Living frugally without hardship: let's share actionable suggestions

Mov[quote=“SIS, post:2, topic:29”]
Pair xfinity Internet ($9-39 a month depending on your area) with 5 cell lines and a Hulu subscription and rabbit ears , and you’ll save hundreds each month while still having acess to tons of programming
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SIS, great suggestion. That could be a game changer if it’s marketed effectively. Agre too that it’s especially good for older folks. In addition to them not using as much data, they are less likely to be “cord cutters.”.

(And I tried quoting your post, but couldn’t do it…are we still building out that functionality?) EDIT: OK, I get it. You need to highlight the part you want to quote, and then hit “quote reply” in the post you’re answering. That’s an elegant solution

I’m about a third of the way through a (classic?) book often recommended to beginners – Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez. It talks about decluttering and evaluating expenses based on whether they bring you enough joy and justify the number of hours you had to work to earn that money. It’s also a little heavier on eco-consciousness and anti-consumerism than I expected. I don’t mind, but I can see some readers brushing off important concepts because of this.

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Thanks scripta, and great to see you here!

[quote=“scripta, post:5, topic:29”]
'm about a third of the way through a (classic?) book often recommended to beginners – Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez.[/quote]

Will look forward to your assessment. I’ve recommended The Millionaire Next Door --also first published in the early 1990s–o students and friends alike, but have never read this book.

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I’m not sure if this is exactly what you’re looking for, but here goes.

I’d been in the market for a new dining room table for much longer than I care to admit. :slight_smile:

I’d priced dining room tables off and on over the years. The prices disgusted me, running about $3000 and up. We’d had some good luck with a couple of smaller purchases at Wayfair.com, so I checked out their selection of dining room sets this spring.

We got a beautiful Asian hardwood dining room set with six chairs for just over $900! :grin:

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I only wear blank t-shirts, so now I only buy next-level brand, blank t-shirts for me to wear from my wholesale account. They are usually around $5, fit really well and come in many sizes and colors. Most t-shirts you buy are printed on the same shirts anyway.

I use https://www.alphabroder.com/cgi-bin/online/webshr/shr-index.w if anyone is interested.

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My wife has a clothing swap group on FB she’s very active in. It has been a HUGE $$$ saver for her clothing budget. She stumbled upon it by accident and I’m sure it is one of many. For women who don’t like to wear things over and over and like to have variety in their wardrobe it is fantastic.

You swap dresses and each person pays shipping for the dress. She constantly has people marvel at her never-ending string of beautiful dresses, which in reality are swaps for $5 from a dress she purchased on clearance for $50-$75. She’ll wear a dress in rotation for a few months and then swap it out.

It also helps for when she gets tired of a dress, there’s zero friction between us because she swaps it for something she likes. She also just straight sells dresses on the group/on poshmark.com, in essence ‘renting’ them for a while and then pulling the $$ back out of the clothing.

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I’ll add to that, that I try to follow the idea that if I buy a new item (let’s say a new shirt) I donate an existing shirt. It help with not having clutter but is also a way to figure out whether I want or need something.

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When we retired 11 years ago, we downsized from owning a 2000 sf house to renting a 1000 sf apartment. Part of the downsizing was getting rid of hundreds (thousands?) of books and many VHS/DVD movies and the bookcases that held them.

After a lifetime of buying books I decided no more – we now use the public library. Not only is this cheaper (free!) it is vastly more convenient. I can request books/movies online and they let me know when they’re ready to pick up. And since we live downtown, we can walk to the library.

This is a single example of how decluttering can improve your life, financially and otherwise.

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Fellow book lover here!

Have you also explored downloading books for free? I’ve tried this via the Kindle app and it works pretty well.

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Congrats gwraigty! That’s interesting. Do you attribute the difference to something about Wayfair.com specifically, or are you inferring there’s a larger technique to furniture shopping that can help you live better for less?

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Very nice blok, that’s a great price. I’m a big blank T-shirt fan too. Is it easy getting a wholesale account there? I gather these wear/look/feel like $10-20 shirts you could otherwise buy?

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So cool! Are there any groups she especially likes that would be open to interested members here?

Along similar lines, I wonder if she or anyone else here has tried renttherunway.com .

My wife tends to prefer high quality stuff she can wear for years, vs swapping stuff in and out…but I can imagine for someone who craves variety in a wardrobe, these groups are a lifesaver.

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Nicely done UM (and great to see you here, btw!) I agree it’s a great example life improvements from decluttering.

I can relate. In a previous life I was a philosophy professor, with books my stock in trade. This collection of thousands was largely unmanageable before our move from Spokane to Seattle, and I’m still trying to downsize. I only buy ebooks now unless there is a truly compelling reason for a paper purchase.

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From what she tells me it is very brand/style specific. So if you’re into vintage/retro there are vintage/retro groups. If you like Name brand there are name brand groups. Search for BST (Buy, sell, trade). Or for stores with very big followings BST.

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Nice, thanks Stubify.

I dont remember the sign up process, you may need a business with a TIN. I think you can get next-level shirts on Amazon as well. Yes they feel exactly the same since most graphic tees are printed on the same brand shirts.

You can also get other styles like collared, long sleeve, ect on wholesale sites.

Dave, I’m really not sure how to answer that. From what I’ve read, it seems as though Wayfair acts as more of a drop shipper rather than storing any inventory. That would lead to some significant savings. We’d had good luck with smaller furniture purchases, so that helped me be confident in buying something as large as a dining room set.

As for a larger technique, it’s the old, boring, comparison shopping. The price differential can be ridiculous, not only online, but even between stores that are literally across the street from each other.

When mattress shopping, one local store had pricing between $700 - $900 for some queen sets I found comfortable. The store across the street had comparable sets priced in the 4 figures. The saleswoman said she could let me have a set for as low as $1500. (Now, why didn’t I feel tempted by that?) After that, I was pretty sure I’d buy from the 1st store, until I checked a 3rd store. Their pricing was nearly identical to the 1st store, except the saleswoman mentioned that they had 3 models that were overstocked and were priced at $599 until they sold out. That’s where we bought our mattress.

Great idea, from you and DaveHanson, about ebooks. (My library also loans e-books.) I tried Kindle and other e-readers a while back and just didn’t like it. I am a cranky old guy who still prefers paper books. :slight_smile: Sometimes old technology is the best technology.

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UncaMikey: did you try a Kindle Reader or the Kindle Tablets?

I like these: Amazon.com

Dirt cheap, allow library borrowing, and still support text to speech for audio listening.

I understand too well the appeal of books. They started accumulating during my college/grad school years and grew and grew afterwards. They were part of my identity. When we downsized it was very difficult to sell the first batches of books but then it got easier and easier until by the end I was almost shoveling them out the door.

And Dave, thanks for your work in setting up this forum. I hope that eventually things will settle down and we can congregate in one place, so I don’t have to follow FWF, FragileDeal, and PhatWallet. (I don’t see Reddit or SD as serious alternatives.)

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