Money Saving Monday: Your Turn
I talk a lot. Have you noticed? Day in and day out, I rattle on. Here and in my real life about… about, most anything and everything really. All the topics you read here? I’ve probably subjected some random stranger (or life long friend) to a markedly similar diatribe. It makes a nice warm up for the blog topic du jour.
Mini-tip of the day: Open the drawer to The Husband’s nightstand on occasion to discover his cache of pennies.
But, somewhere during the stream of consciousness constantly flowing from mykeyboard, I noticed something. I have readers. Awesome readers who leave awesome comments. Topic appropriate comments that make me think and consider aspects I may not have thought or considered. Yes You! I’m talking to you.
And so today will be a banner day, a day in which I stfu. (Would that be better in phonetics?)
Today I want you to tell me your best money saving trick, hack, or habit.
I don’t care if it saves you $.25 or $10,000. I’m putting my money on your awesomeness, and betting you have more to share than silly old tips on personal hygiene, side hustles, or hoarding.
Make me look bad! Put me to shame! Bring it, Dear Readers! I’m prepared to be blown away. Quietly.
Share your best tips below. Please and thank you!
Comments
No smart phone/data plan, take my lunch every day, carpool (this is new to me and I am loving it), water instead of pop (although I still drink too much pop), pay my car insurance a year at a time because I hate those fees they charge for monthly payments.
Hmm… I don’t think my insurance co. charges me more for the monthly payments, but not I have to double check. Thanks for that!
Check back in and let us know. I went for years paying a monthly fee and was irritated beyond belief that my agent never offered that discount. By the way not only do we avoid the monthly fee but we get a paid in full discount.
Response from insurance company:
Thank you for your email regarding your auto policy. There is no difference in premium if you stay on the easy pay payment plan that you are currently on and if you were to pay in full. The semi-annual payment plan we have has a $2.00 service fee per bill.
Whew! But I think this must be unique to my company.
Hey it was worth checking out.
Happy to know you haven’t been overpaying all this time.
I read that response as ‘$12 cheaper if you pay in full every 6 months’. Not a huge amount, but non-zero. (I’m gathering that you have an auto-debit situation set up — true? That is often billed at an intermediate cost between full pre-payment and self-directed monthly payments.)
Thermos. Pour the coffee in there as soon as the pot is brewed and turn off the coffee maker. I once calculated that this 11 cents/day or nearly $40/year. Not earth shattering, but easy.
I’ll do you one better.
The carafe to our coffee pot is a thermos. We have the pot on a power strip along with the microwave and the grinder. Everything gets switched off post brew. $40 a year, I like it.
I’m scheming now to fire both my cell phone and comcast cable internet… replacement? Free Google Voice account, 2 ipod touches (basically iphones sans data plan) and a 4g wireless hotspot (through Virgin Mobile – no contracts!) for on-the-go internet access to use the ipod touches as phones, and use the hotspot at home for computer internet access. This should take me from about $130 a month to $35 a month. I’ll have to invest in the 4G hotspot device, and another ipod touch, but it will still be cheaper in the long run than being tied into contracts for cell and expensive cable internet.
I recently switched from my old brick-of-a-phone to a smart-phone, since it was a hand-me-down from my partner (free) and I could see the benefits. I did a lot of shopping around, and finally found the best deal: T-mobile has ‘web exclusive’ 4G plans w/ no contract for as low as $30/month for unlimited data + unlimited text + 100 minutes talk. I got a free Google Voice account for the longer phone calls I might need. Really cheap, really reasonable!
Nice! My cell phone is heavily subsidized by Corporate Servitude, so I dont worry about it much, I hate comcast. I’ve tried to fire them from my life before, and ended up with unreliable internet. Yuck! Sounds like a good plan Charmaine. I’ll be interested to hear how it works out.
Can you get Qwest-I-mean-Century-Link where you live, Sarah? $50 a month flat for DSL internet, no extra fees, taxes, etc.
How’s the speed/reliability on the DSL? Whenever I’ve tried to switch before, it’s bee a no-go.
We had occasional connectivity problems for a couple of months at one point, but that was … a bit over two years ago now. Speed is comparable to cable, fine for streaming video and whatever, and for the last two years the connection has been rock-solid.
My husband and I are avid readers. We can’t walk into a bookstore and come out empty handed so….. we actually USE the library. It seems most people have forgotten about this free source of books. And lately they’ve added e-books that you can download to your device without having to leave the house! Also, for that new release that you really can’t wait your turn in line at the library…. you can download the electronic form for much cheaper and not have to worry about creating space to keep it. If you don’t have to pay for the space to store the books, it keeps your rent/mortgage down.. it’s a two-fer tip for us.
I so struggle with book purchases (as you might have read), so the library is big for us to. DVDs too. I still have to fight off the urge to OWN certain books.
We just don’t do cable. We found there were only a few shows on a scant few channels that we were actually interested in. Now we simply wait for them to come out on Netflix, either DVD or streaming… Saves money and encourages us to do something more productive with our time!
We don’t do cable either, although we do buy certain seasons via iTunes for things I must watch now. You are right though. Who has the time for to get their money’s worth out of cable? Most of the time we can barely keep up with the shows we are watching.
In addition to the comments above about not having a smart phone and paying auto insurance in full, I can’t tell you how much I saved by living in a working class (starter home-type) neighborhood and by developing relationships with my neighbors. I was surrounded by electricians, carpenters, mechanics, auto body guys, nurses, welders, etc. Every time I needed knowledge or a referral for some work to be done, they always wanted to help and never wanted payment. Of course I’d pay them, whether it be in food, cash, or house sitting. But I paid much less than what one would pay otherwise. And I trusted them completely. Next: YouTube is an amazing resource for learning OJT. Especially for tech stuff. Lastly: Dealnews.com for when I’m looking to buy something.
Blue collar neighborhoods rock! I agree. Those are all great tips Katherine. We are also avid DIY via YouTube users.
This — social capital in a blue-collar neighborhood — is my favorite tip. May write a blog post about this sometime soon; will point back here if so.
A worthwhile topic Karawynn. I’ve never lived in ‘the rich part of town’ so I’ve no idea if it actually varies neighborhood by neighborhood. I do know that I recently enjoyed trading my neighbor jam for garlic, and there’s another barter event on the 21st in my neck fo the woods.
Where is your neck of the woods, exactly?
Using power strips! I cut my electric bill by a THIRD by turning off the power strips that my electronics were plugged into each night before I go to bed. I then power them backup as I get home from work, and I didn’t pay to have that red light illuminated on my tv!
We do this too. Computer/peripherals, tv/peripherals, occasionally used kitchen appliances. I’ve never quantified it, but I’ll steal your numbers.
We eat at home as much as possible, which has helped our budget and our waistlines. We buy our spices from bulk bins at Whole Foods / PCC, as it’s significantly cheaper AND usually fresher than glass bottles at regular stores. Same for granola, nuts, specialty flours, beans. I spend a lot of time perusing my options when I go shopping.
Moving my money from a big bank to a credit union has saved me quite a bit in fees. For a while there was I getting $24/month maintenance fees from BoA ($288/year), as opposed to the $0 I pay now at BECU.
I’m hopeful that brushing my dogs teeth occasionally and giving them raw bones will save us $$$ down the line in not needing dental cleanings. After about a month of occasional teeth brushing and weekly bones, their teeth/gums look healthier to me at least.
Same as others: paying lump-sum car insurance payments, using the library (for me it’s cookbooks), not subscribing to cable, using Google to diagnosis house repairs and fix them. Saved a lot of $$$ last year when our washer broke by just figuring out it was one part in the lid that was $8 on Amazon and required a screwdriver. There were several youtube videos showing exactly what I needed to do.
I think it might also be saving us money to be having one night a week where we don’t eat meat. Don’t get me wrong, we love meat, but a meal of just beans or eggs and veggies can be significantly cheaper.
The bulk spice thing is a revelation. I’m surprised all those little bottles even exist anymore.
We *try* for the meatless dinner one night a week. With, uhm limited success, I’ll say. Maybe we need a recipe roundup, because I run out of ideas.
Be persistent. I didn’t grow up with a mom who loved to cook, so I taught myself. It took me a LONG time to develop good cooking skills. And it took me forever to find a pizza recipe, including toppings that I liked. After trying all manner of crusts I finally settled on using the sourdough recipe from The Tightwad Gazette- making it up with half whole wheat- letting it rise once, dividing it into 4 and freezing it. It takes about 6 hours to warm up and be ready to use.
Persistence applies to my garden too – I have terrible soil, but I have worked really hard to amend it, and I am finally reaping the rewards.
I also take my time about purchases. Like when I decided I needed the new dyson cordless vac so I could zoom around quickly, sucking up all the dog hair. I read reviews, looked at one in the store, and realized it wasn’t really up for what I wanted it to do, and my old canister vac would do fine.
Putting off purchases is huge. I think it gives the universe an opportunity. I can’t tell you how many times that because I’ve waited, the exact item I was looking for made its way into my life.
Persistence I’m good at. Patience is a struggle.
This is more of a mental money hack, rather than a way of cutting costs, and it’s certainly not my original idea, but one little small thing that I do that has saved me hundreds and hundreds of dollars is rounding up (payments) and rounding down (income) to the nearest dollar when I balance my checkbook. I would say that on the low end, this has “saved” me about $40 a month, and at times, over $100. Not to mention the overdraft fees I was occasionally getting hit with before I started doing this…
Love the round up/round down game. Every once in a great while I balance my accounts to their ‘true balance’. There’s always a nice little stash of money left over.
If everyone did just this one thing, over draft fees would be all but extinct.
I live in a very droughty area. It seems we have more years of drought than not.
I re-use my washing machine water to water plants.
I collect rainwater from my roof in two tanks and three rain barrels to water my landscape.
I catch water in a bucket in my sink and use this to re-fill my outdoor water plant containers.
I use leaves as free garden mulch and have also gotten free mulch from arborists by just asking them.
I turn the A/C off at night and use a fan to keep myself cool.
Worn out clothing becomes cleaning rags.
I wear my clothing until it wears out and try not to buy new clothing when I don’t need it.
I turn the light off when I leave a room.
If I don’t have time to can my fruits, I freeze them (figs & berries) so they don’t get thrown out because they’ve become over-ripe.
I make my own underarm deoderant from cornstarch, baking soda, and left-over fragrance.
I use one bucket of bath water a day to flush the toilet.
I hang my clothes on the line.
I’ve not been a long-time follower of this blog, so perhaps these are things you do every day.
Welcome Laura! And thanks for such an exhaustive list. I have thought of using my grey water for garden/plant watering, but always chicken out. I think I’m worried the soap content will harm my plants. Very good input!
And I love make your own deodorant. Mine is coconut oil and baking soda. Works like a champ.