Decide how much you will spend each week and spend a little less than that, slowly over 3 months you will reduce your expenses. Buy clothes and wash them after 2-3 uses unless you live in super dirty/dusty/warm area. This will prolong clothes life significantly and added advantage is they come back in fashion after a while. I have a shorts which I use still after 10 years.
I stopped washing my t-shirts after a single use (unless visibly dirty, smelly, etc) and the lifespan difference is immense. Also drying clothes in a drying rack instead of in the machine makes a massive difference in durability.
Yes. They often get smelly after one day depending on what you do. Sure blue jeans or an outer jacket can be good for a few casual wears but basically everything else is daily washed so coworkers don’t need to suffer the smell
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
Learn to fix things yourself. Mend your clothes, fix your bike or car, patch drywall, whatever. Learning to do things gives you the option of to save money doing it yourself. If you don’t learn, your only option is to pay someone else to do it.
Same goes for home repair. Learn to spackle and patch drywall, change a doorknob, install a toilet, snake a drain, and replace a capacitor or heating element in your hvac system. These are things anyone can learn to do with minimal tools and inexpensive parts, but will cost hundreds to hire a professional.
Changing the oil in your car only requires a spanner, pan, and household stuff like cloth rags. You can do it in your driveway faster than you can drive it round-trip to the dealership. I’ve saved heaps over the years.
House painting is a good skill. I knocked over $20k off my house build price by picking up a paintbrush. It was about 2 weeks of work and maybe $1k in supplies.
Learn computer maintenance. Like, how to format it and start over. How to diagnose and fix small issues. So many people buy new computers just because their old one is clogged with cruft. I fixed computers that others threw out, and avoided upgrade costs for decades.
Most importantly - learn to cook. Home cooking is so much cheaper.
It requires a bit of financial discipline, but having a credit card that you religiously pay off in full every month can be a really powerful budgeting tool when money is tight. It lets you combine paychecks or borrow from a future week’s budget so you can take advantage of bulk prices or a really good sale price to stock up on things you use a lot of. And once you get stocked up on all your staple items, the money you would have spent on those things gets freed up for other things for weeks, or maybe even months at a time.
Speaking of stocking up on bulk items, my Costco membership has saved me a ton of money since I’ve had it. It might not make the best budgetary sense for everyone, but my membership fee more than pays for itself just with what I save on gasoline. Even when they don’t have the best price on something, often the quality you get for the price still makes a lot of their stuff worth it for me. But even if I don’t find a deal on something it’s always nice to be able to grab a huge rotisserie chicken that I can make meals out of for most of a week for $4.99.
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.
Solids vs liquids - could you elaborate on that? Soap seems like an obvious example, and a couple specific food items like broth vs powder… but that’s all I can think of off the top of my head.
A couple years ago I switched from drinking soda to drinking those powdered wylers light drink mixes, it was mostly because I wanted to stop drinking so much soda but I went from spending $6 every other day to $20 every month and a half.
It makes sense when you think about it. Most drinks are 90% water and it just seems so wasteful to have water shipped rather than using the pipes that come directly to my house!
Water weighs about 8lbs/gallon (1kg/L). When you’re eating soup, the actual flavors/salts/veggies take up about 20% of the weight, tops. Additionally, volume is far decreased, so you can have more food in a smaller container. Finally, bacteria have nothing to work with in material without water. Just add your local water when you need it, it’s already there.
So, buy dry goods to reduce shipping costs for both you and the producer. Ship only the food part of food, not the water. The costs are much lower, for all the reasons above.
Mostly agree, but a lot of thrift stores in the US have gotten significantly more expensive and lower quality over the past 10-20 years. You can blame resellers (like vintage stores) for at least the second part of that, but also fast fashion in general.
I have been to hundreds of thrift stores across the country. Rarely are any two the same. Rarely are they the same store if you visit it months later. And some are expensive but if they are, they usually have better stuff. Visit the stores in the areas that are generally poor and you will still find lots of hidden jems at deep discounts to the retail price. So much so that it’s always worth the extended trip outside of your neighborhood.
Heck I have a some near me that I know as different places to look for things. One area is cheaper, one more high end goods, one tends to have older stuff, just because it depends on the people donating!
I cook a lot, I strongly agree with avoiding things that only do one thing.
That slapchop looks real handy, don’t it? Wait till you gotta clean it. Any time savings are instantly lost, and now you have nooks and crannies for bacteria/detritus to hide in.
Look, generally speaking: if you don’t see professionals using something, there’s likely a good reason for it. Maybe you’re doing something smarter than a pro. But that’s rare, remember that.
Sometimes the reason the pros aren’t using a thing is because they have spent 10 hours a day, 6 days a week for 20 years learning how to do it that way. Sometimes the tool is just more sensible.
You’re right, sometimes it is. However, in a society whose existence is centered around consumption, beware the salesman. The point is to think about the purchase: most of the time you don’t need it.
To add onto this, Goodwill is the worst thrift store, so try to poke around and find some mom and pop thrift stores. They do more good with donations and charge far less when you’re buying (plus will usually help you out if you are really in a bind and need something)
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.
Don’t see this one yet, but learn how to invest with small amounts. It first… Do these things:
First cut loving expenses where you can, such as: use less power, eat more rice and beans, don’t buy meat, take mass transit, or walk if possible.
Next ensure you stay healthy, always brush and floss, do basic exercise. Keep it simple to stuff you don’t need to buy, do pushups, situps, lunges, go jogging.
Then from the cost cutting, put some money into a savings account. Try to get to at least a month or two of living expenses.
Once you’re there (months of living expenses) open a free retail trading account such as E-Trade, or Robinhood. Buy what you can of the big ETF’s such as VTI, VOO, SPY, SPYG etc… do this every month and don’t get discouraged when it goes down. After a year you’ll start to see dividends payout (literally) they will be small at first. Never sell it, always let the dividend reinvest. After 2 years you’ll start to see a noticeable return on investment. After three it gets better yet… There is a YouTube channel called Chris invests that is really good for this kind of thing. I highly highly recommend it.
Think about it in a multi year strategy. So far, since it’s inception the market always goes up. Billionaires get richer when it goes up, even if hedge funds short the crap out of it, so it’s still a good bet.
Now I hope I don’t eat those words, but I’ve literally pulled myself out of poverty with this strategy which I started around 2007 or so. I’m not rich, I still have to work, but I can now have nice things.
It’s at it’s highest ever point? The whole point of growth ETFs is buy and forget, you’re not supposed to check it everyday and be upset when you’ve “lost” money because the markets are down from the day before.
Get a 2nd hand multicooker off eBay. They slow cook, do rice/lentils/soups and lots of other things. I got one that was a bit bashed about but worked perfectly for £20.
Grow herbs either inside or outside. Rosemary, Thyme, Bay and garlic and a few others will grow fine. For the rest, get dry. Herbs add instant flavour to rice, lentils etc.
A small chicken (about £4) equals 4 meals. When the carcass is stripped, put it in your multicooker, just cover with cold water, add a whole carrot, a whole onion, both halved, some peppercorns, 3 or 4 bay leaves and 2 teaspoons salt. Slow cook on a very low heat for 6 hours. Get rid of all the solids and you now have chicken stock.
Pretty much every item of clothing I own is from the thrift store or has been second handed in some way. I love being able to find clothes that are more my style without the $70+ price tags and I’m able to maintain a business casual wardrobe required for my office.
Furniture that isn’t beds are all second hand as well, I just steam clean everything upholstered. Buying brand new is a money making sham that only fills our landfills unnecessarily.
Also, learning how to cook has saved us a lot of money of takeout and prepackaged meals. There are so many ways to learn now too.
We also no longer own a vehicle, we walk, bike, or transit everywhere. I do maintain a license so I can rent a car when necessary though. Vehicles nickle and dime you to death when you own the outright or cost a years wages or so to buy, plus gas and insurance prices are insane. It costs me $500 a year to ride the bus.
I’ve saved literally a couple thousand+ dollars and a shit load of time by cutting my own hair.
Buzzed is easy mode if you’ve got the head for it (definitely NOT a good look for everyone, so proceed with caution).
Actual styles are doable by feel / with a double mirror setup, but that ofc comes with a learning curve, and it WILL look janky until you get a feel for it.
I spent $30 on an electric clipper over 15 years ago - paid for three haircuts since then, which were all mandatory purchases in basic training. Easily the best $30 I’ve ever spent.
Also, super short hair takes like two drops of shampoo per shower, so if you go the buzzed route, you’ll save a lot on hair products too.
I will second this. YouTube can teach you step by step how to cut your own hair. I’ve been doing it for years, and currently have a fancy asymmetrical one side buzzed cut that I do myself. The learning curve is going to result in you looking awkward a couple of times, but the amount of time and money saved over the years is tremendous.
Thirded. June of 2020, the cheap clippers were already all sold out, so I bought a really nice set of clippers at an inflated price. But since I used to pay about $20 every month for a haircut, they paid for themselves fast. And now every time my partner cuts my hair, its like money going into pur pocket.
I know credit cards can be a slippery slope for some, so learn how to practice financial discipline before getting one.
That said, if you’re not paying with a credit card, you’re paying at least 2 percent too much for everything you buy except the things that can’t easily be paid for with a credit card.
Any place to get a proper gist of what financially literate means in this context? I know maybe a few basics but always wondered about the best way to utilize credit to a long term benefit.
Basically use any credit card as you would any debit card. That means never spend any money you don’t already have in your account. And always pay the full statement balance every month on time to avoid paying interest.
That way you will get all the rewards and none of the drawbacks.
And what happens when a big purchase comes along that I really need, like my car breaking down or just a new mattress? I always figure that’s where the utilization starts going up and there’s only so much that can be paid off before the next billing cycle.
Credit cards should be avoided at all times, unless you have the money to pay them off each month. Or if you’re getting zero-interest financing and you are able to stick to the plan of paying it off before interest gets added.
Getting into credit card debt is one of the most common and worst poverty traps. Getting behind on credit card bills can ruin your credit and take years to repair, which impacts your financial stability when it comes time to make a purchase with Real Credit such as a home or car.
My best poverty tip is to not buy expensive things that are unnecessary. Also cook your own food at home, and learn to repair anything that you value. I’ve saved thousands of dollars over the years by doing my own car repairs, and driving old cars long past having them paid off.
My neighbors living in a slumlord’s two bedroom apartment Rent to Own everything. The got a TV from Rent to Own so big it had to be delivered cause it didnt fit in their car … i got the cheapest roku pos tv at walmart for $50.
Their daughter when she comes over to play with my kids has told me about so many frivolous things from Rent to Own they probably pay more to Rent to Own per month than in actual rent for their appartment.
When I started out my limit was less than I made in a month and I paid for everything with it. That was hard to fuck up and helped me build good spending habits. Currently I have one that is about 2x my monthly salary that I use for larger purchases but still the concept remains similar.
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