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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I invest exclusively in Vanguard index funds rather than pay a fund manager or financial advisor 2%. That saves about $30,000 per year.

We send our kids to public school, which saves about $80,000 per year.

DW sometimes uses a single tea bag for two cups of tea. That saves about $1.50 per year.

While I'm sure his wife does this - I think he was kind of making a joke about it. My mom does this too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I stick with classic styles, stay out of stores and don't look at Internet shopping sites. Cook at home, where I use great ingredients and fine wines. Most restaurant food is garbage.

This is key

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1.) No daycare bill. We work opposite schedule.
2.) Old cars which seem to run forever.
3.) Cheap insurances since cars are old.
4.) Low property tax bill since we live in condo.
5.) Hardly ever sick. Great eyesight and fix teeth abroad if needed.
6.) Public schools.
7.) No spa/ no manicure/ 1 haircut a year(grows slowly) and even that abroad if we go.
8.) Wear uniform to work and they have free food.
9.) Live close to work and school.
10.) Older kid's expenses paid 50% by ex.
11.) 1 mortgage paid by renter.
12.) Free parking since we work in the same zone and free at DH work.
We earn some cash back, but it's small. Don't cut coupons since I know rock bottom prices and buy usually then. No new clothes since closet is full of clothes and we hardly ever got to an event that requires nice clothes.
We spend money on traveling and books ($1a piece in thrift) and 529s.
One of the mortgages will be paid soon. Then we will upgrade and have 3 people pay for the house.
I think the best thing is that we don't know any Joneses. Nobody to impress.

We actually couldn't afford a condo due to the condo fees. Are yours low?

[Anonymous]

-DH stays in cheaper hotels when he travels for work and pockets the extra per diem/hotel money. Say he gets $200 a night, he stays in La Quinta instead of the Hyatt and pockets the difference. The extra money really adds up.
-DH and I bring lunches to work every day and never eat out or order take out for dinner. We have kids and would rather spend our weekend date nights going out dancing or to bars.
-We keep the house pretty cold in the winter (62). We're constantly busy and moving from the time we arrive home until sleep so we don't get cold. We use an electric blanket at night.
-Cricket Wireless. We pay $20 a phone including taxes and fees with no drop in coverage or service. It's amazing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I drive a 16 year old car and eat leftovers.

Whose leftovers are you eating?

[Anonymous]

Little stuff doesn't matter much in the grand scheme of things so we don't watch little things very closely (coffee, Amazon, etc.). In order of impact on our bottom line here are our frugality tips:

- 15 year mortgage only slightly more than 1x HHI
- 2 Hondas paid for in cash (one 11 years old and one 3 years old)
- clean our own house
- do our own yardwork
- DH does most home repairs/maintenance himself and most car repairs (when it makes sense for him to do so from a complexity/time/cost perspective)

1/3 of what we make goes to expenses, 1/3 to the tax man and 1/3 goes into 2 maxed 401ks, backdoor Roths and the balance in taxable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What travel rewards cc is everyone using?

I would also love to know which cc's give the best rewards. TIA!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What travel rewards cc is everyone using?

I would also love to know which cc's give the best rewards. TIA!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What travel rewards cc is everyone using?

I would also love to know which cc's give the best rewards. TIA!

I use Capital one and get 2% back on all purchases.

[Anonymous]

Clean our own house.
Do our cosmetic upgrades - ikea cabinets, backsplash.
DH does most of the repairs and maintenance in the house.
DH cuts his own hair.
Take our lunch to work.
Iron our own shirts.
Use dryel for dryclean-only sweaters and blouses.
Save actual dry-cleaning for suits and slacks.
Wear things multiple times before dry-cleaning and spot-clean when that's enough.
Travel mostly on airline and hotel points.
Brew coffee at home.
Use one teabag throughout the day.
Download movies for free.
No dogs.
No kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What travel rewards cc is everyone using?

I would also love to know which cc's give the best rewards. TIA!

I use Capital one and get 2% back on all purchases.

I use Chase Sapphire Reserve (and before that, the Sapphire Preferred but the benefits are a bit redundant so I closed it)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Clean our own house.
Do our cosmetic upgrades - ikea cabinets, backsplash.
DH does most of the repairs and maintenance in the house.
DH cuts his own hair.
Take our lunch to work.
Iron our own shirts.
Use dryel for dryclean-only sweaters and blouses.
Save actual dry-cleaning for suits and slacks.
Wear things multiple times before dry-cleaning and spot-clean when that's enough.
Travel mostly on airline and hotel points.
Brew coffee at home.
Use one teabag throughout the day.
Download movies for free.
No dogs.
No kids.

Well, yeah, that would do it. I was wondering what all of the focus on the dry cleaning was about and then I got to the kids part. No dry cleaning at all in this house - too many kids.

[Anonymous]

We do the following:

2% Cash back credit card that we put most expenses on and pay off each month.

Use Ebates when we need to buy something online, also put it on the cash back card (so we get the 2% back) and also always check for coupon codes on RetailMeNot

Buy in bulk when it's cheaper to do so.

Use CVS extrabucks

Go on the Safeway website before shopping and send all relevant coupons to my loyalty card to get the discounts.

Use the Gas rewards we get from Safeway

Drive used cars that are paid off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Little stuff doesn't matter much in the grand scheme of things so we don't watch little things very closely (coffee, Amazon, etc.). In order of impact on our bottom line here are our frugality tips:

- 15 year mortgage only slightly more than 1x HHI
- 2 Hondas paid for in cash (one 11 years old and one 3 years old)
- clean our own house
- do our own yardwork
- DH does most home repairs/maintenance himself and most car repairs (when it makes sense for him to do so from a complexity/time/cost perspective)

1/3 of what we make goes to expenses, 1/3 to the tax man and 1/3 goes into 2 maxed 401ks, backdoor Roths and the balance in taxable.

This stuff is what matters. You can't save a lot of money or end up debt (including mortgage) free if you have car loans, a huge mortgage and constantly outsource things you can do yourself.

[Anonymous]

Don't have a cleaning service