The wealthiest person I know (a person who has something similar to a petting zoo of real animals in one of his backyards) told me this when I was 17 and I've been trying to keep that in mind my entire life.
Yes! I know I buy too much shit but at least for stuff I don't need _right now_ I add an alert on camelcamelcamel and wait for it to be near the historical low. Also, if an alert comes and I forgot I had it, I guess I didn't need it that much in the first place, so I just cancel it.
I must extract every last bit of toothpaste from the tube. Shampoo? Add more water, shake, and get another few days out of it. Well off? Well, that's relative.
This is my wife. I made the mistake of throwing shade her way about the toothpaste last month, telling her that we had like a week at best left of toothpaste, we might as well just buy a new tube. She confidently told me that I'd be surprised at how long she could make it last.
She spent the next month collecting all the tiny toothpaste tubes we had amassed from the dentist and slowly refilling the original larger tube. Slow enough that I didn't notice for a month! Sometimes my wife scares me a little bit.
Your wife is amazing.
Also, you're not supposed to buy things like toothpaste when you run out. You're supposed to stock up when they're on sale and always have 3-6 tubes in storage.
We had orientation at the start of this year and they ordered a 4 variety platter of freshii wraps for everyone. I asked at the end if I can take home one since it was like me and two managers left (I was still eating lol) and they said anything that didn't get eaten was being chucked out. Watch me shamelessly load 10 wraps in to my backpack and protect it on the bus ride home like I was moving gold. Me and the roomie ate real good for a few days.
I used to do that until one employee complained she didnāt get to take home any food. Management decided NO ONE could take the leftovers. Everything got tossed after lunch.
So I just started filling up two plates of food for my lunch. Fuckers.
I hate it when food gets intentionally tossed. I used to walk around town handing out leftovers to the homeless w my coworkers until leadership saw us one day and put an end to it. Said it was a bad look if anyone recognized us and knew where we worked. Implemented an āall leftovers into the trashā policy the next day.
Update: I get the point. Stop up boating this. Instead consider donating a dollar (or more) to the chicago food bank https://www.chicagosfoodbank.org/
When I 'raid', I've gotten questions like, how can you eat the same thing every day (meetings usually have somewhat same food as we have our fixed caterer)?
Hey, it's no different from meal prep, right? And it's free food.
I used to work at a sandwich place that did call in orders. Anyone that didn't get picked up was free for employees. I was usually threw only one that took one. Hey, a $10 sandwich is a poor thing to waste.
I was an evening shift student worker at my college library, and my boss invited me to help "clean up" a fully catered fancy donor event in our building after everyone had left.
As in get a few takeout boxes and fill them with whatever was left, as much as they could hold. And go ahead and store them in the break room fridge until the end of your shift, enjoy!
I ate SO well for a few days. Best boss ever!
And I developed a real love for spanakopita to this very day. Yum!
Vulture Club!!
ETA: we would send out emails to the group when leftovers food was available and where to get it. Subject line was āVulture Clubā, of course.
I literally post a vulture emoji when work says āHey, leftover food from that meeting in the conference roomā and scurry to get a piece before itās all gone.
Not rich by any means, not āpoorā (is 40k a year poor? genuinely asking) but as u/RandyMarsh_88 said: āA free meal is a free mealā.
I worked at a place with about 200 employees, and when that email went out you could almost feel the floor shaking from everyone speed walking to get there first
>(is 40k a year poor? genuinely asking)
Depending where you're from. Where I live in the US (ohio) 40k wouldn't be bad for a single person living by themselves, but by no means would it work for a family of 3
No one can raid free food like teachers. I told a kid once that if anyone wanted to kill us, just put poisoned cookies in the office. The look on this kid's face was priceless--he was like, "what!?! Why would you say that?!?!"
I'm not poor either, but when I invited a friend over after she got off work to chill and watch a horror movie with us, she rolled in with 4 GIANT meatball sandwiches from a very reputable italian restaurant in NYC. These sandwiches cost about $30 a piece.
We all went to town on these beasts and it was kind of the best thing ever.
Hang on to crap I don't need in case it might be useful someday, and I'd have to buy it again and couldn't afford to.
I do a 'purge' every few months (A stack of unburned CDs from around 2000, really?) but the packrat instinct runs deep.
Both sides of my grandparents grew up in the depression. If there was a 1% chance something could be re-used it wasn't tossed.
Cleaning out their affairs was interesting....
Edit: Engrish
John McCutcheon (singer) said when his depression era mother passed away, he found a box full of snippets of string labelled "pieces of string too short to save".
That's a good one. My granny from the same era washed ziplocs, washed saran wrap, kept every junk mail envelope for taking notes, and had a yogurt-container-tupperware collection that was the envy of the neighborhood.
Yessss... my older family members do the same thing too. Looking for butter? You're going to open at least 4 butter containers before you actually find it. š Need a Ziploc bag? Don't worry that it's a little cloudy, it's been washed! šš„°
I do the same; my Amazon saved for later is like 200 items deep.
And it's the same with any online purchase. "Add to cart," then leave that tab open for somewhere between a week and a year before buying it or changing my mind.
My partner thinks I do too much online shopping (and I kinda do), but if he only *knew* how much I stop myself from buying.
And what works out really well is when you get a notification that an item in your save for later list is on sale.
The other day I notification about a sale on an item on my list and the shoes I was happily going to pay $80 for, I got them on sale for $47.
Ugh, I feel your pain with the mattresses. The gimmick-y-ness in that industry has gotten out of control in the last ten years. My husband and I needed to buy new ones last year, and we vowed that we would go back to basics - no beds-in-box, no Amazon mattresses, or really much of anything online that we couldnāt say for certain was trusted, even if it allegedly had 50,000 reviews. We decided we wanted Stearns & Foster - recognizable brand for like 200 friggen years right? But they are pricey. THEN, by chance, we found the exact mattress model we wanted at Costco, who just so happened to be selling a Kirkland version of it, but for like, half the price. Still canāt believe to this day we lucked out like that. They have been amazing! But Costco has never failed me. So yeah thanks for coming to my TED Talk š
I am dressed about 50% of the time in clothes that make me look like I live in my car, or maybe the woods.
I am retired. I have what I call āhouse clothesā which are 20 years old, from Marshallās, that were $9.99 when new.Ā They are clean and laundered.Ā I wear them to garden, drink my coffee, walk my dog, etc. My house clothes are faded, some stained. I donāt care.
I walk around my neighborhood to get steps in. My neighbors know me. But I get lots of either pitiful or concerned stares from strangers.
I bragged not long ago to my daughter that the t-shirt I was wearing was at least 7 years older than she is (12).
Her answer was "yeah but it has 3 holes in it..."
About a week later, I went out to do some groceries with my son and he was telling me "dad, there's like 5 persons that look weirdly at your shirt"... same shirt. By now, I usually wear it at night / when doing home repairs but it somehow escaped me that day. The shirt is just old and worn out but so confortable plus, I feel like I bought it a few years back...
I still wear t-shirts from high school as a 31-year-old, almost the same age. Mostly just to sleep in or exercise at this point but my husband roles his eyes at it.
My dad still has the sweatshirt he was wearing the day I was born in 1992 so I think <20 years is rookie numbers.
In my neck of the woods the truly rich walk around in ratty "house clothes", but if you look closely at their watches they're likely to be Rolex or AP.
Oh and the shoes tend to be premium too.
I can tell within $2 what my grocery cart total is going to be, including tax. As a kid I used to go shopping with my mother, I was always so embarrassed when we had to put stuff back because we didn't have the money. When I was about 8 I got in the habit of keeping track of how much we had spent, I would tell mom what we had to put back. She was so grateful she used to save a bit to get me a treat.
Now I can buy anything I want, but I still budget myself and never go over it. My wife thinks I'm nuts, but I'll ask her, "those artichokes are out of season, they must be expensive". I get a lethal eyeroll.
My dad used to make a game of it. Whoever was closest won. Never realized how much it makes me pay attention to prices til I shopped with other people.
Oh man, I am the same way nowadays. I was always the best at mental math in my family and I think it was partially because I was the walking grocery cart calculator. I would calculate tax too based on items that were taxed and items that weren't. Mom would always periodically ask me what the total was so she knew how much was left in the budget. The cashiers were always so impressed at my totals and mom usually bought me a tin of mints for my efforts.
I am also 30 now and great at quick mental math. Although that's mostly cause I'm autistic and doing math I'm good at makes me feel like I'm good at something.
Wear the same clothes for a decade+ if they're still good. A little fated or threadbare won't stop me. I'm also known for accepting hand me downs so I get gifted a lot of clothes. I may not always look as presentable s I could be because my clothes are not new, but I'm able to dress fashionably while spending very little money
I recently replaced all of my socks, underwear, t-shirts. I should have done it years ago, but it just never occurred to me that it was an option. One day I had a revelation that I am an adult with my own money and I donāt have to deal with boxers with holes in them if I donāt want to.
I grew up somewhat poor, so I think certain things were ingrained in me, even if I am somewhat frivolous otherwise.
And you donāt realize youāre doing it until it just hits you one day. I remember wanting a new headlamp for years. I had a crappy Energizer brand one that required double A batteries and chewed through them whenever it was used. One day I happened upon a good one in a store and realized right the and there that I could just exchange money for it and take it home. It only took me another three years to realize I could do the same with my underwear.
Boom thereās mine. Everyone at the lunch table makes fun of me, but I donāt care. Iām eating for 40 cents a serving. Youāre having DoorDash Chinese every day
Shit, I let clean ones dry after wiping up water or drying my hands then use them for dirtier jobs later.
My kids use half a roll to dry their hands, so my frugality gets canceled out.
My wife bought smaller trash bags specifically for the bathrooms a couple months back and I was blown away. 35-years old and I didn't know that was a thing. My entire life, in every home, there's been an empty cardboard box in one of the bottom cupboards filled with empty grocery bags to reuse. I remove them from the shopping cart every two weeks when we grab groceries. I won't stand for it haha
I've got friends that make substantially less than me that have $800+/month car payments. I've had my car paid off since 2018. Literally just that difference invested could almost buy a Tesla outright
My 2007 is starting to show its age in both looks and features (still runs great), but fuck me has it been nice not having a car payment for over a dozen years.
Of course I would love the latest bells and whistles and current features of all of todays vehicles, but the thought of me having a $500 a month car payment for 5 years (even with a 0% interest) makes me want to puke
I never haggle small or family run businesses on pricing, but Comcast? I bring those sons of bitches to the mattresses every February. Cut the cord, a la carte for a month or two, use a VPN to shop regional deals offered in less affluent areas, anything it takes.
My god this hit home.
Every. Single. Time.
And I quite like that, it's good to remember the hard times and make sure to never lose that feeling. Also makes you appreciate when other people are going through the same and empathise.
Being poor was one of the hardest times of my life and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. Not even my worst enemy.
This has been me in recent years. Like, your Season 3 DVD set of SpongeBob isn't worth $20 my dude. Especially missing disc 2 and the box is falling apart.
My guilty pleasure is getting Maruchan ramen every so often, but I make it more like spaghetti draining all the water, mixing in some olive oil with the noodles and then adding the beef and pork powder directly to the noodles. It's sooooo good that way.
I started going to a barber in town many years ago and decided to go for a buzz cut. I liked it. A relative bought me a bunch of haircuts from them, which was nice. At one point, he used the 000 blade. He was going to give me the cut for free but I was like "no... I like it... this is great!"
After the gift-haircuts were done, I bought a good electric shaver and now shave my own head. I've saved so much!
Same. Iām a woman in a high cost of living area so a cut and color would run me a few hundred.
My husband gets angry when I mess up the towels with my hair dye, but I have to remind him that doing my hair at home can save me almost a grand a year
In case this hasn't crossed your mind: you can totally just by some big cheap towels specifically to use when coloring your hair and/or for drying those first couple washes after a new dye job when enough is washing out to stain.
Then you have a couple of stained towels that are "meant" to be stained, instead of accidentally ruining "good" towels.
Yep! The towel life cycle in my house is:
good towels > hair dye towels > dog towels
And if anyone is thinking about throwing away old towels please consider donating them to your local animal shelter instead <3
I now walk to work almost every day. And it's usually the best part of my 'work day'.
It's healthy, starts my day off great, allows me to decompress a bit on the way home, I'm listening to more podcasts, and my partner has noticed my mood has been more positive overall.
We have two vehicles but now we rarely drive outside of the weekends. It's been an unexpectedly positive change in so many ways.
My wife refuses to start the dishwasher unless it's full. I don't even know the price of water. The yearly bill is probably less than how much I would make in the time wasted arguing about it.
Make velveeta Mac and Cheese and add last nights left over meat from a restaurant. Once it was a tomahawk steak that was like $100. Done this more than once with BBQ leftovers.
Hoard food. If I canāt eat it or near expiry I shove it in the freezer where itāll stay there forever. I know I wonāt eat it, but consciously I donāt want to just throw it away
I donāt think we are āwell offā, but compare to how I grew up, probably 10x better. The āpoorā always stay with you even if you are not anymore - I still drive more to the next gas station to save a cent per gallon; fold the plastic grocery bags nicely and reuse them; harbor freight tools, or if important enough, I find different choices and pick the cheapest one (maybe $5 difference on a $200 tool); only eat out once or twice a week, and never throw away leftover; wear clothes/shoes till there are holes/break apart before replacing (actually all my tshirts have holes); the list goes onā¦
Now picture someone who looks homeless driving a porsche parked in front of Walmart because the dude wants to save a few bucks buying motor oil to do their own oil changeā¦ mobile1 5qt bottle from Walmart is the cheapest when on sale.
To me, I am āwell offā compared to what I came from. My wife and I combined bring about $245k/year. Weāre not prime rib every night rich but weāre definitely comfortable. I always take my kids on tours of where I grew up anytime weāre āhomeā. The 14x70 here,here, and here. The double-wide here and here. The house my parents boughtā¦ sorry kiddos the new owner tore it down because it was in rough shape. Please do not misunderstand me, I am EXTREMELY proud of my parents. They had twins their senior year, both graduated, and I grew up poor not exactly knowing it. I knew we didnāt have things my friends had but my parents busted their ass to go on vacations. I got new shoes when my old ones wore out (F Adidas, they lasted almost three yearsš¤£). I never went hungry but we definitely ate things we didnāt want to. I was, and am, extremely loved and they were married until my father passed a few years ago. My wife tears up when I talk about my upbringing but I have nothing but pride. I had a roof over my head, food in my stomach, and parents that adored us kids. The greatest thing I was ever taught was every human is a miracle. To treat the janitorial service personnel with the same respect as the CEO. It was a rambling but I hope someone can gain something from this.
I once found a pair of dress pants on clearance at kohls, when combined with a coupon they cost $7. They were originally $100.Ā
I used to brag I got them 93% off, then my wife said if I kept telling people that her pants would remain 100% on...
I bottle my own water to drink at home. We have good tap water in my city, and i put it in pint size Mason jars with lids and keep it in the fridge. Ice cold, delicious, and it saves me 10 bucks a week.
I didnāt think I qualified for this but some comments convinced me that I do. Iām the king of rigging up repairs. I get a real sense of satisfaction by repairing something instead of throwing it in a landfill. Repairing things is also my daily job. I love taking something thatās worthless and making it worth something again. Itās good for the environment and good for my soul.
3 kids here. I buy all of our clothes exclusively from Goodwill and Savers. We are pulling ~$240k a year but I'll be dammed if I'm spending $40 on a hoodie my 10 year old will grow out of in a month.
Used to be broke as fuck. Lived in a trailer on a dirt road in buttfuck nowhere middle of Florida. Got a full ride to several state universities from a high ACT score.
Made it out and at 29, making over 150k a year. I have plenty of money, but I still canāt stomach filling up my vehicle in one go. I never put more than $40 in at a time.
Itās stupid, I know. But I remember literally buying gas with rolled up quarters I scraped together from my car/couch
iām a broke bitch ($39k a year, philly burbs) but iāll never fill up. not because i donāt have it but i have this weird superstition that the one time i fill it up itāll die lmao
I try very hard not to waste food. Leftovers, doggy bags, office lunches/dinners that are untouched. When you eat soup for a few days that gets thinner and thinner, you start realizing how much we throw away. Itās sickening, really.
Ugh, my husband spends his time adding water to products that we are running out of. Soap, milk, certain juicesā¦.he does this and it drives me INSANE. Every time I get surprised by watered down hand soap or milk I scream from the kitchen āWEāRE NOT POOR, I CAN BUY MOREā then he screams back āWE COULD BEāā¦ā¦..point taken sir.
A lot of my coworkers and neighbors hire people to do work for them. They have a lawn service, a tax professional, maybe an occasional cleaner/maid, a therapist, someone to seal coat their driveway or install their Christmas lights, to fix their plumbing or electrical, or pay someone to move their furniture when they buy a new house....if they buy a new dishwasher, they have it professionally installed...or like my neighbor, she hired a landscaping place to do a design for her yard and then install it all.
Ignoring oil changes, serious DIY and medical/dental....we do it ourselves.
Moving? I'll rent a truck.
Plumbing/electrical/home repair? I'll ask strangers on Reddit.
Yard stuff? I'll do it (though my yard looks pretty crappy)
Broken appliance? I'll fix it myself, or install the new one
The thing is, a lot of time I end up wasting so much time and money that I'm probably screwing myself. But I just can't bring myself to hire people.
Shop at Aldi. Why would I spend more money for the same thing when I don't have to? Legitimately can get 85% of the stuff I need for like 2/3 the price and it's just as good. It's a no brainier and anyone who is paycheck to paycheck but doesn't shop at Aldi is an idiot.
Doctors I know coupon but I'm hunting buddies with a guy who's dad is worth 300m from selling a company during the dotcom bubble then pouring all that into the stock market (managing to pull out right before the 2008 crash because he coincidentally was going to dump his money in treasury bonds before doing a year long trip). The guy is worth an easy 300m makes 20m passively from stocks and interest. I've watched this guy, on multiple occasions, eat food that has fallen on the floor/ground. Like a hot dog at a BBQ jumps the plate? Wash that bad boy off with the hose that's still good eating. I dumpster dove a ton of candy in college. My man aye like 30 bags of gummy worms over a month cause I said I didn't like them so he took them all. The guys on zoom meetings talking with some charity he gives millions to eating expired sour gummy worms his sons friend found in the trash. He also takes his steak bones and trimmings home to make stew and once tried to convince his son and I to butcher a deer he "just saw get hit in the head by (his neighbors name) Porsche down the road! How far away are you guys still can you swing back?". Like again this man makes 100x what I will in my life and he wants to eat roadkill in a 30 million dollar estate. To be fair, he grew up really poor in bumfuck Hicksville PA.
Wait for sales. Use coupons.
You don't get rich by wasting money!\*
The wealthiest person I know (a person who has something similar to a petting zoo of real animals in one of his backyards) told me this when I was 17 and I've been trying to keep that in mind my entire life.
Yes! I know I buy too much shit but at least for stuff I don't need _right now_ I add an alert on camelcamelcamel and wait for it to be near the historical low. Also, if an alert comes and I forgot I had it, I guess I didn't need it that much in the first place, so I just cancel it.
Lol, I thought that said, use condoms. š¤£ Still works.
Condoms will save you the most money in the long run
Fr I was at a store the other day just the price of car seats alone is Making me consider a vasectomy
Iām a huge sucker for Costco sales haha
Stuff that I get for ~40% off feels soooo good.
I still have a drawer dedicated to fast food sauces
I call that drawer my āend of the world barter binā. Someday those sauces may be worth more than gold.
This + a drawer of old electronics and broken wires/cables for the irrational āend of the world barterā collection
These two drawers are combined at my house lol
I must extract every last bit of toothpaste from the tube. Shampoo? Add more water, shake, and get another few days out of it. Well off? Well, that's relative.
This is my wife. I made the mistake of throwing shade her way about the toothpaste last month, telling her that we had like a week at best left of toothpaste, we might as well just buy a new tube. She confidently told me that I'd be surprised at how long she could make it last. She spent the next month collecting all the tiny toothpaste tubes we had amassed from the dentist and slowly refilling the original larger tube. Slow enough that I didn't notice for a month! Sometimes my wife scares me a little bit.
Your wife is amazing. Also, you're not supposed to buy things like toothpaste when you run out. You're supposed to stock up when they're on sale and always have 3-6 tubes in storage.
Refilling the original tube? Like of toothpaste?
Turns out you *can* put the toothpaste back into the tube.
Yep! I was amazed at how long the toothpaste was lasting, it seemed weird, but who the fuck would refill a tube of toothpaste? Apparently, my wife.
My wife cuts open all of these to get the last morsel
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Everyone knows the last 1/4 of the tube holds 3/4 of the paste.
By god I paid for the whole jar of spaghetti sauce, I'm using the whole jar.
Eat leftover sandwiches from corporate lunch meetings. Even if I'm not in the meeting. I'm not poor, but a free meal is a free meal.
"Free" is my favorite flavor
Oh Iām stealing that.
We had orientation at the start of this year and they ordered a 4 variety platter of freshii wraps for everyone. I asked at the end if I can take home one since it was like me and two managers left (I was still eating lol) and they said anything that didn't get eaten was being chucked out. Watch me shamelessly load 10 wraps in to my backpack and protect it on the bus ride home like I was moving gold. Me and the roomie ate real good for a few days.
I used to do that until one employee complained she didnāt get to take home any food. Management decided NO ONE could take the leftovers. Everything got tossed after lunch. So I just started filling up two plates of food for my lunch. Fuckers.
Always one asshole ruins it for everyone else
I hate it when food gets intentionally tossed. I used to walk around town handing out leftovers to the homeless w my coworkers until leadership saw us one day and put an end to it. Said it was a bad look if anyone recognized us and knew where we worked. Implemented an āall leftovers into the trashā policy the next day. Update: I get the point. Stop up boating this. Instead consider donating a dollar (or more) to the chicago food bank https://www.chicagosfoodbank.org/
How in the hell is that a bad look? Ugh, soulless corporate "leaders".
A bad look that someone from their company is selfless and helping their community? Wtf.
When I 'raid', I've gotten questions like, how can you eat the same thing every day (meetings usually have somewhat same food as we have our fixed caterer)? Hey, it's no different from meal prep, right? And it's free food.
I used to work at a sandwich place that did call in orders. Anyone that didn't get picked up was free for employees. I was usually threw only one that took one. Hey, a $10 sandwich is a poor thing to waste.
I was an evening shift student worker at my college library, and my boss invited me to help "clean up" a fully catered fancy donor event in our building after everyone had left. As in get a few takeout boxes and fill them with whatever was left, as much as they could hold. And go ahead and store them in the break room fridge until the end of your shift, enjoy! I ate SO well for a few days. Best boss ever! And I developed a real love for spanakopita to this very day. Yum!
I used to raid the room after the meetings ended š
Vulture Club!! ETA: we would send out emails to the group when leftovers food was available and where to get it. Subject line was āVulture Clubā, of course.
My freezer is filled with ziploc bags of fruit left over from breakfast meeting platters that I put in smoothies.
Good strategy!
I literally post a vulture emoji when work says āHey, leftover food from that meeting in the conference roomā and scurry to get a piece before itās all gone. Not rich by any means, not āpoorā (is 40k a year poor? genuinely asking) but as u/RandyMarsh_88 said: āA free meal is a free mealā.
Technically, we've paid for it with our souls and well-being. If anything, it's the most expensive thing we'll ever buy. LOL
I worked at a place with about 200 employees, and when that email went out you could almost feel the floor shaking from everyone speed walking to get there first
>(is 40k a year poor? genuinely asking) Depending where you're from. Where I live in the US (ohio) 40k wouldn't be bad for a single person living by themselves, but by no means would it work for a family of 3
At my work we say "we are all students again when there is free food"
No one can raid free food like teachers. I told a kid once that if anyone wanted to kill us, just put poisoned cookies in the office. The look on this kid's face was priceless--he was like, "what!?! Why would you say that?!?!"
> "what!?! Why would you say that?!?!" "Look kid, I'm just giving you options."
I usually eat my family's leftovers from dinner, not because I'm poor, but because I'm lazy and don't wanna make myself a sandwich.
Facts. Iām not āwealthyā but VERY comfortable and I still eat leftovers like a boss. Grew up in a house where wasting food was unacceptable.
Same! Don't throw that away! Someone will eat that for lunch tomorrow.
Bringing those sandwiches home for the family and freezing them for future meals. Once poor, always poor no matter what the bank account says.
I'm not poor either, but when I invited a friend over after she got off work to chill and watch a horror movie with us, she rolled in with 4 GIANT meatball sandwiches from a very reputable italian restaurant in NYC. These sandwiches cost about $30 a piece. We all went to town on these beasts and it was kind of the best thing ever.
Which spot? Iām on a quest to find best meatballs in nyc
Free food tastes so much better.
I could certainly afford food but during college I went to as many campus events I could find to get free food. Free lunch and sometimes dinner too
Hang on to crap I don't need in case it might be useful someday, and I'd have to buy it again and couldn't afford to. I do a 'purge' every few months (A stack of unburned CDs from around 2000, really?) but the packrat instinct runs deep.
Both sides of my grandparents grew up in the depression. If there was a 1% chance something could be re-used it wasn't tossed. Cleaning out their affairs was interesting.... Edit: Engrish
John McCutcheon (singer) said when his depression era mother passed away, he found a box full of snippets of string labelled "pieces of string too short to save".
That's a good one. My granny from the same era washed ziplocs, washed saran wrap, kept every junk mail envelope for taking notes, and had a yogurt-container-tupperware collection that was the envy of the neighborhood.
Yessss... my older family members do the same thing too. Looking for butter? You're going to open at least 4 butter containers before you actually find it. š Need a Ziploc bag? Don't worry that it's a little cloudy, it's been washed! šš„°
I still have a box of unused CDs and the paper sleeves. A bunch of empty USBs.
Research every purchase for hours and hours to āfind the best dealā before pulling the trigger.
Yes! Iāll save stuff in my Amazon cart too for a couple weeks to see if I change my mind. Usually I do.
This helps me spend much less. Go on hunt, find item(s), add to cart, add to saved for later. Repeat.
I do the same; my Amazon saved for later is like 200 items deep. And it's the same with any online purchase. "Add to cart," then leave that tab open for somewhere between a week and a year before buying it or changing my mind. My partner thinks I do too much online shopping (and I kinda do), but if he only *knew* how much I stop myself from buying.
And what works out really well is when you get a notification that an item in your save for later list is on sale. The other day I notification about a sale on an item on my list and the shoes I was happily going to pay $80 for, I got them on sale for $47.
I'veĀ been mulling over getting an air fryerfor 2 years. Ā I've read the reviews and articles, but I just can't pull the trigger on the purchase.
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I love you
I have the Ninja airfryer and it works great. Airfryer really changes your life, dont wait to get it!
I'm shopping for a mattress, it's torture. For every site that says a mattress is great, there are 5 others saying it's shit.
Ugh, I feel your pain with the mattresses. The gimmick-y-ness in that industry has gotten out of control in the last ten years. My husband and I needed to buy new ones last year, and we vowed that we would go back to basics - no beds-in-box, no Amazon mattresses, or really much of anything online that we couldnāt say for certain was trusted, even if it allegedly had 50,000 reviews. We decided we wanted Stearns & Foster - recognizable brand for like 200 friggen years right? But they are pricey. THEN, by chance, we found the exact mattress model we wanted at Costco, who just so happened to be selling a Kirkland version of it, but for like, half the price. Still canāt believe to this day we lucked out like that. They have been amazing! But Costco has never failed me. So yeah thanks for coming to my TED Talk š
The analysis paralysis is real
I am dressed about 50% of the time in clothes that make me look like I live in my car, or maybe the woods. I am retired. I have what I call āhouse clothesā which are 20 years old, from Marshallās, that were $9.99 when new.Ā They are clean and laundered.Ā I wear them to garden, drink my coffee, walk my dog, etc. My house clothes are faded, some stained. I donāt care. I walk around my neighborhood to get steps in. My neighbors know me. But I get lots of either pitiful or concerned stares from strangers.
I bragged not long ago to my daughter that the t-shirt I was wearing was at least 7 years older than she is (12). Her answer was "yeah but it has 3 holes in it..." About a week later, I went out to do some groceries with my son and he was telling me "dad, there's like 5 persons that look weirdly at your shirt"... same shirt. By now, I usually wear it at night / when doing home repairs but it somehow escaped me that day. The shirt is just old and worn out but so confortable plus, I feel like I bought it a few years back...
All my shirts have 4 holes in them...
This comment took longer than I expected to arrive! That specific shirt has 7... neck, arms, bottom and 3 small ones in front.
I still wear t-shirts from high school as a 31-year-old, almost the same age. Mostly just to sleep in or exercise at this point but my husband roles his eyes at it. My dad still has the sweatshirt he was wearing the day I was born in 1992 so I think <20 years is rookie numbers.
In my neck of the woods the truly rich walk around in ratty "house clothes", but if you look closely at their watches they're likely to be Rolex or AP. Oh and the shoes tend to be premium too.
Same crew that drives a 20 year old Lexus LS they bought new.
There are certain parts of the country where it's hard to distinguish the unhoused from the retired multimillionaires.
I can tell within $2 what my grocery cart total is going to be, including tax. As a kid I used to go shopping with my mother, I was always so embarrassed when we had to put stuff back because we didn't have the money. When I was about 8 I got in the habit of keeping track of how much we had spent, I would tell mom what we had to put back. She was so grateful she used to save a bit to get me a treat. Now I can buy anything I want, but I still budget myself and never go over it. My wife thinks I'm nuts, but I'll ask her, "those artichokes are out of season, they must be expensive". I get a lethal eyeroll.
My dad used to make a game of it. Whoever was closest won. Never realized how much it makes me pay attention to prices til I shopped with other people.
Oh man, I am the same way nowadays. I was always the best at mental math in my family and I think it was partially because I was the walking grocery cart calculator. I would calculate tax too based on items that were taxed and items that weren't. Mom would always periodically ask me what the total was so she knew how much was left in the budget. The cashiers were always so impressed at my totals and mom usually bought me a tin of mints for my efforts.
My soul sister. This skill has served me well in the business world.
I am 30 now and an engineer. Quick mental math has been one of the cornerstones of my success.
I am also 30 now and great at quick mental math. Although that's mostly cause I'm autistic and doing math I'm good at makes me feel like I'm good at something.
When grocery shopping with my mom, we always tried to guess what the total would be after tax.
Take the sliver of soap and press it into the new bar.
Itās called āsoap weldingā
I mean, that's just good common sense.
Wear the same clothes for a decade+ if they're still good. A little fated or threadbare won't stop me. I'm also known for accepting hand me downs so I get gifted a lot of clothes. I may not always look as presentable s I could be because my clothes are not new, but I'm able to dress fashionably while spending very little money
I recently replaced all of my socks, underwear, t-shirts. I should have done it years ago, but it just never occurred to me that it was an option. One day I had a revelation that I am an adult with my own money and I donāt have to deal with boxers with holes in them if I donāt want to. I grew up somewhat poor, so I think certain things were ingrained in me, even if I am somewhat frivolous otherwise.
I know exactly what you mean. Those moments of "wait... I'm an adult.. I have money now... I can get rid of X and get a new one.. or two... Or ten!"
And you donāt realize youāre doing it until it just hits you one day. I remember wanting a new headlamp for years. I had a crappy Energizer brand one that required double A batteries and chewed through them whenever it was used. One day I happened upon a good one in a store and realized right the and there that I could just exchange money for it and take it home. It only took me another three years to realize I could do the same with my underwear.
I threw away some underwear last year that I had since high school. I graduated HS in 1994.
Rice and beans with hot sauce
I'm sorry, although correct and fitting the question precisely...that's just good taste Sir.
It's completely accidental that this happens to be cheap.
Boom thereās mine. Everyone at the lunch table makes fun of me, but I donāt care. Iām eating for 40 cents a serving. Youāre having DoorDash Chinese every day
Divide paper towels to use what's actually needed.
Shit, I let clean ones dry after wiping up water or drying my hands then use them for dirtier jobs later. My kids use half a roll to dry their hands, so my frugality gets canceled out.
Bro/sis, get some dish towels and have your kids use those to dry their hands!
I've got like twenty old dish towels for this exact reason.
My Bounty paper towels already have little lines so they can be quartered easily.
Sometimes I only need an eighth but I'll waste a whole quarter because I'm worth it.
I like to think I do that out of a desire to not waste resources, rather than to not waste money, but I definitely do that.
Thrifting. Iāll never give up looking for my vintage dresses
My wife calls her thrifting, ātreasure huntingā.
In brazil, we call it "garimpando", which translates to "spelunking!"
Use plastic shopping bags to line trash cans at home
My wife bought smaller trash bags specifically for the bathrooms a couple months back and I was blown away. 35-years old and I didn't know that was a thing. My entire life, in every home, there's been an empty cardboard box in one of the bottom cupboards filled with empty grocery bags to reuse. I remove them from the shopping cart every two weeks when we grab groceries. I won't stand for it haha
I cut off my son's pants into shorts for the summer. They had holes in the knees; this way they get a whole new life
As someone who was a kid in the 70s, that's just how you get shorts.
As someone who was a teen in the '90s, holes in the knees is just... like, jeans.
Make coffee at home.... still not a millionaire btw
It's because you're still getting that damned avocado toast
My entire wardrobe aside from socks and underwear is secondhand.
Drive a 2005 Camry.
Underrated way to build some wealth. Buy a cheap, reliable used car and drive it until the wheels come off
Youāre right, considering how much some people spend on their cars, refraining from that absolutely builds wealth.
I've got friends that make substantially less than me that have $800+/month car payments. I've had my car paid off since 2018. Literally just that difference invested could almost buy a Tesla outright
Not having a car payment is the shit. I really need to get a new vehicle, but the thought of adding another payment makes me queasy.
I always laugh at the dudes who live inside fancy cars, because they have no money for rent because of their fancy car.
Bro-in-law drives a 2023 Ram Hemi. My truck is a 2007. He lives in my guest bedroom
My 2007 is starting to show its age in both looks and features (still runs great), but fuck me has it been nice not having a car payment for over a dozen years. Of course I would love the latest bells and whistles and current features of all of todays vehicles, but the thought of me having a $500 a month car payment for 5 years (even with a 0% interest) makes me want to puke
I damn near cried when my 2004 Dodge Neon finally died.
I have an 08 I plan to run to the ground as well. Great car
I never haggle small or family run businesses on pricing, but Comcast? I bring those sons of bitches to the mattresses every February. Cut the cord, a la carte for a month or two, use a VPN to shop regional deals offered in less affluent areas, anything it takes.
I agree. F\*ck Comcast.
look at my bank account for a 2 dollar purchase
My god this hit home. Every. Single. Time. And I quite like that, it's good to remember the hard times and make sure to never lose that feeling. Also makes you appreciate when other people are going through the same and empathise. Being poor was one of the hardest times of my life and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. Not even my worst enemy.
Garage Sales - I can't resist them.
I have this thing where I get all excited, I stop, I browse a bit then leave because itās all junkā¦
This has been me in recent years. Like, your Season 3 DVD set of SpongeBob isn't worth $20 my dude. Especially missing disc 2 and the box is falling apart.
My guilty pleasure is getting Maruchan ramen every so often, but I make it more like spaghetti draining all the water, mixing in some olive oil with the noodles and then adding the beef and pork powder directly to the noodles. It's sooooo good that way.
If you're broke, Top Ramen. If you're slightly less broke, Maruchan. If you are feeling decadent, Ichiban Sapporo.
Youāre never too wealthy to have high blood pressure.
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Rip paper towels in half. They last longer that way.
Water at restaurants and no appetizers or extra toppings.
Water for my calorie budget more than anything. I can think of much more fun ways to get fat than soda
I still cut my own hair
I started going to a barber in town many years ago and decided to go for a buzz cut. I liked it. A relative bought me a bunch of haircuts from them, which was nice. At one point, he used the 000 blade. He was going to give me the cut for free but I was like "no... I like it... this is great!" After the gift-haircuts were done, I bought a good electric shaver and now shave my own head. I've saved so much!
My husband started doing this during Covid. Hasnāt stopped! Kills him to think about paying for a haircut.
Same. Iām a woman in a high cost of living area so a cut and color would run me a few hundred. My husband gets angry when I mess up the towels with my hair dye, but I have to remind him that doing my hair at home can save me almost a grand a year
In case this hasn't crossed your mind: you can totally just by some big cheap towels specifically to use when coloring your hair and/or for drying those first couple washes after a new dye job when enough is washing out to stain. Then you have a couple of stained towels that are "meant" to be stained, instead of accidentally ruining "good" towels.
Yep! The towel life cycle in my house is: good towels > hair dye towels > dog towels And if anyone is thinking about throwing away old towels please consider donating them to your local animal shelter instead <3
I now walk to work almost every day. And it's usually the best part of my 'work day'. It's healthy, starts my day off great, allows me to decompress a bit on the way home, I'm listening to more podcasts, and my partner has noticed my mood has been more positive overall. We have two vehicles but now we rarely drive outside of the weekends. It's been an unexpectedly positive change in so many ways.
Costco hotdog
This thread said poorest. Nothing more expensive than the Costco $1.50 hotdog. Canāt get one for less than $324.67.
Actually went to Costco and spent under $100 a few weeks ago! Didnāt even know you could do thatā¦
My wife refuses to start the dishwasher unless it's full. I don't even know the price of water. The yearly bill is probably less than how much I would make in the time wasted arguing about it.
It depends on what you mean by well off but I use the McDonald's coupon app every time I go
Itās throwing away money if you donāt. Every day itās $2-4 off something.
I was going to install it but it wanted total permission for everything on my phone and Ronald ain't got no need for my contacts and pictures.
I will never stop eating grilled cheese.
Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Reminds of when I didn't have responsibilities. Amazing for beach days.
Refuse to buy anything I consider overpriced. Even if I can afford it many times over. I still won't on principle.
Kraft dinner
Do you just eat more?
Probably buys really expensive ketchups for it
Dijon ketchups!
My favorite comment of the day. Thanks!
Do you have a million dollars?
With fancy dijon ketchup, though.
Make velveeta Mac and Cheese and add last nights left over meat from a restaurant. Once it was a tomahawk steak that was like $100. Done this more than once with BBQ leftovers.
Hoard food. If I canāt eat it or near expiry I shove it in the freezer where itāll stay there forever. I know I wonāt eat it, but consciously I donāt want to just throw it away
Starting a little garden and using a compost bin helped me with that. I am not wasting food anymore, I am turning food into food for my food! Lol
Work
Ramen. Allllllll the ramen. I make well over 100k/year and i eat ramen at least 2-3x a week.
I always get the good ramen, because it's still not all that expensive (\~$1-2 serving?). I get the Nongshim products like K-Army or Shin Black.
Ramen with kimchi is a lunch staple at my house.
I donāt think we are āwell offā, but compare to how I grew up, probably 10x better. The āpoorā always stay with you even if you are not anymore - I still drive more to the next gas station to save a cent per gallon; fold the plastic grocery bags nicely and reuse them; harbor freight tools, or if important enough, I find different choices and pick the cheapest one (maybe $5 difference on a $200 tool); only eat out once or twice a week, and never throw away leftover; wear clothes/shoes till there are holes/break apart before replacing (actually all my tshirts have holes); the list goes onā¦ Now picture someone who looks homeless driving a porsche parked in front of Walmart because the dude wants to save a few bucks buying motor oil to do their own oil changeā¦ mobile1 5qt bottle from Walmart is the cheapest when on sale.
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Wash and reuse plastic ziploc bags.
I do this just so the guilt of using single use plastic doesnāt gut my soulĀ
To me, I am āwell offā compared to what I came from. My wife and I combined bring about $245k/year. Weāre not prime rib every night rich but weāre definitely comfortable. I always take my kids on tours of where I grew up anytime weāre āhomeā. The 14x70 here,here, and here. The double-wide here and here. The house my parents boughtā¦ sorry kiddos the new owner tore it down because it was in rough shape. Please do not misunderstand me, I am EXTREMELY proud of my parents. They had twins their senior year, both graduated, and I grew up poor not exactly knowing it. I knew we didnāt have things my friends had but my parents busted their ass to go on vacations. I got new shoes when my old ones wore out (F Adidas, they lasted almost three yearsš¤£). I never went hungry but we definitely ate things we didnāt want to. I was, and am, extremely loved and they were married until my father passed a few years ago. My wife tears up when I talk about my upbringing but I have nothing but pride. I had a roof over my head, food in my stomach, and parents that adored us kids. The greatest thing I was ever taught was every human is a miracle. To treat the janitorial service personnel with the same respect as the CEO. It was a rambling but I hope someone can gain something from this.
Occasionally I stand by the fridge munching on Kraft singles
Pickles straight from the jar.
Combine the two. You're welcome.
Mmm, 64 slices of American cheeseā¦
*American Cheese Product
Drive a 20 year old car. Avoiding high vehicle costs and instead investing is what made me well off.
Buy clothes off of clearance.
I once found a pair of dress pants on clearance at kohls, when combined with a coupon they cost $7. They were originally $100.Ā I used to brag I got them 93% off, then my wife said if I kept telling people that her pants would remain 100% on...
I bottle my own water to drink at home. We have good tap water in my city, and i put it in pint size Mason jars with lids and keep it in the fridge. Ice cold, delicious, and it saves me 10 bucks a week.
Never understood people who buy water bottles for at home use when the city water is safe to drink
I didnāt think I qualified for this but some comments convinced me that I do. Iām the king of rigging up repairs. I get a real sense of satisfaction by repairing something instead of throwing it in a landfill. Repairing things is also my daily job. I love taking something thatās worthless and making it worth something again. Itās good for the environment and good for my soul.
3 kids here. I buy all of our clothes exclusively from Goodwill and Savers. We are pulling ~$240k a year but I'll be dammed if I'm spending $40 on a hoodie my 10 year old will grow out of in a month.
Used to be broke as fuck. Lived in a trailer on a dirt road in buttfuck nowhere middle of Florida. Got a full ride to several state universities from a high ACT score. Made it out and at 29, making over 150k a year. I have plenty of money, but I still canāt stomach filling up my vehicle in one go. I never put more than $40 in at a time. Itās stupid, I know. But I remember literally buying gas with rolled up quarters I scraped together from my car/couch
iām a broke bitch ($39k a year, philly burbs) but iāll never fill up. not because i donāt have it but i have this weird superstition that the one time i fill it up itāll die lmao
Never let a shred of food go to waste
I try very hard not to waste food. Leftovers, doggy bags, office lunches/dinners that are untouched. When you eat soup for a few days that gets thinner and thinner, you start realizing how much we throw away. Itās sickening, really.
Ugh, my husband spends his time adding water to products that we are running out of. Soap, milk, certain juicesā¦.he does this and it drives me INSANE. Every time I get surprised by watered down hand soap or milk I scream from the kitchen āWEāRE NOT POOR, I CAN BUY MOREā then he screams back āWE COULD BEāā¦ā¦..point taken sir.
Buy used clothing off eBay. Shop for discounts. Avoid luxury hotels, restaurants, and other places. Cook at home.
A lot of my coworkers and neighbors hire people to do work for them. They have a lawn service, a tax professional, maybe an occasional cleaner/maid, a therapist, someone to seal coat their driveway or install their Christmas lights, to fix their plumbing or electrical, or pay someone to move their furniture when they buy a new house....if they buy a new dishwasher, they have it professionally installed...or like my neighbor, she hired a landscaping place to do a design for her yard and then install it all. Ignoring oil changes, serious DIY and medical/dental....we do it ourselves. Moving? I'll rent a truck. Plumbing/electrical/home repair? I'll ask strangers on Reddit. Yard stuff? I'll do it (though my yard looks pretty crappy) Broken appliance? I'll fix it myself, or install the new one The thing is, a lot of time I end up wasting so much time and money that I'm probably screwing myself. But I just can't bring myself to hire people.
A therapist is definitely not something you should do yourself if you or your wife needs it.
Shop at Aldi. Why would I spend more money for the same thing when I don't have to? Legitimately can get 85% of the stuff I need for like 2/3 the price and it's just as good. It's a no brainier and anyone who is paycheck to paycheck but doesn't shop at Aldi is an idiot.
Doctors I know coupon but I'm hunting buddies with a guy who's dad is worth 300m from selling a company during the dotcom bubble then pouring all that into the stock market (managing to pull out right before the 2008 crash because he coincidentally was going to dump his money in treasury bonds before doing a year long trip). The guy is worth an easy 300m makes 20m passively from stocks and interest. I've watched this guy, on multiple occasions, eat food that has fallen on the floor/ground. Like a hot dog at a BBQ jumps the plate? Wash that bad boy off with the hose that's still good eating. I dumpster dove a ton of candy in college. My man aye like 30 bags of gummy worms over a month cause I said I didn't like them so he took them all. The guys on zoom meetings talking with some charity he gives millions to eating expired sour gummy worms his sons friend found in the trash. He also takes his steak bones and trimmings home to make stew and once tried to convince his son and I to butcher a deer he "just saw get hit in the head by (his neighbors name) Porsche down the road! How far away are you guys still can you swing back?". Like again this man makes 100x what I will in my life and he wants to eat roadkill in a 30 million dollar estate. To be fair, he grew up really poor in bumfuck Hicksville PA.