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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I buy Veuve instead of Dom

This is a good tip. My daughter and I flew to Europe to watch Taylor Swift. My husband said we could have just used the company suite at the arena, but I think he's missing the point that we saved a lot of money on our Louis Vuitton, La Prairie, etc, that we bought tax free on the trip. Of course we used points etc for airfare (business class, not 1st) and hotel (4 star, no pool). Our private college counselor said DD can work the trip into an admissions essay for merit aid for her HYSPM apps so honestly, I think we made money on that trip.

All true, except there’s no merit aid at the Ivies. At Stanford, it’s negotiable.

[Anonymous]

Don’t use credit, except for mortgage.
I hate to shop and don’t do any impulse buys. It’s a conscious decision to splurge.
And I don’t feel the need to impress others with flaunting my “wealth”.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I could have "fixed" the above car at 12 yo. However, the issues were all electrical. Fixed one electrical that I had to to keep car running. The others were handfree was no longer working and my alarm system was not working (car just locked and made the sounds, but without fixing it, there was no real alarm system). So for safety, I refuse to drive around in a car without handsfree options or an alarm system. Yet I was not willing to pay the fees to fix it on an older car. It also had some bodywork needed. So all the repairs would have been over $5K.

Now, from experience, I know that once a vehicle starts needing electrical work, a lot tends to go wrong. Electrical work is very labor intensive and sometimes can take them forever to find what is actually wrong. So sure, if I didn't have the money saved for a new vehicle, I might not get one. But at 12+ years old, I define those as items that need to be repaired, and lets just get rid of the car while I can and get a good amount for it. Because it could become a money pit soon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Leftovers are awesome! Now that we are empty nesters, we often cook and then freeze the rest in individual servings for lunches. Then you always have lunch easily available.

I won't eat something more than 4 days after it was cooked/brought home from a restaurant. Unless I've frozen it before day 4.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Lunch and one trip to Starbucks daily can add up to $25/day. Multiply by 20 workdays and that's $400/month. Not even accounting for weekends and dinners out and hitting the bars/partying. Many waste $600-800+/month Great if you have the money, but most are not saving sufficiently

[Anonymous]

Most of my frugality is a happy byproduct of decisions I make for other reasons.

Take lunch and rarely eat out: my motivation is health, but a side benefit is that it's a lot cheaper.

Basic haircut that I can get trimmed 1-2 times a year vs 6-8 week cut/color: I'm lazy and hate scheduling haircuts.

Eating leftovers: they're yummy! I put a lot of effort into that dish, why wouldn't I want to eat the rest of it?

Don't buy a lot of new clothes: I like what I have, no motivation to go shopping unless something wears out to the point that I really can't be seen in public in it anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I thought this was standard -- not throwing away food and eating leftovers. There are massive amts of food waste otherwise.

[Anonymous]

I pay my kids for mowing, weeding, laying mulch. What my landscaper used to charge me $1000 for, I pay my kids $50 each.

I buy used luxury handbags on ebay.

I grow my garden plants from seeds. One pack last years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I could have "fixed" the above car at 12 yo. However, the issues were all electrical. Fixed one electrical that I had to to keep car running. The others were handfree was no longer working and my alarm system was not working (car just locked and made the sounds, but without fixing it, there was no real alarm system). So for safety, I refuse to drive around in a car without handsfree options or an alarm system. Yet I was not willing to pay the fees to fix it on an older car. It also had some bodywork needed. So all the repairs would have been over $5K.

Now, from experience, I know that once a vehicle starts needing electrical work, a lot tends to go wrong. Electrical work is very labor intensive and sometimes can take them forever to find what is actually wrong. So sure, if I didn't have the money saved for a new vehicle, I might not get one. But at 12+ years old, I define those as items that need to be repaired, and lets just get rid of the car while I can and get a good amount for it. Because it could become a money pit soon.

Alarm system? WTF, that isn’t a safety issue because it’s used when you aren’t in the car. And you can just put your phone on speaker. I would never replace a car for those reasons.

I replace vehicles when they won’t drive, not before. Anything less is wasteful/bad for the environment.

I also seek out vehicles with few electrical systems. They make so much more sense. I can roll down my own window perfectly well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I thought this was standard -- not throwing away food and eating leftovers. There are massive amts of food waste otherwise.

DP. Agreed.

I also save all food waste for my chickens. They are “recycled” into eggs. But we eat them until they are too old, so mostly the chickens get peels/ends/trimmed fat/etc.

[Anonymous]

Using a single square of toilet paper per wipe. Also, folding the square after one wipe so you can use it again.

[Anonymous]

We do our own most things: lawn, gardening, simple plumbing and electrical, cooking, cleaning, coffee making...That being said I see some HHIs here and truly these people would be 100% fine spending on everything all the time. Our own income went up a lot last year and saving requires NO effort when you make more money.

[Anonymous]

Our big savings: we live in a small apartment that we can afford, in a big city. We don't own a car, we don't have much to maintain or upkeep (small apartment, no lawn). We pick up free things from around the neighborhood all the time. Use public parks like our backyard. Ride bikes and walk a lot, no gym membership. Kids in public school. These are the things that save us many thousands of dollars per year. I also try to save on the smaller items (make coffee at work, do more pedicures at home than out, etc) but I don't count pennies on those things.

HHI $350, NW ~$3M

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Using a single square of toilet paper per wipe. Also, folding the square after one wipe so you can use it again.

I love you. You are awesome.