Out of the box savings tips

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Small house
Take care of cars and use them to the end,
decrease number of cars owned,
buy high quality long lasting car with high gas mileage
Lower temp in winter
Raise temp in summer
Laundry in full loads only
Same for dishes in dishwasher
Plan meals around sales at stores
Brown bag it to work with leftovers from dinners
Make your own bread
Don’t buy prepackaged fruit or veggies, wash and cut it up yourself
Buy fruit and veggies in season and on sale
Don’t go out to eat
Don’t buy new clothes, do with what you have
Buy good high quality shoes, don’t skimp on shoes
Drop any memberships to clubs and get out and walk/run
Don’t get a pet
Use the library for books and videos
Do the fun free stuff in the area and don’t pay for entertainment
Make your own pizza on Friday nights, invite friends over

Don't have kids.

[Anonymous]

Don't have kids, don't have pets, don't eat out, buy smallest housing you can do with and also age in place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't have kids, don't have pets, don't eat out, buy smallest housing you can do with and also age in place.

No thanks...what a boring life that would be!

[Anonymous]

make your own coffee at home - no starbucks. I'm stunned by the cost of my friends' daily habit.
I wish I had the same discipline with taking my lunch everyday - a co-worker does and swears by it.

GL!

[Anonymous]

Library for movies & books - I use the website to place items on hold and pick up when my order is at my neighborhood branch.

Buy secondhand - I try to buy clothes, kids shoes, household things, sports eqt used on eBay. I sell some of my stuff on eBay to get a PayPal balance and then spend it on new used stuff that I need!

I go to a big consignment sale every year that sells everything from small appliances to luggage to books & clothes. We get a lot of high quality items this way.

Furniture was mainly inherited or bought from estate sales or reasonably priced antique & consignment stores. Only new items are couches, and got those on sale.

As PPs have noted: majority of meals are eaten at home - all breakfasts, 80% of dinners. I always pack my lunch, but DH won't.

Costco for food & household supplies, still being careful to get what's on sale.

[Anonymous]

Pay yourself first. Everything else is bullshit around the edges.

[Anonymous]

We don't spend any money on haircuts. We invested in a professional set of clippers to do DH and 3 sons haircuts. DD and I cut each other's hair. We have longer hair which is more forgiving than if we had short styles.
No manicures or pedicures
Rarely buy coffee out
Cook most meals at home but we do go out to dinner twice a month
Have all of the store emails go to a separate email account that you only look at when you are going shopping for something you need. So if a kid needs a new pair of shoes I go to that account and search to see what shoe stores we have coupons for. We don't go buy shoes because we got a coupon, we use a coupon because we need shoes.
Never buy something without checking for a discount.
We do all of our own yard work and clean the house ourselves
Pay attention to the gas rewards programs. Almost everytime we buy gas we have at least 50 cents off per gallon

[Anonymous]

Cutting small things didn’t do much for me. Fasting showed me i can live without having to buy something. Get a second job. It’s like double whammy- keeps you busy, no time to spend. Walk dogs or go work at restaurant for extra money. You get to exercise for free and free food.

[Anonymous]

Not many of these suggestions are actually "out of the box," as OP requested. Seriously? Don't buy your coffee? Didn't Oprah tell us to stop doing that 25 years ago????