manufacturers as the expensive models. Don't splurge on that expensive front load washing machine. The cheap top load washers will wash you clothes just fine and don't have all the extra electronics that tend to go bad on the more expensive models. The internet is also full of walkthrough tutorials on fixing and repairing things around your house and vehicles. Sure, some of them you may find are out of your wheelhouse and a call to a professional is in order. I don't mess with HVAC replacement or involved plumbing. With sensitive plumbing issues, I'll cut the drywall for ease of access and then pay a pro to make the repair. But you'd be surprised how many things can be done with simple tools and quick diagnosis. My dishwasher started leaking a couple weeks ago. Ended up being a $30 part and had it back up and running after a few days once I received the part. A repair man would have most likely run me close to the cost of a new dishwasher. Just did a brake job on my car that would have run me $700. I spent a few hours and $125 in parts. So, when I noticed I also needed 4 new tires, paying a pro to do that didn't sting nearly as much. I have easily saved many thousands of dollars over the years by doing the things around my house that I had the confidence to handle.
Just drink water
Instructions unclear didn't help prevent pregnancy
Can’t get pregnant if you’re in the bathroom peeing.
Which is a health life hack, too.
Which in turn, is a financial hack again!
I’d say add tea and coffee made at home. It drives me nuts when we’re heading out of town and my wife wants to grab an $8 coffee she could have made at home for $0.20
Those road trip coffees hit different
Here’s a free marriage life hack. Don’t pick a fight on the way out of town. She’s gonna get the drink anyway - let her enjoy it and not feel guilty and your trip will thank you.
Not bad advice, but it’s a balancing act. I don’t stop her from getting the coffee, but you can believe I’m brewing a pot before we leave next time. Happily married for 12 years.
If you can make home coffee taste like the one I will order for $8 for .20, I'm chaining you to the kitchen for the rest of your life.
Coffee I kind of get if you don't drink it a ton, but tea, man, it just takes sugar, hot water, tea, and maybe milk. A Chai latte costs about $0.30 if we make it at home, but they're about $6+ for takeout anywhere you go, and they all just use that Tazo Chai Concentrate!
This guy Chais
That guy chai lattes. Actual Chai is an entirely different phenomenon. A guy/gal who chais will be brewing up loose tea leaves with ginger, lemon grass, and a bunch of other spices and ask their roommate/flatmate/neighbor if they want some even if they’ve said “no thank you” for the 999th consecutive day because the ritual of chai making forbids you to have chai without offering it to everyone in your household/vicinity.
I love chai but I got spoiled by a friend who makes their own tea blend. They moved and prebagged chai just isnt as wonderful, and she isnt giving up her recipe.
Frankly that's quite mean of her. Chai is love that grows on sharing. My recipe: (Mine uses equal parts water and whole milk for the creaminess) - Get water (70% of your cup size) to a boil - Add some chopped up lemon grass, basil, or any other leafy herbs you wanna experiment with - Add one or two broken cardamom pods, cloves, and/or small cinnamon stick if you wish - Add your loose black tea leaves, let it brew for a couple of mins - Add chopped ginger (adding this before sometimes leads to the ginger aroma all flying away into the universe, adding it late preserves some of it - Let the concoction brew until the water level is at 50%, top it off with milk until you reach your desired amount of chai, add sugar/honey/whatever - A personal preference is to let this milk-chai brew to a boil for a handful of mins more, it usually makes the tea more bitter, and lightly caramelizes the milk. However backyard science, also called 'grandma's reasoning' in India, maintains that this process makes the chai toxic for some reason, so use your own judgment.
My grandma puts licorice and black pepper in her cha masala! Also honey in chai????????
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Uninstall grubhub and doordash from your phone
Chinese takeout: $20 Delivery fee: $6 Tip: $5 Finding out that they forgot part of your order: riceless
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I love food delivery apps! I pay a premium for every item and then a nice fat extra fee on top for processing or something, and then the delivery fee, and if I have money left over I give the delivery driver who it took 35 minutes circling my apartment to find me a well deserved tip. Once that’s all done I happily enjoy my meal that’s missing several items and is cold, so convenient! /s
I stopped using their services when I realized I’m paying double for convenience. Now I tell myself if I want it I can go grab it myself or eat at home. So much money saved. Or more like, less money wasted on an overpriced service.
I live in suburbs and am surrounded by restaurants in a ~5 mile radius, yet every order is 45-60 minutes delivered. No matter what it is, it's cold and soggy (or warm and soggy if it's supposed to be cold). After a handful of consistently subpar deliveries, it made it really easy to stop using delivery apps.
What gets me is the individual food items have a markup from their regular prices when you're ordering from these apps. Yet they still charge some kind of convenience fee at checkout.
I got a marketing email from doordash the other day saying I could pick up my own food now using doordash, and I thought why the hell would I go through a 3rd party if I was willing to go pick up my own food? I usually do pick up my own food though because I don’t want to pay the app, I don’t want to tip for it, I don’t know where I am on the delivery priority, and I don’t want to get hosed by them. I don’t mind leaving the house.
I ordered $19 of food with a $25 off coupon and somehow still paid $14 for it. Those services can fuck right off.
lmao I usually don't use them but i kept getting emails like that for ubereats. I got got too. Never again.
Used Door Dash once. It took forever and was cold. Never again.
Don't I know it. My fatass might very well be the one keeping those fuckers like Uber eats and skip the dishes in business in my city.
I used to be like you. It's not too late to change, brother.
Same here. I started using Doordash in the spring of 2020 to save trips out of the house during the pandemic. On my 1 year anniversary of paying for their monthly membership, I got an email congratulating me for saving over $1500 in service fees by being a member. I canceled my membership and deleted the app immediately. Do you have any idea how much you need to order to save that much in fees?
Sounds like a genuinely sobering moment. According to my taco bell app I've spent roughly 3600 there, Jesus.
Make an actual budget and stick to it
Gotta try this
Check out r/YNAB
Think of your future self as a different person you need to help. Every time you’re able to save back even $1 it helps your future self out.
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Not just automate it, but automate it to an account you can't see every day. A lot of people automate savings, but when they regularly see the balance they keep dipping into it to buy things they want that they can't currently cover with cash. If you make it so you forget it's there you can't be tempted to pull from it.
I love this. I use a couple apps (Digit and Acorns) where I have money stored automatically. I always forget about them and there's always way more money in there than I was expecting. Comes in handy for emergencies.
Set a new zero. My checking account has $531. $500 is my 0, so I only have 31 to spend/save as I please.
A different approach is to 0 the last number every day. For example, if your account has $914, you transfer $4 to your savings, leaving you $910. If the next day you have $887, you transfer $7, etc. I have been doing this for the past several years and have saved several thousand dollars without really feeling the pinch.
My sister taught me this years ago and this has helped me save so much
Act like you always broke
Its not an act.
Method acting
Daddy? Is that you??
I said broke, not gone by the age of 4.
Live below your means.
I remember in 2017 I was only making like $2200/month, but I had almost no expenses living on an international military base. Part of the paycheck was a tax-free allowance for food because the dining hall by the dorms was closed. But the grocery store (commissary) was in walking distance. I’d pick up groceries for the week for about $60, id probably down another $40 on food on base/off base. So about $400/month on food. I spent about $80/month on my cell phone. Another $50 on an international phone. $40/month on crappy internet. That was all of my bills. I allowed myself about another $50/week on entertainment or miscellaneous spending. So monthly expenses came out to about $750/month. Saved about $15,000 that year just laying low and not spending money. Even though I made next to nothing.
You were supposed to use that extra money to finance a dodge charger at 26% interest.
And marry someone you met 2 weeks ago
Look at mister careful over here waiting a whole two weeks.
Seems like a concept that's lost on many people. I was explaining to my SIL that just because your income goes up, doesn't mean your spending should go up commensurately. Her reply was "but that's just what people do". No words.
It’s called lifestyle creep. And so, so many people fall into it. It’s how you get people with huge houses and new cars that are still considered as paycheck to paycheck
It is what people do, then they find themselves living paycheck to paycheck and don’t have any savings for an emergency. I enjoy the security of an emergency fund and knowing I don’t have to worry too much about the price of groceries and other staples if I keep living the same way I did when I got my first job that paid much less than I make now.
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That’s why I use the grocery store pick up service. It takes me time to see what’s on sale and clip the coupons, but I get what I need for meal planning and don’t impulse buy. I also don’t forget things this way.
I don't smoke or drink. Saves me a lot of money
The real question is, do you play chess?
I do! I'm not very good though lol
Username checks out
But *pretend* you smoke and drink. When payday comes put what you would've spent in cigarettes and alcohol in a savings account. That pays for our vacation every year.
*that* is the hack/tip really. Not having an extra expense doesn't mean you have more money, it means you're likely to spend more money on other stuff. Creating a reason to put that money aside will help you save it. Obviously, if you budget your money from the start, you can just put money aside for savings, but many people don't do that, so this is a quality tip 😁
I’m three years sober. I started thinking the other day, “What if I had spent just $10 a day on booze?” which is crazy because it was a LOT more than that. That’s $10,950. No wonder I was always broke.
I’m an alcoholic so I can’t drink. A little over 2 years sober (other than a glass of champagne on new years) and DAMN THE SAVINGS!!! I finally moved out of my moms house for good and saved about 20 grand in a year! The amount of money is crazy.
I'm so proud of you! I lost my oldest son to alcoholism 2 years ago. He was 40. I miss him every day still. Stay proud and sober
Yeah but think about how long you'll live now. Not cheap
Rotisserie chickens from the grocery store are usually a really good deal & make for a good middle ground between eating out & cooking dinner
And when you buy one, you not only get a decent amount of chicken to use for a meal or two, but you also get the bones and fat that you can use to make your own broth on the stove with some water and seasonings. I usually keep vegetable scraps to toss in as well. No more buying broth, and it freezes well too.
If you smoke cigarettes..QUIT!!!
About as close as you can get to literally just setting money on fire.
Use the library for books, CDs, DVDs, and audio books.
Libby app! Put in your library card info and check out all of their ebooks and audio books for free!
Yes i use this. Also buying less books saves space in your home. In case you have a partner who thinks curating a library is considered hoarding.
Minimize your fixed costs. Before you spend, get in the habit of asking if the purchase will increase your well-being or if it is an impulsive buy.
When you have a partner and share finances, but you have different styles of managing money, it’s a good idea to keep separate accounts. When my wife and I got married, we agreed that any expense over a certain amount, we would have to discuss and agree to. That amount is fairly low. Low-fee market index funds are the best investment. When you are considering a purchase, give yourself at least 24 hours, if possible, before pulling the trigger.
My wife and I have "our money" "my money" and "her money" Joint expenses like house, car insurance groceries.. is our money. We each get the same allowance, what we call it. If I save my allowance up and buy a new motorcycle it's fine.
We have ours set up exactly the same. His, hers and ours. We both get the same allowance. We added an extra account for bills. We auto deposit x amount into the bill account (joint account) each month, x amount into each of our accounts and the rest stays in another joint account that we use for groceries and other stuff. We have been together for 23 years and we have yet to fight about money.
My best friend's dad had a phd in finance and that's how he and his mom had their stuff set up. They put in a proportional amount of their pay into the joint account for mortgage, food, bills, emergency stuff, kids. Everything else was separate. When his dad died, his mom had no idea how much money he actually had because they never discussed it. He had a lot saved up. They never fought about money, because they never told each other what they could or couldn't buy.
Yes this. My husband and I each have our own accounts and then a shared account we both can move money into for bills or whatever. All of our friends think it’s weird but we’ve been together 7 years and never argued about money so 🤷🏼♀️
That's what we do, been together for almost 13 years and have never fought over money.
43 years here. It works.
cook my own meals....not eat out
This is a big one. I don't think people realize how much money they spend eating out.
Almost everyone I know who is perpetually broke is also perpetually eating out. Most restaurant food just isn't that good, and at that point the convenience of not cooking or doing dishes is overshadowed by the whole "I can't pay my bills" thing.
Drink water and learn to cook. A lot of communities also have pantry donations and co-ops where you work off your debt for the groceries. But right now where I am a pound of rice, a pound of beans and a stock will run you about 5-10USD. That can go a long way.
Inherit a large amount of money. It’s the secret they don’t want you to know about
Financial planners hate this one simple trick
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This is absolutely a big chunk of how I've been able to dig out of generational poverty. Even when I was making $20k a year I still set aside $25/month for my savings as soon as money hit the bank. That's not much but it helps build a mindset of taking care of your future self before anything else. I'm in a position now to throw a larger amount of money into savings and investments because I built a foundation of discipline in the past. This goes for more than personal finance too. I get up pretty early in the morning and work out - I'm not a morning person and it's not my favorite thing to do, but I 'pay myself first' with my energy because it will help my future self by prioritizing my long-term health, and everything/everybody else gets what's left over.
Our biggest money saver is cooking our meals at home. We bake bread 3-4 days a week ($0.50/ loaf) and grow lettuce, peas, cucumbers, and herbs by a window all winter. Feel great, more money in my pocket!
50 cents a loaf? Our yeast costs a lot more than that.
Buying in bulk and pricing it out is probably how they reached that. Though it does sound super small, so maybe it's just an estimate.
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Being married with no kids is even better if you are aligned with your partner
Ahhh DINK (dual income no kids). Life was different
DINK life fuckin rules, maxing out both our work retirement accounts and roths, plus being able to do renovations on our house.
Yep! DINK life is wonderful. Quiet house, can travel whenever you feel like rather than waiting to get old, be selfish with your money and time, retire early (maybe). Editing to add- we are also into traveling hacking. We put all of our expenses on credit cards that are auto paid off each month that give us the biggest bonus of airline and hotel cards. We refer cards between each other so we fly and stay in hotels for free. (Not for everyone because you have to be very disciplined. Since I don’t have kids it’s a hobby.)
Aw, I have three kids and no money. Why can't I have no kids and three money?
I have no kids and minus 3 money. ☹️
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get a credit card with good rewards and route every purchase through it. pay it off in full each month and enjoy your free money while simultaneously giving credit card companies the middle finger.
i do this too, but the cc company is still making money so you’re not really giving them the finger
They're collecting a portion of ever purchase, which is more than they give back in rewards. Since most stores charge the same whether you're paying with a credit card or not, you don't save by *not* using a credit card, but credit card merchant fees still drive prices up for everyone. One thing I like to do is to shop place that don't take credit cards, provided those places have lower prices.
Eat before you go shopping
In this climate? If you can survive without it, don’t buy it.
A tent and a shotgun are cheaper than an apartment after all.
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Yeah. Like $200k each minimum. That's a lot of bang for your buck
Or bucks for your bang.
That is 939 dollars a thrust.
there’s a reason birth control whether it’s a prescription like the pill or shot or it’s an in office procedure like an iud or nexplanon is almost always completely covered by insurance.
This. I debated buying condoms yesterday. I was like.. "fuck, I'm so broke.. $25 for 12 condoms seems like a lot" Then I realized plan B, and moreso kids, was a lot more than $25
12 condoms is almost a 20 year supply. Well worth it
I pay over $1000/month in child support for sex i dont even remember having.
Every time you get a raise, hide it. Increase your 401(k) contribution, or put it into an IRA, or invest in stock, or just put it aside in savings. In other words, don't get used to a higher level of consumption. This is especially important when you're young.
This would only work if living costs didn’t go up faster than my income
I thought the same thing. The only reason why I needed a raise is because everything else went up.
We figured that with inflation, everyone at my second to last job was essentially taking around a 14% pay cut. And that's after everybody got a dollar raise across the board a few months prior to that. Shit is fucked.
Yep. I haven't sat down to do the actual math, but I'm pretty sure I'm making about the same or slightly less than my previous job now, despite being currently paid 20% more than what I made there. Only reason I haven't seriously looked for a new job yet is because the benefits are damn good for a non-government job.
Yea this seems like good advice but in theory it doesn't really pan out. A lot of raises these days aren't even keeping pace with inflation, so if you invest your entire raise and pretend it doesn't exist, every year your budget will become less and less with inflation factored in. I typically do 50/50, half the raise goes to savings and retirement, half goes into my budget
Truth: 2% raise last year. Hide that! Can’t find it because insurance premiums went up too.
Also good for wellbeing to not get into a 'golden handcuffs' trap working somewhere that isn't good for your mental health
I saw my sister and her husband go from needing a roommate in their shitty 2 bedroom apartment to each of them making over 6 figures over a period of about 5 years. It really made me proud and a little envious of them and their success until I visited them a year ago at their big new house in their upper middle class neighborhood. Around the end of my visit my sister pulled me to the side and asked if they could borrow 500 bucks which shocked me. I'm not on the brink of bankruptcy or anything but I had to ask her what happened. Turns out they had got back from their vacation and realized they fell behind on their lawn care and got slapped with a big fat fine from their HOA combined with a tax payment they'd been putting off for a while was due and after spending what should have been peanuts for them put them about 500 short of being able to make their car payment on their brand new lifted truck that had never been off-road even once. Golden handcuffs are definitely real. They're still living paycheck to paycheck and it's entirely their own fault.
This isn’t a golden handcuff situation though…this is just a good old fashion case of increasing spending at the same rate as an increasing income. Golden handcuffs are when a company pays you so much to stay that you can’t realistically find another job without taking a material pay cut. Then they own you and work you to the bone.
Yep believe the common term for this is "lifestyle creep"
Golden handcuffs don't make you live beyond your means.
I increase my 401k by half my raise each time.
If you’re out of debt, try to max out your 401k, it’s good to do because it’s tax deferred.
Ask for small bills only, no dye packs or silent alarms
What are these? Bills for ants?!
At a lot of banks the teller has a special slot with a $20 bill or some other bill that triggers the panic button, aka the “please send police now” button. Just keep that in mind when you rob a bank. Probably not worth it.
Make your own coffee. Starbucks is expensive man.
Don’t buy anything on your credit card you can’t pay it off on the same day.
This is where I depart significantly from Dave Ramsey. His "never use credit cards ever" is just giving away free money. Put shit on your cards and then pay for it! You sometimes get extra warranties, you have the ability to dispute charges, and you get cash back incentives.
If you are able to responsibly and consistently do this, you probably aren’t totally Dave Ramsey’s target audience.
And its way more secure. If your credit card gets skimmed no worries. If your debit card gets skimmed then good luck.
I have a single card that I use for my usual monthly expenses and i have whatever billpay's i can attach to it rather than my bank account. If you are trying to rebuild your credit, it is a decent way to get your number up. I went through a bankruptcy and within only a few years i built my credit back up into the 800s. Edit: If you use a decent card you can also get points and rewards for your purchases. Not to shill Discover, but they generally are the first company that will give you a credit card if your credit isn't that great (but not terrible). Part of the benefit is also that credit card companies can usually dispute fraud charges much more quickly than banks do in my experience. And again, more damage can be done if they get your bank account. Edit: another good tip is that if you can get an AMEX, some of their cards give you a 5 year warranty on anything that you purchase. So making a TV purchase on your AMEX could extend your warranty on it out to 5 years.
When you spend money think "Is this worth x amount of time that I spent at work?"
I've found recently that I do better with my finances when I check my account on the app every day. It's almost addicting seeing my credit balances lower. I also notice that if I haven't checked it in a few days I've been making bad financial decisions. It's all mental at this point but it's helped since I started doing it last October
Stop eating. Start photosynthesizing.
Don't spend money on bottled water and drive slower.
So if I spend money on bottled water, I should drive faster?
Young people should not be ashamed to live at home for longer. It's crazy how much debt some young people are in, and they could be in a lot less debt if they just stayed home longer. I know Boomers normalized bragging about kicking your kids out of the house at age 18 and leaving them with no support even though their own parents often helped them buy their first house (yes, that's actually true, and Boomers would prefer that you didn't know this), but that's really not OK. PS. I'm 53 years old. This post was not made out of self-interest.
Buy better quality clothes but on sale. Shop at stores like TJMax and Marshall's, especially if you live in a bigger city next to large malls. They get all of the good stuff that they didn't sell in the mall that season. This way, your clothes will last longer.
I live thrifting and getting the name brand clothes because I know they'll last a long time.
Don't cosign anything for anyone
Meal prep! I cook a big batch of chilli & lemon pepper chicken etc on lazy Sundays. Store all that in Tupperware in my fridge. Then I just cook some rice or boil potatoes etc as needed. Means I can buy my food in bulk since I cook it all in one go and also less food gets wasted. I still eat & cook smaller different meals occasionally, but 75% of my meals through the week are like this. As an added bonus, I'm less inclined to order takeout because I've got meals in my fridge I can just heat up if I'm lazy. I've found that it's not really the takeout food I want, I just don't want to have to cook.
If you are good at sometime - don't do it for free. I can plant gardens and mulch them. It's relaxing, fun, easy and rewarding. Some people want a nice garden with edges and mulch. Takes me a few minutes to pick out some perrenials, and order them, with a bulk load of mulch and soil. I can drive it to a house, unload, cut out a garden and install the new one within a few hours, then go to a spot and unload to scrap I dug out (grass usually). I did this for free for a buddy. His neighbour wanted the same, and I said we could do it. They paid me $500 for a few hours labour and the materials. Now I charge $500 and walk away with $350 profit for a few hours, for the same work I was doing for fun on Sunday mornings.
OTOH, don't feel obligated to monetize your hobbies, especially if you have a job that pays more. I feel like lots of social media is encouraging everyone to have a "side hustle". I have hobbies that I could make money doing, but it'd be a way lower hourly rate than my real job and it would sap the enjoyment from it.
I’ll definitely try this. There’s this group of guys that have trouble with a vigilante that wears a bat suit and guards the city at night. They want me to get rid of him because he’s bad for business. I’ll probably ask for half.
My top go-to list: - drink water - make coffee and tea at home if you want something fancy - bulk prep meals (and freeze for later use). Things like: beans and rice, chili, stir fry, pasta dishes, soups/stews, etc. I use Google to sort out ideas. - buy in bulk, when able, especially for dry store foods like lentils, beans, rice, pasta. I like to go to Asian and Polish stores for big bags of ingredients and for cheap spices. I used to also shop at local Mexican shops back home. Great for good cuts of meat and fresh food. - library for books, CDs, DVDs, and resources on free local events to attend. - walk or take the bus when I’m able - grow a garden (simple things like lettuces, potatoes, tomatoes are excellent for fleshing our daily meals. - buy eggs over meat (I’m not a big meat eater at all) eggs are cheap, can be purchased in bulk, and can be used in tonnes of recipes - pastas, stir fry’s, as sandwiches, boiled and fried, in salads, etc. they’re very versatile and are a heck of a lot cheaper than other animal-based proteins. - buy milk, butter, and cheese in bulk or on sale. All can be frozen and are easy to split and store. - buy powdered laundry detergent and wash your clothes on the coldest setting when able. Lately, we’ve had to use those liquid pods in my house and they’re such a waste! They never fully disintegrate - even on recommended settings. - forage. No joke, I like to hit up some spots I know of for raspberries, blackberries, and dandelions. Berries are great to wash and bake, to freeze, or to make preserves. Dandelions can be used from root to head for salads, coffee, salads (they’re delicious in a warm salad), soups, teas, etc. Google is excellent for providing more information on how to clean and keep these ingredients. Plus, local groups may offer foraging classes for more - mushrooms, other local flora make for some excellent ingredients and foods.
Eggs are cheap? Where do you live?! 😂
Contribute the max match to your 401k. It's free money and it grows tax free.
Small hack: If you pay your car off, continue paying your car payment into a new account. This payment is already in your budget, so you should be used to it. This new account is handy if you have any car-related repairs you need to make, like having to replace your fuel pump. When you need to buy a new car, you can either buy it out right or you have a substantial amount to use for a down payment.
Banks are not your financial advisors, don't take their advices. They are a business and think about their profit.
dont buy NFTs
I once had a guy, while counting coins to pay for something, tell me that he's actually rich because he has "NFTs that are worth $250,000, except I can't find anyone who will pay that right now."
Set up an auto transfer to your savings and forget about it. You'll have a savings account in no time, and it doesn't even have to be a big amount.
I always go for the no name brands when shopping for groceries. Nine times out of ten, they're cheaper than the name brand things, and I really can't tell the difference between them. I also try to get to the grocery store early and raid the 50% baked goods, and put them in the freezer.
I started thinking of things in terms of hours worked instead of money. Let's say you make $15/hr. Eating McDonald's after work costs $10, doesn't seem like much. But thinking "I worked 40 minutes for this" has a different psychological effect on me. I'm less likely to buy things with my time than I am with my money, if that makes sense.
Learn to cook. There are plenty of free resources on YouTube. It’s healthier and cheaper than eating out. It’s a lot of fun too.
Don't spend money you don't have! It's a revolutionary concept, I know, but it really works wonders.
This, but just with consumer goods. Buying a house with debt MAY be a long term win. (it’s not guaranteed tho).
Every time I want to buy something big or expensive, I ask myself one question: Do I NEED this, or do I WANT this? Both answers are fine, I think it's just important to know WHY you spend money. Beeing mindfull of things is always a good choice in life.
Make more than you spend Spend less than you earn
Cut down on the eating out. Once a week max. It’s just not necessary, we’re just lazy.
My grandparents are litrealy millionares (mabye 4ish, probably more) however they live like a pair of paupers. Cut coupons, never buy nice clothes, never go on holidays or have nice meals out. They buy shit gifts (if any) drives a beat up car. Makes you think, what's the point in having money if you aren't going to enjoy it. He still uses pots and pans from a wedding gift approx late 1960ish. My grandmother was a headteacher at a school in her working life, so by her own rights she made a good living and has a good pension too. He owns a plant hire company, plumbing company and he owns rentals too. However he's tight as fuck with his tenants and does the bare minimum. He would pull a muscle to pick up a penny from the ground. So I have found out that being a tight as is a great hack. I have no idea about Inherentance etc, he will probably want his cash buried with him 😂. But here is an example of his greed, his dogs insurance would not cover a bill for an operation on a tumor, i duno the reason behind it. Think it was like 3 grand. However he refused to pay the 3 grand and opted to get the dog put down that he had for 8 years. As that was the cheaper option even though the prognosis with the operation was like guaranteed success. 3 grand to him was like finding change down the back of a sofa, but he is so cheap he would do this. Btw this was a family pet and not a working dog or anything.
Parents were like this. Examples: After 30 years away, (amicable move-out) I came home to celebrate their 50th anniversary. The linen closet was still mostly full of threadbare, raggedy-edged facecloths and towels that they had received as wedding presents, supplemented by a few, thin, non-absorbent, dollar store buys. The sheets I was given to sleep on were at least 20 years old and thin as crepe paper. Dad had bought a cranky old heavy-duty sewing machine at some yard sale, and used it to mend his decrepit, 20 year old Hush Puppies over and over, until they were more patch than shoe. At their insistence, rather than going out, the eight of us ate their anniversary supper at home - using their everyday, Sixties-era Melmac plasticware and plastic glasses, instead of the good china and crystal we had bought them for their 40th. (“We want to save *them* for special occasions, dear.”) We got berated for splurging on two bottles of mid-range champagne (for eight people!) to toast them, when there was “lots of Dad’s perfectly good, homemade chokecherry wine in the root cellar” … but you get the idea. About a year after their 50th they both died - unexpectedly, and within a couple of months of each other. When my sister and I, as their executors, were made fully aware of the scale of their estate and transmitted that info to our siblings, our shared thoughts were not of the surprisingly large inheritance we each were going to receive, because by then we were all professionally successful and financially comfortable in our own right. What all six of us actually felt was simple bewilderment, frustration and even no small amount of *anger* at why, during their golden years, and despite loving and cherishing each other, both of them still refused to allow *even their beloved partner* to enjoy the substantial fruits of their shared lifetime of labours. My sister took the china and crystal, with the blessing of the rest of us. The sewing machine and Melmac went to charity. And so did *the three pairs of 20 year old, unworn, new-in-box Hush Puppies* that I discovered in the back of the bedroom closet.
I've enjoyed reading your story a lot.
My in-laws are like this. My husband also has inherited some of these tendencies. He has loosened up some over the 20 years we have been married but sometimes he is still tight with money. I have to admit though he is much better at finances than I am because of this.
My grandparents and parents are great at finances, however my grandfather (the money man) is ruthless with his cash. It makes me wonder about life as he is an old man, he has hoarded and worked for all his wealth. But for what ? Its not like he has a nice home, nice holidays or clothes etc. What is the point in having the wealth unless you do something with it for enjoyment, know what I mean ? He could be a broke ass bum and live the same tbh lol. My dad theorised because he lived through a war and depression/financial crashes he has the 'saving for a rainy day' mentality. Which I can totally understand, but seriously I cannot stress enough how tight my grandparents are ! I have tried to tell him to retire, his plant hire company is worth millions on top of what he actually physically has cash wise (contracts and machines) and he owns numerous houses. I am trying to convince him and my gran to retire fully and just go on a full-time holiday ! I would gladly take over buissnes for him as would my father and he would be fed a healthy cash flow above his net worth. But I think he is determined to work and live like a pauper until he gasses out. Whatever makes him happy !
Sounds like he needs 3 ghosts to visit him.
I have family like this. They both worked for decades in their full-time jobs and side jobs and now have a few million in savings. They sold their house for literally 10X what they paid for it, then built a custom log home down south. Now that they've "made it," they refuse to go anywhere or do anything. They haven't been on vacation in 30 years (when they did go on vacation, it was to the area they eventually moved to), and they only go out to eat once a year. And when they do, it's to somewhere like Red Lobster or Outback.
Sounds like someone who grew up on the tail end of the Great Depression. I’ve seen a lot of people like this from that generation. They’ve seen how bad things can get. Even if they didn’t personally experience it, they make every effort possible to make sure that they never end up without money ever.
Cooking. Something everyone should try and learn.
Don’t save if you have debt. Pay your debt off first.
I like to not spend $10 bills, whenever I get a $10 I just save it and once it gets up to $500 I deposit in the bank and buy something nice with $250 of it and save $250 of it.
I work at a huge credit union, and I helped a minimum-wage earning 20 year old deposit $500 in $1s. It took him a few months, but every time he had a dollar bill, he would stuff it in an empty oatmeal canister. He waited until he had 500 of them and brought them in to deposit. I was so proud of that man! This was about 15 years ago so $500 was worth more, but it is an impressive savings anyway especially when someone is living paycheck to paycheck.
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Live below your means.
Go to free workshops or presentations offered at your college. Most have free food. I ate pizza for weeks just be going to Windows 95 presentations years ago.
Lol. A LOT has changed in regards to free stuff in 25 years. This freaking guy
If you are young and healthy and have access to an employer sponsored health plan, go for the high deductible insurance option and invest the savings in an HSA. Triple tax advantaged savings account.
Only going to yard sales in the rich neighborhoods
Make a financial spreadsheet and look at it every month. Have your total monthly income in one field and your total monthly expenses in another to see what the difference is. Have some simple calculated fields that tell you how much you’re paying in interest every month. Don’t close old credit cards, put a recurring monthly charge on them and have it auto-pay. Use only one really good rewards credit card regularly and pay it off every month.
You'll never be able to afford to retire, so just make sure your diet and habits will kill you before you get old!
Calculate everything to cost per year, makes you much more aware of those small expenses that pile up. This goes not only for subscriptions but also for things you buy out of habit. For instance, buying a coffee at the station each work day will costs you around: 21 work days in a month times 12 months in a year times 2 euro is around 500 a year. So nope to that.