How do you pinch pennies

  • Thread starter Thread starter Danoff
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CAMAROBOY69
My favorite way to pinch pennies lately is to "back up" as many PS2 games that I can. So far I have over 50 PS2 games and I would say at least 40 of them are "backed up". We have saved well over $2,000 in games already.
Game rental $2.00
Blank DVD $1.00
Total for game $3.00 max
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You too huh? lol
 
neon_duke
That was 'tactical' saving, and it didn't do much. So we concentrated on 'strategic' saving, which has made a big difference:
  • We have 10%+ of our gross salary put away in 401k retirement plans before we ever see our checks. We don't see it, we don't spend it, and it stacks up: plus our employers both match a portion of that, so that 10% is effectively 13% or 14%.
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Absolutely. Pay yourself first. The best thing I ever did was institute debit orders skimming away 10% of my salary away the day I get paid. As Duke said, what you dont see, you cant spend.

The lunch thing is something that many of my coworkers overlook. I can't believe people are willing to shell out 5-10 bucks per day so that they can save themselves 7 minutes in the morning and eat poorly.
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Couldnt put it better. 5-10 bucks a day X 5 (days a week) X 4 (weeks) = 200 bucks a month! On what! Cholestorol and saddlebags?


Yea, whenever I order a drink at an eatery, its always + 1 water. That way I have the awter to quench thirt, and drink for pleasure.

I am a big saver by nature. I save about 20 - 25% of my annual gross salary (excl company contributions).
 
danoff
I estimate that we save 30-60 dollars per month by shopping at two grocery stores instead of one.
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Let's take that $60 as a best case. We go grocery shopping every week. That's the two of us, for at least an hour each extra trip counting drive time, to save $15, or $7.50/person-hour. Not worth it to us.
Not getting rid of a car until it's totalled can cost you quite a bit in repairs (which is why it's good that you do them yourself). It can also cost you a lot of time and hassle if one of your old cars breaks down on the road. Not to mention a towing cost.
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In 15 years I can think of only two occasions where I've had to have a car towed home to work on it, not counting this last flood. As I said, I never get rid of a car until it is either totalled or not cost-effective to repair. I've probably just hit that second bump with my wife's Neon. I'm not going to dump $1500 into a '95 Neon when I can buy a '99 with half the mileage for $3000. In fact, I'll probably let the insurance company total it, and use the down on something in the 2002-2004 range.
Do you buy new cars when you do buy? That's a good way to lose a lot of money.
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I've bought both new and used cars. For new cars, I tend to buy towards the end of the model year. I keep my cars as long as possible - I'd still be driving the '92 'van if it hadn't been murdered - so that first hit of depreciation is meaningless to me. In 2003 we bought the 2000 van. I'll probably get something 2-3 years old for my wife.
We do coupons if they come to us - meaning we see them and we like the product and remember to use it at the store. Otherwise we don't really use them.
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Agreed, and we use discount coupons and rewards programs for restaurants we enjoy.
 
I thought that, but decided not to say anything at risk of sounding crass.
 
The other way I pinch pennies is just like whats mentioned above. I pack my own lunch every day at work. I see people leave here every day for lunch and spend at least $6.00 each day sometimes $10 on fridays! 👎
Thats about $30-$40 a week I save by avoiding lunch with them.
 
We have cell phones (something I'm willing to spend money on for lots of good reasons), and a land line. We have the land line because we have to for internet. I saved 10 bucks / month on the land line by converting it to "metered" service, meaning if I make more than so many minutes of calls on the land line I get charged. Ironically I have more minutes on my cell phone than my land line. :)

Duke,

The other grocery store is only a few minutes away for me so it doesn't take me any additional time. We alternate between stores every week so we don't have to go twice in the same week. It works out pretty well for us but it sounds like it isn't worth it in your situation.
 
I very rarely eat out and when I do I don't buy beverages, just water. And my wife and I share desert if we order it at all.

We use coupons whenever possible and almost always buy what's on sale. We usually save at least 30% on our grovery bill, but as our son grows I can see that expense growing with him.

I drive the Hyundai to work even though I'd rather drive my Jeep because my drive is 15 miles and my wife's is about 2 miles. Keeps fuel expenses down.

I roll my own smokes.
 
I use a credit card instead of the ATM. (Surprisingly, I spend less that way.) I used to hit up the cash machine for twice what I intended to buy, and that adds up. Not to mention, you don't tend to keep your reciepts as much when you make cash payments. A credit card forces you to keep reciepts, because this way you can track what your spending money on.

In terms of electronics and other gadgets, I have a lot of friends and family that buy the latest and greatest stuff; so they have hand-me-downs that just collect dust. I've bought one piece of computer hardware in my life: A dot-matrix printer way back in 1992. My wife and I split the cost of a digital camera two years ago with our Christmas money.

When we travel we tend to avoid the gift shops. Maybe we'll get a T-shirt now and then, but mostly the memories and photographs are our souvenirs. They are always more fun to look at years later.

When you own a home, try to repair it yourself. That's what we do in most cases.

We go to the Super Wal*Mart for most food and durable goods. We try to get there early, to avoid the crowds.

We've been ordering water more at restaurants, and drinking it more at home.
 

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