• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

The Frugal thread - What do you do to save $$ on purchases?

vi edit

vi edit

Elite Member
Super Moderator
People call me a cheap bastard...I call myself frugal 🙂 I'm just very thrifty in what I buy, where I buy it, and when I buy it. Here's some of the ways that I save money. How about you?

1. Buy used in as much stuff as I can. I buy used CD's. Used DVD's. Used Movies. Used video games. Used cars 🙂. Used computer components.

2. Skip the theatre and wait for it to hit the cheapie rack at local video store. I can get 3 DVD's for 3 nights for $3.00 from my local video store. Not a bad deal at all.

3. Buy bread and bread products at bakery outlets. I can get 3 loaves of Healthy Choice bread(the GOOD stuff) for $2. In a store it would run me about $2.70 a loaf. I get hamburger buns and hot dog buns for $.25 a bag there too for good wheat buns.

4. Coupons coupons coupons. The coupons in the sunday paper more than pay for the subscription.

5. Never pay retail for clothes. I go to the outlet malls for all my clothing, or wait till the season end sales when they are clearing off the wracks. The outlet malls are really nice. A mall retailer sells the Dungaree jeans that I wear for $45 a piece. I go to the outlets and buy them for $18 a piece 🙂

6. When I go out for a drink, I hit happy hour. Can't beat $1.25 premium pints.

7. When I go out to eat, I use dinner coupons as well - buy one burger get one free, $5 off $15, free appetizer, ect.

8. Hot deals forum. Need I say more? 😀

Got any you can add? I save money on my internet connection and cell phone because my employer pays for them.
 
I don't eat. 😉

Well, my food consists of instant breakfast and sandwiches. It's amazing that you can survive for two weeks and only spend 15 dollars.
 


<< What do you do to save $$ >>



I bought a diesel car. Other than that, I tend to spend money pretty frivolously. 🙁

Although I never pay retail for ANYTHING. I love to shop around.
 
clothes. i am so cheap on clothes. i won't buy a shirt for work unless it is for sure under $15 usually only under $10. i don't wear jeans so when i buy Khakis i usually only get them from outlet stores...$20. shoes i do pay a little extra for, i get sketchers. but i only have to buy maybe once every 3 or 4 years.

i do spend a little more money on my beer though...i always go out to the Irish Pub and drink Guinness...and rarely do i drink non-imported beer.
 


<< i do spend a little more money on my beer though...i always go out to the Irish Pub and drink Guinness...and rarely do i drink non-imported beer. >>



Yeh, I love Guinness too, but I only drink it when I hit $2.00 or $3.00 pint nights.
 


<<

<< i do spend a little more money on my beer though...i always go out to the Irish Pub and drink Guinness...and rarely do i drink non-imported beer. >>



Yeh, I love Guinness too, but I only drink it when I hit $2.00 or $3.00 pint nights. >>


the pub i go to is owned by a former Guinness Rep that worked in Ireland...he pours pints by the book and everything is calibrated perfectly. i'm willing to pay the $4.50 a pint for that (besides, i know all the bartenders so i usually spend more on tip than i do on beer, and get a few for free)
 
Never bought a new car in all the 29 years I've been driving. Never once purchased a lottery ticket for myself. I'd say I've saved a freakin' fortune already!

That's what I call frugal. That state of thinking carries over to the PC hobby as well as everything else. Never buy the latest CPU or video card for starters. Hell, I'm thousands ahead right there!

Not so with furniture, though. Upholstered furniture is throw away stuff, but hardwood furniture around here is Statton or used furniture of that same quality. Buy it once for life. Puts me more thousands ahead and there's quality stuff to pass down to the grandchildren.

Frugal? Hah! That's my middle name! 😀
 
Lunch? $.99 value menu at Wendy's 🙂
I always bum change off my friends, let them go first to buy their food, take their change.

 
2 BigMacs for $2 😀

To give you an idea of how frugal I am, I was trying to buy the Kodak EasyShare docking station for $79.99 less $20 off $75 coupon, all went well then I realized I could save another 1% if I ordered through eBates.com

For some reason my cookies were messed up and I couldn't get both the 1% eBates plus $20 off $75 so I refused to place the order until I got it for the absolute lowest price possible.

One hour later I've deleted all my temporary internet files and cookies, tried placing my order for the zillionth time and it finally worked. So I spent one hour just to save $0.60 (1% of $59.99) that's right I spent one whole hour just to save a measely 60 cents.
 
The coupons from the Sunday paper is why I get two different papers each Sunday. Save up some of those 50-99 cent ones until one of the supermarket chains have double coupons up to 99 cents (normally it's double up to 49 cents).

If you can afford to make the payments, you can afford to save up and pay cash (not counting a car/house). You'll find out that in many cases after you started saving for something, you don't really want it as bad as you thought you did. Then you saved 100%! Never run a credit card balance unless it's an emergency. That way if you do have an emergency, you won't be worrying about your credit limit.

If you can discipline yourself to pay your credit card balance every month, get a card that gives a cashback rebate.

Don't be swayed by advertising. If you didn't need something before you saw the commercial, ask yourself why you need it now.

Avoid the little wastes that add up to big savings: lottery tickets, expensive meals out, Starbucks.

Use the local library to access Consumer Reports before making big-ticket purchases. Same for magazines, read them at the library instead of buying subscriptions.

Buy lawnmowers, trimmers, etc. used. Many people sell year-old stuff for next-to-nothing because they bought new ones.

Watch the Usenet newsgroup for your area that covers stuff for sale. Lots of foreign college students (at least in Pittsburgh) sell year-old furniture and household goods for pennies on the dollar because they are graduating and moving back home.

Start the habit of having money pulled from your checking account into a savings account. Then transfer that money to another account that's inconvenient to access. Mine goes into a credit union about 25 miles away. The money you can't get to from an ATM is much safer. And pull out a fixed amount at the ATM that lasts you a week, then don't go back until the week is up. I know people who fool themselves into only taking out $10 or $20 because they think if they take out more, they'll squander it. They are back at the ATM every day! THAT'S how they squander it.
 
I'm not a coupon guy because frankly I've never found any that are any good. I can spend $20 on toilet paper and save $.75 whoopee! i know there are good ones but I've never seen them.

Clothing outlets are the only, only way to go. ONly way.

I still go to movies though and always will!
 
Every lunch/dinner out is a working meal, every possible legit expense that can be written off is 🙂


I don't purchase online without checking my favorite coupon boards and the hot deals forum, for computer stuff I come to the AT trading boards first 🙂
 
Oh and I charge ALL my bills to my CitiBank Dividends cc which earns a 1% rebate, gives me another 25 days grace period to pay it.

Of course you have to first charge $10,000 to get a $100 rebate but hey it's free money.

I would get a card which offers up to 2% cash rebate but I'm very pleased with CitiBank, it's a straight guaranteed 1% rebate back no "up to" crap and the last thing Ross needs is another cc 😀
 
Here are some grocery shopping examples which involve Albertson's and coupons which we receive in the Sunday newspaper.

1) Albertson's sells 3 2 liter Pepsi products for $1, from previous purchases I have 55 cents off Dr. Pepper coupons which peel off the empty 2 liter bottle. So 3 x 2 liters + $0.15 deposit - $0.55 coupon x 3 + 0% Oregon sales tax = They owe me $0.50 😀

2) Albertson's sells 3 Kleenex lotion tissue boxes for $5, Albertson's offers $0.50 off coupons, Kleenex offers $0.50 Kleenex coupons plus use a competitor's Safeway "double coupon" = less than retail.

The list goes on and on and on.
 
yeah, i've cut down on only drinking sam adams and Guinness when it's $2.00 or $2.25 pint nights also, it ends up saving a large amount overall, and if you drink a bit before you go out and meet your friends you can save a large amount that way too
 
i tightened up financially since i met my girlfriend ,she loves shopping.I try to buy used everything esp. vans,power tools and look for mail order bargains etc .a politician can spend the same money 3 times,for example if he is allocating money for a new project he will say we are going to spend this money then we are now spending this money and at a later date remind the public about the money they spent and i try to do this with my girlfriend but she's kinda wise to it now, anyway
 
don't really use any coupons or such.

I never pay retail for anything. I will buy it on the net or wherever I can get it the cheapest. I will look at specialist magazines for electrical goods and always save money that way.

clothes I just go to the shops and buy. We don't have outlets here in UK🙁. If I like the clothes I will buy it.

I eat out quite a bit when out with this girl. She offers to pay and doesn't want me to pay most of the time so I end up not paying! Oh its a tough life!..lol...I feel bad her paying and I feel a bit weird when the waiter gives me the paper to sign and I can't sign it as its not my CC its hers. She lets me pay at times though......

I save quite a bit of my money though so I have money to spend. I don't buy pc stuff often at all. Only buy on a need basis. If I run out of HD space I get a new one. I don't upgrade often at all. Only if its broke that I will upgrade.

I do love my technology gadgets though. I buy a new phone every 2 years or so. I've upgraded my MD when the new model comes out as they are smaller. From MZ R30 to MZ R50 to MZ E900.

I figure I earnt the money I spent the money😀
 
I buy in bulk at Sam's Club. My mom pays for my membership 🙂 $7.00 for a bag of frozen Stir-Fry vegetables that will last me like 15 meals. $13 for 14 frozen chicken breasts. $10 for a gallon of olive oil. $4 for 12 meals worth of pasta.

So for my typical dinner of stir-fried chicken w/ vegetables and pasta (and I eat very hefty portions), I'm at under $2, including spices etc.

Beer? How's $18.50 for 24 bottles of Killian's? 😀

So I make a trip to Sam's every couple of months, spend about $150, and I don't really have to buy food again for two months, except for milk, OJ, and other stuff that I go through quickly and doesn't keep well.

Really, just eating at home saves you a lot of money, regardless of where you buy the food. You just save a bit more by buying at wholesale clubs like Sam's. Plus they have good (if inconsistent) deals on computer parts and software. Also TV's, toilet paper, books, tools, air conditioners, rugs, furniture, clothing, ummm tires, just about everything you can think of. Again, though, the problem with Sam's is consistency. Some of the stuff they have there, they'll only have there once.

I pay off my credit card balances every month, and with the GM card I get 5% back but it must be applied towards the purchase of a new GM vehicle. I also have a Discover card for the measly Cashback Bonus.

I also have an apartment in a slightly, umm, worse neighborhood, for only $320 a month.

Also as somebody else said, watch bulletin boards around colleges and the like, where people who are graduating and moving away post their crap to sell. I just picked up a brand-new Dell Trinitron 21" monitor for $140 from some guy who was graduating this year on my university's "marketplace" site, I kid you not! I'm also getting an air conditioner tomorrow for $80, unused! Some people just have more money than sense, and it's up to you to find them and take advantage of them! 😀
 
wbwither - Sam's Club/CostCo rock, my wife and I buy 2 6 packs of bagels every weekend for $2.99 that's only $0.25 per bagel!
 
I have a capital one card I pay off every month. I work at walmart and I have $100 out of every paycheck (paid every two weeks) taken out and put into walmart stock. There is a very good sum of money in there now as I have worked at Walmart for almost 2 years. It doesn't cost me a penny to buy the stock and it is gradually increasing. This would be kind of hard to take out, at least I would have to make an effort to call all the right places but I'm just too darn lazy so this money is staying put for now.

I love sam's club, get a discount on membership cause I work for one of good ol' Sam Walton's companies. 10% off everything at Walmart cause I work there which makes low prices even lower. I always go to the sale/clearance racks in retail stores before looking at other stuff.

~Amdskip

Edit, my friends always tell me to stop being soo cheap too!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top