Actually, I use the strategy when I get lemonade from Chick-fil-A. 
Sugar-filled drinks are fungible. Soda, lemonade, sweet tea, etc. If it has sugar in it, you’re harming your health.
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We were paying around $1200+ a year for satellite tv. Loved the dvr and didn’t want to give it up, but didn’t watch enough channels on it to justify the expense. We cancelled satellite and bought a $99 HD Stacker Antenna and a TIvo w/lifetime subscription for $399 from Amazon. Initial expense of $498, but saving about $700 dollars in first year, and $1200 a year thereafter. We actually have more tv shows now ( plus streaming) to watch than we can keep up with. We get 60+ ota channels, most come in excellent all the time, some come in now and then, but that’s only because we live out in the sticks about 45 miles away from nearest city.
The bonus is, if for some reason we miss a recording, it is available for a while on the network site to watch for free. We can skip all commercials if it’s recorded and we don’t feel like we are really missing out on anything. Except BBCA, miss that channel, but if there is a show we really want to watch (like Orphan Black) we can purchase the season on amazon or wait until next season and see it on prime for free.
The other way we save a lot is having only 1 credit card and using it to purchase everything. We get reward points for every dollar spent and it keeps track of our spending (at the end of the year we get a statement with what we’ve spent in every category). We take our saved points and use that for Christmas gifts. Haven’t paid for Christmas gifts for 5 years now. We do however, pay the card off every month. We just record all our purchases in the checkbook just like a regular expense, that way we ensure we’ve already got the money to pay off the card without having to go into savings.
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If your strategy works for you, great. I caution you not to fall under this type of thinking. It’s similar to “I got a $2k tax return! So I can splurge and buy a new purse/shoes/downpayment on a car/etc)” The tax return was just giving the IRS an interest-free loan.
If you use your reward earnings for Christmas gifts, you are actually paying for Christmas gifts, even if you don’t think you are, because those reward points could have been used for something else. You could say “the rewards points pay for all our groceries every December” - they have a cash value so the gifts were not free. You did pay for them.
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Prepaid cell service. I can’t wrap my head around why contract plans even still exist.
The cost of prepaid has been steadily heading closer and closer to $0.
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InstantPot FTW. We just bought one a month or two ago and it’s changed the way we cook.
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What makes the instapot so great?
I agree on the importance of cooking both for health reasons and for $ savings. Cooking extra portions of food takes almost no extra time and when packed for lunch saves big money over the course of a year.
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For us, it is the time savings. We were using a slow cooker for ease and quantity. The instant pot does the same meal in 30-45 minutes. ie big chicken meal, chili, etc.
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You need to use significantly more spices in a pressure cooker vs. regular cooking. Start shopping the ethnic food aisles to buy them at a discount.
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I love the old phrase: Same house, same car, same spouse. That alone should save you thousands.
I think the biggest frugal tips while maintaining lifestyle is taking advantage of the skills or opportunities you have from your work.
My husband is a mechanic and he spent almost a year putting together a Prius for me built from scrap parts. He literally bought the body at a garage sale and there was a dog living in it. No motor, no battery. They were asking 500 dollars and he got it for 250. The hardest part was towing it. Then he waited and found a economical battery. With the help of junk yards he assembled what I called Frankenprius for around 1000 dollars. Two years later someone rear ended me and the insurance paid 5000 dollars. We spent about six months searching for a newer used Prius which I still drive today. When I get gas the attendant often asks, “three gallons? is that right?” I also pay less because I don’t need full insurance coverage and I certainly don’t have a car payment. The insurance company let us “buy back” the original frankenprius. He fixed it and still drives it today.
I work for a private school and my daughter gets free tuition, a 14,000 dollar per year value.
Other tips I would say is not just cook at home and make lunches but make a list and a schedule of meals so food does not go to waste. Food waste is a huge money suck.
As far as lifestyle I think it’s good to have one splurge in your life but not more than that. I like vacations and when people see my vacations they think I have money but they don’t see all the ways I’m frugal to pay for the vacations. You just can’t have it all, so pick what is most important to you.
Negotiate everything. My husband is from West Africa and when I first brought him here I told him, “No, you can’t go into Macy’s and say I’ll give you ten dollars for these sun glasses.” He didn’t listen to me and I was really surprised to learn that a lot of people gave him discounts just for asking.
There was a lot of discussion on internet and thankfully my husband’s negation skills rubbed off on me. I have never paid the non-promo price. You definitely need to be able to walk away but so far they have always sent me to retentions.
Finally, to feel like I’m being honest I have to throw in that there are a lot of things I really wish I could afford. I would like to shop at the fancy supermarkets, and I would like to have a housekeeper, but I just can’t justify the cost. I think the big take away is to live below your means so you don’t miss what you don’t have. My kids have never had cable tv, and they don’t beg for 200 channels.
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I usually prepare a few meals from one item. Like having a roasted chicken, using the leftovers for chicken salad and chicken soup. You can become very creative with your meals while saving time and money.
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If you have a chest freezer, you can stock up on turkeys when they start to go on sale in the coming weeks.
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I’ve never seen this option described before…very interesting!
Are there links you’d recommend for newbies to this combo? I’m wondering if this might be a viable alternative to family members’ $200+ a month cable/dish habits…
I like the instant pot too. There is really nothing like it. To save money, my family does a lot with rotisserie chickens. Instead of tossing the bones, we throw the carcass in the instant pot with carrots, celery, onion and spices and get a huge amount of chicken stock. So chicken stock is one things we used to buy often (for soups, rice, etc) that we don’t pay for anymore.
Throw a gallon of milk in there along with a pinch of gelatin, a tablespoon of pectin, a half cup of sugar, and a little bit of old yogurt and you end up with almost a gallon of new yogurt. Wait, theres more: you also end up with a good amount of whey which you can use to soak legumes. Soak legumes in whey for a couple of days and you won’t get gas. On top of that, it normally takes a very long time to boil dry/soaked beans, but the instant pot does that faster too. Kidney beans can be ready in 45 mins. Smaller beans like lentils are even quicker.
If you live in a bad neighborhood where you fear getting shot, the instant pot can actually sanitize needlenose pliers, sutre kits, and washcloths to hospital standards. So if you ever end up with being shot can’t report it to the authorities for whatever reason (I dont judge) and know a thing or two about performing amateur surgery, the instant pot is the best tool at your disposal hands down.
Disclaimer: stick to the yogurt and beans, leave the surgery to the pros.
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I did that in the past and took it a step further. I actually bought a meat grinder and made my own jeanie-o ground turkey. That was more of a hassle than it was worth. It was very nasty, it took a long time which made me worried about bacteria, and uncooked meat is very difficult to cut from bone. All-in-all I would not recommend it and I certainly never plan on doing that again.
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Not quite “cutting the cord”, but close:
I have FiOS with just “Local TV” channels. For some reason they continually give me a larger discount than if I sign up for just FiOS internet. I originally had the cable/internet/phone but found that the taxes and fees on the phone line added $20+/month. I transferred the phone to a free Google Voice and have an Obihai box for free phone calls if I ever want them [unplugged lately because who needs it].
So I’m paying approx $50/month for 50/50 internet plus the local channels. I have a cablecard for the TiVo and TiVO minis for my other TVs. Cablecard costs about $4/month and taxes add another $6 so my total is $60/month. There’s a hidden bonus feature to this arrangement that is “fragile” and I thought was a fluke, but I re-created it when I moved to a new house with new service.
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I just cut the cord. In 1999. Get strange looks when I go to Sams from the reps selling package TV/phone deals.
Pros - cheap.
Cons - my popular culture knowledge ended with Seinfeld.
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Also been very happy with the Obihai, it’s an awesome replacement if your currently paying monthly for phone service and even if you’ve cut it already, I’m sure you could find value in having a dedicated home line if it’s only gonna be a one-off expense.
Obihai is a VOIP device that connects to Google Voice. It requires a Google account to be tied to it, I used a secondary google account that I had, created a google voice number and created a new account using this device.
With the exceptions of no emergency numbers, its working great as a dedicated landline. It also gets passed through Googles call filtering which at least for now seems very effective in curbing telemarketers. Paid rougly $40 for it and its quickly paid for itself in terms of value.
The only thing that concerns me is their billing model is one time, meaning they’ll eventually have the same issue as Ooma. Revenue from new hardware purchases are able to support the ongoing infastructure, but this requires a constant stream of new users which will dry up eventually. Still if you get a year or so out of it I consider it a win.
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Standard Cord Cutting Replacements
- Chromecast
- FireStick + Amazon Prime Sharing
- Netflixs Sharing
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Get your basic groceries from Aldi’s and Aldi’s Nord (Trader Joes) - The first time I went in one my mind was blown.
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Recently my strategy for most non-time sensative purchases has been
- List Item Type Somehwere (eg. Shopvac / Fridge)
- Research Item Specifics and Price History (Specific Product Identifier)
- Set An Alert Using CCC, eBay Search Alerts, slickdeals deal alerts, when the item is discounted.
- Review Monthly on items that haven’t triggered.
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Bought a Reel mower, no need for worrying about paying a monthly lawn care fee or seasonal maintenance of a gas powered mover. There is a bit of extra overhead in that I usually need to make two passes (once to pick up any branches and then once to mow it, but we have a small lawn so it’s not so bad) (It’s also more effective if your lawn is fairly flat)
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Seconding Prepaid MVNO’s. I’m almost always nearby some wifi, so I don’t even subscribe to a data plan which drops your costs substantially. I’m currently with PagePlus at what seems like $20~$40 a year with the amount of calling/texting I do. (Again no data) Stuck on a crappy device, but I would say 95% of the time, I’m surrounded by Wifi and another 2% of the time I’m in a dead zone anyways (subway/underground) If I ever was in a position where I needed data, I would probably swap out for Tracphone, but definitely would stay prepaid.
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Some things I have on my todo list, but haven’t had time to take up yet:
- Chest Freezer
- Weekly Meal Prep
- Change Fluoresecent Light Bulbs to LEDs (Still waiting for the first set to die out, first world early adopter problems)
- Steam link for gaming
Book Recommendation:
I recommend reading the Marie Kondo book @DaveHanson hinted at in the first post The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, the audiobook is fantastic, although you just need to google the one section about folding clothes as you really do need a visual.
I found myself much happier after reclaiming my space. The only thing I found myself disagreeing with was the section about culling non-perishables, as they’ll usually be out of sight anyway and its not worth the mental effort and time on restocking something like toilet paper monthly.
Freeing up my space has translated to freeing up mental capacity for me. It’s worked so well I’ve started looking into delabeling everything I own to remove even more distractions.
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[quote=“DaveHanson, post:85, topic:29, full:true”]
We found it to be a good alternative.
First place I would go is http://tvfool.com and input your address to see what type (size) antenna you need and if you should get an amplifier and where to point the antenna for best reception. This site has good information for getting started; OVER-THE-AIR DIGITAL TELEVISION RECEPTION FAQ: New to OTA? Start here! | AVS Forum.
For the equipment; Assuming I’m allowed to post links, this is the dvr: Amazon.com or you can go directly to Tivo website to purchase. (would highly recommend upgrading the hard drive if you record a lot of shows). We purchased our antenna here http://dennysantennaservice.com/hd_stacker_tv_antenna-html.html. But there are many ota dvr options and you could pick up a different brand antenna locally.
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Getting rid of cable. For me, that’s ~$110/month (and climbing) in my pocket.
My only regret is that I didn’t do it sooner.
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