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. 
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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I think it was the regular Kindle reader, B&W. But it was a few years ago and I haven’t kept up with the latest tech. I see the advantages, you’re right, I’ll have to look into them again.
A few years back, I was torn between buying a dedicated Kindle reader and a Google Nexus 7. I went with the Nexus because I thought it would be more versatile. It helped that I could play with them at Best Buy first.
This was one of the most high-impact books I’ve read. Completely agree that there is a very overpowering anti-consumerism, anti-vacation, etc. slant to the book that I mostly disagree with, but the fundamental concept of the exchange of life-energy for money and the notion of financial independence has stuck with me pretty fiercely. I think it’s a valuable read for everyone, either if you agree with their slant or if you can divorce yourself from those notions for some of the larger picture stuff.
I often find myself thinking of larger expenses in terms of their cost in my life energy (XX hours / days of work, with all costs baked in) instead of strict $ cost, which makes me far more hesitant to spend freely. And while I don’t keep a chart that tracks expenses vs. income quite as they suggest, I do spend far too much time in Microsoft Money making sure I’m trending positively.
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I’ve found that advance planning can pay off even if it means spending more in the short term. For example we have been purchasing six flags season tickets for the family ( we have a six flags location about 30 min away) in the fall when they have the promo for free rest of this year membership when u buy a next year membership. We’ll stagger it so we will buy every other year. We’ll work a six flags location into our summer trip plans, and together with an ASTC membership at one of the less expensive museums, much of our trip is taken care of. We probably end up going to six flags over a dozen times between September and the following December bringing the cost down to just a few bucks per visit…
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While not as frugal as the xfinity mobile deal mentioned above, my wife and I have shifted to using Google Fi as our cell phone service. Not for extreme data users at all (as you pay $10 / GB of data), but between my wife and I, we use roughly 1GB of data a month via the cellular network, so our total bill comes to around $50 for our two lines. My wife used to spend $80 a month for her Verizon unlimited, so we’ve seen significant savings with no noticeable difference in quality.
There are likely cheaper domestic options, but the ability to seamlessly use the phone abroad is worth the extra for us, and what really sold us on the plan. We’ve used it in 10 or so countries so far with no issues.
If for some reason you feel the need for a “landline” a VOIP device like OOMA or others is great cost savings. Pay one time fee of $90 or so and then only pay $3-4 in taxes for your bill.
Also just get in the habit of making deals happen.
It’s easy to stack discount GC+Portal+Sale to get large discounts on many things. Obviously things like groceries won’t be to impressive, but clothing and other expenses can easily get 60%+ off “retail”.
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This alternate staggering is a great idea, Yzj. We’ve done something similar with the Wild Waves theme park south of Seattle. Many seasonal attractions work this way. It’s provided a fun way to give my daughter and her friends a good time without paying much, especially since the season tickets tend to come with a couple of free or discounted guest passes.
Happy Ooma Permier user here since 2009 (I bought hte lifetime sub for $350). I wouldn’t bother doing it now in the era of cheap unlimited cel service, but it paid for itself many times over, and Ms. DH has very much appreciated it.
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Thank the DOJ for killing the AT&T and Tmobile merger and the tmo gods for spending heavily the break up fee on spectrum and customer acquisition. We have unlimited tmo One for $21 per line including tax. I don’t know how much lower it will go, but it feels like we’ll bottom out very low. My other tmo account is $16 per line for 4GB of data per line.
$70 for internet is no deal, but I couldn’t pass up the Verizon Fios gigabit deal that I hope rolls out nationwide. With a little internal rewiring at the house I’m getting 800/900 Mbps up/down; definitely feels like champagne at beer prices.
To the user who posted about dining table on way fair, check out etsy.com as well. We got a beautiful hand crafted Amish table for $1,500 - the brother sister owners personally delivered it to our house.
Mattresses are a complete rip off. I could start a new thread on how to get a new mattress every year for free, but it’s past my bedtime 
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As SIS and others have mentioned, telecom costs are a big chunk of the average budget. I recently switched to toast.net. In my area, they resell ATT. I was able to get rid of Uverse TV and Internet and move to Internet only. Monthly bill will go from $92 to $50. We were not really watching the TV service so it was a complete waste. (Almost 100% usage of Rokus).
If you are in an ATT area, they will offer ATT DSL (similar to uverse “dsl”). They resell another carrier in other markets.
Hope this helps someone!
P.S. They do not raise their rates after 1 or 2 years. That is a big plus in my mind. I hate haggling every year with these guys!
I have a general philosophy to take on new recurring expenses extremely reluctantly and to make sure I am getting the best deal on those by comparison shopping regularly.
In practice, this means that I comparison shop my auto/home/umbrella insurance every year, my cable/internet every year or two, my mobile phone every year or two. I also try to minimize my electric, gas & water bills via my programmable thermostat & irrigation system. Instead of cable boxes, I use Tivo minis - no monthly fee, so they pay for themselves after a year or so.
I used to have a landscaping & snow removal service, but it’s really expensive around here and I saved thousands of dollars a year by doing it myself. Also, get a little exercise and get to spend time outside. I do pay for a cleaning service a couple times a month as I get a lot of value out of that.
Instead of paying a monthly fee for home security, I have a smart home system that alerts me when any doors/windows/garage doors are opened or when the motion detectors are activated. Also, have cameras hooked up so I can see what’s going on. Not an exact substitute for a monitored security system, but not bad for no monthly fee.
As far as cars go, we generally have bought used and kept our cars for 10+ years. Helps to minimize depreciation, insurance and excise taxes.
I have bought a lot of gently used electronics and other things from Craigslist. Fitbit, GPS watch, camera lenses, etc. Generally have gotten them for 20-50% of retail in excellent condition.
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I’ve become a big fan of Amazon Warehouse Deals. I generally look for Like New condition. This generally saves me 10-20% off the price of new items, and in new conditions except for maybe a dinged box.
Likewise, I recommend setting alerts at CamelCamelCamel for price drops. Bought a new tech item that $100+, for example? Set a price drop for $10-$20 less than you paid, and you get an email immediately once the price drops which you can then utilize to file a price protection claim with your credit card. Generally takes ~5-10 minutes total effort, which is >$60/hour after taxes.
Also a huge fan of using the Lowe’s coupons plus discounted gift cards. This generally results in at least 30% savings off list price. Buy tons of nice tools and equip there with major discounts. Use the following:
and
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We are not much out-on-the-town kind of people, but a few years back we won a trip to NYC that included a WNBA awards lunch. My DW did not have anything she felt was worthy to wear. So we used renttherunway. We were able to have the dress delivered to and picked up from our hotel, which also meant she did not have to worry about transporting a nice dress across the country. As I recall, they sent two sizes of the dress to help ensure one of them would fit. It was especially helpful as, at the time, they had something like $25 off your first rental, so the cost was very low. We’d definitely consider using them for a similar local event, rather than purchasing something for a one time use, then have it hang in the closet.
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How do you get Xfinity Internet for $39.99? Around here they start at $49.99, other than new customer promo rates.
Sometimes, you can ask to be kept on promo rates. It works especially well if there is competitor you could switch to.
We were on $30/month internet connection for 2 years with one provider and reaching in August the end of our promo period. I researched prices for competitors for similar speeds and saw they were offering $30/month elsewhere and with my provider but only for new customers. I just called them saying I’d like to stay with them but not for $55/month which was our new rate. At first, they could not lower it to more than $45/month. Best rate they could do. Since I owned my modem and router, it told the rep it’d be no trouble switching to another provider if it’d save me $15/month and potentially get me on higher speed package. Then somehow they managed to find a way to keep me on my $30/month deal for another 2 years…
Just be a squeaky wheel and be ready to switch if they don’t budge.
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As far as suggestions to leave frugally, one that consistently save us thousands per year is to cook food yourself.
I’m lucky that my husband cooks well so burden is not all on me. But the savings are significant when you know that the restaurant industry markup is usually 300%. Packing lunch (it’s healthier too) for 5 means spending about $10-15 vs $25-30. And time to cook/shop is not all that bad vs. driving to dinner, waiting to order/be served, driving back. Especially if you could larger quantities during the weekend and freeze portions. And you can do some fancy stuff too. You just end up splurging on ingredients vs. on labor.
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