The Grassroots Living Thread

The $290 a week thread got me re-thinking about my recent decision to live a simpler, debt free life. It also got me thinking about the goofy things the wife and I now do to save money.

So i figured i'd start a thread seeing what tactics other people use to cheap out on stuff. After all, who can say no to tips for saving money.

Mine:

Coupons! As mentioned in the other thread, proper use of coupons means you actually pay for very little.

Re-using vacuum bags. Ok, this is more me being lazy but it does save money. Whenever the vacuum bag gets full i just empty it out in the trash can and reuse.

Saying no to fast food. It's surprising how quick the money adds up...

Not having a car payment. Not for everyone i know but driving a $1500 car means i can have just have liability insurance instead of full coverage and not pay every month for a car.

I tried watching our water and electric usage like a hawk and i swear the bills actually went up. Guess we were doing pretty good already.

Cruising the free sectios of craigslist has got us some pretty neat stuff.

Netflix/Hulu. Sure it costs money but i had a bad DVD buying habit before i realized i could watch anything i wanted on netflix. Also, for those of you with a PS3 or Xbox 360, check out a program called Playon. It lets you stream Hulu and a few tv stations from your networked computer to your game console. 14 Day free trial and $40 one time fee. Makes paying for cable seem silly.

For those with critters. Cloth diapers, they really aren't that bad. After using them i don't even like disposables (well, "like" when talking about diapers is a relative term).

I'm sure i'll think of more...

just say no to soft drinks. buy one screw-top bottle of water and (here's the tricky part) refill it when it gets empty!

two per day is $10 per work week, which is a decent set of street tires per year.

I save a TON of money going with Blockbuster's mailing service to the tune of $20 a month instead of paying $5 every time i want to rent a movie.

Eating out? Well, i still do on occasion, but i also love to cook, and have found that i can usually make better food for cheaper. No, i don't clip coupons, and no, i don't always buy store brand when i can. BUT: I always make large portions, and whatever i make is always good for at least 2 meals, usually 2 meals and a couple snacks. Suddenly, that $20 investment in that meal makes a whole lot more sense. You can't get ONE good meal for two people for $20 anymore, let alone two and snacks. Fun fact: A nice big ass pan of lasagna made with quality ingredients is cheaper than eating at McD's.

Go figure.

Soft drinks, store bought drinks? Yeah. I buy them, but only because i like my Pepsi and Mt. Dew from time to time. BUT: We also make our own real sweet tea, and constantly have a big old pitcher of it in the fridge. Yes, we did buy an ice tea maker, but for the one time investment of $20 or whatever it was, plus tea bags and sugar (cheap) you can end up paying pennies for your nice tall glass of tea. If i couldn't afford pop, i'd survive just fine.

PubBurgers wrote: The $290 a week thread got me re-thinking about my recent decision to live a simpler, debt free life. It also got me thinking about the goofy things the wife and I now do to save money. So i figured i'd start a thread seeing what tactics other people use to cheap out on stuff. After all, who can say no to tips for saving money. Mine: Coupons! As mentioned in the other thread, proper use of coupons means you actually pay for very little. Re-using vacuum bags. Ok, this is more me being lazy but it does save money. Whenever the vacuum bag gets full i just empty it out in the trash can and reuse. Saying no to fast food. It's surprising how quick the money adds up... Not having a car payment. Not for everyone i know but driving a $1500 car means i can have just have liability insurance instead of full coverage and not pay every month for a car. I tried watching our water and electric usage like a hawk and i swear the bills actually went up. Guess we were doing pretty good already. Cruising the free sectios of craigslist has got us some pretty neat stuff. Netflix/Hulu. Sure it costs money but i had a bad DVD buying habit before i realized i could watch anything i wanted on netflix. Also, for those of you with a PS3 or Xbox 360, check out a program called Playon. It lets you stream Hulu and a few tv stations from your networked computer to your game console. 14 Day free trial and $40 one time fee. Makes paying for cable seem silly. For those with critters. Cloth diapers, they really aren't that bad. After using them i don't even like disposables (well, "like" when talking about diapers is a relative term). I'm sure i'll think of more...

Ithink my wife's addiction to cloth diapers surpasses anything I've spent to modify a car, though the critters are cute as hell in them

This is a great thread idea! I'd love to find more ways to save money.

Mine are pretty much the same as yours, but I'll comment on them anyway.

I really should be more active about coupons, but I don't get the sunday paper and don't know where the best place to find them other than that.

I bought a bagless vacuum at a yard same for $5 that didn't suck very well. After about 5 minutes with a philips screw driver, I freed the paper towel that was stopping up the works and now have a perfectly functioning vacuum, and don't have to worry about bags.

Word. Fast food is gross and the cost really adds up. My only acception is if I wake up late and I need to pick up a quick bite on my way to work. I also get a subway sandwich on friday, because I run errands on my lunch break on fridays and don't have time to go home.

With you on that one. I've never had a car payment and never will.

I get the 9.99 netflix. I was the worst movie renter ever. I've had $30 late fees on crap movies that I could have bought for $15. I bought a cheap s-video cable and stream tv and movies on the computer, and watch them just like I would normally. I wish I could do away with cable completely, but my girlfriend needs the internet for school, and since I worked on the cable guy's motorcycle, he hooked me up with all the extras and discounts he could, and told me how to get "bonus channels" for free, it would actually cost me more if I cancel the cable.

Oh, and I don't have a cell phone.

Brown bagging. I'm usually at work for lunch and dinner, and can make three-four sandwhiches at home for the price of one in Manhattan.

Coupons and stocking up during big sales. I get almost the whole years worth of canned goods during a big annual sale. I buy big pieces of meat and chicken and cut it down and freeze it.

I search the train for second hand reading material. I haven't bought a weekday paper in about two years.

We have no air conditioning and keep the thermostat at 62 in the winter.

Everyone loves to jump on the coupon bandwagon. I'd like to share our experience in the hopes that it will offer a different approach and maybe help some people out.

When we lived in Raleigh, my GF and I cut coupons like mad. One local grocery chain regularly had double coupon days, and we used the heck out of that. We really patted ourselves on the back, being able to save all that money.

But all those coupons were for processed, and mostly unhealthy, foods. Saving all that money wasn't doing our bodies any favors.

We decided to look into healthier options. Raleigh had a farmer's market, so we started going to that one a week and cooking more meals at home. A couple of months into our effort we moved to Greensboro so my GF could pursue her Master's. Greensboro has a couple of farmer's markets - one large, one small. We went to the big one a few times, but the smaller one was closer, so that's the one we started using regularly. We also set aside some money and joined our local co-op grocery store.

We slowly ramped up our efforts to cook more at home and stop buying so many processed foods. It didn't happen overnight, and we still buy a few things at a normal grocery store. We also still eat out occasionally, but overall we're eating much more healthy these days.

But that's not the main point I want to share, it's this: After we'd been going down this road for a couple of years, we looked at the numbers. We compared what we'd been spending before vs what we were currently spending. Even joining the co-op and paying their premium for organic foods, we were spending no more money than we were when we cut coupons religiously - because we started making meals at home using real ingredients.

I'll end by saying that you don't have a body, you are a body. Which is better for it? Processed, chemical-laden prepackaged food or meals made from fresh ingredients?

I just wanted to offer this up for people who might not have considered this approach before. Thanks for reading.

For us it's coupons, sale items and sack lunches. WE eat out once a week (with coupons), have all but one vehicle paid for (0% interest loan that has 2 more years to pay), liability on everything but the one vehicle. We do have one soda a day typically, but drink more water than anything. Refill water bottles until they get nasty and buy a new one.

We don;t buy anything we can't pay for at the end of the month. EVERYTHING goes onto our 2% Discover and is paid off every month. Gets us a nice $5-700 check at the end of the year. No credit card debt. We do have cellphones, but the bill is $40/month for both.

I also quit drinking soft drinks a long time ago. I pretty much only drink water, tea, coffee, and beer. If only beer was as cheap as the rest on my list. It's been so long since I've had soft drinks, that Coke tastes horrible to me, unless it's at least half whiskey. Then it's delicious.

JeffHarbert wrote: Everyone loves to jump on the coupon bandwagon. I'd like to share our experience in the hopes that it will offer a different approach and maybe help some people out. When we lived in Raleigh, my GF and I cut coupons like mad. One local grocery chain regularly had double coupon days, and we used the heck out of that. We really patted ourselves on the back, being able to save all that money. But all those coupons were for processed, and mostly unhealthy, foods. Saving all that money wasn't doing our bodies any favors. We decided to look into healthier options. Raleigh had a farmer's market, so we started going to that one a week and cooking more meals at home. A couple of months into our effort we moved to Greensboro so my GF could pursue her Master's. Greensboro has a couple of farmer's markets - one large, one small. We went to the big one a few times, but the smaller one was closer, so that's the one we started using regularly. We also set aside some money and joined our local co-op grocery store. We slowly ramped up our efforts to cook more at home and stop buying so many processed foods. It didn't happen overnight, and we still buy a few things at a normal grocery store. We also still eat out occasionally, but overall we're eating much more healthy these days. But that's not the main point I want to share, it's this: After we'd been going down this road for a couple of years, we looked at the numbers. We compared what we'd been spending before vs what we were currently spending. Even joining the co-op and paying their premium for organic foods, we were spending no more money than we were when we cut coupons religiously - because we started making meals at home using real ingredients. I'll end by saying that you don't have a body, you are a body. Which is better for it? Processed, chemical-laden prepackaged food or meals made from fresh ingredients? I just wanted to offer this up for people who might not have considered this approach before. Thanks for reading.

Agreed. This has been why i haven't really made a dedicated attempt with the coupons. It wouldn't save me THAT much money, because i try to stay away from the processed stuff. I think the extent of processed stuff i buy is like... soda and cereal. I'm "that guy" that buys Simply Orange orange juice, and that stuff is never on sale.

The only things that i buy a lot of that i see coupons for often is chicken and cheese.

wherethefmi wrote:

PubBurgers wrote: For those with critters. Cloth diapers, they really aren't that bad. After using them i don't even like disposables (well, "like" when talking about diapers is a relative term). I'm sure i'll think of more...

Ithink my wife's addiction to cloth diapers surpasses anything I've spent to modify a car, though the critters are cute as hell in them

We did the cloth diaper thing, it was a no brainer. It can be argued better for the kid (let's not start that argument here though please) better for the environment and better for the purse strings. The only issue was once the kid's got to 18months it's hard to fin cloth diapers that fit tem any more. Also they make great car rags once the critters grow, nice and think with padding :) :)

16vCorey wrote: I also quit drinking soft drinks a long time ago. I pretty much only drink water, tea, coffee, and beer. If only beer was as cheap as the rest on my list. It's been so long since I've had soft drinks, that Coke tastes horrible to me, unless it's at least half whiskey. Then it's delicious.

WAIT A MINUTE!!!!

They make Coke for use without whiskey?

BullE36 M3!

Next thing you will say is there is a Rum free Diet Coke or a Tequila free Mountain Dew.

Recycling. For those states without a deposit on aluminum cans, it can help out. As of a couple of weeks ago, it was .58 cents per pound.Plus recycling is good all around.

I'll also add the coupons. Since our teeneage daughter decided to go vegetarian(?), we have salad and fresh fruits daily. It pays to shop around, as the local old school/been here forever grocery store has been cut at the knees by (2) Kroger's...was (3), but it was ghetto...a Meijer's and of course a Wal-Mart.

*EDIT....and call your cable/phone/internet provider and ask what they can do to reduce the price and keep your business.

Wifey and I live a frugal life. Had to when starting a new business. No car payment, buy our meat at a special store in bulk. Cut up and freeze. Go for the twofers and bogo deals at the supermarket. Can't stomach fast food, so no spending there. No real farmers market in the area, wish there was one. We do the sweet tea thing too. Just being aware can go a long way. We do eat out once a week. We are together 24/ 7, so I have to spoil her a bit.

My list:

• Steal stuff from others.
• Use your body to make money. We all have one or more orifices that go unused for most of the day and there are thousands of people out there willing to pay for their use.
• Sift rubbing alcohol thru bread instead of paying top dollar for liquor. Its hard to argue with $.47 a pint.
• Canned cat food is more nutritious than canned dog food and a few pennies cheaper.
• Give birth. Unwanted children can be leveraged to get free food, taught to steal or, in the extreme used as human shield in case one of your other endeavors goes wrong.
• Sell the bodies of your victims to science instead of just disposing of them in the ground.

Walter, you forgot the most obvious.

Dig deep holes about 4 feet in diameter all over town. Holes are free. People will pay to get out of a hole, if they don't pay they either die or are rescued. If they are rescued the authorities will fill up the hole which will allow more room for holes.

Every item of clothing I own, for the past 20 years (excluding socks and unders) has come from the second hand store. Do you guys have Value Village? It rocks! I have problems with processed food, which is actually a blessing. I don't buy any canned or prepared foods whatsoever. If you like stir-fry, thai, or asian food in general, you'd be amazed what you can do with a $1 bag of coleslaw and peppers off the reduced rack.

Lesley wrote: Every item of clothing I own, for the past 20 years (excluding socks and unders) has come from the second hand store. Do you guys have Value Village? It rocks!

Yes! I love Value Village. I missed them like crazy after I moved to NC from Seattle about five years ago, but they opened a store here in Greensboro about a month ago. I've only been once so far, but I scored half a dozen great flannel shirts for $20.

I have a cell phone, but it is a track phone, pay as you go. I have never run out of minutes and it is 10X LESS than a contract phone. Even if you are out of minutes 911 always works.

We don't have a car payment and use common vehicles so parts are cheap at autozone.

I ride the bus or my bike to work (some days I take the Jeep, when the snow is deep). Luckily I am only 3 miles away, not everyone can do that.

Fast food, not only is it crap, it is expensive. We have boycotted fast food for about 10 years now. Well we rearly eat out. We can cook way better than what is available to eat out at anyway. Our shopping is done at Aldi, sometimes at the larger supermarket. We have no aversion to changing brands based on price. When traveling we will have Subway.

We carry ZERO credit card depbt. the only money we owe is on our house and we just refinanced at a 4.75% apr and dropped our pament in half.

I am using the tuition waiver from work for Grad school, Sure I would like to go to a differnt grad school, but if work is paying for this one, that is the one I am going to. I also used my Illinois State Veterans Grant to do my under grad schooling in Illinois. (Texas and Illinois are the only two states that do that)

We have a cash only policy, if we don't have the cash for it, we don't buy it.

We have a family policy that there are no unilateral spending decisions. That is I don't spend money (over a certain therashold) without first discussing it with my spouce and vice versa.

We kept a money journal for a while, but now just use our Money Computer program to record all spending. Write eveything down, EVERYTHING, then add it all up, you will be shocked as to where it all goes, and just seeing it will cause you to change how you are with money.

We move money to savings every month, some months a lot of money, other months very little money, but we always put money in savings.

I make $58K a year, we are a family of 5, my wife stays home and runs a small Blog Design buisness. We have over $25K in savings, baught an RV with Cash this year. We have also paid for adopbtion expenses with cash (credit card paid immediatly) which where about $20K. All of this is done through being in integrity with our money, knowing where it is and who we are about our spending.

The biggest eye opener for me was living in Malaysia in 2001. Americans have it well. We may not hink we do, but we do. If you have ANY money in your checking account you are in the 90th % of rich people in the world. Perspective has taught us the difference between need and glutony.

Just my $0.02

Being vegetarian ourselves, meat expenses are, well, dog food and Kat Fud. We have a farmer's market. We have not been pleased with the results. We have a CoOp. Same. Ahh, let's just say the co-op tends to, ahh, "reek" a bit at times and every time I go in there, I feel ripped off.

I use coupons a lot. All those 20% off HF coupons from GRM, as well as the ones from SGN and AR. I cut them out, stack them up on the desk with a note as to their source and use them regularly.

Car Payment: NEVER A-BERKELEYING-GAIN. Cable (satellite out here): Dumped it. $700/yr for 24/7 comercials and 20 year old movies I've seen 10 times or have on disk or both.
Wood Stove. Every BTU that goes in it is one I don't have to buy. With 10 acres of trees, it's easy to find one that needs to go back into CO2 to help Albert Arnold Gore, Jr. out. I, of course, do all my car maintenance. Supertech full synthetic oil in most, Toyota OEM filters on everything (they're under five bucks.) Credit cards (or other credit): Not on your life. If I can't pay for it, I don't need it. My student loans will be paid off about 5 years after I retire, which will be 10 years after I die at the rate things are going. Higher education ain't all it's cracked up to be. Restaurants: We've cut way down on restaurants. I probably eat out at lunch 2-3 times a week now. Mostly because I'm pissed off at all the places I used to eat at for various reasons, like charging me $6 for a cheese sandwich, making me wait 45 minutes for my meal at lunch, making me sick/migraine, raising the price of beer and then the next week shrinking the glass size, etc. Taco Hell is like two bucks and some change a meal for me, so I can't really complain on that. I don't drink sodas. I suspect that HFCS does not agree with my metabolism.

I have found life to be too short for cheap beer, though. Heineken or Hesselbrau.

I may have to try that hole thing, JB. Although from my observations, people won't pay to get out of a hole. In fact, given a shovel, they will usually dig their own hole and keep digging, even after they realize they are stuck in a hole, so it may not be that economically viable.

This could be a flounder, but several people here have mentioned living healthier not just cheaper so here goes. Perhaps we should have a thread called 'living better'?

We only eat organic and try to eat fresh. Our weekly shop is at Whole foods, which many people tease me for and nick name 'whole-pay-check' Well shopping around I've found that many items such as milk, butter, veggies and meat are frequently cheaper and in the case of fresh produce better quality in organic varieties at Whole Foods than they are at other stores such as Meijer, Kroger etc. Costco is best for bulk if you can store it, but it can be a false economy as some fresh things come in such large quantities it's almost impossible to use them in time. I will not cross the threshold of Wal-Mart or SAMs club.

I don't claim to have a frugal lifestyle, but there are frugal things I do that allow me to have the lifestyle we want. The good thing about this is it's also greener.

We have a veggie garden and grow our own in the summer. Note. Our whole yard has been chemical free for at least 18 years, I wouldn't grow my own in the normal suburban toxic patch.

Our Mortgage is 13% of our take home Salary

No Cable

Basic Netflix

No Soda/pop, there's absolutely nothing redeeming about it not matter what the price, now if I could just kick the coffee habit.

Make your own bread. My mother did this for years when I was young, we come and go on it. May not be cheaper then sliced crap, but it's cheaper than real bread.

Beef, we get 1/2 a cow through a co-op once a year and freeze it. Organically raised and pre slaughtered/processed. Big savings over store bought Organic.

Car pool twice a week to work and kids in a very complicated car pool for school that needs a CRAY computer to keep track of!

Shut off lawn sprinkler, massively wasteful, use a hose and movable sprinkle head. Also get up early in the morning so it doesn't get burnt off. For this year I plan on building rain barrels to catch roof run off for watering the garden so I don't even have to use the hose.

Swapped to energy efficient light bulbs, insulated house better.

Keep house cooler in winter and warmer in summer and shut off the garage heater completely.

Debating solar panels for the future, but were not at the cost/benefit point or free cash to do it yet.

I want to get the walls of the house insulated as well once I have some spare $$'s. Several friends have had this done and report a massive improvement in heat retention and reduced bills. The house is a 50's brick ranch so energy conservation was not considered at the time it was built.

Now here's one that may get me ex-communicated from the board. Multiple cars cost multiple license fees and insurance bills. One all rounder is cheaper!!!! (duck's, run's changes address and goes for plastic surgery)

The whole home energy consumption thing is huge. The way utility costs have gone up over the last decade the savings were making are only helping us stay constant in terms of cost. No matter what, any energy savings are a good thing.

There's a really cool book I've got from the UK titled 'It's not easy being green' by Dick Strawbridge available through Amazon.com here. It's a great guide as to what is possible with effort. There's a really cool section about a passively heated green house that allowed them to grow lettuce even through the winter. That's a future consideration as well.

First and foremost, eBay....but you have to know the value of your part, set a maximum price you will be prepared to pay, eBay can be crazy I once sold a Ford oil pump for 3 times the price of a new one.

I burn used oil for heat and use a wood stove in our play room at the Convoy Compound.

Our water is from a well.

No gas at all. Electric is mains but I am doing some research on setting up a combination of solar panels and a wind generator to at least reduce our requirement.

I used to do all my own car maintenance but now I have too much and have a mechanic on call to assist, still way less that going to another outsourced mechanic.

I buy parts cars to keep my fleet running, usually pay less than $500 and gain about $3000 in parts, then sell of the parts we don't use for more profit.

Purchase often used parts when the deal is there, example a set of four inner and outer Town Car tie rods on eBay for $0.99, $8 shipping, they sat for a while but two were used last week for an almost free repair.

This year building our own septic system at the Compound, quotes as high as $30k, with my shopping skills, I expect to do it for less than $5,000.

I buy older cars for work, they are clean and low mileage pay less than $4k each, do 200K and part them, a new car would cost at least $25k that can transport 4 passengers and will last no longer. 6 cars for the price of 1.

Buy the same type of cars, then parts are readily available from the parts cars.

At home I follow the wife and kid around shutting off the lights that they apparently are allergic to turning off.

PubBurgers wrote: So i figured i'd start a thread seeing what tactics other people use to cheap out on stuff. After all, who can say no to tips for saving money.

Just say no to:

• car payments

• cable

• home phone

• internet

• games and game consoles

• restaurants

• seeing movies in the theater

• having new/bleeding edge gadgets

Say yes to:

• food that's marked down at the grocery

• condensed soup/beans/pasta (cheap food)

• food you can grow in your back yard with a minimum of time/effort - here, that's grapefruit, pineapples, oranges, starfruit, strawberries and avacados. For some of you, it may be corn and beans. Whatever. Grow something you like the taste of and eat it.

• never putting onto your credit card what you cannot pay off immediately. (...and follow through; i.e. pay it all off every month.)

• monthly IRA/401K contributions (It hurts now, but you'll appreciate it later)

FWIW, the way I finally got started saving like I should have years before was to make a simple promise to myself: I will always put an amount into retirement each month that is greater or equal to the amount that I put into hobby/recreational cars. (I don't include the daily driver.)

John Brown wrote:

16vCorey wrote: I also quit drinking soft drinks a long time ago. I pretty much only drink water, tea, coffee, and beer. If only beer was as cheap as the rest on my list. It's been so long since I've had soft drinks, that Coke tastes horrible to me, unless it's at least half whiskey. Then it's delicious.

WAIT A MINUTE!!!! They make Coke for use without whiskey? BullE36 M3! Next thing you will say is there is a Rum free Diet Coke or a Tequila free Mountain Dew.

I thought my grapefruit juice had gone bad...but then I realized that it was just that there was no gin in it...

Clem

I also make my own bread. I guestimate costs at about $0.50/loaf, and it is by far the best bread I have ever had. That cost also includes my purchasing my whole wheat component directly from the farmer and having it UPS'ed to me in 23 lb buckets.

aussiesmg, I think we paid about five large for the septic system we put in, give or take, maybe less, so I don't think your cost guestimate is out of line. A lot depends on your soil conditions, though.