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.
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
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
This kiosk at my work doesn’t have anyone working on it. There’s cameras but I doubt anybody checks those. I don’t steal much, but I make sure to grab an extra item to buy to make it more convincing.
Friend, if there’s cameras, there’s a record, and that means that if someone notices they’ll have video proof of theft. That would cost your job.
And if you’re working for a small business, please don’t steal from the owner. Small businesses are not big faceless money-extraction machines like corporations are.
That’s a weird argument. Most people don’t want to spend their whole lives in prison. If you’d ever been in one, maybe you’d realize incarceration is not an experience most people enjoy… at all. It’s sort of the point. Suicide is even cheaper, should we recommend that?
It’s not an argument for going to prison, it’s a commentary on the deplorable state of American society.
Suicide is even cheaper, should we recommend that?
You think people haven’t considered and even exercised that option for that very reason?
incarceration is not an experience most people enjoy…
If the point of prison is to remove joy, then why not just have convicts play No Man’s Sky?
But seriously, should that even be the point? Isn’t the point of having a justice system a bit more nuanced than that? Shouldn’t our aim be to create a better society in general? Not simply through mere incarceration, but also education and mental health care?
Don’t we owe it to the members of society who have been failed by society to lift them up when possible to a place where they no longer need to subvert and disrupt society’s rules for the sake of their own survival? Don’t we owe it to the rest of society to provide a path to a productive life for so of its citizens, regardless of our previous unwillingness or inability to do so?
Not the same person but where I am there are shelters and community centers that offer these things for free. The facilities are not in as good condition as a gym membership though.
We have tons of shelters in the US too. Talk to any homeless person though and they’ll tell you they don’t use the shelter because it either: forces them to not use drugs, splits up a family, has lots of sexual assaults going on, or has more health related problems than it’s worth.
last time i took a shower at a homeless shelter:
you have to hand all your stuff to a guy at a window, he puts it in a bag, then you go to a medium sized room with several shower heads spraying towards the middle…
so you don’t just get your shower, you get the water bouncing off a dozen naked homeless guys…
the water is a tepid, narrow, painful jet…
i caught scabies and athletes foot…
…
i’ve taken one other one at a shelter in another city and state and it was identical…
…
gym is way better, otherwise i’d rather take a bird bath in a random bathroom sink…
To add to @garbagebagel’s point I am not sure that a homeless person with a car is very common in Eurasia.
But come to think of it, this depends on how much people are willing to move around and at what point are they considered homeless, e.g. if they can’t afford to sleep anywhere except for the car but have a room in a next town etc.
Also, I am now not sure what is the statistics of ownership of things like cars in a group of homeless people in different places. Could be wrong about the idea that most homeless own close to nothing but don’t know if such a statistic exists.
Not American. BasicFit and similar chains allow you access to all their gyms across Europe. Obviously, the car will be a problem here. If you can afford it, something like the citroen berlingo will do. They're everywhere, relatively affordable, and not super noticeable. If that's not an option, there's the library or public transport, combined with the occasional hostel. Not ideal, but better than sleeping on the street and not being able to wash at all.
A lot of those countries are just tax havens where companies like to “headquarter” their businesses and where rich people hide their money. Some have a low official population, and rely on exploiting foreign workers for much of the labor done (non-citizens don’t count towards “capita”).
Food banks. Look at your local church, synagogue, or mosque. A lot of them do community outreach and have some kind of food bank.
If you’re skipping meals or you have $5 'til next Friday, the food bank is for you. Don’t feel like you’re taking something away from someone “more needy.” It’s you. You’re needy. Take the help. That was a hard lesson to learn in my 20s.
If you have a gurdwara in your area, they often do free meals, almost like a restaurant. Baptist churches tend to have dinners on Wednesdays, and the Hare Krishnas are always good for some heavily dairy vegetarian foods. I wish more people knew this.
If you just eat egg fried rice using ingredients from Aldi you’re able to bring your weekly food costs down to about £2-£3 a week, I lived that way for about 3 months during the cost of living crisis. Sure it was only 1000 calories a day but I was able to get all the nutrients I needed from the ingredients.
And if you're truly worried about making sure that you have minimal nutrition to survive on, that is literally the thing that multivitamins were invented to address.
Sure, you won't be living your absolute maximum healthiest lifestyle by doing this but if you've got to get through a couple of tight months this is the way to do it. The Dollar tree sells multivitamins. $1.25 for a month supply is not hopefully going to break the bank.
I think eggs have pretty much all the nutrients you need. They are high in cholesterol though. Same thing with milk. They are the sole nutrition for animals for a period of time, so they have everything needed in it (at least everything the animal needs).
Get a chest freezer. It’s much more efficient for long-term storage than an upright fridge with a freezer because the cold air doesn’t spill out when you open it.
Toss your incandescent and fluorescent lights. Get LED bulbs (not smart lights, just white LEDs). Where applicable, install timer switches.
Fuck cars, get a bike. A simple, sturdy one, like an onafiets. They run on toast and determination.
Understand the difference between having enough money to buy something and being able to afford something.
Unsubscribe from music/video streaming services. Return to the seven seas.
I don't have an omafiets, but a single gear bike. The only gear it does have is quite tough to start, but my God is it so much better than something with 8 gears or whatever. So much less effort once you get going. I never realised this, but apparently you lose a lot of power through the gearing.
The derailleur transmission design introduces a LOT of friction because the chain is forced to bend and twist between gears that are out of alignment, and it hates doing that. It also leads to increased wear.
I’m not an avid cyclist, and I found the inability to make inclines easier a no-go. I’m into electric assist though, but that increases bike price. I see quite a few used ones for sale tho.
The efficiency trade off of a chest freezer is often broken by people’s inability to remember what’s in it. If you can’t reach the stuff at the bottom then it all goes bad. This is why an upright most likely makes more sense, even though it’s less efficient. You end up wasting as much food simply from forgetting what’s in there.
Toss your incandescent and fluorescent lights. Get LED bulbs (not smart lights, just white LEDs). Where applicable, install timer switches.
It’s crazy how efficient LEDs are. They are a little bit more expensive but you’ll save it on your energy bill over time and you’ll have to replace them less.
People also don’t realize how much of their energy bill is heat & air conditioning. If you don’t have pets, turn your heat off or way down while you’re at work. Just make sure it stays above freezing and above the dewpoint. If you can get any smart thermostat for cheap, they’ll save you a ton of money over the long run if you’re like me and constantly forget to set the temperature before you leave for work.
Also, thick drapes work wonders at keeping the cold out of cheap windows. You can get them and the hardware to hang them pretty cheap from goodwill. You can also wrap them in Saran wrap if you really want to keep the cold out. They sell kits, but painters tape and a cling film are way cheaper if you can hide them behind some drapes.
I’d be careful about the HVAC thing. I read somewhere a while back that it can cost more to change temperature than to just leave it slightly lower/higher and just wear a sweater or just shorts and a T shirt. Changing temperature is especially expensive if you’re drawing more electricity during peak times to make that change, like getting home from work at 6pm or so, when rates are higher. If you have a small apartment it may not be so bad to change the temp in a smaller volume of space.
YMMV, check your rates and times you’d be changing temp. Wear a sweater or strip as much as is feasible.
Excluding variable energy pricing, it’s much more energy efficient to only heat and cool your home while you’re actually at home.
Think of it like a tea kettle. It’s definitely not energy efficient to keep the water boiling for the hours when you’re not home just because you might want a cuppa when you get home. The only benefit keeping the water hot is to brew your next cup quicker. The water is cooling off at the same rate it would if the heater was off, but energy is being pumped into it to keep it hot and therefore it is constantly losing energy.
This is also assuming your HVAC’s coefficient of performance is constant, which it’s not, but it still generally is way better to avoid heating and cooling while you’re away from home, especially if you live in an older less insulated home.
If you do have variable energy pricing, that can change things, and that’s when a smart thermostat can really save you money. Instead of heating and cooling around your schedule, you do it around the pricing treating your house like a battery. See: youtu.be/0f9GpMWdvWI?si=LjiAjNf6t8cU8OZ2
This video really only really works if your home is relatively well insulated (as he points out). If it’s not well insulated, you’ll be uncomfortable basically all the time.
Generally if you’re on a variable rate it’s better to set the thermostat closer to the outside temperature when you’re gone for more than 5 hours. If you’re not on a variable rate, that break even point is like 30 minutes.
get so depressed you get into calisthenics then you can do full body workouts with minimal equipment alone in your room and get shredded for super cheap. given u diet but healthy foods can be cheap in bulk/cans
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!
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.
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.
Electric heaters may actually cost more in electric bills than you would spend on heating. It depends on the type of heating and the size of your space, but something like natural gas might cost less to keep the whole house at 65 degrees, rather than trying to warm a single room from 45 degrees with a space heater.
This gets complicated. The small heater is almost certain to be resistive electric heat. Your central heat could be anything. In my area, the gas furnace is usually cheaper to run for the entire house than it is for a space heater in a single room.
OTOH, if you have a resistive electric furnace, your advice is spot on
Shampoos and shower gels are scams imo. I order a 10 litre container of the cheap pink soap you get when using public restrooms. It cleans just as well and is significantly cheaper. I use an empty bottle with a pump on top and refill it with the container every other month or so.
Edit: If you got sensitive skin that needs special care then this isn’t for you, though.
Just buy blocks of basic hard soap. Better for your skin and your plumbing. I don’t know if it’s cheaper compared to your 10L bottle, but it’s definitely cheaper compared to normal liquid soap bottles.
If you don’t have hard water, maybe. Not here. Soap scum on the tub, soap doesn’t remove dirt, just sort of locks it on. Which does not matter as much on skin but is disastrous for hair. I have known a couple people who had to cut their hair off after trying to wash it with soap.
If I was to the point where I could only afford one, I’d get shampoo. If that was impossible for awhile, water only is the way I would go. It works ok, most stuff rinses off.
Even then, a basic soap like Dr Bronners or your favorite “hand soap” does well for most of your body. People ask my wife how her hair is so amazing, she just washes it every couple days instead of every day and sometimes has some light argan oil or something to reduce frizz. Washing hair (especially long hair) every day damages it no matter what you’re doing. The most important thing is to scrub your scalp really good.
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