Anonymous wrote:The best "money saving tip" is realizing that all of these tiny little things make no real dent and that the most lucrative thing you can do is put a ton of effort into having a high paying job. Saving $5K a year on making your own coffee, lunch etc. is great but the real differences come when you start making a lot of money and don't have to care about that $5k anymore because your time is more valuable.

This was what my husband always used to say. And Ramit Sethi says there’s a limit to what you can cut but no limit to how much you can earn.

So I can take the point. But now that I’m doing YNAB - my husband agrees that he also sees the benefit of the smaller picture budget. And now for me, the smaller picture budget is helping me see the larger picture too.

^^ obviously I’m buying wine and coffee and grocery store and not library!!! LOL

I’ll say really look at your money and where it is going.

Thanks to DCUM I started using YNAB. These are a few things I’ve cut out since started:

*Wine subscription & coffee subscription - can realistically get both cheaper at library
*GABB watch monthly service charge for my daughter - she is really not using it
*one news subscription - decided 3 was realistically too many to be paying so cut 1
*mani/pedi cost - still get once a month but reduced to a cheaper polish
*canceled one duplicate apple storage payment - because I could put all family members under my plan instead of having separate ones
*car detail - I theoretically wanted to do it once a year but I just got full service inside and outside car wash for $44 that was almost just as good as a detail (not quite as good b it totally worth it for the price reduction IMO)

Anonymous wrote:My tip is to do a no buy year. Employ all of the tips you see on this thread (esp the making meals at home tip) with the goal of no unnecessary spending. (I still did a lot of fun stuff, just free or cheap.) I did this one year and saved enouh for a down-payment on a house. I did this another year and saved enough to cover daycare for my older kid while out on maternity leave. Did it once more but fo 3 and a half months to pay cash for a car. The habits I learned over these periods of frugality have mostly become ingrained. Having concrete goals was very helpful. This was inspired by a book I read (the title was something like My No Buy Year - I noticed there are a number of similarly titled books now, as well as articles and blog posts).

Wow. That's pretty inspirational.

Anonymous wrote:The best "money saving tip" is realizing that all of these tiny little things make no real dent and that the most lucrative thing you can do is put a ton of effort into having a high paying job. Saving $5K a year on making your own coffee, lunch etc. is great but the real differences come when you start making a lot of money and don't have to care about that $5k anymore because your time is more valuable.

The only thing I'd say about this is taxes. Taxes take a huge amount out of that paycheck, especially if you have a W-2. Even if you're a partner in a law firm, taxes take a bite. So paying yourself first and avoiding those little things can add up. Of course they add up more quickly with a higher income but watching your outgo is just as important.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I use an indoor wall mount clothes rack to line dry all my clothes. I do use the dryer for towels bedding obviously. Cost savings is probably 100/yr at minimum.

How about undergarments? Bras, I line dry, but undies I want some heat on.

The dryer is hard on elastic, all of our underwear is line dried. They are already clean from being washed.

My tip is to do a no buy year. Employ all of the tips you see on this thread (esp the making meals at home tip) with the goal of no unnecessary spending. (I still did a lot of fun stuff, just free or cheap.) I did this one year and saved enouh for a down-payment on a house. I did this another year and saved enough to cover daycare for my older kid while out on maternity leave. Did it once more but fo 3 and a half months to pay cash for a car. The habits I learned over these periods of frugality have mostly become ingrained. Having concrete goals was very helpful. This was inspired by a book I read (the title was something like My No Buy Year - I noticed there are a number of similarly titled books now, as well as articles and blog posts).

Anonymous wrote:DH and I stopped drinking - $20-30/day. $60-$90/month, probably more if you count restaurants/bars.

Perhaps you could spend some of that savings - however much it is - on math lessons? Because this doesn't make any sense at all.

Put your chosen savings amount away first, no matter how small, before any other expenses

Put it where it is difficult to remove.

Every paycheck.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I cut and style my own hair, and I saved 60k

How? I spend $1500/year on cuts and color. $60k would be 40 years worth.

I put the cost breakdown a few posts up.
My yearly cost savings is 11k. I go to a lot of events and public speaking for my job. So while it's a money saver the main reason I do it is to save time.

Anonymous wrote:I use an indoor wall mount clothes rack to line dry all my clothes. I do use the dryer for towels bedding obviously. Cost savings is probably 100/yr at minimum.

How about undergarments? Bras, I line dry, but undies I want some heat on.

The best "money saving tip" is realizing that all of these tiny little things make no real dent and that the most lucrative thing you can do is put a ton of effort into having a high paying job. Saving $5K a year on making your own coffee, lunch etc. is great but the real differences come when you start making a lot of money and don't have to care about that $5k anymore because your time is more valuable.

Anonymous wrote:I cut and style my own hair, and I saved 60k

How? I spend $1500/year on cuts and color. $60k would be 40 years worth.

Anonymous wrote:We do second hand for a lot of stuff, particularly furniture. Huge cost savings there. We send the kids to public school. We plan to send the kids to public colleges and universities.

Same. We buy furniture, household goods and clothes from consignment stores, poshmark, ebay, etc. When I think I need something from Amazon, I consider who else might sell it and where I could get it cheaper.

The best thing I do is automatic paycheck contributions to 401k and 529 plans. Money that gets deposited into family checking somehow gets spent. Other than that, I ‘tutor’ my kids myself. Public school. Do my own nails.