What have been your most successful cost-cutting/money-saving techniques so far?

[WA261]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181
"These economic times" don't seem to have effected me at all. I'm better off now than I was 1 year ago... even 2 years ago.

Same. I was fortunate enough that I just got to pay off my house.

 

[Anonemous]

Stop visiting slickdeals.net

edit: On another note, friend's mom had to give up health insurance.

 

[angminas]

Originally posted by: lxskllr

Originally posted by: DrPizza
Drive your vehicles into the ground. Buy used vehicles instead of new. By used, I mean very used. You can often find 7 or 8 year old (or older) cars with a modest amount of mileage for their age, that have been well cared for, for $2k or less. We have 4 vehicles for 4 people; the total amount we've paid for 3 of them is $2600. Occasionally, we have to do a little work on one or another, but we're willing to learn about what needs to be done & do it ourselves. i.e. my son's radiator had gone bad. $50 & 1 hour to replace it. The 4th vehicle we bought 1 year old; it was a formerly leased vehicle. IIRC, it was under 12k for a Grand Caravan. The savings is two-fold, because if you don't have a loan on the vehicles, you can carry cheaper insurance. While you may balk at the price of repairs, as long as the engine and transmission are solid, most repairs are simple & cost you less than a month's car payment.

People talk about older cars nickle and diming them to death, but it takes a hell of a lot of nickles and dimes to equal the cost of a car. I'll go even further than you have and say it's better to drop a new motor/trans into an older car as long as it doesn't have bad rust or anything.

Exactly. I could get my car made almost like new for $5k. Engine and transmission rebuilt, new tires, struts, brakes, maybe even upholstery and who knows what else. I spent a month looking for my car, and I had to take the bus like 400 miles to pick it up, but in the end I saved $4000 over the next best deal I had found, and that's just on the front end. Generally speaking, cheap cars save much more money than is apparent on the sticker.

It can be different if you rely heavily on your car and don't have a backup. Missed work adds up very quickly when trying to figure the real bottom line.

 

[Colt45]

Hasn't really affected me... I get paid the same; food, cigs, and gas have been steady (but still ludicrous).

In fact the weaker USD makes some stuff cheaper for me.



Then again, I'm rather frugal. I dress in rags and drive a 20 year old car :laugh:

 

[Slew Foot]

I use both sides of the toilet paper

 

[NoCreativity]

Shop around for car insurance. I switched about two years ago and saved myself $500/year for two cars (full coverage) and a house. Most of the savings came from the auto policies.

 

[Fritzo]

Eating out is the biggest money sink. I went from eating out every day to just one day a week (for lunch). That alone saved $100/month.

Also, check your phone/cable/sattelite bill to see if there's anything that can be trimmed. I saved $40 from ATT because I have unused long distance/3way calling/voicemail on my line.

 

[zebano]

1. Pack meals for at work. Lunch is $4-$8 with a median price of $6.50 thats $32.50/week.
2. Make and freeze meals on the weekends. That way when you're extremely tired after work (or sick) you don't have to do any food prep, just toss it in the oven, there's no temptation to grab a pizza. If you don't have kids, this probably isn't necessary as you have tons of easy options.
3. Maximize your work benefits.
3.a. We have a flexible spending account which in the past we only used to cover our deductible. This is pre-tax money so now we're now submitting co-pays & over the counter medications. We still underestimated since there's only $43 left.
3.b. My company offers a stock purchase plan in which they automatically deduct 1-8% of your paycheck and at the end of the quarter buy stock for you at a 15% discount. I did the match, and if you turn around and sell it immediately, you come out ahead, so I changed my percentage from 1 to 8.

 

[SP33Demon]

Join thegrocerygame.com. I'll stockpile for about 2 months and then quit for another 6ish because I have supplies for that long.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181
"These economic times" don't seem to have effected me at all. I'm better off now than I was 1 year ago... even 2 years ago.

<-- same boat.

We have been cutting back though, on some things, just because.

 

[rudder]

Cooking at home... and making enough for leftovers.

Our family budget for food is $750 for a family of 5. Which is easy to do and eat healthy. But I went back and looked closely at our bank statements and realized we were spending around $1000/month. The majority was eating out. Certain times of the 3 we have three kids with afterschool activites and it is always tempting to just say forget cooking dinner and go to a restaurant. Now with the leftovers it makes it easier to have a quick meal and I have gotten good at food prep and can cook a nice meal in no time.

Part of the reason is also all the eating out was making us all fat... so its a win win.

I am about to ditch directv... but I a have some retired in laws that are borrowing two of my boxes (cost savings for them). So once I can hook them up with an antenna I will be good to go. 90% of my viewing lately in the networks.

edit: and 5K in car repairs? You need to get rid of it and drive around a cheap beater. For 5K in repairs it must be a high dollar car.

 

[TwiceOver]

Set a budget with all payments and then each week withdraw $xxx from the bank in cash. What we have in cash is what we have for money. There are some weeks that are pretty bad, but overall we are putting quite a bit more into paying off debt and into savings.

Also, saving the change from all the cash transactions makes for a fun little surprise.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Originally posted by: Engineer

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Originally posted by: Engineer

Originally posted by: Skoorb
ignore the noise about 0% intro rates on a new love seat or whatever else in the same vein.

If you have money and are going to buy anyway, I disagree about ignoring the 1 or 2 years intro 0% rates. Why not let your money earn interest at their expense for a few years, eh?

Like paying for everything with a credit card to get the 1.25 to 5% rewards (paying if off at the end of the month, of course).

It's all about the state of mind to me. It starts becoming very gray as to whether you truly were going to buy it or not, and it's not just me saying it, the statistics behind it are quite clear: people simply spend more when they are using credit, quite a bit more. And on things they may not otherwise buy. It is the financial equivalent of adultery

I use mine sometimes for a couple of days between pay checks (we normally budget quite closely and extra money right at insertion point hits savings, so we don't keep a ton in checking) but the most i've had it up to in many months is about $600. I generally pay it off every two weeks or less, i just fvcking hate them.

For the most part and most people, you are correct. As for credit cards, I use them to make money. Sure, I might spend a little more than I would if I only used cash, but it's made up for by the playing of the system. Not recommended for the general population though!

Yeah, I advocate taking advantage of the "0% for 12 months!" offers as long as you are responsible with your money and will pay it off before the 12 months in order to avoid getting hit with accrued interest. I bought a couple of big purchases this way rather than pay for them outright, because you are right -- you are making free money off their offer.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Originally posted by: DrPizza
Drive your vehicles into the ground. Buy used vehicles instead of new. By used, I mean very used. You can often find 7 or 8 year old (or older) cars with a modest amount of mileage for their age, that have been well cared for, for $2k or less. We have 4 vehicles for 4 people; the total amount we've paid for 3 of them is $2600. Occasionally, we have to do a little work on one or another, but we're willing to learn about what needs to be done & do it ourselves. i.e. my son's radiator had gone bad. $50 & 1 hour to replace it. The 4th vehicle we bought 1 year old; it was a formerly leased vehicle. IIRC, it was under 12k for a Grand Caravan. The savings is two-fold, because if you don't have a loan on the vehicles, you can carry cheaper insurance. While you may balk at the price of repairs, as long as the engine and transmission are solid, most repairs are simple & cost you less than a month's car payment.

That is my philosophy as well. My 9 year-old car is running fine right now. It needs a little work done but even that work is MUCH cheaper than having a car payment every month.

 

[PingSpike]

Originally posted by: puffff

Originally posted by: fleabag

Originally posted by: puffff

Originally posted by: OCguy
Me and the SO decided that we would just make enough money that we would be able to afford our expensive lifestyle and still not be over-extended.

Heh. I agree. I've tried cutting back, but I really couldn't come up with that much in savings. Or the savings didn't justify the sacrifice I had to make. Better solution was to work my ass off and increase my income.

I'd look at the amount of money you spend on gas, food, and utilities and see why those expenses are what they are. Using the A/C and Heater less will save you a lot of money and not wasting electricity or using lots of gas for a simple commute could be saved if you change your ways and vehicle.

You don't NEED to keep the interior temperature at around 70F ALL YEAR ROUND, THEY'RE CALLED SEASONS FOR A REASON.

Say you find a way to cut $100-200 a month from your budget. Over the course of the year.. that's $1200-2400 in savings. For most of us, a 3% raise covers that. The economy seems to be getting better, I think its a better to strive for the raise than to pick at small cuts in your budget.

Or I could do both and get an actual raise. Or, in reality, a raise at all since 3% generally just covers inflation.

Not to mention money you save is actually worth more then the same amount earned, since the government takes money when you make and then again when you spend it.

 

[trmiv]

Originally posted by: blanghorst

Originally posted by: Engineer

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Originally posted by: Engineer

Originally posted by: Skoorb
ignore the noise about 0% intro rates on a new love seat or whatever else in the same vein.

If you have money and are going to buy anyway, I disagree about ignoring the 1 or 2 years intro 0% rates. Why not let your money earn interest at their expense for a few years, eh?

Like paying for everything with a credit card to get the 1.25 to 5% rewards (paying if off at the end of the month, of course).

It's all about the state of mind to me. It starts becoming very gray as to whether you truly were going to buy it or not, and it's not just me saying it, the statistics behind it are quite clear: people simply spend more when they are using credit, quite a bit more. And on things they may not otherwise buy. It is the financial equivalent of adultery

I use mine sometimes for a couple of days between pay checks (we normally budget quite closely and extra money right at insertion point hits savings, so we don't keep a ton in checking) but the most i've had it up to in many months is about $600. I generally pay it off every two weeks or less, i just fvcking hate them.

For the most part and most people, you are correct. As for credit cards, I use them to make money. Sure, I might spend a little more than I would if I only used cash, but it's made up for by the playing of the system. Not recommended for the general population though!

Yeah, I advocate taking advantage of the "0% for 12 months!" offers as long as you are responsible with your money and will pay it off before the 12 months in order to avoid getting hit with accrued interest. I bought a couple of big purchases this way rather than pay for them outright, because you are right -- you are making free money off their offer.

I bought my plasma on 18 months no interest no payments. I milked the hell out of it and made the last payment the day before the interest hit. I win!!

 

[kalrith]

I've done several things to cut costs, but I'll only mention the top ones here. I bought some clippers on Amazon for $30 and cut my own hair now. That saves me about $100/year. My wife and I were paying $60/month for our cell-phone plan. We now spend $20/year on MagicJack and about $16/month on T-Mobile prepaid. Those changes save us about $500/year. We also canceled our $52/month satellite bill, which saves us $624/year.

So, the grand total of savings from these few changes is over $1200 every year. Even if our financial situation changes so that we can easily afford all those things, I don't think we'll go back to paying so much for our cell phones and satellite.

 

[trmiv]

To be honest we haven't really made any changes. If anything I'm eating out at lunch more than I was last year at this time just because I got lazy about bringing my lunch. I really need to get back on track with that. I did just trim $30 a month off our cell phone bill by dropping the texting plans on all three lines. But all that did was lower the bill back to what it was before my wife and I got our Blackberries. I also just called Time Warner retention and got $15 a month trimmed off my bill, but again all that did was drop it back to what it was before my current promotions expired. So really I guess I'm not saving anything! I know we could save a ton by eating out less, my wife and I eat out a lot on weekends. And we could save a ton by making our lunches as well. Just got to get around to actually doing it.

 

[krunchykrome]

1. Pay yourself first (we make sure to deposit something into our savings account each pay period).
2. We live within our means
3. We recently refinanced our mortgage and now we're saving $300+ per/month
4. Changed parking arrangements at work. I'm now saving $1,560/year.
5. Programmable thermostat (reduces A/C useage when we're not home and when we go to work)
6. Use 1 rewards credit card for every purchase possible to maximize reward benefit (American Express Costco True Earnings).
7. Take lunch to work instead of eating out (buy bulk at costco)
8. Pay off credit cards every month

 

[GTaudiophile]

When I get my paycheck wired to my checking account, it is immediately "split" into other savings accounts. I have an ATM/Debit card that can "access" the former but nothing readily available that can easily access any of the latter.

For example, let's say I get $5,000 wired into checking every month (not the actual number):

33% is transferred into a "tax savings" account: $1,650.00 (Approx. $19,800 + interest saved annually.)

(I pay my own quarterly estimated federal and state taxes.)

21% is transferred into a "rent savings" account: $1,050.00 (Approx. $12,600 + interest saved annually.)
15% is transferred into an "investment savings" account: $750.00 (Approx. $11,250 + interest saved annually.)
6% is transferred into a "car savings" account: $333.00 (Approx. $4,000 + interest saved annually.)

The remaining 25% ($1,250 or $15,000 annually) is considered "play" money but also must include payments for monthly utilities, cell phone bill, health, auto, and rental insurance payments, groceries, etc. All of these expenses end up being charged to one credit card, so if I notice my monthly balance nearing $1,250, I know I am nearing my monthly limit.

In other words, I think of my monthly income as $1,250 instead of $5,000.

Aside from rent and taxes, etc., my single biggest expenses involve food (restaurants). Cutting the number of times I "eat out" for lunch during the work week and/or on weekends with the GF significantly affects my monthly bottom line.

Otherwise, I do my best to save/budget for larger purchases (anything from an MP3 player to a LCD monitor to a DSLR, etc.).

I think another important thing is to think of things in terms of their annual costs. For example, you see that basic cable TV "only" costs $60.00/month. Well, this is $720.00/year. Then comes the question, what ELSE can I do with $720 this year? What is the cost/benefit between cable and option B?

Another example, if I had a child and if I had a $1,000/month car payment, I would ask myself, do I need such a nice car, or would I rather send my child to private school for $12K/year? If I could, I would ditch the car as being a MUCH poorer investment by comparison.

So on and so forth.

Edit: Of course, do NEVER carry any credit card balances! Always pay off monthly in full. I personally use "rewards" cards that offer cash-back or miles, etc.

 

[Elbryn]

live beneath your means. this takes precedent over all.

its pretty much like the snl can you afford it skit. if you want a new luxury car, fine, save for it. When you can afford to buy it outright, then buy it. otherwise forget about it. i'm a proponent that you should be buying a car that requires payments. should be relatively few folks with a full time job that cant manage a junker car to get them to and from work for say 1k.

the mortage companies say that you should not be spending more than 32% of your gross income on a mortgage. i say screw that and shoot for under 20%. if you cant get the house you want with that, save longer and get a bigger downpayment.

Stop thinking of things by the monthly payments. think of purchases in terms of total cost instead. interest is interest no matter what the monthly payment. look at a purchase in total cost will let you see the true cost of your purchase.

cost of living plays a large role in life. living in california or nyc, while glamorous and nice, will cost you alot more than if you lived in the midwest where you could conceivably live off 1000 bucks a month or less..

dont let pride get in the way. if you lost your job and you havent found anything, be happy that your parents are willing to let you come home for awhile. take it with a grain of salt... blow off a few days.. then get back to work building options. there's always an option, you just might not be willing to pay the cost. working fast food aint glamorous but it's a paycheck and a possible route to management.

little wins i've used to save some dough.
we have 4 month old. i use a combination of fsa money (reimbursed) and drugstore.com and bing cashback to get economy boxes of luv's diapers for ~20 bucks a box.
have paid off all debts beyond the house, pay credit card bills off every month.
use fatwallet free forums to get free magazine subscriptions. free entertainment
manage retirement assets myself using low cost index funds. financial adviser costing you 1% of your assets per year good or bad is quite costly.

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: WA261

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Originally posted by: WA261
Thank God, I have/did not even noticed the economy sway. I do the same shit I have always done.

(Not including the cast - insurance covered that & the hospital wrote off the deductible since my wife works there. ) .

Ouch! What did he do? I mean I know he wiped, but how?

He came up a little short on a long double, cased it on the jump. Wrecked. It was during practice, flagger was a little slow with the yellow flag. Next bike hit the double & ran into his bike & ankle. That kid flipped over the handlebars & was also injured. My son's ankle/leg (the leg bone) - broken. He sucked it up & still raced 3 out of his 4 motos that day, with the broken leg; 4th moto didn't matter so we went to the ER. 7 days after the cast went on, he had cut off half the cast on his foot & used the dremel a little bit so he could get it into a boot & he checked it out - he could ride pretty good. So, back to racing with only 1 week missed. Miserable rainy, muddy day, and the cast was ruined, so he cut it the rest of the way off - 12 days after it was put on. He wore one of those boot things and a brace for about a week, then was fine. Been doing just fine since.

But anyway, pay very close attention to sales in stores. Save a lot of coupons. Every once in a while, I still see something like Hunts Spaghetti Sauce 3 for $2. Not too bad of a base if you're willing to season it a little more to taste. Regular price is something like $1.49 (I don't have much of a clue). It's constantly on sale for $1; I pass it up. But every once in a while, it's that 3 for $2 sale; maybe twice a year, or even once a year. I'll purchase a case or two at that price.

My wife and I plan our meals for the week when we go shopping together. Our first stop is the meat aisle. I know the regular prices for meat, and the sale prices. The lowest bin in our refrigerator provides a "soft freeze" - not really frozen, but cold enough that even meat will last 2 weeks without spoiling. About the only thing we ever buy at regular price is ground beef. Boneless chicken breasts - regular price is usually $2.99/lb here. I won't get them unless they're under $2. ($1.40 yesterday) If the boneless skinless isn't on sale, then I'll look at the split breasts or even the whole chickens. SOMETHING is always on sale for a pretty good price. Those meats on sale tend to be what we get for dinner. We'll also shop at a place like Aldis for some of our food. The variety isn't that great, and I refuse to purchase meat that's "8% solution added" - I can't stand the saltiness. (I add no salt to my food.) But they're the cheapest for things like sugar (no difference between brands), cereal, etc. I especially like their salmon fillets, especially for the price. (Which reminds me, I picked up 8 pounds of salmon on sale in bulk yesterday; gotta shrink wrap and freeze a couple portions.)

 

[WildHorse]

``

 

[Cattlegod]

Originally posted by: JEDI

Originally posted by: jteef
get yourself addicted to WoW. really.

$15 / month is hella cheap for 150-200 hours / month of entertainment.

sell mmorp gold for $$$

i was averaging $20/hr, and that was 5yrs ago!

Originally posted by: jteef

Originally posted by: kranky

Originally posted by: jteef
get yourself addicted to WoW. really.

$15 / month is hella cheap for 150-200 hours / month of entertainment.

Well, she's married, and has free entertainment at home.

last i checked, bc and/or condoms are >15 / month. especially for 150 hours of action. raw might work, but i'd argue you'd eventually end up with a kid or an abortion which completely negates any savings you were able to muster previously.

just use the other 2 holes? :Q

Originally posted by: Cattlegod
at 28:

not buying a house

renting with 2 other roommates

waiting until a crash to throw all my savings in stocks (less my 401k)

um.. you missed MArch 2009 when dow = 6000 points?!

i got lucky and threw all $5000 into Roth IRA that month
Emerging markets up 75% this year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hmm, maybe i should say I waited because I hit the drop. didn't get 6000, but I got a lot better than everyone else.

 

[ModerateRepZero]

bump

new year, new ideas on cost-cutting/money saving, I hope

this is from a 10/27 slate article on coupons:
http://www.slate.com/id/2232669/pagenum/all/