Living frugally without hardship: let's share actionable suggestions

Trending that way, yes. Read up on the Xfinity service, using VZW.

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Thanks! I was turned off by having to submit my phone number on the initial screen since I live overseas and my whole house rings when US businesses call my google voice number at 1-3am local. I just submitted our cable/internet bill, and a second screen pops up, thanks for the clarification.

I had just tried to negotiate it unsuccessfully last month with two reps, so why not give it a try.

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bbbbump!

I went through the thread and added some of the better advice (with more :heart:'s) to a wiki in the first post.

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Adjust Limits on Auto Liability Insurance Coverages. Consider having different lower possibly minimum limits for under insured/uninsured coverage, especially if you have used depreciated cars and health insurance. In general the cost for your liability and the under/un insured coverage are about equal. Decreasing the limits on the under/un has saved us serious coin. Our insurance agent says their system defaults to the same limits, they have to be overridden to bring to state minimums. We use State Farm and we live in Vermont.

This is not “generally” true. My uninsured/underinsured costs only 12% of the combined bodily injury + property damage costs, and is just 7% of my total (full coverage) insurance bill. The savings from reducing this coverage is almost negligible – for me it’s approx $70/yr for 15K/30K (state minimum) vs $100/yr for 50K/100K. I’m with Wawanesa in CA.

I guess it was in my case and that is why I reviewed and adjusted my limits. So I guess my revised save money advice is to review your insurance limits and costs annually.

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I recently found an app, FLIPP, which lists and helps you keep track of all the local advertisements. You can even make shopping lists with it. It saves a few bucks if you don’t mind using more than one supermarket. It’s not perfect but still very useful.

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If you have a simple hair style that doesn’t change, use a Flowbee and either trimmers or your electric shaver to cut your own hair. Been doing this for 25 years now, saved me thousands and a lot of time saved (at least $100 a year so it pays for itself quickly).

My original Flowbee just died and I had to get another one, they’re cheap on fleabay all the time because people try them and don’t like it I guess. Less than $50.

Simple trick to trim the back hair line is to use two mirrrors, a fixed wall mirror and a handheld so you can see what you’re doing. Or enlist the spouse etc., it’s not that hard to do well.

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100% this, #1 way to LBYM and save enough money to early retire (managing your own investments with index funds etc. is at the top of the list).

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I’m on it, except my husband cuts my hair in 5 minutes with a pair of clippers. The only bright spot in being out of the hair business.

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I use Panasonic Smart Home with indoor/outdoor cameras, door/window sensors, and motion sensors. Works great. I have supplemented this with some D-Link cameras that have motion and sound sensors. Does the trick for us.

Patients when it comes to spending money. Waiting a few days to determine your need versus desire is truly frugal. Always shop around, don’t be afraid to say no or ask for a better price.

save money = don’t drink booze.

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Omg yes. Recently cut way, way back on drinking for health reasons and now the bar tab or dinner check seems ridiculously low.

Related- don’t be overweight. It is way too expensive and will eventually start costing you money. Learned this one the hard way.

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Definitely this. Put the item on your AZ wish list and revisit it later. At some online merchants other than AZ, the abandoned cart will generate a coupon later anyway.

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Thank you. I just looked at this and it was an additional $1622 annually, just for the UM bodily injury component. I’d prefer to reject this and just rely on health insurance instead. Pray if you do get hit, it’s by someone with decent insurance.

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TMSY, I did not know you when you were overweight…never would have guessed!

Kudos for cutting back on the drinking–start for the health, stay for the savings. :slight_smile:

(FWIW. I make a habit to drink only water when going out, unless doing so would be a serious faux paus for some reason. I’d rather drink exactly what I want at home, for much less.)

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Awww thanks. I hide it well, but apparently being even 10-20 lbs over can trigger high blood pressure. So I’m very selective about my nights out now.

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I have a new one.
I stopped going to Safeway, Albertsons, Food For Less, Trader Joes and Whole Foods. Found a new middle eastern huge size grocery store that has all kinds of fruits and vegetables at 1/4 to 1/3 of the price of regular grocery stores. Is the quality bad? No, it’s just that the fruits/veggies have a blemish or two , otherwise healthy.

I’ve been able to reduce my grocery bill from $600-$700 a month to less than $200 a month. Here’s some examples:

  1. Red Onions : Safeway price is $1.5 per lb. Middle Eastern Grocery store price is $0.5 per lb
  2. Tomatoes : Other grocery stores price is around $1 to $1.25 per lb. My price is $0.33 per lb.
  3. Cabbage : Usually $1 per lb. My price is $0.25 - $0.33 per lb
  4. Apples : Regular stores are around $1 per lb. My price is $0.2 per lb, sometimes less.
  5. Strawberries : $2.5 per lb. My price is $1 per lb.

Everybody should look around for asian/middle eastern grocery stores in their area and should be able to cut their grocery bill.

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I prepare all my own food and virtually never eat out, not even fast food . . . except when guests arrive. I like to know, to the extent possible, what I’m ingesting.

I cut my own hair and have done so for tens of years.

Strictly OTA TV. Plasma. No cable. No satellite. Live high up so receive many stations.

Big on (free) radio. Running three Sangean PR-D5s and have a fourth one handy as a spare. Total of roughly ten radios in home, including a nice Panasonic TRF. Work eastern USA and Canada, all OTA.

Buy stuff direct out of China/Hong Kong via eBay.

Electric heat only in rooms being occupied. Unoccupied rooms kept cold to cut down on heat loss. Operate with very low demand factor (but have avoided demand charges so far), to wit:

Rooms occupied only a couple of hours each day are equipped with multiple heaters able to produce enough BTUs to warm up room very rapidly.

Hot water heater has electronic controls. HWH is kept at low (energy saving) setting most of the time, but reprogrammed when serious hot water is needed, e.g., to wash dishes or clothes. Programming and reprogramming take only seconds.

Large (several acres) lawn mowed with walk behind. Saves gasoline when you do not ride Good exercise, too.

Multiple computers in home in various rooms. Avoids need in summer for AC. Just go to room on side of home away from the sun.

Moon landing auto strategy. Just a single, dependable, car. Yeah, it’s a Crown Vic variant . . . 2005 Mercury GM. It’s a great car and I love it. About 35,000 miles so still in good shape. Bought ten years ago used. Is a former rental car.

Pay all bills timely so as to obtain discounts.

The usual CC stuff everybody else does. 3% Alliant and AMEX, 5% Chase reward when I can.

That’s about all I can think of now.

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