Let’s talk thrifty
Published by Kyso Kisaen July 20th, 2008 in Punkass!, Advice, She's (or he's) craftySo like I said in my last post, I’m moving. This will be the first time I’ve lived by myself, which of course has advantages and disadvantages. Ability to walk around topless whenever I want? Maru! Splitting the cable bill? Batsu! This biggest disadvantage will be the crippling loneliness. Sure, I spend all night reading or attached to the computer anyway, but the option to go down and pester a roommate was always there, and now they are a 15 or 50 minute drive away, respectively. This means I will probably have to venture out in search of local companionship, and will probably be hitting more bars. No bill splitting + more leaving the house to socialize = must budget better.
The biggest place I can rein it in is the grocery store, and that means finding the time to clip coupons. But there are other obvious places: our family plan cell phone bill was $100/month, which meant I was paying $33/month for the 100 minutes of phone conversations and a dozen text messages I actually used. We have over 3,000 unused rollover minutes. Screw that noise - I suspect a prepaid plan will slash my yearly phone bill from almost $400 to just over $100.
Cleaning supplies were another place. I have an insane collection of cleaning chemicals. I’m always on the lookout for that one product that will actually make my life easier. And just before I left for Europe, I found it: vinegar. Cleans fucking everything. So the only remaining chemicals I want are toilet bowl cleaner (love those curvy necks, love them love them love them) and a super-strong calcium and lime remover, plus window cleaner because it’s still cheap and easier than diluting your own ammonia, which is what my mom does.
So I’ve been on the interwebs looking at being thrifty. I found this recipe for homemade laundry detergent, and have looked at covering my windows with 3M window films. Would wrapping my water heater in insulation actually help? How long would it take a toaster oven to pay for itself?
How do you punkasses save money?
I definitely enjoy the 3M window film’s ability to prevent injury from glass fragments due to terrorism.
Cut out the cable, wrap your water heater (but have the landlord do it if it’s gas or oil-fired), clip coupons but don’t use them until the grocery store puts the stuff on sale, try growing some of your food. Borax is a good toilet bowl cleaner, though it’s curvy-neckless.
I’m not exactly Mr. Thrifty, but… I recently read some rhapsodic waxing about ceiling fans saving energy costs, if you don’t have any in your new place already. Also– I don’t really know what the price for this kind of service is in America right now, but I get a package of locally grown organic veggies and eggs sent to my place once a week. It’s quite inexpensive if you don’t specify what particular veggies you want– I just have a general order for 1500 yen worth of veggies to come every week, whatever’s in season. I’m definitely saving money on the deal. Since I hardly go to the grocery store any more– nearly everything I need comes in the weekly box– I’m no longer so susceptible to seeing something on the store shelf and impulsively deciding “yeah, I probably need that too, actually”.
Have “maru” and “batsu” entered common English usage? I had no idea.
Gyah. I just saw how deftly I have managed to fulfill a popular liberal stereotype. “Why cut coupons, when you can order a weekly organic food package?” Sorry about that. I think my current monetary circumstances might just be a WEE bit too cush. But– how out of touch am I? Does 15 bucks a week for eggs and veggies sound expensive?
*delurk*
I am a fan of coupon clipping in theory, but not in practice. The only coupons I ever see anymore are for overpriced brand-name crap, and store brands usually beat their prices even after the coupon. I shop at stores that print the unit price on the shelf tags, and I generally buy whatever item has the lowest unit price whenever possible. Usually this means buying a store brand and ignoring sales, but sometimes you’ll find a brand name marked down even lower.
Depends on the veggies. I have a pretty good co-op within walking distance, and the eggs are so local they’re actually laid near where I’m living now.
maru and batsu, as far as I know, are not in common English usage. We need to change that.
My biggest rule for saving money is to avoid buying food and (especially) drinks on the go as much as possible. Making lunches at home, keeping a water bottle and topping it up from the tap, and buying snacks in bulk then taking them out with you, keeps you from casually burning money as you’re out and about for the day. When I was at college I simply didn’t drink anything except tapwater and the hot drinks I made at home - instant coffee and green tea. I see how much money some folk spend on drinking canned whatsits, and, FAIL.
I have to say, my biggest way to save money may not be workable for many people. I do not buy internet- I instead get all I need while I’m at work or school. By the same token, I don’t get cable- Netflix is a million times cheaper for me and better suits my needs. And beyond that, entertainment is a non-issue for me- there are no plays to watch or concerts to hear around here.
http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/
Get Rich Slowly has a lot of thrifty-minded info on a variety of topics (finances, food/gardening, home repair & maintenance, etc.)
The ‘frugality’ tag is probably the closest to what you’re talking about here, though:
http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/category/frugality/
I’m completely useless. I pay other people to clean my house.
Vinegar will also work wonderfully as a glass cleaner.
I have a window cleaning cloth (it’s sort of like a shammy) that cleans windows with just water. It works really well.
delurking:
How do you punkasses save money?
By not buying stuff. Buy only as much as you need. Don’t buy in bulk unless you know from experience you will need it in bulk. Don’t habitually hunt for bargains, it will only make you buy things you’d never even considered buying before, because they are “bargains”. The time for bargain hunting is after you decide to buy something and after you allocate the money. Learn to fix things. Don’t buy expensive stuff because it helps you fix things. Don’t eat out: pack lunch. Don’t go shopping when you’re hungry or unhappy.
Saving energy: Don’t set the water heater higher than you need, except for once every two or three months to clean it. If it isn’t isolated well, isolate it. If you have a seperate water heater for the sink and for the shower, maybe you can switch off the one for the sink. Consider drying the wash on clotheslines, if possible.
Cleaning: Citric acid is more effective than vinegar in removing calcium. Don’t use acids on marble surfaces, test it before you use it on natural stone.
Keep track of where the money goes. If you try to deny yourself something you love, you’ll be surprised how expensive all those “only once, and only the cheap one” get. Allow for luxuries in your budget. Know your fixed costs. Don’t get into debt. Always do the math before committing money to save money: Your subconsciousness might be trying to trick you into buying something shiny.
Congrats to setting out to live alone — for me, it was the best I ever did!
Estate sales = furniture and kitchen stuff, used but decent, and cheap
For books: the library and http://www.bookmooch.com
thrift stores for clothing, because I am a grad student and I don’t really care what I wear
I found I cared more about what I wore as I got more into grad school. Of course, in undergrad I was wearing my boyfriend’s cast-offs with the hole in the crotch, so caring about what I wear means so far everything I wear is mended properly and has no visible stains.
My husband and I are both in school: grad school for me and Bachelors for him, plus we’re expecting a baby in about 6 months (and all I wanted was a backrub!), so you can only imagine how strapped for cash we are right now. We’re basically holding off on purchasing anything that we THINK we need and are making do with what we have. For example, we’re both hanging on to our ancient cell phones (no home phone), and we’re making do with our 17″ TV (although I practically go blind trying to watch it).
As far as utilities, we turn off all of the lights unless we’re specifically using them (my husband has even been known to use candles to read by), and we unplug pretty much all of our appliances, lamps, etc. until we need them because even when your TV or toaster is off, it is still using power if its plugged in. Our apartment has a fireplace, so we’re stocking up on free firewood this summer so that we can have some free heat in the winter. We also don’t use the heat and/or AC unless we really, really need it, and even then we shut the vents in the rooms we’re not using at the time.
For groceries, we try to buy bulk staples as cheaply as possible. Since we’re so busy during the week, we usually cook big batches on the weekend and take the leftovers for lunch the following week. Some really cheap staples include rice (seriously, what CAN’T you do with rice?), soups like chili or vegetable, dried beans (good for burritos, soup, and with rice), off-brand frozen or canned veggies, and sometimes chicken (look for sales). We hardly ever drink soda or juice, although coffee is a must in our house.
This year we’re not going to buy a campus parking pass and we’ll ride the local bus instead. It is free for college students. See if there is a similar program in your town. This way we save on gas, car repairs, and the price of the pass. Also, instead of renting movies we check them out from the local library or campus library. And since we still have our old-school VCR, plus a DVD player, we have a wide variety to choose from. Lately I’ve really been wanting to see Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure again.
These are just a few of the things we’re doing to try to cut back costs. Thing is, we still need to cut back more with the baby coming. So if anyone has more ideas, that would be great.