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Going Into Frugality Mode -- What are your Tricks and Tips

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CWuestefeld:
I've got to disagree with one of the posts here. During heating season, turning off lights does not save you money in the big picture; all of the energy they burn is turned into heat. So the only savings is the difference in cost between electrical energy and whatever heating method you use: probably pretty trivial in the number of kwh we're considering.

Perry advocated staying away from credit cards. I disagree strongly: this may be the single largest saver I've got. You must pay the full balance each month. But assuming that you do that, you can really benefit from them. My cards both give 1% cash back, so I'm getting that savings off of everything I buy -- a tiny percentage over a really big base number. Also I have two cards, with the closing date staggered two weeks. I always use the one that has closed most recently, which means I've always got 4-6 weeks before I have to pay back any charge. This means that I effectively have a free loan to myself in perpetuity of a couple of thousand dollars.

One post mentioned VoIP, and that's a decent savings for me. A plan like Vonage gives all the features you're used to from your circuit-switched landline and then some, and can save you lots of money -- especially if you have a high-speed data connection anyway.

As was mentioned at the top, smoking and drinking having to be the biggest money pits ever.

One post mentioned keeping your car longer, and another mentioned cell phone plans. Both excellent advice, and put the two together: there's really no need to keep turning over cell phones. Usually most of the cost is underwritten by the carrier, but you're paying that back to them -- with interest -- over two years at the (high) service level they require.

Here's my own contribution, sure to be unpopular. Avoid the so-called "organic" section in the grocery store. I'm not arguing with the idea of organic foods, I'm arguing with the marketing of them. As with so many things, the government (in America, anyway) defines what can be called "organic", and you'd be surprised at that definition. There are plenty of fertilizers, pesticides, and preservatives that are still used. It's quite likely that when you buy that product with the Organic label, you're not getting a pure unadulterated food. And the prices of these are grossly higher than the "standard" foods elsewhere in the store.

When you are shopping, be prepared to buy in quantity. There are certain foods that are staples in my diet, and I know that the store puts on sale regularly. For example, I love Langer's cranberry juice cocktails, which are a little on the expensive side (~$4/half gallon). But every couple of months they go on sale at half price, and I buy a heap of them. If you're prepared to invest a little up-front and have the space in your basement to keep the stock, you can save a lot by using sales like this.

Here's one little thing that I've been doing recently. Save some money by making your own yogurt. It's trivially easy to do, and costs less than half of what you're paying in the store. (And if you want Organic foods, this is really the way to get it).

zridling:
I happen to know these circumstances very well, so here are my 2 cents (they're free ;-):

* Recreational activities: do something with your friends without spending (much) money. For example: organize poker nights, those are cheap + you can win something too). If you organize such activities at your home, make a pot & share all costs (drinks, chips, etc...)
__________________GREAT IDEA!!

* Do not buy new stuff if it isn't broken yet. Don't upgrade your computer, etc.
__________________YOU BASTARD. YOU ABSOLUTE BASTARD. THIS IS THE ONE THING I WANT TO DO THIS YEAR.  ;D

* Sell stuff you dont need on ebay.
__________________I USED TO DO THIS, EXCEPT eBAY TAKES TOO BIG A PERCENTAGE. CRAIGSLIST IS PREFERRED NOW IN THE US.

* Track your expenses & evaluate what costs you too much, get rid of that / replace it with something cheaper but equally valuable.
__________________VERY GOOD IDEA!!
-Djiezes (January 27, 2009, 06:39 AM)
--- End quote ---

Thanks!

app103:
Unplug the TV and cancel the dish, cable, or whatever you are subscribing to. There is plenty of free content online that you can enjoy to replace it. (this saved me over $60/month) Once you get used to living without it, you won't miss it. I certainly don't.

Get rid of all the extras on your phone service that you really do not need or use. Do you need call forwarding, distinct ring, voicemail, etc? Are you really using them enough to justify the costs? Are there replacements that would make more sense, like maybe using an old fashioned answering machine instead of voicemail? (there is no monthly fee for using an answering machine)

Speaking of phones, do you really need both a landline AND a mobile? A lot of people are saving money by dropping their landline and using strictly their mobile.

If you like to read, get and use a library card. Never buy a book you don't plan on reading more than once. Reference books make sense to purchase, fiction does not. Whatever books you do buy, try to get the best deal on them, even buying used books if they are cheaper. Swapping the books you don't want for ones you do, (like on bookmooch) makes sense, too. I know people that are paying a lot more in rent just to house their enormous book collections, because of the need to have extra rooms just to store all those books. If they got rid of the books they are never going to read again, they could move to a smaller cheaper apartment.

There is so much good free music out there that one doesn't need to ever buy another CD for as long as they live. Services like Pandora, Last.fm, and Garageband make it easy to listen to stuff you will actually like, without spending a dime. And last.fm and Garageband are capable of filling your hard drive very quickly with a ton of free MP3's. (I have downloaded almost 15G of free music, close to 3000 songs, since October!)

Learn to sew. Even if you never become good enough at it to make all your own clothing, at the very least you should learn to repair what you have. If you can fix it, why throw it away and buy new? A couple of spools of thread and a pack of needles is a lot cheaper that a whole new wardrobe.

When you buy clothing, go for quality. Buy clothes that will last for many years. And if you buy classic styles, they will be as fashionable today as they were 20 years ago, and still be in style 20 years from now. And don't shun the thrift stores and rummage sales. You can find some real bargains on what would normally be very expensive stuff, for pennies on the dollar, sometimes with the original price tags still on them.

You can substantially cut your electric bill by doing the following:

An empty refrigerator is very expensive to run! Fill the excess space in your refrigerator and freezer with bottles of water. This will keep it colder, longer and reduce the frequency and duration that the compressor has to kick on to keep it at the desired temperature. This single tip can cut the electric bill in half, for some people. Also clean the coils on the back and keep them free of dust.

Start buying your light bulbs by lumens. Wattage tells you how much electricity it will use, but lumens tells you how much light you will get for that electricity. It is possible to buy lower wattage bulbs with the same amount or higher lumens if you compare brands. Use table lamps to light the area of the room you are in with lower wattage bulbs, rather than the ceiling fixture with 6 bulbs that lights the entire room.

Use a clothes line instead of a dryer. I have an extra shower bar in my bathroom that goes across the center of the tub, specifically for hanging wet clothing so they don't drip on the floor. (I prefer not to hang my clothes outside and have them fade from the sunlight and get all full of pollen & pollution)

Use a coffee maker that doesn't have a heating element under the pot and brews the coffee directly into a thermal carafe. This can keep coffee hot for hours without using any extra electricity. Bonus is that it also won't cook your coffee or evaporate it.

Use a non-electric carpet sweeper for quick daily maintenance cleaning and only use the vacuum cleaner once a week or less.

Use that electric blanket only to preheat your bed. Shut it off once you climb under the covers.

Get rid of the screensavers and use power management to shut off the monitor.

And finally, invest in a used copy of The Tightwad Gazette and make it your money saving bible and keep reading it over and over again. The information in its pages can enable anyone that lives below the poverty line to have it all and live like a king (this is not an exaggeration!), so imagine what it can do for you.

redstarnyc:
I've been in Frugality Mode since we bought a co-op.  Here are some of the things I've been doing

Bringing lunch to work:  I live in NYC so this easily can save me $10 a day
Tea instead of coffee at work:  I bought a package of tea bags from the .99 Store.  So long Starbucks and hello a few bucks a day
Library instead of the bookstore
Downgrade cable:  All we really watch are the basic stations and I only need HD for football.  Thinking about ditching cable TV altogether after the move.
VOIP over the phone company

Tracking what you spend is also a great idea.  There are plenty of online tools out there.  I use www.buxfer.com but there are plenty others.

I also have a spreadsheet I use to track not only what I am spending now, but what I used to spend before I got cheap.  I then add up the "savings" as a way to keep myself motivated.

mouser:
I also have a spreadsheet I use to track not only what I am spending now, but what I used to spend before I got cheap.  I then add up the "savings" as a way to keep myself motivated.
--- End quote ---

very cool idea!

that gives me another idea.. what about a kind of game where family's can challenge each other to see how little they can spend (or how much they can save), and make a kind of game of it.. maybe someone could make a website or program to help keep track of scores or whatever.

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