If you have a Sam’s or Costco in your area, you can get past the membership by using a gift card. You can also buy a gift card without a membership. Sometimes they’re sticklers about it if you’re there super early, because that’s apparently “special members hour” or some shit, but the worst that happens is they tell you to leave.
If you can save up $15-20 for a 25lb sack of rice, it’ll last about 100-150 meals, which means it’s about 10-20¢ per meal. Just keep it in a plastic container to keep bugs out.
Get some cheap frozen vegetables and bulk, dried beans and you can eat pretty good for like a dollar per day.
Honestly it’s kinda cruel that buying in bulk saves a ton of money, but the people that need it most can’t afford to.
I think they get around this by having the pharmacy hours be a few hours offset from their actual business hours. My local Sam’s opens at 8 for “plus” memberships and the pharmacy doesn’t open until 10 when the poor normal members can start shopping.
This may no longer be true, but when I had my own Sam’s membership it was cheaper to get the business club card than the regular you imply is for the poors. They did zero checking that the business even existed, you only had to list a business name.
I’m not 100% convinced that buying in bulk at Costco saves significant amount of money. At least on staples anyway.
The best deals I’ve gotten at Costco were electronics. But things like chicken thighs ($1.39 / lbs at Costco vs $1.49 / lbs at the local grocery store)…I don’t think it’s worth the price.
I bought soap there for $2 or so less than at Walmart. I’m sure it all adds up but between the shitty parking and long lines, I’ve been debating giving up my Costco membership.
It really depends on what you buy. Some stuff is crazy cheap, others are pretty much the same price. If you’re buying a single shirt from Sam’s you’re probably better off going to Walmart. Always check the per-unit price, and only buy what you’re sure you will use. My favorite brand of yogurt is cheaper per unit than the great value brand at Walmart, and is almost 50% lower compared to buying it in packs of 4… But it takes up half a shelf in the fridge. But generally meat is just as expensive at Walmart/Kroger, often you can get it cheaper on sale at Walmart/Kroger than you can get at Sam’s, and it’s already in packages that you can just toss in a freezer.
Also, I don’t know if Costco has it, but the Sam’s app lets you scan and pay with your phone, so there’s no lines for checkout or anything. That doesn’t work to use the gift card trick though.
Costco meats are very good quality afaik so that might be why they seem similar prices, or meat is just not something you save on at costco. Buying cheese at costco is like 75% off & cereal is like 50% off. Pretty sure I could make a costco membership worth it with 1 visit of non-perishables.
Be sure to compare unit cost, not just overall cost. Often times, the thing you buy at Walmart for $5 is less quantity/weight than the comparable thing you buy at Costco for $4.75.
You aren’t entirely wrong. Most items at bulk clubs aren’t cheaper than other stores, just bigger. There’s generally a handful of items worth getting, and everything else should be avoided. Also Costco is usually more expensive, because they have random products that are organic, non-gmo, artisan things that cost more without good justification.
But things like chicken thighs ($1.39 / lbs at Costco vs $1.49 / lbs at the local grocery store)…I don’t think it’s worth the price.
2 things:
The chicken you get at Costco is probably a better quality, and generally you get more actual chicken per pound. Google "air chilled vs water chilled."
Get the things there that make sense for you. We like calrose rice in this house for a lot of stuff, go through quite a lot of it. At costco, the gigantic bag is like $20 compared to a tiny little bag that is $10-$12 at the cheapest regular grocer.
Combine those factors and I think it’s worth it. I have things that are “costco items.” Bulk spices, rice and some grains, dog food and treats, chicken, paper towel and TP, plastic wrap, hot dogs, pretty much any cheese, laundry soap, frozen convenience foods (dino nuggets, kirkland pizza, eggos, etc) and even some produce. Anyway, I go maybe once a month, and I’ve done the math many times over and it more than pays for itself. I wish I lived closer, because there are some things that I would buy more frequently that are way cheaper usually - milk, eggs, salad mix, fruit, etc.
But yeah, this is a 6 person house, with 3 adults and two teenagers.
Oh, last thing. Buying quite a lot of things at Costco is basically like buying an extended warranty or insurance. If you’re going to buy a TV, for example, and Costco sells something that’s close, buy that one. The OEM is going to offer a 1 year warranty, Costco will take that return for much longer.
I live in an area with a Sams club a inconvenient distance away and no Costco, Sam’s has been getting less and less worth bothering with, as the prices are getting less competitive, and the product quality degrading as Walmart’s distribution takes its toll (don’t even get me started on the shit quality of Walmart these days) plus dealing with large quantities of product when you have a small home can be very annoying. At this point I only buy soaps, toilet paper and baby wipes at Sams Club and that barely comes out ahead of the membership cost, and I’ve already had to stop buying one of the soaps because they switched to only selling a container that would simply be too inconvenient at home.
Aldi seems to have the real food savings, although my last trip I noticed the prices had crept up a little, they still beat Walmart and the local supermarket chain on prices by far
A huge part of living poor is buying and selling items when you no longer need them. This applies to a lot of things but I have the most experience with cars. For the love of God, research exactly what you’re trying to sell. Learn everything about it, it’s features, age, learn how to fairly and objectively grade its condition, and learn what the actual value of it is (not just what you want to get). If you don’t know exactly what you’re selling, there are so many people put there who will try to get one on you by lying about it. The other day, I had someone tell me that my car wasn’t worth as much as I had it listed for “because it wasn’t one of the manual ones” for a model that was only released in automatic.
These two meals kept me more or less healthy as a student, even through “omg I have 10 eur to last me 2 weeks”.
Lentils and rice form complete proteins when eaten together. Lentils are a staple, and very cheap. They should be bought dry. Look for Indian recipes for daal for inspiration, or just cook with some broth and fry up some garlic and onion to throw in at the end.
Fill up a casserole with potatoes to boil, but leave some room on top, use a lid and don’t fill up water so it completely covers your taters. Mackerel wrapped in aluminium foil with some aromatics inside like bay leaves, lemon slices if you’re not a fan of fish. Place the fish on top of the potatoes when there’s 25 min left on them. This dish also consumes very little electricity, but most importantly it will provide you with plenty of omega 3, vitamin d and all macros you need. Super important for those who live places where you get little sunshine through the winter months!
Here in Australia we “product relievers” have a sort of rule that the big stores woolworths, coles ect are fucking free game and to leave the family convienience store alone.
My brother convinced me not to, as Coles and Woolworths are often franchised by families. Head office takes their cut regardless, whatever you steal comes out of the franchise owners wallet. Happy to be proven wrong as I’d love to knick from em.
I agree with you. I get the sentiment, but even stealing from large corporations like Wal-Mart is just backfiring in slow motion. They will eventually just either raise pricing to accommodate theft, install theft deterrents, or hire more people to be theft deterrents, all of which the cost is passed onto the customer. ie, you and me, and the thieves that complain about the high prices and steal to offset the cost. This isn’t to defend shitty practices by big corporations. But nuanced opinions are lost on most people, and I’ll subsequently likely be called out for defending consumerism/capitalism.
Don’t put yourself into an even more miserable situation when it doesn’t even benefit you in a measurable way.
E.g. Lights/dark rooms: Let’s say you use a 5W LED light bulb (which should be bright enough to decently light most rooms). If you leave that running 24/7 for a whole year, that is going to cost you ~13€/$ (0,3€/$/kWh). You are not going to keep it running 24/7, you are not even going to run it half the day. It is not worth 5 bucks to spend the whole year in darkness, no matter how little money you have.
Obviously turn off the light when you’re not in the room or it’s the middle of the day in summer, but be reasonable with yourself.
The same goes for food: Sure, buying cheap staples (in bulk if possible) is a great idea, but don’t try to save 5 cents if that means skipping on the salt, herbs and tomato paste which would take your 2/10 bland bowl of carbs to at least a 7/10 and give you something to look forward to.
If you have any public drug coverage and you can’t afford food, you might be able to get your dr to “prescribe” food (stuff like Ensure, Resource, etc) and have it filled for free from public exceptional coverage.
I still can’t justify people stealing stuff they don’t need so they can resell it for a quick buck. Especially people stealing from independent businesses.
I mean, yeah, sure. …but I’m still conflicted about the local heroin addicts standing in the frozen aisle scarfing a bucket of ice cream.
I mean, I don’t really give a shit about the theft, but they tend to stand there with the door open and thaw the rest of the ice cream while they’re at it. It’s enough of an issue locally that a couple of local chains have literally started chaining up their ice cream like it’s the goddamn crown jewels. I just want non-crystallized ice cream!
Also… In my experience, people mostly don’t steal food outside of cases like having the heroin hungries. Food banks do an okay job at keeping people fed at least. (Aside: When you donate to your local food bank, donate money, not food! They can buy much more food in bulk - your dollars will go farther that way!) Mostly, I see people stealing things like resaleable electronics or OTC drugs that have useful precursor chems.
Don’t get me wrong - I know fuckin’ Krogers can take it. I just see this meme about seeing people stealing food and like… That’s mostly not a thing. Food banks and food stamps work okay. They aren’t great, the food often sucks - but generally speaking, you don’t have to steal food to survive when you’re poor in America. You might need to steal drugs and airpods though.
Don’t take on debt if at all possible. If you use a credit card, try to pay it off each month. Don’t get one with annual fees. Get one that has cash back not miles or points.
Learn to make your own coffee instead of buying Starbucks or whatever. A decent hand grind will last for a decade and cost around $50. A no name pour over dripper and filters are a cheap way to make coffee at home. Buy beans and keep them in an air tight container and they will be good for a month.
This is a recipe that my grandma taught my while she was still alive and I’ll pass it on to my nonexistent children when they are old enough to drink coffee.
A no name pour over dripper and filters are a cheap way to make coffee at home.
Moka, French, and Turkish give you better results, don’t require disposable filters, are usually cheaper, and aside from Turkish don’t require experience to make good coffee.
Cook your own food. Ready made meals will always be made with as much cheap non nutritional filler as possible. Learn how to use a few spices, buy produce that is cheap with the season and keep track of weekly discounts in your local stores. It will save you money, you’ll eat better and it’s rewarding to have a tasty meal in the end.
Also I’m surprised how many people don’t seem to understand pricing in general. When comparing prices, see the price per weight or volume. That is money/kilogram or money/liter (substitute with freedom units). Money per package can be deceiving if you compare 75 money for a smaller package or 95 money for a larger.
Edit: If the need to learn spices makes you overwhelmed, start out with some spice mixes! Pick a couple of different blends that are different, like one Cajun Mix and one Mediterranean and one oh idk something else culturally generic. Also salt, pepper, paprika and bullion. There. You can make lots of different sorts of foods and learn on the way what spices you like. Don’t be afraid to experiment. Don’t get discouraged. Some stuff will turn out meh, but others will make you go wow. All of those are learning experiences for the future!
On the cooking one, I also recommend cooking double portions when you can. If you can cook twice as much with minimal effort, that’s half the cleaning you have to do afterwards and half the meal planning you have to do. You get up in the morning and know that you have leftovers from dinner ready to go for lunch in the fridge. Also, rice. Rice is cheap, good for you, and incredibly flexible in what you can do with it. A rice cooker is also a great appliance to have in general. Not only is it an easy set and forget for a pot of rice, but you can do all sorts of meals in it from steaming meats and vegetables to cooking soups and even baking desserts. An air fryer is similarly flexible and great for making meals for one person. You don’t have to preheat it or anything and it doesn’t cost all the energy that a full size oven does.
That’s true. Food prep is great for the economy and also for the soul. You can generally find larger amounts cheaper per weight and it’s nice to know them you get home and are tired that there is some good food waiting to be reheated.
Buy expensive shoes. Well, let me rephrase that. Buy GOOD shoes. A good pair of QUALITY shoes will save you money in the long term as they will last a lot longer than buying many pairs of cheap shoes.
I would also argue that many pairs of shoes can also have the same effect. If you can rotate shoes, you’re not wearing out any one pair excessively. I have shoes that are in still good condition but are a discontinued Adidas line that’s not available anymore. Although I do have shoes I still haven’t worn so there’s definitely a point of having too many pairs lol
Realized the 80 dollar slip resistant work shoes I got at Shoe Carnival were like 20 bucks at target. Same shoes, just didn’t have a football player’s name on the tag.
Put em side by side they look identical and I wear them interchangably not even noticing a difference
But you gotta pay the membership fee. Only worth it if you spend enough to cover that fee in rebates and savings; and then shopping at Costco isn’t what I would call “poor”, but maybe it works out?
There are other grocery stores that have hot food bars and sell the rotisserie chicken, too.
Depending on details, the $5 / month can be well worth it for what options open up. The rotisserie chicken is $5 and significantly larger than the $8-10 chickens anywhere else. If you just get 2 of those per month you could come out ahead.
The challenge with Costco is that the options aren’t always so similar. Sure, their price on Charmin is better than anywhere else, but is it cheaper than the Aldi brand? What about their organic vs cheap produce elsewhere? When I got a Costco membership, I did not save any money, but I have been getting better quality stuff. That said, I am not on a tight budget, so my shopping habits are different
Apparently so. €760 per month is the minimum monthly wage in Portugal. Works out at less than €5 per hour if you assume 160 hours per month which seems very low. For reference, Ireland is €11.30. While cost of living is higher here you can still pick up a full uncooked chicken for around €5 depending on the shop.
Local supermarket here does 4 chicken legs for €2.55.
Thanks. Yeah that is a big assed chicken for Ireland tbh but it’s still more expensive overall.
I feel like you guys have been badly burned by price gouging. I remember seeing a thing on Reddit about egg prices skyrocketing and they had barely budged here so I found it odd.
The price of most groceries have at least doubled. I can still get store brand eggs for about $1.50 a dozen but other brands are easily 3+ dollars now. Meanwhile supermarkets are posting record profits.
Back when I used to eat meat (6 or so years ago), my grocery store would always have huge bags of chicken thighs which were cheaper than a whole chicken. May not be the case anymore.
You can fill an entire wardrobe with kmart clothes for $100, it’s cheaper and more practical than even op shops most of the time. Maybe just don’t buy your shoes from there.
Bottle sauces and seasonings can last a long time, and can dramatically improve the diversity and quality of your home cooking. Basic chicken, rice, and greens can be turned into a dozen different dishes depending upon the sauces.
Avoid subscription services like the plague.
There’s always a few exceptions, but name brands are rarely worth it.
I wouldn’t be the best person to guide someone through it, unfortunately. But you can find a list of add-ons here, and there are almost certainly some quality guides by smarter folks than I to get you started.
Just in case you were being serious about the legality concern though, this may not be something you want to do.
Honestly I have stuff from clearance racks at Gap that have lasted 15 years and cost $3 -$5. Thrift stores have gotten expensive here but the mall clearance rack can still sometimes be a great deal. I didn’t buy clothes this year at all, don’t usually since I have enough to rotate. But when I do eventually, I look for something I can like for a long time.
Also smartwool socks, I thought I was throwing away money because they were so expensive, I got them for running because they are so good and help avoid blisters. I had to replace them last year, looked in my Amazon history and saw they were 11 years old! So I saved money really. Socks that lasted over ten years!
Of course these are all middle-income tricks. When I was very poor - you can live in your car but can’t drive your house, keep the car if you have to choose. Ask for help from people you know - you would help them, right? Roommates, so many roommates. Splitting rent 8 ways makes it affordable.
If you have secure housing but not much else - our neighbor used to bring us fruit & veg he dumpster dived because he knew we were struggling. Look for free healthy food like that to supplement what you buy - some community gardens you can harvest from, that’s how ours works, it’s not a grow your own space, everyone grows for everyone. Some farm coops you can trade time & labor for food. We couldn’t get food stamps because Florida but if you are willing to jump through the hoops that can really help get you through too.
Here’s the trick I used when I was young and poor. I worked for cash with an estate liquidator, and I saw the passion some of the customers had for their collectables. I decided to develop that flavor of passion for a collection of $20 bills.
For me, the hardest part of saving money (assuming it’s even a possibility) is avoiding the trap of saving to spend. The savings itself has to become a goal, and that can be really, really boring.
Another tactic I used was to always save double the value of a large planned purchase: if I started with $500 and I wanted a $200 item, I’d save until I had $900 before spending. That way my stack never felt like it was diminishing.
Piracy, some people buy 3 streaming subscriptions for 50€ a month just to watch one show.
Also depending on where you live you could take the supermarket advertisement magazines, they are free and if you live in an area where you can walk to your nearest stores it can actually save some money
I also know an old man who sells vapes, cigarettes and alcohol to kids (he couldn’ save up enougth for a good retirement). You’d be suprised how much 12yo actually pay for a vape you can buyat every store for 10€. He once told me he get’s his products from our cheap neigthbour country and only pays ⅓ of what he’s charging.
Cook all your meals in advance. Pasta, potato gem casserole, and a Thai red curry can give you roughly two weeks of lunches and dinners if you alternate well. You can add breakfast bowls of eggs, cubed ham, and potatoes and they’ll keep for a week, minimum (I don’t know how long exactly because a dozen eggs gets me six meals).
I usually pay around $50 every two weeks for food, plus a bit more if I’m running low on coffee or milk.
I gained weight when I could make money. Now I keep intermittent fasting for 10-12 hours just to prolonge my food. It not just keeps me lose weight but I .sure of I start making money again , I won’t be able to get fat because this discipline. Also it reduces your hunger significantly, I now can stay fasting even in winters.
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