Slowly trickle water into brita pitcher when refilling. Tastes much better and filters last much longer.

Unfortunately, can't stop drinking coffee from higher end places. Home-brewed just doesn't do it for me.

^$18 for two pack of organic flour, 20 pound total.

I bake my own bread. It takes 1.5 minutes to load up the bread machine and it tastes SO much better than the store bought. Two 10lb bags of organic flour from Costco ($18) make roughly 20 loafs of bread. So our bread machine investment paid for itself long long time ago.

Timer option is a big plus, there is nothing like the smell of freshly baked bread at 7 am.

We just spend less than we make. We paid off $60k in debt our first five years married while making less than $120k a year combined. We then saved $60k for a house down payment. During a year and a half of under/unemployment we budgeted and never needed to dip into our emergency savings. No gimmicks or tricks needed, just spend less than you make.

I’ve cut my own hair since I was a teen (it’s very long and straight so easy to trim). How much do haircuts cost? I feel like it’s at least $100/year, so maybe $1500 saved?

More recently, I’ve tried to incorporate more vegetables and plant protein into my cooking, replacing expensive fruit and meat. I think I save maybe $50/month doing this but that’s because I’m fussy with my meat and will only purchase the local raised, pasture grazed/free range meat. Someone actively shipping the grocery store sales would save way less.

My next saving adventure will be sending my 3yo to public preK in the fall: her monthly costs will go from $1500/month to $550/month. I can’t wait.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Working from home has saved me per year:
~$2000 in parking
~$1000 in gas
~$1000 on work clothes and dry cleaning
~$4000 on after school care

Food is probably a wash since I buy more groceries now.

I know a lot of people who stopped sending their kids to aftercare when they started working from home full time. How old are your kids? Do they require supervision when you get home from work? Are you able to fully do your job when they come home, or are you half working, half taking care of them? My work was quite explicit that we are expected to have child care for children when we are working from home, so I continue sending my two kids to aftercare. I am counting down the days until I can get rid of that expense!

Different poster. My kids just finished 3rd and I stopped aftercare halfway through this year. Not so much to save money but because they hated it. They are very good about keeping themselves occupied and I am fully working until 5, often the end of the day is my busiest time of the work day. No issues with my kids interfering

Quit boxing gym, now work out by picking street fights: saved $1200/year.
Stopped paying Toastmasters dues and wrote speech daring them to come and take it: saved $60/year.

I cut out hookers and blow

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of you have made up an expense and then go on to tell how to save money on it.
Last time I had cable was in 2009.
I don't have most of the expenses people are saving money on. One example: food is free at work and can be taken home.
Parking? Free at work and home.
Hair, nails? Don't grow.

Hmm, interesting that you think food is a made-up expense. Also, if your hair and nails don't grow, I'd consult a doctor as soon as possible.

I don't pay for anything except maintenance on my crypt and the occasional treat of pig's blood.

Bonus savings: You don't need to buy iron supplements!

I cut my own grass. We have a small lawn, but it was still going to cost $50/cut. I bought a lawnmower and weedwacker when we moved in, at a cost of about $300 total. If you assume $50 per cut, 15 times per summer, at the end of this 8th summer in this house, we'll have saved ~$5700 - ($50 x 15 x 8) - $300 - $5700.

Anonymous wrote:Working from home has saved me per year:
~$2000 in parking
~$1000 in gas
~$1000 on work clothes and dry cleaning
~$4000 on after school care

Food is probably a wash since I buy more groceries now.

I know a lot of people who stopped sending their kids to aftercare when they started working from home full time. How old are your kids? Do they require supervision when you get home from work? Are you able to fully do your job when they come home, or are you half working, half taking care of them? My work was quite explicit that we are expected to have child care for children when we are working from home, so I continue sending my two kids to aftercare. I am counting down the days until I can get rid of that expense!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of you have made up an expense and then go on to tell how to save money on it.
Last time I had cable was in 2009.
I don't have most of the expenses people are saving money on. One example: food is free at work and can be taken home.
Parking? Free at work and home.
Hair, nails? Don't grow.

Hmm, interesting that you think food is a made-up expense. Also, if your hair and nails don't grow, I'd consult a doctor as soon as possible.

I don't pay for anything except maintenance on my crypt and the occasional treat of pig's blood.

Anonymous wrote:Some of you have made up an expense and then go on to tell how to save money on it.
Last time I had cable was in 2009.
I don't have most of the expenses people are saving money on. One example: food is free at work and can be taken home.
Parking? Free at work and home.
Hair, nails? Don't grow.

Hmm, interesting that you think food is a made-up expense. Also, if your hair and nails don't grow, I'd consult a doctor as soon as possible.

My husband's first wife spent every Saturday getting mani and pedi and ignoring the kids. Haha. I do my own, spent plenty of time with the family, and have been married 25 years, so I guess I've saved us.... $50/wk X 52 weeks X 25 years? $65,000.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I cook. Probably saves us thousands a year compared to some people.

Don't buy organic or much packaged food.

Make our own coffee. Always. Drip. Store brand. It's fine.

Installed mini-splits to replace underfloor heating. I expect that's saving us thousands a year, as well. We only turn on the units in the rooms we're using.

Can you explain mini splits and underfloor heating?

Minisplits:
https://www.alpinehomeair.com/categories/air-conditioning-cooling/ductless-mini-splits

Underfloor heating is what we have in the Southwest -- it's basically water pumped through pipes under the floor. A lot of places use it in bathrooms, we had it in the whole house. Crazy expensive and wildly inefficient.

it all depends on the details. i designed my house to use underfloor heating, the same gas boiler is used for our hot water. our house has a thick concrete slab over an excavated basement, and has three shared masonry walls. the house has a huge amount of thermal mass, and even when the outside temps were in the teens the heat only ran for a few hours a day. the heat is zoned so in unused rooms the heat will only come on to maintain 60 degrees. it costs less to heat my 4500sf house than it did to heat my 1200sf condo with forced air.

obviously, this would be insanely expensive if we were using an electric hot water system or electric in-floor radiant. (the latter is what tends to be put on for bathroom retrofits, and the heat is on a timer much like a shower fan.)