The Money Saver Thread

[Katastrophe]

I thought it might be fun for us to post some ways that we use to save money. Every little bit helps, at least to be able to afford more gear!

I'll start with the first idea.

Mrs. Kat and I have started using the local public library extensively. It's free, and has dropped our expenditures for books to near zero.

The cool thing is that our library has a reservation system where we reserve books in advance, then pick them up at our leisure. If the library doesn't have the book, they search other libraries to find it, and they loan it out, free of charge.

We've used the same service for DVDs, and it works great!

[Spudman***]

+1 on the library. The whole Spud family just came back from ours which is 4 blocks away.

Make and take your lunches to work.

Buying lunch out every day can really add up. Figure ($5 per day) just at Taco Bell x (5 days) = $25 per week or $100 per month. By making and taking your own lunch you can eat healthier and cut that cost in half. So now lunch is saving you ($50 per month) x (12 months) = $600 extra to spend per year. That's a new guitar or amph.

[R_of_G]

I too make extensive use of the library. When you have the appetite for reading that I do it's amazing how much money you can save by borrowing the books from a library rather than buying them.

Biggest piece of advice I can offer for saving money is this... if you smoke cigarettes, quit. The health benefits should be obvious, but no matter how many times you do the math on paper, nothing shows you how much money you spend on smokes better than not buying them anymore. My lungs and my wallet thank me all the time.

[Tone2TheBone]

Buy beer ON SALE. Saves in the long run.

[tunghaichuan***]

+ 1 billion on libraries.

I'm on the staff of a small public library, and I get books, CDs and DVDs and save my self a ton of money. In fact, I do not buy fiction. I generally read a fiction title once and never again. I do like to get non-fiction books ahead of time and look them over if I'm considering buying a copy. I still buy non fiction if I want to own a copy of it.

The library is also great for getting rare and/or out of print books.

[Robert****]

Leave the car at home, and take the bicycle.

[Commodore 64***]

I buy used gear on Craig's List.

[bigG]

Buy store brands! I buy all of Walgreen's offered store brands at a HUGE savings, and I drink caffiene-free diet cola from Publix in-house: sweetened w Splenda (no aspartame!) and only 79 cents for a 2-litre bottle! Coke and Pepsi are like $2.00/bottle!

Spud's recommendation to brown-bag it is a great one! Saves at least $25/week!

And those little curly screw-in fluorescent light bulbs that replace incandescent bulbs are pretty cheap now, cost virtually nothing when on, and last forever!

[kiteman]

Here's a real money saver, drop your internet service.

[Spudman***]

Here's a real money saver, drop your internet service.

Shame on you.

[Robert****]

Drink plain tap water instead of buying over-priced, environment-unfriendly bottled liquids.

[M29]

Use one sheet instead of three...

[hubberjub***]

Drink plain tap water instead of buying over-priced, environment-unfriendly bottled liquids.

Speaking of not buying bottled liquids, brew your own beer and wine.

[marnold***]

Eschew pants.

[Eric***]

Let's see here...

• Don't get cable or satellite TV.
• Have only the most basic cell phone plan and whatever phone you can get for free, provided you need a cell phone.
• Don't eat out.
• Buy used for as much stuff as possible. Craigslist is a great innovation that lets you get perfectly good stuff for pennies on the dollar.
• Don't use air conditioning.
• Get a programmable thermostat for heat in the winter and set it to keep your place cold during the day.
• Don't buy a new car -- I've never had a car payment in my 15 years of driving. Helps save on insurance too, since I don't need full coverage.
• Only have one car per family if at all possible. If you can swing it, have zero cars.
• See how little space you can live with -- less space = less rent/lower mortgage payment and lower utility bills.

And, most importantly, cut out the dye jobs and pedicures.

[Heywood Jablomie]

Put all your change in a jar, every day. You won't miss it, but it adds up more quickly than you'd think.

[Spudman***]

Put all your change in a jar, every day. You won't miss it, but it adds up more quickly than you'd think.

Very true. I prefer a can so that I can't see how full it is. Less temptation that way.

And, most importantly, cut out the dye jobs and pedicures.

Ahem, covering the gray is like buying groceries. It's essential.

Use one sheet instead of three...

Ah! From the Cheryl Crow school of economics...but eventually you'll still have to use the other two.

[riverrick]

Put all your change in a jar, every day. You won't miss it, but it adds up more quickly than you'd think.

I do this...in fact rolled my coins today....$140...not bad eh!!

[Bloozcat]

Join a wholesale club. Our first visit savings at our local BJ's paid for the yearly membership. After that, it's all savings for the rest of the year. And, you don't have to buy everything by the pallet, either. There's only two of us in our household and we find all kinds of things to buy there.

I don't know if this is true of grocery stores around the country, but Publix and Winn Dixie stores here send out flyers each week with many buy one, get one free items listed. We stock up on all kinds of things through this. If it's non-perishable or can be frozen, it works.

Learn how to fix things when they break rather than just buying a new replacement (or paying someone else to fix it). I know that a lot of the modern, cheap, electronics aren't worth fixing, but there are still many things around the house that when they break, only need a relatively easy and inexpensive repair. I have litterally saved thousands in repair costs by doing it myself.

Shop the web for deals. I can't even begin to list the things I've bought on the internet for far less than I can find them locally. I don't waste gas driving around looking, and in most cases I save the sales tax.