What is the most frugal (or cheap) thing you do to save money?

[Anonymous]

We don't have expensive hobbies or "things" (there was a thread a little bit ago with people proudly proclaiming they have an entire room devoted to their collection of Manolo Blahniks).

[Anonymous]

We've given up our health club memberships - we used to live in an area where we had a family pass for $40 that covered everything from classes to the pool - everything here seems to be $200/month for a single membership to one type of gym (barre or cycling or whatever)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My mother is incredibly frugal which probably resulted from her upbringing on a farm, but is quite wealthy today making it unnessary.
She uses pliers to get the last drop of toothpaste and then cuts open the container to scrape the last bits out. She also cancelled her trash pickup and drops her trash at the trash bins outside stores using plastic grocery bags. The list goes on, but the craziest is the stuff she is able to see online. She somehow made 3k selling moss from around her home online. It is incredibly annoying at times. For example, she had to wait for weeks for the cheapest flight to see my newborn baby. It was quite hurtful that she didn't come weeks earlier so that she could save 20 bucks. I even offered to pay for her flight, but she refused.

The last one sounds a bit extreme to me. Granted, I'm not particularly frugal.

[Anonymous]

Going on this site instead of therapy lol

[Anonymous]

We clean our own house
Pack lunches
Make our own coffee
Do my own eyebrows/nails/etc.
Shop at Costco
Buy a lot of kids stuff from our local moms group

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are not frugal at all (at least now...). HHI is 250K.

Luxuries -
- We have house cleaners twice a week
- I am a SAHM and volunteer my time at school and church.
- DH buys lunch at work
- We eat out or get take-outs very frequently. At least a few times a week.
- We entertain a lot - big parties with food, booze, servers
- We recycle a lot, but do not wash ziplocks to reuse.
- We use bottled water for drinking.
- We buy a lot of clothes and accessories, give most office clothes to the drycleaners,
- At least two loads of laundry a day. At least two loads in the dishwasher a day
- We use a lawn care company to treat our lawn and a lawnmover company to keep our lawn mowed.
- We give generous amounts of money to many charities
- We give generous gifts to school staff and all teachers of my children during holidays
- We are the people who have huge birthday parties for our kids, all siblings and family allowed, at least one entertainer, a full meal served along with booze, goody bags for all.
- Travel abroad every year.


So, why am I posting on this thread? We have an absurdly low cost structure and can cut down on the luxuries mentioned above in an instant - and that makes us frugal and smart.

- Live, save and invest on one salary. My own salary (during the years that I worked) was never touched and 100% invested.
- Bought a huge SFH in the boonies for <300K. It was a steal then and a miracle now. We were not tempted to move to a more prestigious and more expensive area. Our friends did. They pay for it in more than one way.
- Retirement on track, a whole lot of insurance (a few million), and a pension plan.
- Kids go to magnet public schools. I do spend on enrichment and tutoring outside of school but I am guessing people in private schools do that too.
- Energy efficient and Green everything - home, cars, appliances
- No student debt for us. Fully funded college for kids. Not just for 4 years of college but for Med school, law school, masters, or MBA.
- Retirement on track, a whole lot of insurance (a few million), and a pension plan.
- Costco, Amazon, Walmart shopper
- No gym, but we trek a lot so we have expensive gear for that. And we have expensive paraphernalia and equipment for all our hobbies.
- Indexed Mutual Funds. Have always saved at least 30% of our salary...from our very first paycheck. Power of compound interest!!
- We will not pay for our kids weddings because it is a waste. Each kid will get 40K when they marry towards a down payment for a house, and 20K towards a new car when they start working. We think that is very generous helping hand in life for any child. If our kids cannot make the very best of these advantages then really there is no hope for them.

Wow this is awesome. Twenty-something here. You sound a lot like my parents down to the 40k at marriage and entertaining around the clock on what dcum would consider a modest salary. I aspire to model my own life the same way! Thanks for posting.

This is not helpful at all. You are UMC and live in a low COL area. And you aren't frugal about anything.

Living in a low COL area when you can afford Bethesda is frugal! I am UMC because I choose to live where I do. Otherwise I would be DCUM poor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When my husband's flip flops break, he duct tapes them. No joke.

I've done that before lol

When my husband was in grad school, he did that with his glasses (just for a few weeks til an intervention was held.)

Hey, I've done this. My vision is so poor/ prescription so severe that my lenses alone cost $350-400, they're never covered under glasses-store promotions, and I can't always afford new glasses/ the lenses won't fit into other frames. Necessity (my vision) negates my vanity sometimes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rent a 2 bedroom in a good school district ($2400) in a centrally-located DC neighborhood.

No car. Take the bus or walk everywhere. Jobs are within walking distance.

20% of pre-tax income goes to Fidelity 403(b) (index funds only) and I get an employer match. Max out annual contribution in Vanguard Roth IRA via bi-monthly automated deposits.

All purchases go on my AMEX (PRG - annual fee is worth it for the perks). We have been able to avoid paying baggage fees on airlines, have received our money back on final sale items, and have used points to buy big-ticket items with this card.

Most grocery shopping is done at Target, Giant, and Trader Joe's and sometimes at local mom & pop stores. Cartwheel app is invaluable and Giant doubles coupons and often has sales on things we eat. We don't eat meat, so that in and of itself is a major savings.

Costco trips every few months to stock up on things like toilet paper, quinoa, olive oil, etc.

Make most meals and coffee at home.

Buy secondhand whenever possible (clothing, baby gear, furniture, etc.)

Exercising restraint when buying in general. Most of the time when we want something, we don't *really* need it. I've been listening to The Minimalist's podcasts for inspiration.

Also:

Live in <1000 sq ft and purge things we don't need (donate/sell/give to friends) on a regular basis.

Repair items instead of trashing them.

Don't you find yourself giving away things to make space only to find that - oops - you wish you hadn't given away that staple gun, art supply kit, or whatever.

One of the reasons that we prefer a bigger place than 1000sqft is because it's nice to be able to store a shop vac, car jack, work bench, etc even though we may only use those items once or twice a year, if that.

Those can be stored in a garage. Find a house with a garage.

Different PP, but we have found it is about 1 in 100 things we throw out/give away/sell we end up purchasing again. If you are worried, put it in a box with other things and label the outside. Put it in storage. If you do not open it up in a year or two. Throw the box out/donate without looking through it.

Yeah, those are just examples of items. What about extra blankets, pillows, quilts, jackets, coats, clothes, etc that may only come in handy very occasionally but need to be stored in a climate controlled area of your home.

Why can't they go in an attic?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rent a 2 bedroom in a good school district ($2400) in a centrally-located DC neighborhood.

No car. Take the bus or walk everywhere. Jobs are within walking distance.

20% of pre-tax income goes to Fidelity 403(b) (index funds only) and I get an employer match. Max out annual contribution in Vanguard Roth IRA via bi-monthly automated deposits.

All purchases go on my AMEX (PRG - annual fee is worth it for the perks). We have been able to avoid paying baggage fees on airlines, have received our money back on final sale items, and have used points to buy big-ticket items with this card.

Most grocery shopping is done at Target, Giant, and Trader Joe's and sometimes at local mom & pop stores. Cartwheel app is invaluable and Giant doubles coupons and often has sales on things we eat. We don't eat meat, so that in and of itself is a major savings.

Costco trips every few months to stock up on things like toilet paper, quinoa, olive oil, etc.

Make most meals and coffee at home.

Buy secondhand whenever possible (clothing, baby gear, furniture, etc.)

Exercising restraint when buying in general. Most of the time when we want something, we don't *really* need it. I've been listening to The Minimalist's podcasts for inspiration.

Also:

Live in <1000 sq ft and purge things we don't need (donate/sell/give to friends) on a regular basis.

Repair items instead of trashing them.

Don't you find yourself giving away things to make space only to find that - oops - you wish you hadn't given away that staple gun, art supply kit, or whatever.

One of the reasons that we prefer a bigger place than 1000sqft is because it's nice to be able to store a shop vac, car jack, work bench, etc even though we may only use those items once or twice a year, if that.

The beauty of living in an 800 sq ft condo, though, is that we don't NEED any of that stuff. We have a great hardware store down the street that rents out gear that we may need, plus we have friends who lend us things.

We were living in an apartment (maybe 900 sq ft) for a few months a couple of years ago. We had to put maybe 2/3 of our stuff in storage. We made do with what we had on hand but it was a pain to have to go to the library or book store when I needed a book that I knew was in storage. And I missed having things - like a nice assortment of board games to play, a well stocked kitchen, an assortment of warm/cool weather clothes, coats, shoes for everybody. It was 4 of us (and 2 dogs) living in a 2 br/2 bath with one smallish living area to share. It wasn't horrible, it was actually doable. But boy was it ever nice to move into a bigger place.

Why didn't you just get it out of storage? You bought a new book instead?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Going on this site instead of therapy lol

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

The beauty of living in an 800 sq ft condo, though, is that we don't NEED any of that stuff. We have a great hardware store down the street that rents out gear that we may need, plus we have friends who lend us things.

I don't know any hardware stores that rent out "basics" (although maybe yours does if you live in a highly condo-concentrated area, makes sense), but beyond that, borrowing those things from friends -- well, you're basically relying on OTHER people to have larger homes so you don't have to. Using your friends as storage for you.

Not saying there's anything wrong with it, I'm happy to lend things to friends. But if everyone lived the way you did, no one would have the items to lend. So don't get too smug.

[Anonymous]

My stapler broke years ago. I take papers to work and staple them. Then I bring them home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rent a 2 bedroom in a good school district ($2400) in a centrally-located DC neighborhood.

No car. Take the bus or walk everywhere. Jobs are within walking distance.

20% of pre-tax income goes to Fidelity 403(b) (index funds only) and I get an employer match. Max out annual contribution in Vanguard Roth IRA via bi-monthly automated deposits.

All purchases go on my AMEX (PRG - annual fee is worth it for the perks). We have been able to avoid paying baggage fees on airlines, have received our money back on final sale items, and have used points to buy big-ticket items with this card.

Most grocery shopping is done at Target, Giant, and Trader Joe's and sometimes at local mom & pop stores. Cartwheel app is invaluable and Giant doubles coupons and often has sales on things we eat. We don't eat meat, so that in and of itself is a major savings.

Costco trips every few months to stock up on things like toilet paper, quinoa, olive oil, etc.

Make most meals and coffee at home.

Buy secondhand whenever possible (clothing, baby gear, furniture, etc.)

Exercising restraint when buying in general. Most of the time when we want something, we don't *really* need it. I've been listening to The Minimalist's podcasts for inspiration.

Also:

Live in <1000 sq ft and purge things we don't need (donate/sell/give to friends) on a regular basis.

Repair items instead of trashing them.

Don't you find yourself giving away things to make space only to find that - oops - you wish you hadn't given away that staple gun, art supply kit, or whatever.

One of the reasons that we prefer a bigger place than 1000sqft is because it's nice to be able to store a shop vac, car jack, work bench, etc even though we may only use those items once or twice a year, if that.

The beauty of living in an 800 sq ft condo, though, is that we don't NEED any of that stuff. We have a great hardware store down the street that rents out gear that we may need, plus we have friends who lend us things.

We were living in an apartment (maybe 900 sq ft) for a few months a couple of years ago. We had to put maybe 2/3 of our stuff in storage. We made do with what we had on hand but it was a pain to have to go to the library or book store when I needed a book that I knew was in storage. And I missed having things - like a nice assortment of board games to play, a well stocked kitchen, an assortment of warm/cool weather clothes, coats, shoes for everybody. It was 4 of us (and 2 dogs) living in a 2 br/2 bath with one smallish living area to share. It wasn't horrible, it was actually doable. But boy was it ever nice to move into a bigger place.

Why didn't you just get it out of storage? You bought a new book instead?

Well we didn't have easy access to our storage for one thing. And even if we did trying to find one book in all of those boxes and among all the furniture, lawn care items, Christmas decorations, kitchen items, etc would have been nightmarish and not worth it.

No. I found what I was looking for at the library or by browsing at the bookstore. That was just an example. I also wanted my pancake griddle but wasn't going to go through the hassle of digging that out of storage, either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My stapler broke years ago. I take papers to work and staple them. Then I bring them home.

This makes me laugh. You can get a little stapler for something like 3 bucks you know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rent a 2 bedroom in a good school district ($2400) in a centrally-located DC neighborhood.

No car. Take the bus or walk everywhere. Jobs are within walking distance.

20% of pre-tax income goes to Fidelity 403(b) (index funds only) and I get an employer match. Max out annual contribution in Vanguard Roth IRA via bi-monthly automated deposits.

All purchases go on my AMEX (PRG - annual fee is worth it for the perks). We have been able to avoid paying baggage fees on airlines, have received our money back on final sale items, and have used points to buy big-ticket items with this card.

Most grocery shopping is done at Target, Giant, and Trader Joe's and sometimes at local mom & pop stores. Cartwheel app is invaluable and Giant doubles coupons and often has sales on things we eat. We don't eat meat, so that in and of itself is a major savings.

Costco trips every few months to stock up on things like toilet paper, quinoa, olive oil, etc.

Make most meals and coffee at home.

Buy secondhand whenever possible (clothing, baby gear, furniture, etc.)

Exercising restraint when buying in general. Most of the time when we want something, we don't *really* need it. I've been listening to The Minimalist's podcasts for inspiration.

Also:

Live in <1000 sq ft and purge things we don't need (donate/sell/give to friends) on a regular basis.

Repair items instead of trashing them.

Don't you find yourself giving away things to make space only to find that - oops - you wish you hadn't given away that staple gun, art supply kit, or whatever.

One of the reasons that we prefer a bigger place than 1000sqft is because it's nice to be able to store a shop vac, car jack, work bench, etc even though we may only use those items once or twice a year, if that.

Those can be stored in a garage. Find a house with a garage.

Different PP, but we have found it is about 1 in 100 things we throw out/give away/sell we end up purchasing again. If you are worried, put it in a box with other things and label the outside. Put it in storage. If you do not open it up in a year or two. Throw the box out/donate without looking through it.

Yeah, those are just examples of items. What about extra blankets, pillows, quilts, jackets, coats, clothes, etc that may only come in handy very occasionally but need to be stored in a climate controlled area of your home.

Why can't they go in an attic?

An attic is not a climate controlled area. It is sheltered from water (most of the time), but 99% of homes with attics do not air condition them in the summer or heat them in the winter. And why would a reasonable person pay for that, given the design of roofs?