Cheap Living for Dummies

Two words: CHEAP ENTERTAINMENT!!!

Instead of video games and bad TV, pop in some music and work on a hand craft. I'm a crocheter, beader, and I want to learn sewing. 20$ worth of supplies, and I'm set for the week.

Instead of buying CDs, think MORPHEUS. If you don't have a computer, use a radio. Hell, get a harmonica!

If you decide to splurge at a restaraunt, instead of cash tipping, try a small hand craft, like a cord necklace with a couple of cool beads on it. I once got a Shrek keychain from a man who was embarrased that he had no cash for a tip. That was two years ago, and I keep Shrek on the rearview mirror. That was the coolest tip I ever got as a waitress!

If you can, dig a firepit in your yard. Head for a sawmill to get scrap lumber for firewood, and use dryer lint as a firestarter.

J

 

Sorry but you can say that again.

I noticed that stealing towels was some place in the mix here, wtf im sorry here but whats wrong with working a bit and paying your own way?

Is stealing the way to go here?

 

Oh wow... I see tons of great ideas here. Maybe some not so great too, but I love the concept! My husband works 75-95 hours each week, but we too live paycheck to paycheck because of doctor bills.

Here are just a few of my own "lifesavers."

If you have access to a computer, which obviously everyone here does I would highly recommend http://www.freecycle.org it is a worldwide site, where people come to give/receive things they no longer need. EVERYTHING is free. I myself have gotten rid of a few things like coffee tables & desks and such, and received lovely things like a new walking cane, gardening pots & a school desk for my son. Everyone is so nice & polite, and you could honestly furnish an entire house for the cost of gas to get to where someone is giving away furniture.

Learn to cook... and preserve foods from scratch. My mom & I can foods together each fall. It's amazing what one tree full of cherries can produce! And you can grow enough veggies to keep 2 families in fresh organic produce all winter long in 40x20' of garden space. All you need to do is know how to preserve it. Canning & freezing are cheap & easy to use. You can reuse glass jars & canning bands... all you need to buy new is lids! (check freecycle for chest freezers too!)

Get to know the dollar store. Batteries, lightbulbs, food, (once I saw a card table!) blankets, clothes... you can find just about ANYTHING there! And everything is $1!

Coupons are great. In many areas, there are stores with double or triple coupon days, where you can save 2-3 times the value of a coupon. Also, check Sunday ads for loss-leaders at the grocery store. I've seen things like buy $25 worth of groceries & get a free turkey, 5lb bag of potatoes & a bag of stuffing! My gas station will give me a Sunday paper on Monday morning for free, so I don't even have to buy the paper to get my coupons

Don't forget your 3 R's... Reduce, Reuse & Recycle. Things like patching or restitching a broken pair of pants will save you tons of money. Learning to fix things like broken lamps or a wobbly chair are great too. And sure you might WANT a new jacket, but if money is tight you can always layer to stay just as warm.

And learning a sale-able trade is an awesome idea. Something like beading, sewing, or woodworking can double as a hobby to keep you entertained AND as a way to bring in some extra cash!

Hope this helps! I think there are many great ways to save money... and none of them need to be illegal or even questionably moral.
love,
mom

 

may I suggest that if you do go to thrift stores, go often. I picked up some really good stuff for cheap. loveseat with a little scratch on the bottom for 40$, ok It's not free, but not bad considering a new one would have been around 500$.

Buy broken things or get them for free and fix them. I bought a broken dresser for 20$ at a garage sale that was improperly built. Brand new but manufacturer's defect. spent 2 hours fixing it and it works fine. would have cost around 2-300$ brand new.

Freecycle is great. Let$ is too. You trade things for Let$ and can buy and sell stuff/skills. Also trading is only illegal when doing it as a source of income as a means to avoid taxes. otherwise it's fine

resuse everything. only buy things that come in no packaging or in reusable packaging. it saves money on the initial purchase and also gives you more for your money if you reuse a container.

bring a lunch to work, don't buy lunch or drinks. buy a drink at the supermarket and once done refill with juice and bring to work with you. make a large pot of something and bring the leftovers to work.

don't get cable TV. if you really need to watch something try borrowing the dvd's from a friend when they come out or start a sharing network. you buy one show, a friend buy's another and you trade once your done watching.

Invest in your future. The younger the better. I'm young. but am doing well with my current job. I pay the mortgage and all expenses with one paycheck a month and use the other to either pay down the mortgage, fix up the house, or invest.
Currently I put away some money in a guarenteed income fund and it's giving me monthly cash. In another two or three months my investment will be paying off my internet bills, and then a few more and it will be covering my insurance, and buy the end of the year I'm hoping It will also cover my phone or electric bill.

keeping a record of my money in and out is also helpfull to see where I can cut back on expenses.

Hope some of this has helped,

 

That freecycle site is pretty cool. Stealing is not the way to go. It makes honest shoppers have to pay MORE for something, getting yourself into more of a rut. I had a tip, but I forgot it. Hehe. When I remember it I will come back and say it. Some churches will, at the end of a service, let you fill up a bag with bread. To get fresh water from salt water you can get a large basin, fill it with some water, but a cup in the middle of the bowl, cover the bowl in cling wrap and put some rocks on the cling wrap in the centre above the cup. Leave it in the sun and the water evaporates and travels to the cup. Then you have water AND salt! Oh, and those people who do go through a lot of clothes. MAKE SURE YOU GIVE THEM TO A OP SHOP! Or get some friends together and all of you put all the clothes you don't wear anymore in a pile then dive into the pile and find stuf you like. New clothes for free!

 

i have a few tips more: first of all allways bring a water bottle of 0,5l-1l you can fill it for free in places like shower, puplic bathroom someone kitchen puplic drinking things some european cities have in summer, water is free and tastes great and is healthy

if you have your own place or have one you rented use allways COLD water and turn the heating off unless you live in canada/skandinavia/russia or some other realy cold country heating water is much much more expensive than cold water

for some entertainment for cheap buy BOOKS from stores that sell/trade/buy used books thyre called antiquarium i think.prices for some good older books are from 50c-2,50e 5-10e for 1-3 years-old books allso once youve read your book
(it usualy takes me atleast few min per page and there are at least 200 pages in the better books (i've read some that have over 2000)
and payed only 2-5e it's such an cheap entertainment and raely nice they often sell new books allso but those are to expensive a book is a good way to get some civilisation more understanding it's fun and it can take you to another place.
very educational and theres such a huge huge amount of books you can never read em all you can never read even 1/10000 of them all theres something for everything i personally like romantic novels (more drama), scifi, fantasy, some crime stories, historical and war novels very much and you get em at such cheap prices allso there are realy dark twisted books wich i love so much but theyre not as easy to find wether it's happy and nice or sad and full of hate you can find that and anything in between

books allso help you relax dont usualy weight much and are with in pocket try allways to by softcovers/copies cause they sell NEW under 10e.

my native language isnt english but i havent had any difficulty in reading any english books so far (and i've read a fair number somewhere between 30-50 in english alone) and several hundred in finnish l so remember once you've read a book you get to sell/trade them to another bookstore so basicly you only have to pay 1/2 of the price for next goodie. allso these bookstores are in every town and often the owners are great folks to talk with and exchange knowledgeask their favorites and such or ask if you could get littele off teh price i often get half off since i am such a nice guy

it's a sad thing i hear that most central european and especialy americans dont read so much anymore!!! read people it's cheap doesnt need electricity it's nice to read outside inside sunny or raining it's all good

hope i got someone interested, since there are books from every subject imagineable

 

Here is something I discovered a long time ago and has since taught my family about. You can treat your family to a meal "out" and still not spend alot. You can enjoy tasty food (in comparison to the bland McD's meal you would spend more than $3 each for) at Cracker Barrel for around $3 a person! ...So here it is, how my family eats for under $14 at Cracker Barrel. INCLUDES INDIVIDUAL DRINKS, too!

Go to their "kiddie menu" section. Dont be shy, they serve it to people of any age. Now find the kid's "vegetable platter", which comes with 2 choices off the "vegetable menu" (which along with a good selection of vegetables, there is also other selections like hot apple dessert, hashbrown casserole and chicken dumplins) .... this meal is around $2.99. What I usually would order is something I would know would be filling, even in smaller portions...
So I would get: dumplins (sometimes they give this to you in small bowl, regular-sized bowl, or on a plate... the portion is usually decent and sometimes even full-sized, just depends on the generosity of the server! ) ... mash potatoes/gravy, or string beans, or hashbrown casserole, etc.

Here is the cool thing: This meal INCLUDES the drink!!! I have eaten this way MANY times, and have only ONCE had a waitress with a nasty attitude who gave me a kiddie-sized drink. Most waitresses will automatically bring you out the full-size glass (you dont have to ask) and think nothing of it! (which would cost around $1.50 if you were going to add it to a regular meal)

So once you have eaten your complimentary biscuits or cornbread, eaten your meal and drank your drink and had refills, you will find you are happily full lol... All for $3 each (plus tax) .... beats fast food! lol

Oh, and here's a bonus. On the receipt, sometimes Cracker Barrel will run a survey and you call in the code number and tell them what you thought of your last visit, and they will give you a free dessert (up to $3.29 value) at your next visit! So the last time I was there, I had a delicious Strawberry Shortcake dessert for free ... yay

 

Whenever possible, ask around and see if there is a discount (dents-n-bents) grocery store in your area!! I cannot emphasize HOW MUCH you will save at a place like this... Ive often came out with over $80 worth of groceries for under $20! The place we have here is great because they often carry the surplus from health food stores.. So I was able to purchase a bunch of organics, vegetarian and other healthy food stuff (which would usually cost about $3-5 each in a health food store)... for only .25 cents to $1.00 each..

Boxes of rice meals for around .25-.50 cents each, shampoos for around .75 cents, jars of spaghetti sauce around .75 cents, cereal $1 a box, oh and this is my favorite: power bars (GOOD ones, like Cliff, Luna, and others) ... 15 bars for a DOLLAR. (they can sell for as much as $1.50-$3 each sometimes in other stores) ... 15 bars for $1.00!! I STOCKED UP on those whenever I see them ... lol.

Ive not had a problem with anything being stale. I wish every town had a store like this... it helps even the poorest families afford to eat

 

me and my friend did this documentary/ just for fun movie documentary thing on being homeless for 4 days. we found it was easy to go into a restaurant that gives you something before your meal like chips and salsa for free, then after that you just leave with a free meal.

 

Wow, my first post here at the Hip Forums.. Doesn't surprise me it's this thread, though. I've been doing a lot of thinking on how to live inexpensively. (I'm a house husband, and my wife is a school teacher. I have a job, but it's very part time, as this area doesn't have a lot of work. We've been so far behind in bills for so long, that we've been scrambling to find a way to come out in the black at the end of each month, for a change.)

Okay, some suggestions we've come up with...

Saving on Electric Bill:
1) If you have central a/c, go get some black, close-knit-mesh screens (The kind often used as solar shades). You can usually buy rolls of screen relatively inexpensively at your local home store (home depot, lowes, choo-choo). Grab enough scrap wood (local dump, dumpsters at home stores), and set to building frames for the screen. (Two 1x3's on alternating sides, screwed together, hold it well. The non-doubled sides, can have the screen stapled in, or screwed in.)

Make enough pieces to cover the top, sides, and front of your exchanger unit, outside. Make the sides a bit taller, and deeper than the unit really is, to create an air gap between the top/front and the screen. Then, cover it. This will significantly increase your exchangers ability to keep the air cool during the hot summer months. (The black screen provides protection from the hot sun, and allows the hot air coming from the unit to dissipate. Full wood covering is okay, too (with vent slits near each join), but screen works best).

If the same unit works as your heat (heat pump) in the winter, then remove the screen unit, so the sun can help warm the air, somewhat.


2) During the day time, raise blinds and open curtains when you need light. If you tend to stay nekkid, and don't want people looking in on you, then instead of raising the blinds, open then until they're flat with the twist rod, and then twist them to where they're going either up, or down, slightly (up is better). Harder for people to see in, lets in a lot of light. Keep your lights off during the day.

For night time - if you're just enjoying music, friends, tv, whatever, and don't need a lot of light - use candles, or an oil lamp. If you read a lot, at night, and feel eye strain by doing so by candlelight (taper candles give off the most light. They're the messiest, yes, but give off the most light), then invest in some of those flourescent-ish, curly bulbs. They really do save money. All of the sockets in our house use 60 watt regular bulbs. The curly bulbs give the same light as a 60 watt bulb, but only use 15 watts. That's 45 watts per bulb. There's 13 bulbs in our house (not counting dining room chandalier, which uses little bitty bulbs). That's a total savings of 421 kwh (kilowatt-hours)/month (if running all of the bulbs 24x7). That adds up. You can get a pack of six for ten bucks at home depot. Oh.. did I mention they last up to 8,000 hours? That's approximately 1 year of burn time, IF you leave the light on 24x7. Since the average bulb is used for only three hours/day, it should last for years.

3) At night, put computers into standby, or hibernate.

4) During the summer, keep your a/c set higher than "normal". Try 78. You can run ceiling fans (and even most regular fans) continuously, for cheaper than lowering your a/c by two degrees.

5) During the winter, keep your heat set to 68. Keep doors to bedrooms closed, that will keep the room warmer. Wear long-sleeved clothes, or even layers, in the house, and keep blankets around. With electric heat, especially, this makes a huge different.

6) Wash your clothes in cold water, if possible (less hot water exchange, less electric use), and only wash full loads. If you're only drying a couple of things, or mostly denim/hard-to-dry fabrics, toss a couple of large, dry towels in with them. That'll keep you from having to run two dryer cycles.

Alternative Entertainment
1) You can easily get rid of cable/satellite TV. For local newscasts, weather, etc... keep a set of rabbit ear antennas (if you're ruralish, you can buy a set of powered rabbit ears/high gain anternna for relatively cheap.. or ask on a freecycle board for one).

2) Invest in a VCR, and a DVD player. Both can be had for under $50 each (and usually under $40 ea). You can often by a DVD/VCR combo for around $55 - 60. Then, invest in cheap movies. Get to know your local video rental places. You can purchase previously viewed movies, sure (everyone knows that), for cheaper than new. However, did you know that two or three times a year, most video stores have an old stock sale, where they sell videos for as low as a buck, and DVDs for as low as two to three bucks? We're not talking 1930's old, either... I've seen movies from the past couple-three years in those sales.

2.5) Dollar stores, Wal*Mart, Target, and K-Mart are your friends. Dollar Stores often have old movies for a buck each (we just got a DVD with two old zombie movies for a buck). Discount department stores like I mentioned above will often have a cheap DVD bin, or a dollar disc bin. Sure, it's usually older movies, but trust me, a lot of those older movies are very, very good.

3) Listen to the radio - much less costly to run than a TV. You can even sing along, or try to predict the next song(s), etc.. If you live near a big city, you'll almost always be able to find a few talk radio stations. Often, one will have something worth listening to; and you haven't lived until you've listened to a baseball game on the radio. Oh, if you're a night owl, and are doing the radio bit, Art Bell is on on weeknights from midnight on... there will be a station in your area with the show. Great for conspiracy nuts, and paranormal folks.

4) Read. No, seriously. Read. The library is your friend. If you hate to read, get audio books. Again, seriously. Sometimes I like to do audio books (instead of TV), even though I read passionately.

5) Play games, cards, etc... I'm teaching my fiance (we say we're married, anyway) to play chess. I used to play rummy with my parents all the time. You can even make up your own games, tell stories, sing, teach the dogs to howl, etc...

6) Find a relatively cheap hobby. Sewing, crocheting, and knitting are all relatively cheap. Cross-stitch is very inexpensive, and great to do when you're listening to the radio. Don't discount this, guys... you'd be surprised how stress relieving an hour of cross stitch can be, once you learn. Beading is fairly inexpensive as well. Just need to make sure you find a bead store in your area (even my little town of 20 - 25,000 people has one).

Saving Water
1) DON'T put bricks in the toilet. They can dissolve over time, and mess up the works and the pipes. Instead, get canning jars, fill with water, set in tank.

2) Buy a low-flow shower head, or a hand-held one with cut-off valve. Heck, even just a regular hand-held shower head can work wonders, as you can direct the flow, precisely, and use less water.

3) Drink tap water. No, seriously. 99.999% of cities (and 100% of major urban areas) no longer use clorine, or flouride in their water treatment. 90% of the time, the filtering isn't going to make that much of a difference in purity, or in taste. It's often psycho-somatic. If you're really concerned, buy a faucet strainer (the little wire screen that goes into the faucet) that has much smaller holes than your current one. They even make ones that will filter down to nearly 1 micron. They're a bit more expensive, and water flows slower, but they're there.

4) Drink more water. Again, seriously. You would think this would increase your water bill, but it doesn't by much. You're actually drinking less water, over time. You drink water, now, because your body needs it. You drink a lot more at the start, because you're partially dehydrated... We all are. Soft drinks, sport drinks, juice drinks, etc... don't quench thirst anywhere near as good as water. Over time, your body will equalize, you'll feel better, and you'll drink less, believe it or not.

Saving on fuel:
1) Turn down your idle, to between 500 - 800 rpms.
2) Make sure you keep your oil changed regularly.
3) Make sure you keep your air filter clean - especially if you're in rural/dusty areas.
4) Combine errand trips, and start the furtherest from your house. If going in opposite directions, try doing only one direction one day, and the other, the next.
5) Do errands and things between 10am and 2pm, if at all possible. Less traffic.
6) When on city streets, use your a/c as little as possible. If you're not "at speed" (46+ mph), then just open your windows, and use the regular fan. If you are "at speed", then use the a/c, and keep the windows closed.
7) You know that whole "drive 55, and save gas" thing? It actually does work. My mpg rating went from 13.5 to 16.0, when I stopped going over 55, or so. (Stay in the slow lane, and allow yourself extra time.)
8) Shop at loyalty stores. Kroger, for the past year, has run a program on its loyalty card. For every $100 you spend, you can get a fill-up at ten cents off, per gallon. Seriosuly. Instead of paying $2.55/gallon, you'd pay $2.45. Even if you don't make enough to qualify, you'll still get a base discount of 3 cents/gal. If you go to Wal*Mart, go inside, get a wal*mart shopping/gift card, and put your gas money on it. Then, go to their feul center and save 3 cents/gal.

Save on Food
1) Find your discount stores. First off, K-Marts, Wal*Marts, etc... often have decent prices, if they're the super-store. Compare.
2) Local stores often have less expensive produce, and will often be able to beat out meat prices when they have a sale.
3) Learn your super discount stores like Big Lots. At Big Lots, you can buy a LOT of food, for not too much. Sure, it's scratch and dent, sometimes, but often it's clearance, or overstock. Dry good are especially cheap.
4) Your local dollar store will sometimes have food. It's not a big selection, but it's decent.
5) Forget about conspiracy and paranoia, and get a damned store loyalty card. When I do my food shopping for a month, I consistently save between 30 and 80 dollars because I used my Kroger card. When you fill out the application, if they don't ask for an ID (and usually they don't), just give 'em fake info. OR, go in the middle of the night, and ask the one cashier on duty if they could give you a card and application to take home. Often they will. Take the application, and recycle it... those card's don't have to be activated. hehe
6) Get online, and find their circular (or look in the paper). Kroger, for example, changes their sale items at midnight, Sunday morning. If you go towards 9 - 10pm Saturday, you'll often be able to get both the current week's sale (up till sat @ 11:59pm), AND next weeks sale, as they have to overlap while stockers are changing out tags.
7) Pay attention to the $X/oz/lbs/whatever notations on price lables (if they have them). Compare brands, and sizes. Sometimes, you can get a JIF peanut butter for $4, and it's 21.1 cents/oz. OR, you can get a Kroger peanut butter for $5, and it's 10 centz/oz. More than twice the amount, for only a buck more. Sometimes that makes sense. The inverse of this is an example using tomato sauce. My fiance and I were in Kroger, last month, and found that the cheap Kroger tomato sauce was NOT the cheapest. We could get the little cans of FMV tomato sauce (about 1/4 the size of the kroger brand) and save nearly half the cost/oz.
8) Stop buying "name brand" in the store. Buy the store brand, or the discount brand (for exmaple, Kroger has its own store brand, and then has its own premium brand (Private Select), and its own discount brand (FMV (For Maximum Value)). In 90% of things, you can't tell a major taste difference. (For example... Kraft macaroni & cheese (with powdered cheese): $1.25/box. Kroger mac/chs: $0.75/box. FMV Mac/chs: $0.33/box and they taste just the same.

Okay, I hope these have helped. Mostly these are survival tactics for settled down folk to lessen their expenses, but some will help everyone.

-E

 

First off, if you mean leave with a free meal by walking a check, don't. Trust me. Not a good idea, especially if the local constabulary tend to eat there fairly often, and you didn't realize it.

If you mean just eating the chips/salsa and then leaving, be careful. Most restaurants will have something in small print on their menus that state those are with a meal, only. Sometimes they list "Chips and salsa" in their appetisers menu for like $2.99. 90% of restaurants that give things like that for free at the beginning of the meal, actually charge for it, if that's all you're going to eat. About 1/2 of those places won't say anything if you bounce before ordering anything else, but the other half will be pretty pissed off, and will - at the least - forbid your return.

*shrug* It's not an invalid method... it just needs a lot of caution. (By the way. Going into pizza places, right at closing time, and saying something like, "hey. Do you guys have any undelivered/un-paid-for/un-picked-up pizzas? I'm kinda down on my luck, right now, and was hoping you could maybe let an undelivered one go..." Had a good friend who did that, and had a hot meal, nearly every night.

 

- or you could eat lots of non heated food. fruits, veggies, bread/butter, cereal (total), milk, yogurt, natures valleys bars, ect!. I rarely use my microwave and always have it unplugged.

-instead of using the bus at all 1. walk! 2. get a bike, it allows you to get form place to place rather quickly and avoid traffic too. if you live in the city like me, these are good ways to get from point a to b.

-always turn off everything (besides fridge) when leaving for the day or sleeping...that includes the computer. and use the sunlight to light your place if you can instead of lights. only use lights at night and only for the room you are in.

-instead of turning up the heat, take a hot 5 minute hot shower and that will warm you right up..than bundle up...there have been times where I was sweating afterwards and was able to deal with short sleeves and pajama pants, where before I was shivering away. this works if you don't pay for hot water like I do. I do pay gas and electricty however and to heat the place up.

-if you need the oven..plug in that microwave and make use of that to thaw out whatever it is you need, if nessecary or at least preheat it.

 

but you have to make sure the pipes in the house do not freeze. if you find info do tell.

 

fish, hunt, farm.
read - libraries are free
learn as much as you can, knowledge is power and a gateway to a better way of life.

i never advocate stealing. there is always a better and more rewarding way.

 

also reuse and save anything you can. you will be amazed at the things you can reuse and use for other purposes.

 

recycling can make money. copper is about 2 dollars a pound. my brother is an electrician and keeps scrap wire and gets some extra money.

Do side work when possible. Alot of people will pay you to shovel snow, cut grass, rake leaves, wash car, etc.

 

A book I enjoyed in Living Cheaply In Style, or at least I believe that's what it was called. Something close to that

 

Great ideas, but to add to the roadside harvest... unless its a road that's not used often, always rember that carbon monoxide from the cars exhaust gets into the roadside fruit as it grows and thus may poison it. I read about this in a few survivor and growing books... they say to avoid growing near a road. So becareful, if really hungry, pick the farthest from the road, or look elsewhere.
Peace to you and be safe.

 

I would just get a second job and buy everything wholesale but that's just me..

 

The point is though... to work less and enjoy your free time. Time on this earth is all we have... use it wisely!!! Great thread by the way.