For me I generally pirate most books I read, although if there is a book I really enjoyed I will buy the physical copy.
I also generally tend to avoid having takeaways because they are just so expensive in this day and age with inflation and tend to opt for cheap meals like pasta or rice etc.
Also I don’t pay for any streaming services, but borrow a VPN service from a friend to pirate the movies I watch.
Curious to hear of some ways that you people here save money.
I pirate damn near every piece of media I consume.
I also have my automatic 401k contributions at work cranked up to like 15%. I never see the money in my bank account so I don’t even think about it and force myself to fit into a smaller budget- which is the best way to save.
A good tip about 401k is to increase it by 1% every year, you’ll never notice the change and continue saving more and more.
Dang, that’s a good idea! I’ll do this in January!
Wish I could crank my 401k. But I’m already having to work a second job to make ends meet. I’ve been sorely tempted to get that 4% back in my pocket for about a year now.
Yeah the auto transfer on paycheck is really good.
Although I do it through an auto transfer from my bank account to stocks account and then an auto buy of various ETFs and indexes (we don’t have 401k where I live)
helps with the “this I what I got” mentality, rather than slowly creeping your daily expenses up to meet your full paycheck
I have very debilitating anxiety that traps me in my apartment the vast majority of the time, so I save a lot of money from not having to pay tram/bus fees and stuff like that…
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
i saved so much money having crazy anxiety and becoming super ripped from calisthenics i did in my room
but im also a rock climber and i save money there by working at a climbing gym
sometimes i pirate groceries at self-checkout
does the door alarm not go off? ive always been paranoid to try just incase i somehow end up in jail over a candy bar or smth
When the door alarm goes off, most people keep walking - and the store employees often don’t care.
Most places, the store employees are trained to do nothing. Several stores I worked at specifically state with a lot of emphasis to never engage a shoplifter. They might have a gun or attack you or who knows what else. Plus the cost of prosecuting someone for shoplifting is often greater than the value of what was stolen, so the small time thefts are largely ignored. Instead preventitive measures are used like visible cameras and engagement. So if you’re ever at a store and you find employees are repeatedly asking if you need help with anything, there’s a good chance someone thinks you are shoplifting (but not always!)
they don’t place alarm markers on the food i buy: box of cereal, fresh fruit, bag of rice, can of beans…
in IL, they might put markers on liquor but IDK bc i quit years ago
Grocery stores largely don’t have anti-theft sensors. Some in some very bad parts of town might, but for the most part if there’s self-checkout you can walk out with just about anything. Liquor I think will be the most common exception.
Typically the easiest way to get the five finger discount is to ring something up as an item that charges per pound that’s significantly cheaper than the item you’re buying. Closest I’ve done to that is to buy two donuts but only ring up one lol. I’m too much of a rule follower and anxious about getting caught.
And you def won’t go to jail for light shoplifting. Though some places like Walmart or Target track you and don’t do anything until you’re at a felony level of theft. So if you do steal, best not to do it repeatedly at the same store.
i live very close to a target and dont have a car so its my main grocery store location.
ive honestly never been poor enough to justify the risk of stealing but i also have crippling anxiety and even the thought of it going wrong is too much.
shit id prolly turn around if the sensors started to beep id be like “yoo sorry i didnt know haha plz don’t hurt me” the irony is im not afraid of physical pain, more the financial pain. coz im a shredded rock climber/calisthenics guy. sadly violence just gets people into more actual trouble. otherwise my roommate would be very worse for wear though we gave him an apartment warning instead (of a beating).
My always on buy two get one free discount
4011
creative ways to save money: STEALING
On paper I buy a lot of bananas
You guys SAVE money by pirating? I’m pretty sure I could subscribe to all existing streaming services for a like a decade for the amout I spend on my NAS and harddrives.
Stream pirating
I don’t hoard, I just consume
Local library for entertainment - free ebooks, free streaming of movies, passes to museums/state parks etc.
Eat at home, cook in bulk and eat leftovers to save time/money.
Ad block for watching YouTube/network tv without annoying ad breaks
Bodyweight fitness, walking, and at home yoga for exercise - no need for a gym membership
Use Facebook marketplace to get free/cheap furniture
Creative? Cut your own hair.
Been doing this for 10 years. Only once did I mess up badly enough to have to resort to a buzz cut!
It’s pretty easy for most men to give themselves a passable haircut too.
Buy a half decent set of clippers. They don’t need to be particularly expensive, just not cheap crap.
Brush the top of your hair to the middle, as if you’re giving yourself a mohican, and brush the sides and back downwards. Make sure that the lines separating the sides and top are level.
Put a guard on the clippers that you’d be comfortable with the length of if you accidentally get it wrong. It’s a #4 for me, or about 10mm.
Using your off hand as a block, hold the top of your hair out of the way and shave up the sides. Do the same at the back.
Take the guard off and carefully cut around your ear, folding the top of your ear down to see better, if you can.
Using a longer guard, about 30mm in my case, cut the top.
The hardest part is tidying up the back of your neck, so ideally you’d want someone to help, but you can do it in the same way that you did the top, and use your hand to protect the hair you want to keep.
If you did it right, you’ve got a new short back and sides. It’s a basic cut, but most people can pull it off :)
Here’s my tip to you for doing the back: go somewhere with a big mirror and hang a small mirror opposite, then look into the small mirror to save you from having to hold it and from bamboozling yourself moving the mirror about.
Moving mirrors in the opposite direction accidentally really sucks lol
One of numerous situations in my life where I make myself look like an idiot and no one’s looking anyway.
I started during COVID for practical reasons, but it’s so simple and quick I don’t think I’ll ever go back - I just grabbed a $40 pair of plug in Wahl clippers and I’ve probably saved myself at least a grand by now in haircuts
We stopped after one kid. Saved a lot of money. Friends all have 3-4 and are always broke. We have plenty of capital to enjoy life, vacation, and live a modest life.
My SO wants like 4 kids and I want 0. I think 1 will suffice because I also don’t want to be poor. I have a lot of expensive wants that I’d like to obtain before the country implodes.
You know yourself better than I do but, is kids really something you want to compromise on? My high-school sweetheart of 11 years said she wanted a kid and was pushing hard for it and I know I wanted exactly 0 kids. I decided to end the relationship since it would be the best for the both of us. Some things people shouldn’t compromise on, you can’t just get rid of a kid if you don’t want it and putting a kid through divorce is damaging.
One kid costs about $10K a year, mostly daycare or after school care. Usually a couple can afford that and still be okay. The return on investment is pretty big since the kid provides you with lots of opportunities being a childless couple does not. Now having four, that’s a ticket to broke town.
$10k is low end, and won’t even cover paying for 4 years of a state college. In state most places is pushing $35-40k/yr including room and board. Out of state is closer to $60k/yr. If you make enough not to get any financial assistance, Ivys in big cities are going for close to 6 figures once you pay for stupid-expensive rent. Even in a good growth fund, $10k/year starting at birth may not even fund a BS degree.
Now, ongoing maintenance on multiples gets cheaper in quantity, you just have to steer them towards the trades so their college costs disappear. Or hope they get full ride scholarships with housing allowances.
I like to buy things that save money in the long run. Cooking, biking, cheap Steam games over expensive console games. I offer VPN or other subscriptions to family if I can.
I can count on one hand the number of games I’ve bought not on sale from steam in the last 5 years. It also does help that you can get the poor man’s demo so long as you keep a close eye on time played.
- pirate media: shows, books
- bulk buying toiletries / cleaning supplies when there’s a good deal somewhere
- use
contraption for toothpaste and other toiletries - skip lunch often
- take care of appliances by fully cleaning them often
- do dishes and laundry at night
- YouTube the hell out of things that break to figure out a way to fix it myself
- use a heated blanket during the day to keep the heater on 16 C°
- cut my own hair with the help of YouTube
Just a money tip for others: you can use a side of your benchtop (or any other hard right-angle) to squeeze your toothpaste, no contraption required.
That’s a smart one!
My hands don’t work the way I want them too (read: I’m disabled) so I’m always on the lookout for handy dandy contraptions, ghehe
I’m wondering, what does the heated blanked have to do with the heater?
My Guess: Instead of warming the whole house/apartment, you are just heating yourself. Which would be a lot less expensive.
Ah, I read it wrong. Somehow my half asleep brain thought he put the blanket on the heater…
Yep, that’s the reason :)
Having cheap hobbies
Hiking
Hiking is really only the cost of something to hold water and passes (that you think you’ll use) for the year.
People will shout, “But you need the right shoes!”
You just need comfortable well fitting shoes. I hiked in my every day running shoes until I literally walked through the soles. Somewhere north of 5000 miles of walking in 5 years is what they got me and they cost me about $100.
I didn’t buy dedicated shoes for hiking, those were just my normal shoes.
Biking
I got a used bike for the low low price of “is that a bike frame in the bushes?”
After about $200 in replacement parts I’ll ride it until it breaks.
It’s easy, it’s cheap, and it’s good for you.
The bike I had before I got for $50 at a garage sale and I rode that thing for 2 years until it got stolen. It was a good bike, I hope they enjoyed it as much as I did.
Photography
Fun fact about photography: if you have a phone with a camera you can get into it.
Seriously, “The best camera is the one you have on you,” is a common saying in the photography world.
And editing pictures is also super cheap.
You can do very basic edits on your phone but if you want to edit on PC (trust me you do) then you can get great software for free to do it. GIMP is a great alternative to Photoshop and Darktable is a great alternative to Lightroom. And did I mention both are completely free?
And sometimes (though rarely for me) people will want to either buy pictures from you or pay you to take pictures for them. So that can subsidize the costs for delving deeper.
3D Printing
No I’m not joking.
The barrier to entry can be high but all my printers have paid for themselves at this point and in 2 cases at least twice over.
And I don’t just mean in terms of selling prints I also mean in terms of saving me money on replacement parts.
Reading
Personally I have a local library card and use apps on my phone to listen to audiobooks.
I do this rather than pirate books because it’s super easy IMO.
And that’s it for hobbies really, though I do have a few more those are really the ones I typically orbit the most.
Also cooking as much as possible vs eating out. I still eat out once a month with my friends but I cook almost every other meal I eat. Some are frozen (I’m not perfect) but even then it’s cheaper than picking up takeout.
And not drinking alcohol anymore. I couldn’t believe how much I was spending on alcohol until I quit drinking. Though I avoided drinking at bars (holy shit it’s expensive) those bottles weren’t cheap.
Brewing my own tea and coffee also saves a lot of money. It blows my mind how much some people I know spend on coffee simply because they don’t brew it themselves.
Maintaining my car rather than upgrading it every 5-7 years. Also doing what I can myself (or with friends) rather than going to a mechanic. My car was made in 2007, I plan to drive it until I can’t fix it anymore. Then I get another used car to maintain as well.
There’s a lot really but that’s just a brief… (looks up) briefish list
I save so much money with my 3D printer. Broken parts are easy for me to design and print, and I’ve kept a lot of appliances out of the trash when they just need some little plastic part.
I’ve definetely saved myself many purchases with my 3d printer, but I definetely think I’ve spent more on filament for dumb/fun prints than I’ve saved with practical ones lol - especially when I’m designing my own shit and need to prototype, I’ve gone through entire rolls just iterating on a single design until I get something I’m happy with…
That being said, it’s all in how you use it!
I collect all sorts of crap from the side of the road and either fix it and sell it, strip it for parts and sell those, or scrap them out for scrap metal. I actually find it very therapeutic and Ive earned a lot of favors by giving friends and family free fridges, washers, dryers etc that ive fixed. More of an ‘earning’ rather than ‘saving’ but i normally get a few grand a year.
You’re helping the planet too. The most environmentally friendly appliance in the world is the one that’s already built!
I worked in a dump for years. Wife eventually told me to stop bringing crap home.
Best yield was a Nintendo ds in a case with 8 games. STILL HAD BATTERY LIFE!
I do the same somewhat but mostly just repurpose things and rarely sell stuff. I think it’s insane to see the things that some people throw away. I found a computer in the trash once, which was better than my system at the time. Sure, much of it was broken beyond repair (the RTX 2060 GPU most notable, as I was using a GTX 960 at the time) but the case, PSU, fans and an SSD I still use to this day.
The act of breaking down things to their core componants is one of my favorite ways to relax and helps me troubleshoot things when they inevitably break down.
One meal a day
Same, so I gain my minimum sustenance to work for my overlord employer and pay my “well invested” taxes to the government who grants me this quality of life. How could my landlord live if I’m greedy and eat too frequently or varied.
Sorry to hear, I do sympathise. I hope things get better for us. I’m still figuring out how to pay my new 30% rent increase this month after five previous rises this year already…
Something that I will claim I did to save money was get a new motorcycle. I traded two bikes, one that was exceedingly hard to grt parts for, and one that had a ton of miles, a ton of abuse, and had reached the point where it needed something fixed once a week. So now I have just one, and it actually works.
The other, more reasonable thing I’ve done has been more cooking at home. No more getting fast food, because it’s no longer fast, or cheap. A really interesting side effect of this is my wife and I losing weight, me not needing to medicate myself to sleep anymore, a drastic reduction in antacid/tums intake, and a stark reduction in the amount of junk food I crave. I used to want a soda all the time, now it’s water or maybe tea. I was originally tired of the way the prices kept going up, amd just tried to cook for myself, and I started looking up recipies… now I have a collection of recipies that I might turn into a family cookbook, and I’m adding to it all the time.
I have one exception to this rule and that is Chinese food every other Tuesday. It is one of those places where nobody speaks English so you just know it is going to be good. That and the portion sizes are huge for cheap.
I might die of a heart attack, but at least I will die happy.
Definitely get yourself a treat on occasion… just be smarter than me and don’t get it every day!
Make a weekly menu, pin it on the fridge and stick to it. Then buy only the ingredients needed.
The key of success is to be lucid and plan 1 or 2 lazy day, with pizzas or whatever, dishes that don’t need any effort to make.
You’ll save a ton in groceries, and will waste almost nothing. Bonus point : you can generate the menus with an AI.
Bonus point : you can generate the menus with an AI.
Didn’t AI make up a recipe for chlorine gas for someone? I’m with you 100% up to the bonus point though.
It’s not like you won’t notice if the AI tells you to pour cleaning products into your stir fry.
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I am talking about zucchinis, not dangerous stuff. You’ll see quick enough if a recipe is not good or if you don’t like it.
I have 1% of my check go into an account that isn’t connected to a card, or connected to my main savings and checking. I have to go to the bank if I need it. With me being a bit lazy, money adds up over long periods of time
