Originally Posted by slammer111
(Post 6787965)
^ Damn, you beat me by a few minutes. Many places you can eat for cheap.
Boys and girls, if you want to save money, you have go after the big fish. No point trying to save $2 when you're bleeding $300 elsewhere.
My family does several things to save a few bucks. The trick is consistency. Let's see if I can get my mind rolling. Our family has a reputation amongst our inner circle but honestly I don't think we're even that hardcore.
1) When my sister goes home, as she walks up the alley she peers into people's blue bins. Maybe our neighbourhood is nicer but people around my area are too lazy to return empties to the liquor store. Each week we make about $5, which subsidizes my beer runs. :)
2) I do the same thing as my sister with electronics and computer equipment people junk. Some even stick a "Free" tag on their stuff. If I think I can do it, I flip the items on Craigslist. Free money. :D Sometimes the stuff they chuck is actually NICER (West Side ftw :D)than the stuff we are using at home, so we get free upgrades as well. :) Or sometimes a $200 item is junked because a $5 part broke. Again, easy money.
3) Don't drive like an ass. Never use more than 1/4 throttle, look far down the road to anticipate stops, and time your speeds so you avoid red lights. This is known as "hypermiling". By consistently doing this (it's now a habit) I can easily get 50-100km more per tank than my buddies who have the exact same car. That's probably another $20/mo right there. And of course my brakes and tires last WAY longer too! Oh, and you save a tree or two. :D
4) Speaking of cars, DIY your oil and brakes. Sure you get your hands a bit dirty but that can easily save $100-400 a year depending on what car you have. Example, buddy had his brakes done for $2000 at the dealer; I had mine done (same car) for $700 in parts and a couple of hours of elbow grease.
5) Buy depreciating items used. A 1 year old computer probably cost only 40% as much as the new one. I'm even more extreme; my computer is always 3-5 years behind the technological curve. In return I've only spent about $300 (compared to $3000+ for some of my friends) in computer equipment in the last 8 years. And my rig is fast enough to play Modern Warfare 2. :D My friends chuck so much computer stuff so often that I just offer to dump their junk for them, and take whatever parts I need along the way.
6) Eat all the damn food on your plate. Why people piss away food money is completely beyond me. Pack it up in a doggy bag if you can't finish the portion!
7) Make rich/spender friends. :D I hate to say it, but those are the people who make much of the list possible. You need friends who dump stuff all the time and don't mind you freeloading off them.
8) Cut your data plan. I noticed recently that 90% of my friends have data. If I ever need something looked up, I can just ask one of them to do it for me, and they don't mind at all. $45/mo saved. In fact, I didn't even bother picking up a smartphone for the exact same reason. Of course this assumes you have friends that don't suck.
9) Turn your lights off when not needed, and lower your heating by a couple of degrees. Sounds like common sense, but tons of people I know leave 80% of their lights on 24 hours a day for some stupid reason. This is probably $400/mo saved for our household. You get used to the colder temp after a couple of weeks anyways. Our house is 17C on average and I still sit around in a T-shirt. It's actually not bad at all. If you feel cold and don't want to put on a sweater, use a small space heater instead and close your door. Heating up a room is way faster/cheaper than heating your entire house.
10) Cut your cable packages. Do you really need all 500 channels when 50 will do? Everything I want to see (ie Top Gear) is on YouTube anyways, with no commercials :D Easily $30-50 saved a month.
11) When you travel, go backpacking or live in a 3-star hotel instead of 5-star. I can easily go on vacation for 1/3 the price of my friends who do the whole "packaged tour" crap, AND see more stuff AND have more random fun.
12) Carpool with your buddies to go hang out. I have a good friend 3 mins away; we take turns driving out. Cuts your non-essential fuel consumption by half. Same with errands; string them together by location. Why go out to get 1 thing done when u can do 4.
13) If you're a good driver, crank up your deductibles! Autoplan buddy taught me this. My deductibles are $2500 for comprehensive. Back then I (stupidly) left them at $300 and never used them in 10 years. $4000 (probably more) in extra premiums pissed away. Even if I had been in an at-fault accident during this period, it still would've been way cheaper to pay the larger deductible. Hit and Run deductibles stay at a maximum of $750 at ICBC, so that's what you'll pay even if your comprehensive is higher than that amount.
14) Use calling cards/Skype for long distance. Apparently some people out there still pay 5c/minute or whatever. It can add up if you have relatives in a different city.
15) Use rechargeable batteries. I know some people who go to 7-11 and buy 2(!) batteries for $11!? I can get a box (no-name alkalines) of 40 for the same price. For items that drain batteries regularly (such as my mp3 player), using rechargeables has already paid for itself several times.
16) Go cheapo on movies. Those $8 tickets people sell here and there are awesome. Eating at the Old Spaghetti Factory with that Movie combo is even better. $40 for the 2 of you includes the 2 movies. White Spot downtown also has a similar awesome deal. Of course there's also BitTorrent but we're keeping things legal in this post. ;)
17) Pack your own lunch. This can easily save you $200/month. Usually my sister and I make a big batch, then put them into 5 containers each.
18) Owe as much credit as you can, then pay it off at the deadline. A good example is income tax. Anyone who wishes for a big return is a retard. That just means you gave the government an interest-free loan for the year! Of course, this only works if you're not an irresponsible douche. I love receiving letters from CRA saying I need to make a payment of a few grand at the end of a tax year. :D
19) If your job has benefits, spread them out over the years. For example, maybe fix your top teeth first, then do the bottom teeth the next year. Depending on your plan, that may mean you can claim dental TWICE, which is advantageous if you have a yearly limit. Sure your teeth might look wonky for another year but would it be worth it if you could save $3000 as a result?
|
