Anonymous wrote:I'm renting space in my garage to a company that does aquamation of pets. They have freezers with animal remains in my garage. Veterinarians drop the remains off and then the aquamation company comes and picks up the remains and brings them to their facility. The freezers are locked so my kids can't open them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As immigrants and somewhat informed people, we had realized that USA cannot sustain being the land of plenty for all decades ago. These things were being discussed even then. So over the years, we had lived as if the economy was bad and we prepared for the future -

- Cooked healthy meals at home. Good for wallet. Good for health.
- Bought a nice, large home at the bottom of the market in an average but convenient neighborhood. Have a great mortgage rate too.
- Send kids to public schools, and public in-state universities for in-demand STEM degrees. They are in good jobs and even with AI, they should be employable for next 15-20 years.
- Extensive solar panels and EVs. We have not had electric bills for years now. In fact, Pepco sends us $5 or $7 dollars sometimes.
- Bought Toyotas mainly and very less repair and maintenance.
- Make our own coffee.
- We continue to eat organic foods.
- Do all spa treatments (except my haircut) at home.

These things are all obvious. I’m already doing most of this (except solar panels). Like a PP said, these are just common sense. There are just a lot of unavoidable expenses.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As immigrants and somewhat informed people, we had realized that USA cannot sustain being the land of plenty for all decades ago. These things were being discussed even then. So over the years, we had lived as if the economy was bad and we prepared for the future -

- Cooked healthy meals at home. Good for wallet. Good for health.
- Bought a nice, large home at the bottom of the market in an average but convenient neighborhood. Have a great mortgage rate too.
- Send kids to public schools, and public in-state universities for in-demand STEM degrees. They are in good jobs and even with AI, they should be employable for next 15-20 years.
- Extensive solar panels and EVs. We have not had electric bills for years now. In fact, Pepco sends us $5 or $7 dollars sometimes.
- Bought Toyotas mainly and very less repair and maintenance.
- Make our own coffee.
- We continue to eat organic foods.
- Do all spa treatments (except my haircut) at home.

Where do you live? We are in DC and make a ton on SREC credits (like $3,000/year), but never have Pepco sending us $$$s even when it shows we produced far more energy than we used. We still pay at least $20/month just for being hooked up to the grid.

Same for me. Also in DC. However, at the end of the year, we did get an actual check in the mail from Pepco-- sorry, I don't recall how much it was.

We are in MoCo, MD. We have a east-west facing house and we actually get humongous amounts of sunlight. Our entire roof, on both slopes, over home and garage, is covered with solar panels. Our house almost resembles a sci-fi house.

We actually use a lot of electricity and we produce at least twice of what we consume. There is a charge for being hooked up to the grid, distribution, and the cost of using electricity at night or at peak usage time, which is substantially higher than day-time when electricity is being produced.

So, you are selling cheap and buying expensive. That may be the reason that we don't see too much money. However, we have a neighbor who is very frugal with his electricity consumption and he also has solar. He makes more money from Pepco than we do.

On the other hand, DH and I, get our cheap thrills when we even get $5 back from the utilities.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As immigrants and somewhat informed people, we had realized that USA cannot sustain being the land of plenty for all decades ago. These things were being discussed even then. So over the years, we had lived as if the economy was bad and we prepared for the future -

- Cooked healthy meals at home. Good for wallet. Good for health.
- Bought a nice, large home at the bottom of the market in an average but convenient neighborhood. Have a great mortgage rate too.
- Send kids to public schools, and public in-state universities for in-demand STEM degrees. They are in good jobs and even with AI, they should be employable for next 15-20 years.
- Extensive solar panels and EVs. We have not had electric bills for years now. In fact, Pepco sends us $5 or $7 dollars sometimes.
- Bought Toyotas mainly and very less repair and maintenance.
- Make our own coffee.
- We continue to eat organic foods.
- Do all spa treatments (except my haircut) at home.

We are similar, except not immigrants. Interesting to see how we made such similar choices right down to the car brand.

Why is everyone sending their kids to get STEM degrees? Aren't any of your kids interested in anything else?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As immigrants and somewhat informed people, we had realized that USA cannot sustain being the land of plenty for all decades ago. These things were being discussed even then. So over the years, we had lived as if the economy was bad and we prepared for the future -

- Cooked healthy meals at home. Good for wallet. Good for health.
- Bought a nice, large home at the bottom of the market in an average but convenient neighborhood. Have a great mortgage rate too.
- Send kids to public schools, and public in-state universities for in-demand STEM degrees. They are in good jobs and even with AI, they should be employable for next 15-20 years.
- Extensive solar panels and EVs. We have not had electric bills for years now. In fact, Pepco sends us $5 or $7 dollars sometimes.
- Bought Toyotas mainly and very less repair and maintenance.
- Make our own coffee.
- We continue to eat organic foods.
- Do all spa treatments (except my haircut) at home.

Where do you live? We are in DC and make a ton on SREC credits (like $3,000/year), but never have Pepco sending us $$$s even when it shows we produced far more energy than we used. We still pay at least $20/month just for being hooked up to the grid.

Same for me. Also in DC. However, at the end of the year, we did get an actual check in the mail from Pepco-- sorry, I don't recall how much it was.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As immigrants and somewhat informed people, we had realized that USA cannot sustain being the land of plenty for all decades ago. These things were being discussed even then. So over the years, we had lived as if the economy was bad and we prepared for the future -

- Cooked healthy meals at home. Good for wallet. Good for health.
- Bought a nice, large home at the bottom of the market in an average but convenient neighborhood. Have a great mortgage rate too.
- Send kids to public schools, and public in-state universities for in-demand STEM degrees. They are in good jobs and even with AI, they should be employable for next 15-20 years.
- Extensive solar panels and EVs. We have not had electric bills for years now. In fact, Pepco sends us $5 or $7 dollars sometimes.
- Bought Toyotas mainly and very less repair and maintenance.
- Make our own coffee.
- We continue to eat organic foods.
- Do all spa treatments (except my haircut) at home.

Where do you live? We are in DC and make a ton on SREC credits (like $3,000/year), but never have Pepco sending us $$$s even when it shows we produced far more energy than we used. We still pay at least $20/month just for being hooked up to the grid.

Same for me. Also in DC. However, at the end of the year, we did get an actual check in the mail from Pepco-- sorry, I don't recall how much it was.

WTF, how big is your house? Our row house is 2500sqft and expensive cold months are $150. We keep it at 70 day and night.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As immigrants and somewhat informed people, we had realized that USA cannot sustain being the land of plenty for all decades ago. These things were being discussed even then. So over the years, we had lived as if the economy was bad and we prepared for the future -

- Cooked healthy meals at home. Good for wallet. Good for health.
- Bought a nice, large home at the bottom of the market in an average but convenient neighborhood. Have a great mortgage rate too.
- Send kids to public schools, and public in-state universities for in-demand STEM degrees. They are in good jobs and even with AI, they should be employable for next 15-20 years.
- Extensive solar panels and EVs. We have not had electric bills for years now. In fact, Pepco sends us $5 or $7 dollars sometimes.
- Bought Toyotas mainly and very less repair and maintenance.
- Make our own coffee.
- We continue to eat organic foods.
- Do all spa treatments (except my haircut) at home.

Where do you live? We are in DC and make a ton on SREC credits (like $3,000/year), but never have Pepco sending us $$$s even when it shows we produced far more energy than we used. We still pay at least $20/month just for being hooked up to the grid.

Anonymous wrote:I have really changed how I cook. Buying more frozen than fresh for foods where that's possible (veggies, fish). My weekly baked potato "bar" dinner has been a hit and that's super cheap.

I switched to drugstore brands for makeup and skincare. Nice things in that vein were my "affordable luxuries," but they were surprisingly easy to let go when I found some threads about good drugstore products in the Beauty forum here.

Echoing the others who have said they're using the library. I got the Libby and Hoopla apps set up with my library card can get ebooks and audiobooks for free when my local branch doesn't have a book. That's been a huge savings.

This is such a cheap, comforting meal. We do baked potatoes at least once or twice a week too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it really an “insane” economy?

No. But it might be getting there, and people are anxious about it for good reason.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As immigrants and somewhat informed people, we had realized that USA cannot sustain being the land of plenty for all decades ago. These things were being discussed even then. So over the years, we had lived as if the economy was bad and we prepared for the future -

- Cooked healthy meals at home. Good for wallet. Good for health.
- Bought a nice, large home at the bottom of the market in an average but convenient neighborhood. Have a great mortgage rate too.
- Send kids to public schools, and public in-state universities for in-demand STEM degrees. They are in good jobs and even with AI, they should be employable for next 15-20 years.
- Extensive solar panels and EVs. We have not had electric bills for years now. In fact, Pepco sends us $5 or $7 dollars sometimes.
- Bought Toyotas mainly and very less repair and maintenance.
- Make our own coffee.
- We continue to eat organic foods.
- Do all spa treatments (except my haircut) at home.

We are similar, except not immigrants. Interesting to see how we made such similar choices right down to the car brand.

Why is everyone sending their kids to get STEM degrees? Aren't any of your kids interested in anything else?

What they are interested in is irrelevant. Its what pays the bills that matters.

Anonymous wrote:We did many of the things mentioned above, but here is where we spent money to save money long term:

We bought a battery powered lawnmower for $500 and safety goggles for $10. But mowing our lawn saves $110/month from April- Oct.

Cancelled the housecleaner twice a month. Saves $850. Bought a robot vacuum for $500 it does a decent job- maybe 80% as good as a good human (not my kids, who do a 50% as well as the robot, lol).

Bought solar panels just under the wire for the tax credit last year. Payback given current utility rates is 6 years, NPV is something like 38k, depending on assumptions.