How do you pinch pennies

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Danoff

Danoff

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What are your favorite techniques for saving money?

My favorite - although it doesn't save us much - is to charge everything we buy on discover. That way we get cash back, and it works since we don't run a balance.

Another thing I like to do is order water when going out to eat. I don't always, sometimes I want something else to drink. But usually I stick to water. I used to order 2 dollar iced tea until I realized that was a rippoff.

I don't have cable - so that saves some - although I'm not sure that's worth it.

I try not to buy junk (see the "do you pay good money for junk" thread).

I have a savings account that has a decent interest rate - I'm not in a position to do much more than that for investing yet.

I do some of my grocery shopping at what I would consider a discount grocery store.

I go out to eat for one meal per week.

I do the wait-till-it-comes-out-on-video thing with movies most of the time.

I never run a balance on credit cards.

So what kind of stuff do you do to save money. I'm looking for anything from the little penny pinching stuff (like most of mine were) to stuff about your gargantuan investment portfolio.
 
Hmmm...

I go home to eat at lunch instead of going out to eat

I get 5% cash back purchase on anything I buy on my visa

Coupons! and buy one get one free stuff as well as shopping at costco.

I drink water at home becasue I get free refills on those 5 gallon jugs (Az water sucks, even though we have a water softener)
 
I give myself cash for the week and leave the credit cards at home so I'm not tempted to use them. I keep one card for emergancies. Works pretty good.


M
 
skylineGTR_guy
I get 5% cash back purchase on anything I buy on my visa
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5%? Are you sure it's not .5%? I get .5% Cash back on my Visa check card... I will get like $4 back from $800 spent at newegg.

ANyway, limit myself to $10 cash every week on food. I still have my check card, and I use that an awful lot. I'm not good at saving. On thursday, my bank account will be down to $40...
 
Any foodstuff that doesn't have a shelf life (dried pasta, rice, tinned tomatoes etc) gets bought in bulk.

I also do a lot of 'offer shopping' - I'll switch brands for a "buy-one-get-one-free", and if I'm eating it today, I often buy from the Reduced counter.

I buy as much as I can on-line. Just saved £100 on a camcorder and at least £200 on a PC by shopping around. I buy all my books/cds etc online.
 
I don't pinch pennies at all. We used to be really careful and spend time grocery shopping three different places, clipping coupons, etc. and being really careful about every small purchase. In the end, considering how much time we spent doing it, it just wasn't cost-effective for the small return we got.

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%.
  • We pack leftovers or a sandwich for lunch every day. I can eat lunch for $10 a week instead of $5-10 a day.
  • We never carry a balance on our credit cards, and we get cash-back. Interest paid to a bank is money flushed down the toilet.
  • We financed our house for 30 years, but we double-paid the principal every month. 10 years into the mortgage we were a good bit ahead, so we could afford to refinance for a 15-year loan - cutting 5 years off the remaining loan term, and lowering our payment at the same time. Now we can afford to pay even more principal, meaning we'll pay the 15-year loan off on 10 years, and saving a bazillion dollars in interest. Remember, paying interest is like lighting your fireplace with money.
  • We never get rid of a car until it is totalled or not cost-effective to repair. We're both driving 10-year-old Neons, but until we bought the 'van, we went from '97 to '03 with no car payment at all: that translates to about $25,000, at least half of which we invested in fixing up our house. And we never finance a car for more than 3 years - the extra couple of years for a 5-year loan lowers your monthly payment by a very small amount, but you get creamed on interest in the long run. I bought my car used and I paid cash.
  • I do my own car maintenance wherever possible. I can do a 4-wheel brake job, using better pads than a shop would use, for $60 and 4 hours of my time. That would be $200-250 at a shop, and it would take at least an hour for 2 people to drop the car off, call after it, and pick it up at the end of the day. You can do it in your driveway using $20 in hand tools that you only need to buy once.
  • We used to go out to eat a lot, but we're cutting back a little on that, in preparation for unscheduled replacement of my wife's car. For a family of 4, a decent meal is $60 with tip - and that adds up fast. If we go out once a week instead of twice, that's most of a car payment right there by the end of the month.
  • We don't buy the latest, top-of-the line gadgets. I have a good cell phone, but I skipped the wireless-nternet, blackberry, fancy-ringtone etc. models and got one that was $70 after rebates. Same with our handhelds - color, fast, lots of memory, but no bells and whistles. We did without a digital camera until recently when 5-megapix units became cost-effective. We always go with low-line professional stuff rather than high-line consumer stuff if possible: more performance, less frill, and less money.
So really, saving $3 here and there isn't really effective - but there are lots of ways you can save big money, just by prioritizing.
 
I don't pinch pennies at all. We used to be really careful and spend time grocery shopping three different places, clipping coupons, etc. and being really careful about every small purchase. In the end, considering how much time we spent doing it, it just wasn't cost-effective for the small return we got.

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%.
We pack leftovers or a sandwich for lunch every day. I can eat lunch for $10 a week instead of $5-10 a day.
We never carry a balance on our credit cards, and we get cash-back. Interest paid to a bank is money flushed down the toilet.
We financed our house for 30 years, but we double-paid the principal every month. 10 years into the mortgage we were a good bit ahead, so we could afford to refinance for a 15-year loan - cutting 5 years off the remaining loan term, and lowering our payment at the same time. Now we can afford to pay even more principal, meaning we'll pay the 15-year loan off on 10 years, and saving a bazillion dollars in interest. Remember, paying interest is like lighting your fireplace with money.
We never get rid of a car until it is totalled or not cost-effective to repair. We're both driving 10-year-old Neons, but until we bought the 'van, we went from '97 to '03 with no car payment at all: that translates to about $25,000, at least half of which we invested in fixing up our house. And we never finance a car for more than 3 years - the extra couple of years for a 5-year loan lowers your monthly payment by a very small amount, but you get creamed on interest in the long run. I bought my car used and I paid cash.
I do my own car maintenance wherever possible. I can do a 4-wheel brake job, using better pads than a shop would use, for $60 and 4 hours of my time. That would be $200-250 at a shop, and it would take at least an hour for 2 people to drop the car off, call after it, and pick it up at the end of the day. You can do it in your driveway using $20 in hand tools that you only need to buy once.
We used to go out to eat a lot, but we're cutting back a little on that, in preparation for unscheduled replacement of my wife's car. For a family of 4, a decent meal is $60 with tip - and that adds up fast. If we go out once a week instead of twice, that's most of a car payment right there by the end of the month.
We don't buy the latest, top-of-the line gadgets. I have a good cell phone, but I skipped the wireless-nternet, blackberry, fancy-ringtone etc. models and got one that was $70 after rebates. Same with our handhelds - color, fast, lots of memory, but no bells and whistles. We did without a digital camera until recently when 5-megapix units became cost-effective. We always go with low-line professional stuff rather than high-line consumer stuff if possible: more performance, less frill, and less money.
So really, saving $3 here and there isn't really effective - but there are lots of ways you can save big money, just by prioritizing.
Click to expand...

I estimate that we save 30-60 dollars per month by shopping at two grocery stores instead of one.

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. Do you buy new cars when you do buy? That's a good way to lose a lot of money.

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.

Let's say it's 5 bucks per day. That's 25 per week or 100 dollars per month!! That's rediculous! I can't believe people pay it.

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.
 
I'll buy whatever I want so long as I don't use more than 50% of my paycheck in any given pay period. The primary reason for this is because I'm saving for a motorcycle this coming spring - but more than likely, I won't be able to buy one because insurance will be rediculously expensive for me. If that happens, I'll probably just put the saved up cash towards a pc 👍
 
neon_duke
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%.
Click to expand...
I've been contributing 6% of every check ( and the company matches 6%) making it 12% total form every check since the first day I've ever worked :D
 
How do I pinch pennies? Like this: this. : )


I'm really not good at saving money. I used to eat out pretty often, but I've been trying to cut down on it. I usually only get water when I eat fast food, it saves money and I'm not a big fan of soda. I leave my ATM card at home, if it's not there then I can't use it.
 
I choose one of the cheapest items on the menu, and order water. No appetizers, no sides.

Buy things on sale (duh).

Let mom cut the coo-pawns (she seems to enjoy it or something. I think it's a waste of time to save 50¢ on a shopping trip).

No junk. The last thing I ever bought that I haven't used was a box from Thailand that cost like $15, 4 or 5 years ago. I don't use it because it's too small to hold anything, even a deck of cards. Anyway, I just buy the extreme essentials – food, food, food, and presents as needed. CDs are about my only "splurge" items.

Pay everything in cash.
 
Well, one good thing about Lou Fusz's payroll, it's direct deposit, goes right into the bank. So that means that I have to go to the bank to get money. Even though it's right across the street from Fusz, it's a big deterant. So then I only have a few bucks at home, so I feel like "damn, I'm almost out of money, I better not buy that 1/24 scale RX-7 Turbo II diecast"(but ofcourse I did, only $10, it's the Initial D one but I had my brother wet-sand off the "stickers"(painted on) so it looks like a pretty stock TII). Also it gains interest in the bank. My mom is a huge coupon cutter, we often go out to eat purely because we have a coupon that expires in a day or so so we might as well use it up. My brother has the gas price changes down pat(through his network of friends around STL who often call him and others to report a cheap gas station) and knows which places change thier prices first, so he can time it so that he gets gas right before a price hike. I just go to Mobil because it's close, Speedpass, and it's reliable.
Also, ever since I can remember, when walking anywhere I look down. Look at the ground. People drop coinage and are like "ohh damn, it's only a dime, screw it". Pick that dime up, it's still good. You can get a good amount of change by doing that, even with pennies. My friends use to annoy me by throwing coins at eachother and just on the ground. I picked them up every time.

I've got a good amount of money in the bank now, and am looking for a Mazda to spend some of it on.
 
I just don't spend money. The only thing I regularly spend mony on is petrol. I'd rather have a big bank balance than lots of stuff. I did that in the Gran Turismo games, and now I do it in real life. If there's anything I really feel I need, I just wait for Christmas or my birthday to roll around, and request it. I never buy stuff that I won't use, or would only use once or twice. I also have a change jar, and God only knows how much is in that. I also do a lot of overtime at work (a basic week would be 10 hours, and I usually do about 22).

I currently have about £3000 in my bank account, and that's after buying, insuring and taxing the Mini. It's a novelty I can't have for long though; applying for a full time job now, and giving my mum money in rent will probably take its toll.

Still, no worries. Just don't spend anything.
 
Whatever I plan to buy, I reasearch how much it costs wholesale. Then, I make an offer to the seller around 12 percent more than that wholesale price. But that's if I have to pay retail. Normanly, I buy most of my larger purchases via wholesaler, or distributer.

There are exceptions, though. Like when I had to have the HDTV hard drive recorder a year-and-a-half ago. Paid too much for it, but had to have it. My wife is the bigger problem. She, within the last year, likes to buy fancy furniture stuff, and doesn't care how much she pays for it. It really frustrates me like mad. She wont hesitate to pay 7,000 dollars on a desk nobody is allowed to use. :mad:
 
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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