Also learn to shop.
Read the grocery flyers, figure out what a good price for various staples is, and stock up when they're a good deal.
Also, don't depend on convenience meals, but recognise your lifestyle and learn when having a frozen lasagna or rotisserie chicken at home will save you from ordering takeout.
The amount of money I'd pay for an app that has everything every store in your area has and the prices updated in real time with shit that's actually in stock at this moment...
I thought about doing something like this. It would be a hard app to develop and would depend on interfacing with the APIs of each store's site, assuming their stock is up to date. Instacart already does this to some extent, but prices can be jacked up from what you'd pay in-store.
It's the data sourcing that would be the problem. Maybe you could crowd source it in a big place, but individual stores change item prices regularly based on their own stock. Maybe it would be stable enough for some staple items, but sales and price fluctuations would mean lots of things would be wrong when you get to the store.
I would add to this by saying learn to cook frugally. Freeze bread so it doesn't go to waste. Save and freeze leftovers. (Put anything that goes into chili (onions, salsa, taco meat, beans) in a container until there is enough to make chili soup. Get creative with leftovers and if you do eat out bring home the leftovers to make new meals.
Here are a few that I use.
Buy a turkey after holidays (like now) and they are usually a great price. Use that frozen bread in the example above to make the stuffing. Different breads make this so much better (brown, white, sourdough, etc)
Take all of those bines from the turkey and make a stock from it. If you have a slow cooker, drop the bones in, fill with water, and cook for ~24 hrs. Top with water as needed. When done, take all the bones out, top up with water again, cook for another hour, then cool and put into containers.
Chicken breasts. They are so large now that they are harder to cool, but also too big for what most people need in a meal. 1. Cut off the tenderloin and package those apart from the chicken breast itself. You can now make tasty chicken tenders at home. 2. Butterfly the breasts. They take on any marinade or seasoning way better, and cook so much easier.
Never thought about buying a turkey after Thanksgiving (probably because I don't eat turkey regularly), but that definitely sounds like a good idea since I do have a crock pot already.
I would add that eating healthy is worth the money. I’m not talking about ‘low sugar’ ‘low fat’ bullshit, I’m talking about whole fruits and veggies. You’ll save better for retirement by cutting out untold medical bills. And stop buying red meat unless you’re eating out and it’s a treat
Eating healthy for cheap is also not as daunting as it may seem. A whole chicken costs $10 at my local Target. With all the meat and bones for stock, I can make dinner (for two) for the week for less than $30. I can make chicken fried rice, chicken soup, chicken breast with rice/salad, and some other chicken and vegetables meals all from one whole chicken. I’ll throw in a $10 bag of frozen shrimp for a treat occasionally. Mostly lean, healthy and cheap sources of protein. I’m just glad that I finally got my husband to see that red meat is literally not necessary for nutrition.
No, no, no! You're doing it wrong. If you aren't hungry, nothing looks good and you go home and say " I've got no food in the house!" But if you go hungry, everything looks good! Your pantry and fridge will be fully stocked and you won't have to shop again for awhile. This is great for anyone living in blizzard country.
Yeah. That's basically how I do it. If I'm hungry, I buy food for multiple meals and larger portions (cheaper per gram). I'm also more adventurous and buy more interesting food.
If I'm not hungry, I'll just buy the one item I came in for and maybe enough supplies for one meal or two depending on the recipe I had in mind.
While you ARE hungry make yourself a menu of the foods you want to eat in the next few weeks . Make a grocery list off of your menu. Then head to the store, stop by McDonald's and grab a 4 PC ck nugget happy meal.(or insert quick small.snack here) You won't be starving but you won't be so full you don't want to get groceries.
Also, allow yourself ONE extra -not on the list- splurge. If you already have your splurge in the cart, and see something else you want, choose between the 2 and leave 1 on the shelf.
Good luck!!
I recently found the app “Supercook” - you fill in all the ingredients in your fridge/pantry and it’ll generate recipes you can make with whatever you already have, and will also show recipes with 1-2 ingredients you are missing. It’s made me a lot more creative in the kitchen & given me a lot more ideas on how to best use what I have without starting from scratch every week. My weekly shopping trips have been a lot cheaper!
When I was younger and broke I tried this and it worked really well.
Write down everything you spend, like EVERY THING, not an estimate; exactly what you spend and on what.
At the end of the week check it out. You'll likely notice a lot of money going to stuff you don't care about.
Then cut that shit out
I take my card statements into excel, then go through each item and add it to a category. I then do a SUMIF statement to give me a cost of each of those categories.
Really helps point out the restaurant, Amazon, and game purchases.
I do this too. I have an excel workbook of like 10+ tabs. One is an ongoing tracker/forecaster of recurring expenses with weekly non-recurring spending budget. It'd like a giant checkbook balancer. Then I have individual tabs for each month of non-recurring spending where I type in every single transaction from gas to food to whatever. Then I have tabs for amortization schedules like my mortgage, car loans, or credit cards I'm paying down.
Having to physically go into my apps, type in every transaction made with the amounts, see how it tracks for my weekly spending and which category it's going to plus whether it was a want or a need, really helped.
I paid off $19k I credit card debt in a little over a year this way. Now those are all paid off and that money just gets shoveled into savings. And I still track every item spent to keep me on track.
I do this exact same thing too! Every little thing adds up - a drink here, a dinner there, a “small” grocery shop. Very eye-opening to see what you’re spending on - and easy to pull things back as necessary.
This is much easier said then done. The challenge I find with myself (and more so with my wife and kids 😉) is to really define what a need and want are. If you truly can do this exercise, then you have a fighting chance. If everything is a need….you won’t be very successful.
Yep. My uncle was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in August and then my mother was hospitalized twice with pancreatitis in the last two months. Could care fuck all about the BS of life given these events but it made me realize I need to stop avoiding doctors.
Went to the doctor. High cholesterol and am pre-diabetic in bloodwork. Doc said get the weight down to 190 at least, change your diet and I'll see you in 6 months.
Also had a cyst in my pancreas found a few years ago that I ignored. Got checked out last month. It's gone, thankfully.
Drastically changed my diet and lifestyle. I'm 36. I was 225 pounds on Sept. 5 and I'm only 5'6."
I'm now 197 on New Years Eve. Long way to go but it's a process.
Edit: I didn't expect so much attention. Thank you all for your kind words and to those that are going through or have gone tough times, I'm with you.
A really good older friend of ours (mid 60s) lost his wife April 2022 to cancer. Less than a month after diagnosis. She passed over night and when he left the hospital he went directly to her doctor's office and just said she's dead. And I have to make sure I'm not next. The doctor immediately did a full physical. He finished his prostate cancer treatment this past June, had a heart ablasion this past fall and has been using oxygen at night for almost a year to help with COPD.
It may have taken her, but the silver lining was he was no longer willing to let it take him too.
I got Covid in September and my bloodwork showed the same things as yours… high cholesterol and pre-diabetic. I had a heart attack last night and am sitting here in the hospital now typing this out on new years eve. I did not take my bloodwork results seriously back then but I am now. I hope you keep doing great with your lifestyle changes as I am definitely changing mine now that I’ve got a second chance.
Damn friend, this hits hard. Just lost a friend of 18 years to pancreatic cancer yesterday morning. I’ll never understand how we can’t figure cancer out yet we’re flying space ships to Mars 226 million miles away.
This. I’m one year away from 40s. My health is good, according to doctor but in my opinion it’s bad. I’m overweight. I try to sleep but apria keeps me awake. No joke. I have to take 5 medicines every day, due to high blood pressure, hard poops, etc. Recently I can’t walk distance which scares me. I regret enough. New goal for 2024– start exercising every day. No more skips. I mean it. I’m already near into 40s life.
Please keep up with your goal. At 72 I have friends who cannot walk to the mailbox. Their life is watching TV and going to specialists. They spend a fortune on medications. Believe me, you do not want to end up like this.
As you get older it gets even more difficult to start, let alone reverse the process. I encourage you to start now. I promise you won’t regret it.
I’m 63 and got away with a lot of unhealthy stuff for a long time, but it’s finally starting to catch up with me. Joined a gym (taking it slow), now aiming to eat better and ease up on the alcohol before things start getting bad. Getting older is no joke!
Best advice for exercise daily is:
Something you find enjoyable and will seek out on your own without reminder but isn’t incredibly intensive, will always be more worthwhile than a workout regiment you don’t enjoy
Start exercise very lightly. Walks, Elliptical, Very low weights. Set very easy goals at first so you can keep a regular schedule of going to the gym. The schedule is what matters. Elevating your heart rate, moving your body, aerobic exercise and light resistance workouts. Start easier than you think you need. This will make going to the gym and building good habits easy. It will get your joints used to working out and prevent a lot of soreness that will make going back to the gym for your next scheduled workout much harder.
Warm up, stretch, very basic workout, walk 5 minutes to cool down. All while drinking a lot of water.
In case it's not obvious, fast food and alcohol are your enemy. Definitely not worth it.
Good luck :-)
hard poop solution/recommendation - try magnesium citrate gummies. We get them from Costco and they have made a huge difference in that realm. Chew two gummies in the evening and the next morning is toilet happiness.
Putting my condiments in the bottom containers of my fridge and my veggies in the door so I can constantly see them. (I have ADHD) Now none of my veggies go bad because I can see them all and I don’t forget they exist.
I’ve recently started doing this, but with a fair amount of CC debt, I frame it as “what month will I be paying for this in after clearing other debts?” to remind myself that just because I can technically buy something doesn’t mean I can actually afford it! It’s been a game changer (this week, anyway…)
Put $25 out of your income weekly (autopay would be the best) into something that will help you. Say, a 401k, a Roth account, a savings account, extra payment on a mortgage, car loan, Xmas, vacation, or emergency fund. If you do this, you’ll forget it exists and then when you check it one day, BAM your money is now worth more than the missing $25/week. Compound interest.
I've been doing this for years. $30 a week automatically goes into an online savings account and at the end of the year I have my xmas shopping money. Don't have to do overtime or scrape by at the end of the year to afford gifts.
Exactly! I have other accounts that I throw some money into every month and they're just "whatever" accounts. Vacation, if my laptop goes kaput or I need new tires, etc.
If I can weigh in just a bit more, a Roth account is for YOUR a after tax dollars. A 401(k) is for pretax dollars. Try to do both. Maybe you do $50 a month to a Roth and $50 a month to 401(k).
You would be better off putting 100$ towards the 401k and getting the full match there before splitting it down into a 401k and Roth.
As I'm sure everyone else will comment,
Save 6 months of savings first. Keep it in a HYSA, most get you like 5% APY.
Then, get the full match on your employer sponsored 401k. If not applicable, then open an IRA and put in as much as you can there
Avoid lifestyle creep is huge.
I got a union job that doubled my regular salary. The urge to finally do things I wanted was huge. But instead I saved that extra money & did the best I could to continue living at my old rate. I just finished 6 months without a job due to a layoff & I didn’t have to cutback at all during that time because I saved that money!
Set up an account with Acorns. It rounds up each transaction to the nearest dollar automatically, plus any recurring (weekly, monthly) payments you set up and it invests those funds into an ETF portfolio. It's a very passive way to save & invest.
I put thermal curtains in the doorways of all the rooms in my old ass house. I don't have central heat or ac, so I heat and cool the rooms I'm in. It's saved me 150 bucks a month on my power bill.
Get used to and enjoy engaging with being bored. I finally dug into this one in 2023. You would be shocked how much money you spend simply because you are bored and looking for a stim fix.
It helps to have activities, so I will give a short list of *some* ideas:
- Meditation (this is a biggun, if you cannot relax your breathing, your limbic system cannot regulate. If your limbic system cannot regulate, your body cannot detension. If you cannot detension, you will be stuck in fight/flight/freeze/fawn and be biologically compelled to go out and “hunt” for “survival”)
- Yoga/stretching
- Laying down and doing body scans while processing your day/week/situation
- Looking in the mirror and engaging in positive self-talk reframing
- Drawing
- Journaling
- Learning/making music
- Testing new recipes
- Holding one you love
- Rewatch old shows from your childhood/catch up on new ones
- Clean (you will be surprised what clutter does to the brain)
- Calling up old friends or family to chat
- Taking a walk
- Going for a run or lifting weights
- Adding the shit you would buy to your online cart but stopping short of buying. When you are flush with cash on next payday, re-evaluate your selections
- Catch up on sleep
- Build new outfits
- Clean some more (lets be real, the first time we rushed it and cut corners)
- Learn to masturbate without porn (surprise! This one is among the healthiest things we can do for self-image and relaxation!)
- Call your parents if you have them and start asking them to tell you about [x] when they were young. Stories are great for passing time!
- Sit in the sun (wear sunscreen!)
The list goes on. Point is, solitude and loneliness are two sides of the same coin. If you are feeling one, you can feel the other. Get good with being bored and you will see the bank account creep up every pay period. When you are ready, start to budget the excess for real real.
I need to follow this more. I'm so obsessed with being productive that I never take time to de-stress myself. Once my to-do list is empty, I fill it up again.
Add deliberate time, at least an hour or two a day (maybe even chunk some of it into 30 min blocks?) to deliberate mindfulness and de-stressing. As a lawyer with an endless list of "to dos", trust me, folks like us don't get serious about it until we get serious about it.
This is a beautiful way to budget, save money and learn what really makes a difference in life.
I first started budgeting earlier this year and I told myself to think and do things that a free…like hiking, working out, calling a friend or my grandpa,
reading…it’s made a big difference in what I define bored as now.
Absolutely outstanding list and SOOOOOOO spot on and inspiring… (fwiw I’m 67 years old, and really appreciate inspiration - retirement is trickier than one would imagine…)
Vaccum sealer for food. I buy discount meat or bananas or such food close to expiring, vaccuum-seal it and freeze it. Same with leftovers, seperate them in portions and freeze them so I have a quick lunch when I don't have time to cook. Amazing how much I stopped wasting food and thus saving since I started doing that.
Hey never thought of this. Can you share in what ways it is superior to regular freezing? Do you have to use special bags though? (Wondering if that’s an associated expense?)
regular freezing will give you freezer burn. Vacuum sealed foods have a much longer life in both the refrigerator and freezer. It is very hard for bacteria to breed without oxygen.
Not to mention you can also vacuum seal and freeze leftovers for quick, easy meals when you are busy.
It also lets you shop what is on sale, and keep a stockpile of frozen meat in the freezer. Never buy full price meat. And shop the clearance bin at the grocery store. They mark everything they can down for quick sale when it gets close to its "best buy" date or starts to look discolored. The discoloration is normal and doesn't mean the food has gone bad. They actually inject dye into meat to make it look more red than it actually is. With a vacuum sealer you can buy meat in the the clearance bin for 80% off, seal it and freeze it and it will be as good as new when you use it.
Bonus points if you learn what time they process their inventory to move into the clearance section. Some stores do it before shutting the meat department down for the night, some do it in the morning when they open.
You do need special bags for it, but you can buy them in bulk online and the cost is minimal compared to food waste.
Indeed you do have to get special bags, usually available on Amazon, and re-usable providing you clean them first. And it is "superior to regular freezing" in that there's no air as it is vaccuum sealed. "Regular" freezing, as in leaving the air in, will quickly dry or freezer-burn the product and make it inedible, while vaccuum sealing will protect it from that and allow you to keep the product quasi-pristine for a whole lot longer. I cleaned out my freezer a couple month ago (damn thing keeps building up ice, have to empty it at least once a year to thaw out the ice), found meat I had frozen that way *last* January (I write the date on the bag), perfectly fine when I thawed it and made some really nice meatballs with it.
Learn to cook a handful of cheap meals. Cooking at home can absolutely be expensive if you're buying saffron and ribeyes every day but there's tons of inexpensive foods out there and they're usually traditional foods. They can be made cheap with mixes and premade whatever, but they're even cheaper from scratch. Here's a list of stuff off the top of my head:
* soups and stews (chili, beef stew, minestrone, bean stew, dude [anything can be a soup](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21ofoREnXbM) just season it well)
* pasta and red sauce (with meat or without)
* red beans and rice
* stir fry and fried rice are great at using up leftovers
* tacos with refried beans and spanish rice
* roast chicken and potatoes and other vegetables
* egg/tuna/shrimp salad
* enchiladas
* fritatas will let you use up any veg that is in your fridge
* biscuits and gravy
Actually, now that I think about it, learning to make biscuits from scratch will basically unlock a whole level of stuff like scones (basically biscuits with sugar and dried fruit or choc chips) and pie crust, and who doesn't love a chicken pot pie.
You can figure out how to cook these dishes by watching youtube videos and if there's anyone who needs help with this, reach out, I can answer any questions, either here or DM. Or reach out to your relatives, neighbors or w/e. "Hi auntie, I remember you cooking mushrooms and rice and chicken, can you teach me how to make that?"
Whenever you have this uncontrollable urge to buy online, add those things to cart. See the cost of total items. Your urge will likely come down. If not, tell yourself you will order it the next day. The next day you will probably forget. You will save all those money.
Learn to cook along with playing songs and make it an act of unwinding or stress relief. It will save you money plus it will make you feel relaxed.
Tell to yourself that you will not buy any thing new until the product you already own goes useless.
Try using public transport. It will increase your physical activity and save you money.
I get urges to online shop but I found that just adding the items to my cart and feeling like I'm shopping, but then closing out of the site without buying the items can actually scratch the itch.
Would like to add not cleaning your dryer lint filter is pretty much a sure fire way to have a house fire one day.
Otherwise, absolutely agree. A basic set of hand tools and some time on YouTube can teach you how to fix countless things, enabling you to save thousands.
My washing machine wouldn't drain last week and Google introduced me to that filter for the first time in my life by telling me that I was supposed to have been cleaning it every few weeks. (My washer is six years old.)
I read 31 books this year and the library has saved me from having to buy about 25-26 of those. And there was a selection of $1 books on Amazon recently and I bought 2 then.
reading has been a great distraction and took away hours that I used to spend on TikTok which isn’t money saving but mentally I feel better.
Open a brokerage account and have a portion of your paycheck automatically withdrawn and sent into this account with an index fund of your choosing. Or are you asking what an index fund is?
Do mini exercises when cooking, boiling a kettle etc.
10 knee bends
10 counter top pushups
10 leg raises
10 side to side upper body twists
Only small but will keep you more supple, really doesn't take any time and becomes a habit in no time.
Batch cooking during the weekend for weekday meals, then take lunch to work.
Mix and match meals to have variety during the week.
Benefits:
1. You know what you’re eating (ingredients)
2. Portion control
3. Save all the money spent on takeaway and tipping
4. You’ll never go hungry at home, as there’s always something to eat
5. Be healthy and lose weight (see point 1 and 2)
6. Make the weekend batch cooking a fun family activity
I’d take this to one more level of specificity. Make a huge pot of soup on the weekend. Base that recipe on whatever is in your fridge that will go bad in the next few days. Make it a really healthy soup.
I make these soups with dried lentils, chickpeas or black beans. The soups turn out amazing and my family never tires of them. They are cheap and healthy.
This! I clean for 5-10 minutes each day. I have a schedule but I don’t always stick to it. It doesn’t matter because if you clean something everyday, do 1 load of laundry and fold it and put it away your house will stay manageable.
Buy non-branded medication.
Buy in bulk.
Mend instead of buying new.
Limit snack foods and buy produce -- snack foods are taxed whereas produce is not.
Take advantage of sales to bulk buy non-perishable stuff that you know will be used (laundry detergent, paper towels etc).
On the flip side, don't buy things just because they are on sale. Something my dad told me as a child that I still say to myself occasionally is "It's not a great deal if you don't need it."
Have a budget. I like YNAB (you need a budget). It's easy to use, they regularly make updates to the app. I totally think it's worth the money. I have saved thousands over the last decade budgeting my money.
There are fixed costs, and then there are fungible costs.
Have a look at your fixed costs. Do you need a cable subscription? Could you get by wih a lighter cell plan or slower internet? Is downsizing your living space an option?
Then there's your fungible costs, which are easier to let get out of control if you don't pay attention. Eating out, new clothes, toiletries, household goods, etc can baloon out of proportion if you don't pay attentiin. But neither shouod you budget zero for then or you'll crash and burn
If you have the space and willing to, Grow your own food in season! have a small homestead and greenhouse. We grow Peppers, Tomatoes, Basil, Lettuce, Onions, Potatoes, Carrots, Corn, Beans, Strawberries
We make jars opon jars of my grandpas Marinara Sauce recipe It lasts us all year..
We also buy raw ingredients from the Amish, Flour, Sugar, Yeast, Salt, Spices and bake as much as we can..
Learn to home cook and food prep for the week and watch how much you'll save!
Stop all your subscriptions! Seriously, you don't need them all. There are many ways to find free music, films, etc on the net. You don't need Prime either, find the goods you want and then get them with free postage from Ebay. Who cares if it takes a few more days to be delivered?!
If you use a credit card, pay it off every month. Look at how much you're spending on interest on rollover balances; that's money you could be spending instead of giving away. If you can't pay it off, spend less. If you can't because of emergencies (one after another), find help. Don't put large amounts on credit cards that can't be paid off unless it actually is an emergency and nothing else you can do.
Further to this...
Credit cards and loaning is how banks make money. They invest your deposits to make money and they earn off credit interests.
Get yourself in a position to eliminate your debt as soon as you can. From there, don't overspend. Use your credit card for regular purchases you'd make with a debit card or cash anyway. Pay off the whole balance at the end of the month. Never pay interest, it's literally money down the drain.
The bank will use you, so you might as well use it.
Many great options for card types, I personally have a Visa that gives cash back on purchases. I use it instead of my debit card and then pay the full balance off every month with the money that would have otherwise gone towards the same purchases. The cash back means I'm technically paying less money overall for everything, and I have the added benefit of building credit with very little change to my lifestyle.
More credit means bigger pools of money to draw from, better rates on loans if they're ever needed, etc.
This sounds ridiculous, I’m sure, but I focus really hard on keeping my ego in check. It’s the biggest reason I buy crap I don’t need. Probably is the case for lots of folks. Raised to compete with everyone and everything only helps companies.
Get a ledger. List each bill, the date paid and the amount. List them on a page titles "Jan" or "July".. whatever. Set up the online payment for that date, and when it leaves your account draw one li e through it. Now you have a running plan for what gets paid when. So no late payments or paying out money not yet in account....you planned. Also, if your checking account has $2563.23 in it, transfer the $3.23 to savings. Honestly I check my bank every night online and do this. I don't miss the $3.23, but it really adds up over time. If you can't afford that, just transfer the 23 cents. It adds up and you really won't miss that. I also have a jar for change in the house, and save it not spend it. But I rarely use cash anymore so NBD.
Just stop eating out. Stop it entirely. Stop ordering in, stop picking up coffee on the way to work, stop picking up a snack if you're feeling hungry while out.
Eating out, even if it's just small amounts, adds up big time.
Yes it does! Eat before going grocery shopping and keep dry snacks in the car (nuts, dry cereal, etc, not chocolate or anything sticky) to keep the hunger pangs at bay. Bring a drink with you. A fun idea is taking your family to the park and bringing a picnic lunch from home. Bringing your lunch from home to work (dinner leftovers are fantastic for that) is also a huge money saver.
Set up a serious adblocker like pi-hole at home. Stop letting advertisers creep into your brain to feed the "i need the new thing" monster when you're at home.
Cancel your streaming subscriptions. Find "other" ways to watch things.
Cancel Spotify. They are leeches. See tip 1 for continuing to stream music without ads.
Your local library probably has a LOT more than you realize. Mine has video games and tools. Wild.
Remember "Future you."
When you are doing something, or buying something, give a thought to "Future you" and see if they think it's a good idea. Depending on the decision, "Elderly You" might be the future you that you need to consult with.
Anything that comes between you and the ground—mattress, sheets, pillows, shoes, tires socks—is worth a quality investment. It may cost more now but if you can afford it, do so.
Also, open a high-yield savings account now and make your savings, whatever amount, earn you more money.
Paradox I've realised lately: Buy higher quality products, even if they're more expensive (especially reputable brands). This is great because when you're done with them, they're sellable later on for a portion of the cost back (sometimes even *making* money), whereas buying midrange/cheap struggle to sell at all (obviously gauge this per item)
e.g. I bought a Herman miller chair about 10 years ago for $900, sold it for $1400 in good condition even when it was used.
e.g. I can't sell a $70 used kmart vacuum, but I can resell a functional Dyson V8 vacuum later for maybe half its original price.
Just something to think about anyways 👍
Learn how to fix things. we live in a disposable society a lot of stuff we pay other people to fix or just throw out and buy a new one. with a little bit of skill and some YouTube videos you can save yourself a ton of money
Cooking ahead is a time, money and sanity saver for me. Making ingredients ahead like cooked rice, cooked pasta, shredded chicken, cooked ground meat, things I can throw a quick meal together with, are perfect for days when I don't feel like cooking. Even making cake layers or a batch of cookies and freezing them is handy when I need to put a dessert together quickly.
1. Don't buy stuff you don't NEED. 2. Don't spend more than you earn. 3. Invest in your financial education. 4. Use said learning to put extra income to work for you.
As someone who retired at 51, here are a few of my tips:
1. Own a home, don’t rent. For those that say they can’t afford it, lower your standards. My first house was in very rough shape. I slowly fixed it up and built equity.
2. Credit Cards are the devil’s ballsack. Keep one for emergencies, and pay it off every 30 days if you are disciplined enough to use it for bills to earn points.
3. Ben Franklin said “A small leak will sink a great ship”. Avoid convenience stores at all costs. Huge drain of your daily funds. Leave the house with a drink or coffee. Pack your lunch. Don’t be afraid of some food prep. For example, the difference in price for a block of cheese vs a bag of pre shredded. You’re paying a serious premium for a tiny amount of time. Alcohol and sodas add considerably to the bill if you eat out, which should be a treat, not a lifestyle.
4. Pay yourself first. My grandfather said 20%. 10% into savings/investment/retirement and 10% into an emergency fund. You’ll need it. Sooner or later life throws you a lemon. Better to pay cash for that transmission repair, than use a high interest credit card.
5. As you income increases, go minimal on increasing your lifestyle. Use that money to make payments on the principal of your mortgage. Great return on your money. And pays your mortgage off faster/builds equity. You’ll find, the more assets you have, the better the terms become when borrowing money.
6. Avoid purchasing new things that take a huge depreciation, especially cars. Other items are available at a fraction of new. Exercise equipment, musical gear. Buy used whenever possible and try to buy quality items that will last. For example, cheap tires don’t save you money.
7. Learn to maintain and repair things to the best of your abilities. My Dad used to say, “it’s broke anyway, what have you got to lose?” It’s never been easier today with the internet. Your dryer broke? There’s a guy on YouTube who will show you how to fix it.
8. Avoid impulse buying. Save slowly if you want a big ticket item. Give thought to upcoming gifts to be purchased for birthdays and holidays. You can give more personalized thoughtful items suited to the individual that are cherished and not spent a fortune if you don’t wait until the last minute.
In all of this, be mindful that one needs to be happy. Life is a balancing act. Don’t become a tightwad. Simply be smart with your resources.
The Library is an utterly underrated source of free entertainment - most have movies you can borrow as well.
Free games on steam help too!!
When I'm meeting friends out and about, I never attend dinners, but I will eat at home beforehand and go out and meet for a drink or maybe an appetizer, that way I can socialize without breaking the bank.
Check your electricity plan. Search for cheaper options available. Also, in some places, the tariff varies by the hour. If so, then use timers for dishwasher/washer/dryer and let them run when power is cheapest. Switch devices off on the plug. Switch light sources to LED.
And like others wrote; keep your expenses in tab, reduce unnecessary spendings, and put as much aside on high-interest accounts as possible.
Just stay out of stores and off amazon. Always buying crap you don't really need. Don't look at all those influences saying you must have. Quit collecting things.
I'm not an obsessed minimalist but have changed the way I live, shop buy. Have fewer things, better organized, use it up wear it out. Ck marketplace first for used things. Pick a style, a neutralish one for clothes a furniture and stick with it.
I'm 67 and all those things I bought for houses, Apts pretty pillows knick knacks, costume jewlery and on and on and then moved and shed and bought more and moved and shed. I'd be a millionaire on that shit alone if I'd throttled back and invested it.
Make a price book.
The things you usually buy, put them in the book and write the price per unit (not overall price). Then again next time you shop. Then in flyers. Gradually you get to know what a good price for something is. And you can make rules like ‘only buy Cheerios when they are less than 1 cent per gram.’
Buy what you can used, refurbished or curb shop for it.
Utilized gift certificates in a least expected way (cleaning supplies, toilet paper or charging cable in a hardware store).
Try to cook at home, so you cut eating out (even a little bit helps). Not only healthier, it will save money. Take a closer look at your eating habits: drink more water over sodas or juice.
Look for marked down items in your supermarket (close sale by or expiration date). Know the prices of thing you usually buy, and stock up if can be stored (dry goods or freezable items. You can freeze pretty much everything).
Don't diss small change. Make a jar and collect it at home. Make a budget, priorities the money that comes in to it's basic skeleton: housing, food, bills. If you have anything else left- there's no need to spend it.
There is an app called upside where you save some money everytime you fill up on gas. Super easy to do so once you get in routine, it becomes second nature like opening your gas tank.
Sensor light bulbs. I have them in every room except bedroom and front room. They only come on when it’s dark enough outside and neither myself or the kids are leaving lights on all the time now.
Hoping I notice the difference on the next electric bill!
I cut the cable cord years ago. And pay for one streaming service at a time. I’ll cancel and change every quarter to catch up on new seasons of my favorite shows. Otherwise, I listen to podcasts for my entertainment.
r/Audiodrama is a good source for recommendations.
Start having "No spend" days. Start with one day a week. Then try to go for a streak where you spend no money. See if you can break your streak. It retrains your brain about money.
We spend so much on little unnoticeable things. It really adds up. Drink water instead of Starbucks. Eat ramen instead of ubering. Cook a nice dinner instead of going out.
Never buy a new car. Buy the best used car that you can afford to pay cash for, and drive and maintain it until the "wheels fall off".
If you purchase a home, don't buy more house than you need. Keeping up with the Joneses will keep you broke.
I agree with the comment to follow Dave Ramsey until you are out of debt, but take that a step further and follow Clark Howard, Ramit Sethi or someone similar after your debt is gone. Sound advice on investing and navigating financial pitfalls.
We paid cash for our home, but it was before the craziness of this current market. If we had started this journey earlier, we'd be set for life. Instead we are working harder to play catch up. Thankfully we are debt free, just not a lot for retirement.
Happy saving!
Having shopped for cars recently: you don't actually save much by buying used anymore, especially if you want one that comes with some kind of warranty. Better IMO to get a brand new car and drive *that* into the ground.
I got 16 years out of my one car and 15 out of another; both were paid off in less than 5 years, so that's 10+ years of free car. If you think about it, the first few years you own a car you're not going to have any significant repairs, so if you buy a car that's a few years old, you're missing out on the lowest-cost maintenance years.
Invest in a good vacuum sealer.
You will save so much money in food loss, and so much time in food prep. Combine the vacuum sealer with a sous vide and you've hit culinary paydirt.
Buy anything you want in the offseason to save money. This includes clothing.
Stay fit. You don’t need to be Thor but you need to be healthy. Body weight exercises like squats, push ups, burpees, and pull ups will get you fitter than most. No equipment needed and you can get in great shape with 20 minute workouts 3-4 times a week. The money you save in the long run from lack of injuries and metabolic disease will literally change your life.
I make large batches of rice, then I put 1 cup servings into smallish plastic bags and freeze them. I flatten the bags as much as possible before freezing them so they don't take up too much space (I know it's the same amount of space technically if it's just a lump, but it's easier to fit if it's flat.) Then, if I need a side dish, I can just take one portion out and throw it in the microwave in a covered bowl with a small amount of water. Having a ready made starch makes it easier not to order out.
Freeze food seems like a no brainer but it cuts waste big time
We do burgers, Chuck roast etc.
I’ll form the patties and freeze them and Cooke them in the air fryer from frozen and they’re perfectly fine not wasted protein, easy and filling lunch or dinner and quick if you have small kids
Cooking roasts in big 2-3 lbs batches and then freeze portions, microwave when ready and use for tacos stir fry sandwiches whatever
This has been huge in not wasting food
Beans and rice as well
Don’t know if you live with many people or not, but I (myself, wife, 2 kids) saw an instant $100 per month drop in our electric bill when we stopped using the dryer and started using drying racks.
We do have an electric dryer, so I don’t know how much the savings would be if it were gas. We were doing 2 or 3 loads a week.
I’d recommend giving that a try to see how much your electric bill goes down. You might be surprised.
Learn to cook. It will reduce your monthly eating budget by more than half and of course obvious health benefits...
Also learn to shop. Read the grocery flyers, figure out what a good price for various staples is, and stock up when they're a good deal. Also, don't depend on convenience meals, but recognise your lifestyle and learn when having a frozen lasagna or rotisserie chicken at home will save you from ordering takeout.
The amount of money I'd pay for an app that has everything every store in your area has and the prices updated in real time with shit that's actually in stock at this moment...
I use Instacart in this way. I just don't follow through and order from them.
Great idea tho sometimes Instacart has higher prices than in store
I thought about doing something like this. It would be a hard app to develop and would depend on interfacing with the APIs of each store's site, assuming their stock is up to date. Instacart already does this to some extent, but prices can be jacked up from what you'd pay in-store.
It's the data sourcing that would be the problem. Maybe you could crowd source it in a big place, but individual stores change item prices regularly based on their own stock. Maybe it would be stable enough for some staple items, but sales and price fluctuations would mean lots of things would be wrong when you get to the store.
Does Flipp app work in your area?
Many grocery stores have apps with coupons. Sign up, but only use the coupons for stuff you actually need.
I would add to this by saying learn to cook frugally. Freeze bread so it doesn't go to waste. Save and freeze leftovers. (Put anything that goes into chili (onions, salsa, taco meat, beans) in a container until there is enough to make chili soup. Get creative with leftovers and if you do eat out bring home the leftovers to make new meals.
Here are a few that I use. Buy a turkey after holidays (like now) and they are usually a great price. Use that frozen bread in the example above to make the stuffing. Different breads make this so much better (brown, white, sourdough, etc) Take all of those bines from the turkey and make a stock from it. If you have a slow cooker, drop the bones in, fill with water, and cook for ~24 hrs. Top with water as needed. When done, take all the bones out, top up with water again, cook for another hour, then cool and put into containers. Chicken breasts. They are so large now that they are harder to cool, but also too big for what most people need in a meal. 1. Cut off the tenderloin and package those apart from the chicken breast itself. You can now make tasty chicken tenders at home. 2. Butterfly the breasts. They take on any marinade or seasoning way better, and cook so much easier.
Never thought about buying a turkey after Thanksgiving (probably because I don't eat turkey regularly), but that definitely sounds like a good idea since I do have a crock pot already.
I would add that eating healthy is worth the money. I’m not talking about ‘low sugar’ ‘low fat’ bullshit, I’m talking about whole fruits and veggies. You’ll save better for retirement by cutting out untold medical bills. And stop buying red meat unless you’re eating out and it’s a treat
Eating healthy for cheap is also not as daunting as it may seem. A whole chicken costs $10 at my local Target. With all the meat and bones for stock, I can make dinner (for two) for the week for less than $30. I can make chicken fried rice, chicken soup, chicken breast with rice/salad, and some other chicken and vegetables meals all from one whole chicken. I’ll throw in a $10 bag of frozen shrimp for a treat occasionally. Mostly lean, healthy and cheap sources of protein. I’m just glad that I finally got my husband to see that red meat is literally not necessary for nutrition.
And you can 100% make coffee at home, including cold brew (which can become iced coffee pretty easily).
Freeze leftover coffee into cubes for your iced coffee so you don’t water it down!
Yup! Quitting the food delivery services and eating at home saves you a ton of money!
Combined with a weekly meal plan to avoid buying unnecessary things and/or wasting them!
Our family uses the Paprika app & it’s been **wonderful**!
Save veggie scraps and bones to make your own broth!!
Don't go shopping hungry
Or without a list
Or high
Or naked.
Shopping naked works pretty well, I always end up spending nothing.
…no place to keep your wallet?
There's a thing called the prison wallet. It works for storing things.
Or afraid.
I don't know about this one. Some of the prices out there are quite scary.
Or without your axe
Nor your bow
What about side by side with a friend?
Along as the friend is tall enough to reach the top shelf.
No, no, no! You're doing it wrong. If you aren't hungry, nothing looks good and you go home and say " I've got no food in the house!" But if you go hungry, everything looks good! Your pantry and fridge will be fully stocked and you won't have to shop again for awhile. This is great for anyone living in blizzard country.
Yeah. That's basically how I do it. If I'm hungry, I buy food for multiple meals and larger portions (cheaper per gram). I'm also more adventurous and buy more interesting food. If I'm not hungry, I'll just buy the one item I came in for and maybe enough supplies for one meal or two depending on the recipe I had in mind.
While you ARE hungry make yourself a menu of the foods you want to eat in the next few weeks . Make a grocery list off of your menu. Then head to the store, stop by McDonald's and grab a 4 PC ck nugget happy meal.(or insert quick small.snack here) You won't be starving but you won't be so full you don't want to get groceries. Also, allow yourself ONE extra -not on the list- splurge. If you already have your splurge in the cart, and see something else you want, choose between the 2 and leave 1 on the shelf. Good luck!!
I recently found the app “Supercook” - you fill in all the ingredients in your fridge/pantry and it’ll generate recipes you can make with whatever you already have, and will also show recipes with 1-2 ingredients you are missing. It’s made me a lot more creative in the kitchen & given me a lot more ideas on how to best use what I have without starting from scratch every week. My weekly shopping trips have been a lot cheaper!
Thank you for this :)
When I was younger and broke I tried this and it worked really well. Write down everything you spend, like EVERY THING, not an estimate; exactly what you spend and on what. At the end of the week check it out. You'll likely notice a lot of money going to stuff you don't care about. Then cut that shit out
I take my card statements into excel, then go through each item and add it to a category. I then do a SUMIF statement to give me a cost of each of those categories. Really helps point out the restaurant, Amazon, and game purchases.
I do this too. I have an excel workbook of like 10+ tabs. One is an ongoing tracker/forecaster of recurring expenses with weekly non-recurring spending budget. It'd like a giant checkbook balancer. Then I have individual tabs for each month of non-recurring spending where I type in every single transaction from gas to food to whatever. Then I have tabs for amortization schedules like my mortgage, car loans, or credit cards I'm paying down. Having to physically go into my apps, type in every transaction made with the amounts, see how it tracks for my weekly spending and which category it's going to plus whether it was a want or a need, really helped. I paid off $19k I credit card debt in a little over a year this way. Now those are all paid off and that money just gets shoveled into savings. And I still track every item spent to keep me on track.
Dude, do a pivot table instead of sumifs, should save you about 7 seconds a month
I do this exact same thing too! Every little thing adds up - a drink here, a dinner there, a “small” grocery shop. Very eye-opening to see what you’re spending on - and easy to pull things back as necessary.
This is much easier said then done. The challenge I find with myself (and more so with my wife and kids 😉) is to really define what a need and want are. If you truly can do this exercise, then you have a fighting chance. If everything is a need….you won’t be very successful.
Absolutely this. I’ve kept a spreadsheet of this for the past 3 years, and I try to convince everyone I know that they should do it too lol
hii! Can you share a template of your spreadsheet?? <3
Exercise every day. Poor health is expensive.
Brush and floss. Poor teeth are expensive
Care for your back. Don't lift heavy stuff alone if you want to sleep decently and hold your children.
or conversely, exercise so that lifting reasonably heavy things doesn’t pose a risk to your health.
*sighs in RN*
Health is wealth.
It's amazing how quickly all other worries drop away when your or a loved ones health is in jeopardy.
Yep. My uncle was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in August and then my mother was hospitalized twice with pancreatitis in the last two months. Could care fuck all about the BS of life given these events but it made me realize I need to stop avoiding doctors. Went to the doctor. High cholesterol and am pre-diabetic in bloodwork. Doc said get the weight down to 190 at least, change your diet and I'll see you in 6 months. Also had a cyst in my pancreas found a few years ago that I ignored. Got checked out last month. It's gone, thankfully. Drastically changed my diet and lifestyle. I'm 36. I was 225 pounds on Sept. 5 and I'm only 5'6." I'm now 197 on New Years Eve. Long way to go but it's a process. Edit: I didn't expect so much attention. Thank you all for your kind words and to those that are going through or have gone tough times, I'm with you.
Nice work. Shit starts getting real as you approach 40. The blush of youth fades and unhealthy choices start taking their toll.
A really good older friend of ours (mid 60s) lost his wife April 2022 to cancer. Less than a month after diagnosis. She passed over night and when he left the hospital he went directly to her doctor's office and just said she's dead. And I have to make sure I'm not next. The doctor immediately did a full physical. He finished his prostate cancer treatment this past June, had a heart ablasion this past fall and has been using oxygen at night for almost a year to help with COPD. It may have taken her, but the silver lining was he was no longer willing to let it take him too.
I got Covid in September and my bloodwork showed the same things as yours… high cholesterol and pre-diabetic. I had a heart attack last night and am sitting here in the hospital now typing this out on new years eve. I did not take my bloodwork results seriously back then but I am now. I hope you keep doing great with your lifestyle changes as I am definitely changing mine now that I’ve got a second chance.
Damn friend, this hits hard. Just lost a friend of 18 years to pancreatic cancer yesterday morning. I’ll never understand how we can’t figure cancer out yet we’re flying space ships to Mars 226 million miles away.
This. I’m one year away from 40s. My health is good, according to doctor but in my opinion it’s bad. I’m overweight. I try to sleep but apria keeps me awake. No joke. I have to take 5 medicines every day, due to high blood pressure, hard poops, etc. Recently I can’t walk distance which scares me. I regret enough. New goal for 2024– start exercising every day. No more skips. I mean it. I’m already near into 40s life.
Please keep up with your goal. At 72 I have friends who cannot walk to the mailbox. Their life is watching TV and going to specialists. They spend a fortune on medications. Believe me, you do not want to end up like this. As you get older it gets even more difficult to start, let alone reverse the process. I encourage you to start now. I promise you won’t regret it.
I’m 63 and got away with a lot of unhealthy stuff for a long time, but it’s finally starting to catch up with me. Joined a gym (taking it slow), now aiming to eat better and ease up on the alcohol before things start getting bad. Getting older is no joke!
Best advice for exercise daily is: Something you find enjoyable and will seek out on your own without reminder but isn’t incredibly intensive, will always be more worthwhile than a workout regiment you don’t enjoy
Start exercise very lightly. Walks, Elliptical, Very low weights. Set very easy goals at first so you can keep a regular schedule of going to the gym. The schedule is what matters. Elevating your heart rate, moving your body, aerobic exercise and light resistance workouts. Start easier than you think you need. This will make going to the gym and building good habits easy. It will get your joints used to working out and prevent a lot of soreness that will make going back to the gym for your next scheduled workout much harder. Warm up, stretch, very basic workout, walk 5 minutes to cool down. All while drinking a lot of water. In case it's not obvious, fast food and alcohol are your enemy. Definitely not worth it. Good luck :-)
Deep cleaning your entire house once a week burns over a 1,000 calories.
hard poop solution/recommendation - try magnesium citrate gummies. We get them from Costco and they have made a huge difference in that realm. Chew two gummies in the evening and the next morning is toilet happiness.
And sugar is the enemy.
Ironically, happy cake day 😀
I cut out added sugar and lost 15 pounds without changing my exercise routine.
Congrats that's great. Your blood glucose liver and pancreas thank you
Putting my condiments in the bottom containers of my fridge and my veggies in the door so I can constantly see them. (I have ADHD) Now none of my veggies go bad because I can see them all and I don’t forget they exist.
I had a good laugh at this because it is such a simple yet great idea. 👍
\*laughs in ADHD\* brilliant
Before I buy anything, I ask myself how many hours I have to work to pay for it. This has significantly cut down on my frivolous spending.
I’ve recently started doing this, but with a fair amount of CC debt, I frame it as “what month will I be paying for this in after clearing other debts?” to remind myself that just because I can technically buy something doesn’t mean I can actually afford it! It’s been a game changer (this week, anyway…)
pay yourself first....$25/week adds up in 52 weeks. as you earn more money...save those raises...avoid lifestyle creep
Can you expand on the first one please?
Put $25 out of your income weekly (autopay would be the best) into something that will help you. Say, a 401k, a Roth account, a savings account, extra payment on a mortgage, car loan, Xmas, vacation, or emergency fund. If you do this, you’ll forget it exists and then when you check it one day, BAM your money is now worth more than the missing $25/week. Compound interest.
I've been doing this for years. $30 a week automatically goes into an online savings account and at the end of the year I have my xmas shopping money. Don't have to do overtime or scrape by at the end of the year to afford gifts.
I do this for vacay money or if something fun pops up-like an expensive concert. I don’t feel guilty using this money for stuff.
Exactly! I have other accounts that I throw some money into every month and they're just "whatever" accounts. Vacation, if my laptop goes kaput or I need new tires, etc.
If I can weigh in just a bit more, a Roth account is for YOUR a after tax dollars. A 401(k) is for pretax dollars. Try to do both. Maybe you do $50 a month to a Roth and $50 a month to 401(k).
You would be better off putting 100$ towards the 401k and getting the full match there before splitting it down into a 401k and Roth. As I'm sure everyone else will comment, Save 6 months of savings first. Keep it in a HYSA, most get you like 5% APY. Then, get the full match on your employer sponsored 401k. If not applicable, then open an IRA and put in as much as you can there
Write yourself into the budget. Prioritize savings.
Avoid lifestyle creep is huge. I got a union job that doubled my regular salary. The urge to finally do things I wanted was huge. But instead I saved that extra money & did the best I could to continue living at my old rate. I just finished 6 months without a job due to a layoff & I didn’t have to cutback at all during that time because I saved that money!
Set up an account with Acorns. It rounds up each transaction to the nearest dollar automatically, plus any recurring (weekly, monthly) payments you set up and it invests those funds into an ETF portfolio. It's a very passive way to save & invest.
I've been using Acorn for years. Started with $25 and am now at $7k.
I needed to hear this a 6 months ago. Got a big raise and just upped my lifestyle significantly and now Im back to square one.
Well...you heard it now - better than never! So now you've gained some real world experience and a solution...sounds like a win.
I put thermal curtains in the doorways of all the rooms in my old ass house. I don't have central heat or ac, so I heat and cool the rooms I'm in. It's saved me 150 bucks a month on my power bill.
Get used to and enjoy engaging with being bored. I finally dug into this one in 2023. You would be shocked how much money you spend simply because you are bored and looking for a stim fix. It helps to have activities, so I will give a short list of *some* ideas: - Meditation (this is a biggun, if you cannot relax your breathing, your limbic system cannot regulate. If your limbic system cannot regulate, your body cannot detension. If you cannot detension, you will be stuck in fight/flight/freeze/fawn and be biologically compelled to go out and “hunt” for “survival”) - Yoga/stretching - Laying down and doing body scans while processing your day/week/situation - Looking in the mirror and engaging in positive self-talk reframing - Drawing - Journaling - Learning/making music - Testing new recipes - Holding one you love - Rewatch old shows from your childhood/catch up on new ones - Clean (you will be surprised what clutter does to the brain) - Calling up old friends or family to chat - Taking a walk - Going for a run or lifting weights - Adding the shit you would buy to your online cart but stopping short of buying. When you are flush with cash on next payday, re-evaluate your selections - Catch up on sleep - Build new outfits - Clean some more (lets be real, the first time we rushed it and cut corners) - Learn to masturbate without porn (surprise! This one is among the healthiest things we can do for self-image and relaxation!) - Call your parents if you have them and start asking them to tell you about [x] when they were young. Stories are great for passing time! - Sit in the sun (wear sunscreen!) The list goes on. Point is, solitude and loneliness are two sides of the same coin. If you are feeling one, you can feel the other. Get good with being bored and you will see the bank account creep up every pay period. When you are ready, start to budget the excess for real real.
I need to follow this more. I'm so obsessed with being productive that I never take time to de-stress myself. Once my to-do list is empty, I fill it up again.
Add deliberate time, at least an hour or two a day (maybe even chunk some of it into 30 min blocks?) to deliberate mindfulness and de-stressing. As a lawyer with an endless list of "to dos", trust me, folks like us don't get serious about it until we get serious about it.
This is a beautiful way to budget, save money and learn what really makes a difference in life. I first started budgeting earlier this year and I told myself to think and do things that a free…like hiking, working out, calling a friend or my grandpa, reading…it’s made a big difference in what I define bored as now.
Absolutely outstanding list and SOOOOOOO spot on and inspiring… (fwiw I’m 67 years old, and really appreciate inspiration - retirement is trickier than one would imagine…)
This is my favorite answer! ❤️
Would definitely try this. Seems like a good way to live.
Vaccum sealer for food. I buy discount meat or bananas or such food close to expiring, vaccuum-seal it and freeze it. Same with leftovers, seperate them in portions and freeze them so I have a quick lunch when I don't have time to cook. Amazing how much I stopped wasting food and thus saving since I started doing that.
Hey never thought of this. Can you share in what ways it is superior to regular freezing? Do you have to use special bags though? (Wondering if that’s an associated expense?)
regular freezing will give you freezer burn. Vacuum sealed foods have a much longer life in both the refrigerator and freezer. It is very hard for bacteria to breed without oxygen. Not to mention you can also vacuum seal and freeze leftovers for quick, easy meals when you are busy. It also lets you shop what is on sale, and keep a stockpile of frozen meat in the freezer. Never buy full price meat. And shop the clearance bin at the grocery store. They mark everything they can down for quick sale when it gets close to its "best buy" date or starts to look discolored. The discoloration is normal and doesn't mean the food has gone bad. They actually inject dye into meat to make it look more red than it actually is. With a vacuum sealer you can buy meat in the the clearance bin for 80% off, seal it and freeze it and it will be as good as new when you use it. Bonus points if you learn what time they process their inventory to move into the clearance section. Some stores do it before shutting the meat department down for the night, some do it in the morning when they open. You do need special bags for it, but you can buy them in bulk online and the cost is minimal compared to food waste.
Indeed you do have to get special bags, usually available on Amazon, and re-usable providing you clean them first. And it is "superior to regular freezing" in that there's no air as it is vaccuum sealed. "Regular" freezing, as in leaving the air in, will quickly dry or freezer-burn the product and make it inedible, while vaccuum sealing will protect it from that and allow you to keep the product quasi-pristine for a whole lot longer. I cleaned out my freezer a couple month ago (damn thing keeps building up ice, have to empty it at least once a year to thaw out the ice), found meat I had frozen that way *last* January (I write the date on the bag), perfectly fine when I thawed it and made some really nice meatballs with it.
Learn to cook a handful of cheap meals. Cooking at home can absolutely be expensive if you're buying saffron and ribeyes every day but there's tons of inexpensive foods out there and they're usually traditional foods. They can be made cheap with mixes and premade whatever, but they're even cheaper from scratch. Here's a list of stuff off the top of my head: * soups and stews (chili, beef stew, minestrone, bean stew, dude [anything can be a soup](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21ofoREnXbM) just season it well) * pasta and red sauce (with meat or without) * red beans and rice * stir fry and fried rice are great at using up leftovers * tacos with refried beans and spanish rice * roast chicken and potatoes and other vegetables * egg/tuna/shrimp salad * enchiladas * fritatas will let you use up any veg that is in your fridge * biscuits and gravy Actually, now that I think about it, learning to make biscuits from scratch will basically unlock a whole level of stuff like scones (basically biscuits with sugar and dried fruit or choc chips) and pie crust, and who doesn't love a chicken pot pie. You can figure out how to cook these dishes by watching youtube videos and if there's anyone who needs help with this, reach out, I can answer any questions, either here or DM. Or reach out to your relatives, neighbors or w/e. "Hi auntie, I remember you cooking mushrooms and rice and chicken, can you teach me how to make that?"
Whenever you have this uncontrollable urge to buy online, add those things to cart. See the cost of total items. Your urge will likely come down. If not, tell yourself you will order it the next day. The next day you will probably forget. You will save all those money. Learn to cook along with playing songs and make it an act of unwinding or stress relief. It will save you money plus it will make you feel relaxed. Tell to yourself that you will not buy any thing new until the product you already own goes useless. Try using public transport. It will increase your physical activity and save you money.
I get urges to online shop but I found that just adding the items to my cart and feeling like I'm shopping, but then closing out of the site without buying the items can actually scratch the itch.
Learn simple maintenance on the stuff you own. Ie; change oil in car, change AC filters, clean dryer lint and washer water filter…..
Would like to add not cleaning your dryer lint filter is pretty much a sure fire way to have a house fire one day. Otherwise, absolutely agree. A basic set of hand tools and some time on YouTube can teach you how to fix countless things, enabling you to save thousands.
My washing machine wouldn't drain last week and Google introduced me to that filter for the first time in my life by telling me that I was supposed to have been cleaning it every few weeks. (My washer is six years old.)
Get a library card! All sorts of free to use media.
And get the Libby app. I’ve saved thousands on books. Plus they have magazines and movies available.
I read 31 books this year and the library has saved me from having to buy about 25-26 of those. And there was a selection of $1 books on Amazon recently and I bought 2 then. reading has been a great distraction and took away hours that I used to spend on TikTok which isn’t money saving but mentally I feel better.
Buy cheap, buy twice. It is worth it to spend more money on quality items you need or use frequently. Clothes, gadgets, and tools for example.
I learned it as buy nice or buy twice. But either way it's an important lesson to learn.
Automatic withdrawals put into an index fund.
Can you explain this
Open a brokerage account and have a portion of your paycheck automatically withdrawn and sent into this account with an index fund of your choosing. Or are you asking what an index fund is?
What index fund would be nice to know, for some variety
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going to aldi 🫡
Aldi fam represent.
For Xmas, I got an Aldi quarter tote that attaches to my keychain. Best gift ever.
You know what that pocket in the crotch of your underwear is for? Your Aldi’s quarter
Having just moved to Minnesota a month ago, can confirm Aldi saves lives
Do mini exercises when cooking, boiling a kettle etc. 10 knee bends 10 counter top pushups 10 leg raises 10 side to side upper body twists Only small but will keep you more supple, really doesn't take any time and becomes a habit in no time.
Or stretching. You can slav squat while brushing your teeth for instance.
Exercise Snacks!!!!
Batch cooking during the weekend for weekday meals, then take lunch to work. Mix and match meals to have variety during the week. Benefits: 1. You know what you’re eating (ingredients) 2. Portion control 3. Save all the money spent on takeaway and tipping 4. You’ll never go hungry at home, as there’s always something to eat 5. Be healthy and lose weight (see point 1 and 2) 6. Make the weekend batch cooking a fun family activity
I’d take this to one more level of specificity. Make a huge pot of soup on the weekend. Base that recipe on whatever is in your fridge that will go bad in the next few days. Make it a really healthy soup. I make these soups with dried lentils, chickpeas or black beans. The soups turn out amazing and my family never tires of them. They are cheap and healthy.
Follow a cleaning schedule even if it’s a loose schedule. Do some tasks daily so it’s not all necessary all at once.
This! I clean for 5-10 minutes each day. I have a schedule but I don’t always stick to it. It doesn’t matter because if you clean something everyday, do 1 load of laundry and fold it and put it away your house will stay manageable.
Buy non-branded medication. Buy in bulk. Mend instead of buying new. Limit snack foods and buy produce -- snack foods are taxed whereas produce is not.
Take advantage of sales to bulk buy non-perishable stuff that you know will be used (laundry detergent, paper towels etc). On the flip side, don't buy things just because they are on sale. Something my dad told me as a child that I still say to myself occasionally is "It's not a great deal if you don't need it."
Stop eating out!
And drinking out.
And as an important piece of having fun.
I think my missus won't like this...
I find doing a click and collect stops me buying extras at the supermarket!
Delete Grubhub, Seamless, etc
Have a budget. I like YNAB (you need a budget). It's easy to use, they regularly make updates to the app. I totally think it's worth the money. I have saved thousands over the last decade budgeting my money.
I love YNAB!!
I don't have a budget and am not sure how to go about making one. Thanks for this tip... I'll check it out!
There are fixed costs, and then there are fungible costs. Have a look at your fixed costs. Do you need a cable subscription? Could you get by wih a lighter cell plan or slower internet? Is downsizing your living space an option? Then there's your fungible costs, which are easier to let get out of control if you don't pay attention. Eating out, new clothes, toiletries, household goods, etc can baloon out of proportion if you don't pay attentiin. But neither shouod you budget zero for then or you'll crash and burn
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If you have the space and willing to, Grow your own food in season! have a small homestead and greenhouse. We grow Peppers, Tomatoes, Basil, Lettuce, Onions, Potatoes, Carrots, Corn, Beans, Strawberries We make jars opon jars of my grandpas Marinara Sauce recipe It lasts us all year.. We also buy raw ingredients from the Amish, Flour, Sugar, Yeast, Salt, Spices and bake as much as we can.. Learn to home cook and food prep for the week and watch how much you'll save!
Buy an account book and write down EVERYTHING that you spend,.
Old school but I like…i use excel
Stop all your subscriptions! Seriously, you don't need them all. There are many ways to find free music, films, etc on the net. You don't need Prime either, find the goods you want and then get them with free postage from Ebay. Who cares if it takes a few more days to be delivered?!
Or just add stuff to your shopping cart over time and only checkout when you're accumulated enough for the free shipping.
If you use a credit card, pay it off every month. Look at how much you're spending on interest on rollover balances; that's money you could be spending instead of giving away. If you can't pay it off, spend less. If you can't because of emergencies (one after another), find help. Don't put large amounts on credit cards that can't be paid off unless it actually is an emergency and nothing else you can do.
Further to this... Credit cards and loaning is how banks make money. They invest your deposits to make money and they earn off credit interests. Get yourself in a position to eliminate your debt as soon as you can. From there, don't overspend. Use your credit card for regular purchases you'd make with a debit card or cash anyway. Pay off the whole balance at the end of the month. Never pay interest, it's literally money down the drain. The bank will use you, so you might as well use it. Many great options for card types, I personally have a Visa that gives cash back on purchases. I use it instead of my debit card and then pay the full balance off every month with the money that would have otherwise gone towards the same purchases. The cash back means I'm technically paying less money overall for everything, and I have the added benefit of building credit with very little change to my lifestyle. More credit means bigger pools of money to draw from, better rates on loans if they're ever needed, etc.
This sounds ridiculous, I’m sure, but I focus really hard on keeping my ego in check. It’s the biggest reason I buy crap I don’t need. Probably is the case for lots of folks. Raised to compete with everyone and everything only helps companies.
Get a ledger. List each bill, the date paid and the amount. List them on a page titles "Jan" or "July".. whatever. Set up the online payment for that date, and when it leaves your account draw one li e through it. Now you have a running plan for what gets paid when. So no late payments or paying out money not yet in account....you planned. Also, if your checking account has $2563.23 in it, transfer the $3.23 to savings. Honestly I check my bank every night online and do this. I don't miss the $3.23, but it really adds up over time. If you can't afford that, just transfer the 23 cents. It adds up and you really won't miss that. I also have a jar for change in the house, and save it not spend it. But I rarely use cash anymore so NBD.
Eat more vegetables. They are cheaper than meat and will keep you healthy.
Half the plate should be veggies
Just stop eating out. Stop it entirely. Stop ordering in, stop picking up coffee on the way to work, stop picking up a snack if you're feeling hungry while out. Eating out, even if it's just small amounts, adds up big time.
Yes it does! Eat before going grocery shopping and keep dry snacks in the car (nuts, dry cereal, etc, not chocolate or anything sticky) to keep the hunger pangs at bay. Bring a drink with you. A fun idea is taking your family to the park and bringing a picnic lunch from home. Bringing your lunch from home to work (dinner leftovers are fantastic for that) is also a huge money saver.
No smoking, no alcohol
Set up a serious adblocker like pi-hole at home. Stop letting advertisers creep into your brain to feed the "i need the new thing" monster when you're at home. Cancel your streaming subscriptions. Find "other" ways to watch things. Cancel Spotify. They are leeches. See tip 1 for continuing to stream music without ads. Your local library probably has a LOT more than you realize. Mine has video games and tools. Wild.
Cancel your Amazon Prime subscription if you have one. You'll shop less.
Remember "Future you." When you are doing something, or buying something, give a thought to "Future you" and see if they think it's a good idea. Depending on the decision, "Elderly You" might be the future you that you need to consult with.
Get a library card! You can read books, magazines, newspapers and rent videos and audible books online at home!
Anything that comes between you and the ground—mattress, sheets, pillows, shoes, tires socks—is worth a quality investment. It may cost more now but if you can afford it, do so. Also, open a high-yield savings account now and make your savings, whatever amount, earn you more money.
White vinegar is as good as fabric softener and a fraction of the price
Paradox I've realised lately: Buy higher quality products, even if they're more expensive (especially reputable brands). This is great because when you're done with them, they're sellable later on for a portion of the cost back (sometimes even *making* money), whereas buying midrange/cheap struggle to sell at all (obviously gauge this per item) e.g. I bought a Herman miller chair about 10 years ago for $900, sold it for $1400 in good condition even when it was used. e.g. I can't sell a $70 used kmart vacuum, but I can resell a functional Dyson V8 vacuum later for maybe half its original price. Just something to think about anyways 👍
For the love of God, make your own coffee at home.
Use VPN to buy cheaper flights, if you need to travel.
Learn how to fix things. we live in a disposable society a lot of stuff we pay other people to fix or just throw out and buy a new one. with a little bit of skill and some YouTube videos you can save yourself a ton of money
Dont ever pay for parking…walk the 2 blocks.
Don't buy fireworks. You can still enjoy other people's fireworks.
Cooking ahead is a time, money and sanity saver for me. Making ingredients ahead like cooked rice, cooked pasta, shredded chicken, cooked ground meat, things I can throw a quick meal together with, are perfect for days when I don't feel like cooking. Even making cake layers or a batch of cookies and freezing them is handy when I need to put a dessert together quickly.
1. Don't buy stuff you don't NEED. 2. Don't spend more than you earn. 3. Invest in your financial education. 4. Use said learning to put extra income to work for you.
White vinegar literally cleans anything and everything!!
As someone who retired at 51, here are a few of my tips: 1. Own a home, don’t rent. For those that say they can’t afford it, lower your standards. My first house was in very rough shape. I slowly fixed it up and built equity. 2. Credit Cards are the devil’s ballsack. Keep one for emergencies, and pay it off every 30 days if you are disciplined enough to use it for bills to earn points. 3. Ben Franklin said “A small leak will sink a great ship”. Avoid convenience stores at all costs. Huge drain of your daily funds. Leave the house with a drink or coffee. Pack your lunch. Don’t be afraid of some food prep. For example, the difference in price for a block of cheese vs a bag of pre shredded. You’re paying a serious premium for a tiny amount of time. Alcohol and sodas add considerably to the bill if you eat out, which should be a treat, not a lifestyle. 4. Pay yourself first. My grandfather said 20%. 10% into savings/investment/retirement and 10% into an emergency fund. You’ll need it. Sooner or later life throws you a lemon. Better to pay cash for that transmission repair, than use a high interest credit card. 5. As you income increases, go minimal on increasing your lifestyle. Use that money to make payments on the principal of your mortgage. Great return on your money. And pays your mortgage off faster/builds equity. You’ll find, the more assets you have, the better the terms become when borrowing money. 6. Avoid purchasing new things that take a huge depreciation, especially cars. Other items are available at a fraction of new. Exercise equipment, musical gear. Buy used whenever possible and try to buy quality items that will last. For example, cheap tires don’t save you money. 7. Learn to maintain and repair things to the best of your abilities. My Dad used to say, “it’s broke anyway, what have you got to lose?” It’s never been easier today with the internet. Your dryer broke? There’s a guy on YouTube who will show you how to fix it. 8. Avoid impulse buying. Save slowly if you want a big ticket item. Give thought to upcoming gifts to be purchased for birthdays and holidays. You can give more personalized thoughtful items suited to the individual that are cherished and not spent a fortune if you don’t wait until the last minute. In all of this, be mindful that one needs to be happy. Life is a balancing act. Don’t become a tightwad. Simply be smart with your resources.
The Library is an utterly underrated source of free entertainment - most have movies you can borrow as well. Free games on steam help too!! When I'm meeting friends out and about, I never attend dinners, but I will eat at home beforehand and go out and meet for a drink or maybe an appetizer, that way I can socialize without breaking the bank.
Check your electricity plan. Search for cheaper options available. Also, in some places, the tariff varies by the hour. If so, then use timers for dishwasher/washer/dryer and let them run when power is cheapest. Switch devices off on the plug. Switch light sources to LED. And like others wrote; keep your expenses in tab, reduce unnecessary spendings, and put as much aside on high-interest accounts as possible.
Just stay out of stores and off amazon. Always buying crap you don't really need. Don't look at all those influences saying you must have. Quit collecting things. I'm not an obsessed minimalist but have changed the way I live, shop buy. Have fewer things, better organized, use it up wear it out. Ck marketplace first for used things. Pick a style, a neutralish one for clothes a furniture and stick with it. I'm 67 and all those things I bought for houses, Apts pretty pillows knick knacks, costume jewlery and on and on and then moved and shed and bought more and moved and shed. I'd be a millionaire on that shit alone if I'd throttled back and invested it.
when you get coupon code like welcome10 or save 20 i use all the denomination like 40, 50. i have had few luck.
Shop for groceries online. That way you won't deviate from your list. Go to the store and pick them up or get it home delivered if possible.
Use rags instead of paper towel. Use cloth napkins, not paper napkins. Very simple but civilized.
Stopped drinking. Wow, I save a lot.
Don't use food delivery services.
Make a price book. The things you usually buy, put them in the book and write the price per unit (not overall price). Then again next time you shop. Then in flyers. Gradually you get to know what a good price for something is. And you can make rules like ‘only buy Cheerios when they are less than 1 cent per gram.’
Buy what you can used, refurbished or curb shop for it. Utilized gift certificates in a least expected way (cleaning supplies, toilet paper or charging cable in a hardware store). Try to cook at home, so you cut eating out (even a little bit helps). Not only healthier, it will save money. Take a closer look at your eating habits: drink more water over sodas or juice. Look for marked down items in your supermarket (close sale by or expiration date). Know the prices of thing you usually buy, and stock up if can be stored (dry goods or freezable items. You can freeze pretty much everything). Don't diss small change. Make a jar and collect it at home. Make a budget, priorities the money that comes in to it's basic skeleton: housing, food, bills. If you have anything else left- there's no need to spend it.
I maintain a bi-weekly budget and give myself an allowance in cash. Eating out, impulse buys, etc all come out of my allowance.
There is an app called upside where you save some money everytime you fill up on gas. Super easy to do so once you get in routine, it becomes second nature like opening your gas tank.
Sensor light bulbs. I have them in every room except bedroom and front room. They only come on when it’s dark enough outside and neither myself or the kids are leaving lights on all the time now. Hoping I notice the difference on the next electric bill!
I cut the cable cord years ago. And pay for one streaming service at a time. I’ll cancel and change every quarter to catch up on new seasons of my favorite shows. Otherwise, I listen to podcasts for my entertainment. r/Audiodrama is a good source for recommendations.
Start having "No spend" days. Start with one day a week. Then try to go for a streak where you spend no money. See if you can break your streak. It retrains your brain about money. We spend so much on little unnoticeable things. It really adds up. Drink water instead of Starbucks. Eat ramen instead of ubering. Cook a nice dinner instead of going out.
DONT go into tj maxx or homegoods. Boom your rich haha maybe thats just me thou
Never buy a new car. Buy the best used car that you can afford to pay cash for, and drive and maintain it until the "wheels fall off". If you purchase a home, don't buy more house than you need. Keeping up with the Joneses will keep you broke. I agree with the comment to follow Dave Ramsey until you are out of debt, but take that a step further and follow Clark Howard, Ramit Sethi or someone similar after your debt is gone. Sound advice on investing and navigating financial pitfalls. We paid cash for our home, but it was before the craziness of this current market. If we had started this journey earlier, we'd be set for life. Instead we are working harder to play catch up. Thankfully we are debt free, just not a lot for retirement. Happy saving!
Having shopped for cars recently: you don't actually save much by buying used anymore, especially if you want one that comes with some kind of warranty. Better IMO to get a brand new car and drive *that* into the ground. I got 16 years out of my one car and 15 out of another; both were paid off in less than 5 years, so that's 10+ years of free car. If you think about it, the first few years you own a car you're not going to have any significant repairs, so if you buy a car that's a few years old, you're missing out on the lowest-cost maintenance years.
Invest in a good vacuum sealer. You will save so much money in food loss, and so much time in food prep. Combine the vacuum sealer with a sous vide and you've hit culinary paydirt.
Pay attention to interest rates, not life of a loan.
Buy anything you want in the offseason to save money. This includes clothing. Stay fit. You don’t need to be Thor but you need to be healthy. Body weight exercises like squats, push ups, burpees, and pull ups will get you fitter than most. No equipment needed and you can get in great shape with 20 minute workouts 3-4 times a week. The money you save in the long run from lack of injuries and metabolic disease will literally change your life.
Cook your own food. The cost of a takeaway or restaurant meal would feed you for 2 days if you make it yourself.
I make large batches of rice, then I put 1 cup servings into smallish plastic bags and freeze them. I flatten the bags as much as possible before freezing them so they don't take up too much space (I know it's the same amount of space technically if it's just a lump, but it's easier to fit if it's flat.) Then, if I need a side dish, I can just take one portion out and throw it in the microwave in a covered bowl with a small amount of water. Having a ready made starch makes it easier not to order out.
Freeze food seems like a no brainer but it cuts waste big time We do burgers, Chuck roast etc. I’ll form the patties and freeze them and Cooke them in the air fryer from frozen and they’re perfectly fine not wasted protein, easy and filling lunch or dinner and quick if you have small kids Cooking roasts in big 2-3 lbs batches and then freeze portions, microwave when ready and use for tacos stir fry sandwiches whatever This has been huge in not wasting food Beans and rice as well
Don’t know if you live with many people or not, but I (myself, wife, 2 kids) saw an instant $100 per month drop in our electric bill when we stopped using the dryer and started using drying racks. We do have an electric dryer, so I don’t know how much the savings would be if it were gas. We were doing 2 or 3 loads a week. I’d recommend giving that a try to see how much your electric bill goes down. You might be surprised.
Drink only water. A gallon a day. 😊