What are some frugal (or cheap) things you do to save money?

[Anonymous]

We do our own lab and clean our own house.

Limited Starbucks

No drinks or alcohol at restaurants. We get an appetizer or dessert instead. Drink water.

Limit impulse buying.

Drive old cars until it’s financially worth not anymore.

Limited dry cleaning.

[Anonymous]

No manis and pedis, I do my own nails.

Haircut at hair Cuttery

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Reuse plastic bags, aluminum foil, etc.

Keep boxes and ribbons from gifts; reuse as needed. (And not above regifting either.)

Sell/ consign items when possible.

Still driving car from 2007.

Very basic cable package. No Netflix, etc. Rarely pay for any form of entertainment. Books from library.


HHI $450,000. NW $11M

I think you can afford to live a little now.

Agree; this is sad.

+1

You can afford to live a bit now.

A 2024 car that you drive for the next 10 years, for example.

Pick one or two streaming services.
Pick something you want and spend on it. You don't need to be that frugal anymore.
What's the point of saving/earning so much if you don't actually enjoy it?

Who says we're not living well? Right now I'm at our beautiful vacation home (part of the net worth.) Big trip to Europe this summer. Kids in private schools. Starting to think about large philanthropic projects.

But I could not care less about cars. As long as mine gets me from Point A to Point B, that's all that matters. And a streaming service? Please! Who has time to watch things like that?

How do you think we got to the point where we accumulated this much in the first place? Waste is waste and there is no excuse for it, ever if you have money.

Oh and I agree about the Uber Eats/ Door Dash. NEVER spend money on that - if you want something to eat, get off your lazy can and go get it yourself!

I don’t care about cars either but a 17 year old car is usually unreliable. So it’s unlikely to get you from A to B without a lot of hassle and additional expense. That’s why most people don’t drive them. It’s not because they’re not frugal. And most people use Uber eats to save time. They don’t order it and then “sit on their can.”

+1

Sold my 12 yo car when it started having "electrical issues" that were going to get costly. Great car, ran great up until then but we quickly sold it (for ~20% of what we paid for it) and got a new vehicle that will provide 8-10 years of reliability at minimal costs.

NP. I don't think of needing repairs as synonymous with unreliable, but I find a lot of people do, and I often wonder whether it's an excuse to get a new car. (Not necessarily for PP because I don't know what the problems were.) Unreliable to me would be I'm afraid my car will stop working on the highway.

Old or high mileage doesn't make me feel afraid in and of itself when the mechanic sees it regularly for oil changes and maintenance and I trust him. He will tell me when it's not worth fixing, which for the last one was over 200k.

I tend to look at any repair cost and calculate how many car payments that would be. A $350 repair won't even buy a month of a new car payment. I don't want to solve a $350 issue by incurring a $25k+ cost and obligation. Plus I also think about the higher car tax and insurance.

[Anonymous]

We don't really drive and have a rowhome near things instead of detached home.

If we drove, we'd be out $400/mo in parking (each of our offices charge 200+/mo), plus whatever insurance/payments/depreciation/taxes/maintenance costs. We can't really see that being too for under $1000/mo. Basically $17k/year.

Instead we have an old beater for trips to the mountains and beaches. Total cost is like 2k/year (bought 2010 and paid off in 2012 and minimal depreciation curve).

[Anonymous]

You are better off improving skills to increase income than cutting your soap into fours. Also match expenses to income. Credit card debt and home equity loans are a no no.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Opening my fridge just now I realized another thing I do. I save small bits of leftovers. A handful of toasted potates m, some leftover salad, a few bites of meat…I am happy to throw those together for my lunch

Are those salvaged from plates? Yuck.
Cook less.
Or at least don't be one of those moms like mine with loads of little plastic containers molded in the fridge.
I am hyper for no leftovers after growing up with that fridge.

No, it’s salvaged from the serving dishes. And they don’t go moldy because every couple of days I’ll use them up for my lunches.

I’m not going to cook less because I never know how much everyone will eat. Sometimes there are no leftovers.

Just because you don’t enjoy leftovers doesn’t mean everyone hates them or had a bad childhood experience. Some people throw away a lot of perfectly good food, I enjoy leftovers and save on buying more food for a couple lunches a week. I know others say these things don’t add up, but over time they really do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think all this stuff is basically small potatoes and not a good return on time/effort. It would be better to spend that time/effort making more money or to change the big things in your budget, like housing.

Stuff like reusing paper towels is for if you’re a senior on a fixed budget and there’s nothing you can ever do to change the big picture, but you have a lot of time to pile up Pennie’s.

But every little bit helps.
Making coffee at home vs Starbucks can save you $400+/month. I know people who drop $10-15/day per family member ---so $50+/day. That's $1500+/month at Starbucks type places. Cooking at home a few more days per week can save $400+/month.

I agree. People who say it’s not worth it maybe has never had to budget.

It all adds up…I have a young coworker who complained that she had no money in her bank and thought she was being swindled by our company. But she goes out to eat almost every day for lunch, goes out for $6-7 coffee constantly, drinks/parties on the weekends, has the most current makeup trends…she lives at home and should be able to save up, but also thinks that these little things shouldn’t add up….they really do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We do our own lab and clean our own house.

Limited Starbucks

No drinks or alcohol at restaurants. We get an appetizer or dessert instead. Drink water.

Limit impulse buying.

Drive old cars until it’s financially worth not anymore.

Limited dry cleaning.

How on earth do you do your own lab work? Do you have any medical training?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We do our own lab and clean our own house.

Limited Starbucks

No drinks or alcohol at restaurants. We get an appetizer or dessert instead. Drink water.

Limit impulse buying.

Drive old cars until it’s financially worth not anymore.

Limited dry cleaning.

How on earth do you do your own lab work? Do you have any medical training?

I think they meant “lawn”

[Anonymous]

Maintain a Birthday Box stocked with gift bags, ribbons, tissues and add to it frequently. Buy gifts in bulk when you find a great deal.

We never go out for coffee - have become coffee snobs and only ever make our own.

Maintain a stock of essentials, whatever those are in your house. I buy in bulk - everything from razors, medicines, tampons to soap and sunblocks. Key is to keep supplies visible so you know what you have.

[Anonymous]

Cut down on addictions. No alcohol, no drugs, no cigarettes, no weed, no vaping, no coffee, no streaming services and you are good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here...I should have added HHI and NW.

Anyways, mine...HHI: 140k NW: 300k. I got a late start because of grad school. I am saving a lot to catch up.

HHI: 320k NW: 3+ mil. Coffee at home. Lidl for groceries. Buy used cars for cash and don't have car payments. Shop at TJ Maxx and Nordstrom Rack. Get mani/pedis only for special occasions a few times a year. Don't shop for entertainment - go only when I need a specific item. Keep streaming service subscriptions to a minimum and if I subscribe to watch a certain series, I remember to cancel it when I'm done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maintain a Birthday Box stocked with gift bags, ribbons, tissues and add to it frequently. Buy gifts in bulk when you find a great deal.

We never go out for coffee - have become coffee snobs and only ever make our own.

Maintain a stock of essentials, whatever those are in your house. I buy in bulk - everything from razors, medicines, tampons to soap and sunblocks. Key is to keep supplies visible so you know what you have.

Yep we have a full stock of non perishables and toiletries, replace when running low. My DDs spend allowance at Starbucks but DH and I don’t. We rarely impulse buy anything. Food shopping is done with a meal plan and a list. We buy new clothes as we desire, but don’t do so impulsively, wait for reasonable sales and try to be purposeful about how often the item will be used. We continually declutter and while we are certainly not “minimalist” we try to keep it in mind. We trade dog sitting with our neighbor. We take nice vacations but play the credit card points game. We don’t replace our appliances because they are the wrong color if they still work fine.

None of this feels like sacrifice or hardship to us.

[Anonymous]

Do all my own home renovations. Don’t waste any food. Drive old cars.

[Anonymous]

- use the grocery store apps for rewards/coupons. I haven't paid for Kcups in two years due to Safeway or Giant's reward system

- there is always a coupon code online for 90% of store, never buy online without at least 10% off

- never buy designer jewelry, your local jewelry can custom design a better piece for less.

- Buy a car that someone with half my income would buy

- DIY home repairs for easy things - youtube can work wonders.

HHI 700k