Tilted Frugality - Page 2 - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

Tully Mars · 05-01-2008, 09:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by onesnowyowl

This is a bit of a threadjack, but: we've always taken turns in my relationship--I paid the first time we went out, he paid the second, and so on. Now it comes down to three things: 1) I've offered to pay, 2) if it was mutual/we have equal amounts of money, we rock-paper-scissors it out, or 3) whoever has more money pays. In my opinion, equity should start at the beginning of the relationship. If a girl wants you to pay her way all the time, she isn't worth it.

I agree with everything you just said. Though I would add this applies to much, much more then just finances.

smoore · 05-01-2008, 09:16 AM

Uh oh, hope it doesn't devolve into a bike thread.

re: no bike shops: I'm loath to recommend it but there is a website called bikesdirect.com I've heard really bad things about customer service but the prices are REALLY tempting. I've never ordered anything from them, caveat emptor. I've been lusting over a trek fixie they have for something like $200.

There is also http://www.performancebike.com/ the prices are higher but I've actually had a CS issue with them and can give their service a rousing thumbs up. Others have had negative experiences so YMMV.

Here is a list of bike fit calculators: http://www.cyclemetrics.com/Pages/Fi..._fit_links.htm I have no idea how well they work, I ride all used bikes so I just get on the thing and see if it fits

re: hills and single speed: I feel your pain, sister. I live in CO and I sold my cruiser for that exact reason. I could get away with it now that I live in Lakewood for short trips but gears are good. A stronger cyclist could use one around here pretty well but I'm flabby and out of shape.

re: bike thieves: Scum of the earth. I feel for people who have to keep their bikes outside. I just bring mine in the house. It's leaning right over there. Sure, it's not too neat for the house but I like my bike so looking at it isn't an imposition. Be wary of U-Locks, they are not created equal, buy a good one. I don't understand vandalism and never have. Why would someone stomp a bike's wheels? (or rip the antenna off a car or break a window or...or...or...) Assholes.

edit: oh yeah! Some people put Huffy or Magna decals on their nice bikes, I don't know if bike thieves actually know what to look for or if they just steal via brand name.

NoSoup · 05-07-2008, 07:57 PM

Perhaps I'm Biased, but one of the easiest, least expensive ways to save a ton of cash throughout your lifetime is to have great credit.

If you're interested, you can learn more here ->http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthread.php?t=67686

genuinegirly · 05-07-2008, 08:55 PM

Thanks, NoSoup! Great advice! It really does make a difference.

Convince yourself to spend less
If you enjoy windowshopping as a hobby, leave your credit card and cash at home. Bring only a small change purse, no bills.

See what catches your attention. Explore. Develop your tastes without indulging. Learn what a reasonable price is for the items that appeal to you the most, by walking (or surfing) from store to store, comparing prices, styles, and quality. Touch items. Learn about textures and textiles. Find what you've determined is your favorite. Wait a month. Do you still find it interesting? It's probably on sale or clearance by now.

When your shoes have started to give out, start looking around. If they're dress shoes, polish them. Wait a month before purchasing. You'll realize those shoes had a lot more life than you thought. Throw away if the sole is literally worn through or the body torn noticeably.

Build a Budget

As an exercise in frugality, design yourself an unreasonably low budget. Keep to it religiously for a minimum of 4 months. Determine just how little you can live off of. Weigh your comforts and needs. By the end of that 4 months, you will realize you could have spent/wasted less. Make it a game. Try it again.

allaboutmusic · 05-07-2008, 10:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by genuinegirly

When your shoes have started to give out, start looking around. If they're dress shoes, polish them. Wait a month before purchasing. You'll realize those shoes had a lot more life than you thought. Throw away if the sole is literally worn through or the body torn noticeably.

Get your shoes resoled if the sole is worn but the upper is still in good shape. My favourite pair of smart casual shoes is on its third sole now... not very trend-setting, but much cheaper than buying new shoes.

Cynthetiq · 05-16-2008, 03:33 PM

keep shopping until you are committed to the purchase.

I do this for rental cars when we travel. I sometimes can save a HUGE amount just by continuing to shop the different aggregators. Don't lock in with a credit card unless you absolutely must.

Cynthetiq · 05-26-2008, 07:35 PM

Quote:

View: Starting Salaries but New York Tastes
Source: NYTimes
posted with the TFP thread generator

Starting Salaries but New York Tastes
May 25, 2008
Starting Salaries but New York Tastes
By CARA BUCKLEY
Laura Werkheiser knew she would have to make many sacrifices to live in Manhattan. Foremost among them was shopping for clothes.

Anticipating, rightly, that her Manhattan digs would be cramped and her budget stretched, Ms. Werkheiser, 26, shipped 18 boxes of her clothes to her parents’ house in Omaha before moving here from San Francisco. The boxes sit in her parents’ basement. When she feels she needs to freshen up her look, Ms. Werkheiser has her mother ship her several outfits from what she dryly refers to as the “Nebraska boutique.”

“If I shop,” said Ms. Werkheiser, “I can’t have a social life and I can’t eat.”

Having one’s mother mail rotating boxes of old clothing is just one of the myriad ways that young newcomers to the city of a certain income — that is, those who are neither investment bankers nor being floated by their parents — manage to live the kind of lives they want in New York. Every year around this time, tens of thousands of postcollegiate people in their 20s flood the city despite its soaring expenses. They are high on ambition, meager of budget and endlessly creative when it comes to making ends meet.

Some tactics have long been chronicled: sharing tiny apartments with strangers. Sharing those apartments with eight strangers. Eating cheap lunches and skipping dinners — not just to save money, but so that drinks pack more of a punch and fewer need be consumed.

But there are smaller measures, no less ingenious, that round out the lifestyle. These young people sneak flasks of vodka into bars, flirt their way into clubs, sublet their walk-in closets, finagle their way into open-bar parties and put off haircuts until they visit their hometowns, even if those hometowns are thousands of miles away.

Ms. Werkheiser’s salary as a publicist, while well south of six figures, might be considered enviable elsewhere in the country, but in New York she has had to reprioritize. So the remote wardrobe was not her only money-saving tactic. She also gave up being a blonde.

Before moving from San Francisco last fall, Ms. Werkheiser realized that paying salon prices for platinum tresses in New York would require cutting back on needs like food and shelter. “So I went natural,” said Ms. Werkheiser. “I dyed it dark, a New York brunette.”

She and her friends have also located just about every B.Y.O.B. brunch spot in the city, plotting them out on Google maps. The cost-consciousness, Ms. Werkheiser says, is worth it: She adores New York and lives, with two roommates, in a $3,450-a-month three-bedroom apartment on the Lower East Side, verily the center of the universe for Manhattan’s young and hip.

Drinking and eating carry their own complications. Especially if you are, say, Noah Driscoll, a 25-year-old project manager for a Chelsea marketing company whose salary is comparable to what a rookie teacher might make.

“For a little while I only ate grapefruits for my lunch,” said Mr. Driscoll, who pays $400 a month on his college loans, “because they have a lot of nutrients and they got me through the day.”

Mr. Driscoll has since started packing two peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches for lunch. Dinner might be two baked potatoes. On a recent Monday, it was franks and beans. On a good night, he might spend up to $6.

“To live like a human being on the salary that I make is very difficult in this city,” he said. “You’ve got to forget about brands, you’ve got to forget about, you know, what your mom made you growing up, and take what’s out there.”

Mr. Driscoll’s rent is reasonable: $725 for a room in a converted loft space that he shares with five friends in Gowanus, Brooklyn, near Park Slope. Most of his friends, however, earn far more than he does, and Mr. Driscoll is guilty of that quintessential New York sin: coveting thy neighbor’s salary. One recent night, his roommates went to Peter Luger Steak House. Mr. Driscoll waved them goodbye and stayed home.

Peter Naddeo, a 24-year-old musician, earns $15 an hour working as a temp in Web development in Chelsea, and has perfected the tricky art of stretching lunch into dinner. He moved to New York from Pennsylvania last fall and can barely afford his $80 monthly college loan payments. He listens to a hand-me-down CD player because iPods are out of reach. He pays $600 for a 10-by-10-foot room in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, that has one saving grace: a window that faces east. For lunch, Mr. Naddeo usually orders a $3.50 plate of yellow rice and beans from a Latin American diner on Eighth Avenue, and eats late to ward off hunger pangs. Sometimes he hits up a bar in his neighborhood where a $6 pint comes with a small pizza. Or he relies on friends to feed him.

“My friends aren’t rich,” said Mr. Naddeo, who is slight. “They’re just nice.”

“Pre-gaming,” youth speak for drinking at home before going out, is another cash saver. So is ferreting out bars that offer free drinks at certain times, information that is handily compiled at myopenbar.com. Another trick is to become a semiprofessional “plus one,” and tag along with connected friends to events and shows. Strapped partygoers the city over often sell the contents of goody bags online. The truly bold scrimper, armed with designer swag, might “return” items to a department store for credit.

Cassaundra Reed, a 26-year-old concierge, lives in the West Village with three roommates, and pays $925 for a narrow room where the only viable sleeping arrangement is a twin-size loft bed. Though she lives paycheck to paycheck, her job comes with heavy perks: She often eats at top restaurants, drinks at trendy clubs and sees Broadway shows, all free of charge.

“A lot of the things that I do in New York, I wouldn’t be able to do, because I would have to pay for a lot of it,” she said. “A lot of the restaurants that I’ve been to, I wouldn’t be able to go to at all, because I wouldn’t be able to afford it.”

Allison Mooney, 27, whose first job in the city was in publishing, often skipped dinner before going out, and instead took along mixed salted nuts in her purse. When things got really tight, she occasionally sneaked a flask filled with vodka into bars. Other times, she reluctantly resorted to flirting.

“I find in other cities guys are more apt to buy you drinks and expect nothing from it,” Ms. Mooney said.

“Here, if they do buy you a drink, which is rare, you have to suffer through flirtations. It’s true,” she said, adding, “It’s really cheesy.”

Now, though, Ms. Mooney is a publicist, and this month received a 40 percent raise. She is also about to move in with her boyfriend, so the hard-core scrimping and forced flirting are behind her, at least for now.

Still, some young men insist that women have it easier. The men say strangers never buy them drinks. Mr. Driscoll recently took a date out for margaritas, to a place that was supposedly cheap. They had four drinks and the bill came to $45.

“I looked at the charge four times and immediately regretted it,” he said.

Grooming presents its own challenges. Mr. Naddeo cuts his own hair with an electric razor and wears hand-me-down clothes from friends. Mr. Driscoll has curly hair that he says requires specific products and “some taming.”

“I wouldn’t go just anywhere” for a cut, Mr. Driscoll said. “Not to sound metro, but I like my hair.”

For women, though, grooming can break the bank. Like Ms. Werkheiser, Ms. Reed gave up being blond. But Ms. Werkheiser went further, renouncing manicures and pedicures, and trolling Craigslist for hair stylists offering cheapish cuts. Andrea Duchon, a 22-year-old freelance publicist, landed a spot as a hair model for Bumble and Bumble, where she gets free cuts. Victoria Varney, 23, a brand manager for the Soundgirl clothing line, schedules haircuts into her trips home to Ohio. She also relies heavily on handouts from friends who work with other designers, and on sample sales.

“That is how you shop,” Ms. Varney said. “There is no need to pay full price here.”

Some indulgences are less negotiable than others. So Ms. Varney, formerly a self-professed “huge Sephora shopper,” allows herself Dior mascara and high-shine lip gloss, which cost about $25 each. “Everything else, I’ve regressed and buy at Duane Reade,” she said.

Ms. Werkheiser refuses to give up her Bumble and Bumble shampoo. “I don’t do drugstores,” she said. “I will eat Pringles for dinner instead.”

Adam Leibsohn, a 27-year-old communications strategist who makes roughly $60,000 a year and pays $1,650 a month for his own apartment in the East Village, says the trick to squeaking by in the city is to swear off impulse purchases and credit cards. He cooks for himself, pirates wireless Internet access and buys electronics from Craigslist or eBay. If he wants new clothes, he unloads old ones first at the Salvation Army, keeping the receipt for his taxes. “It’s kind of a spartan lifestyle,” he says. “I eat a lot of street meat for lunch.”

Sarah Avrin, a 23-year-old music publicist, said she was struck recently by the sacrifices that some people make to sustain their New York lifestyle when one of her friends endured the long, painful process of selling her eggs.

Many young people wonder just how long they will be willing or able to pay their dues to stay in New York until that new job, that big break or that coveted raise comes along. Mr. Driscoll tries to constantly remind himself that he “won’t be eating scraps” forever.

Mr. Naddeo, who has his own band, Archipelago, and plays in several others, said, “The whole plan is that something good will come along eventually, like something will just come my way.” One of the bands recently earned $180 at a gig — not a bad haul, except that 13 musicians were playing.

“I mean, New York’s just the place for that type of thing to happen. And I’m hoping it will soon,” Mr. Naddeo said. “I’ll be rich and famous and this is going to be hilarious.”

NYC is a hard town that's for sure. I believe that's why the Sinatra line, "If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere". I'm not trying to make this a NY-centric thread, because really, "making it" is an important thing. The ability to stand on your own two feet with no one but you being responsible for yourself. Yes, we have relatives and friends to assist and bail out of situations, but all in all, the idea of making it... of making something more than what you started with...

I read this article and thought to myself, it is part of the carpe diem that is slightly missing from my current self. I'm comfortable with our salaries and our lifestyles. But that won't be satisfactory in 10 years and if don't make the adjustments now I'm not going to hit those goals.

And with all the trips that Skogafoss and I have been taking this year, so far they have been plenty, Chicago twice, LA, Las Vegas, Tampa, Puerto Rico and we just booked yet another trip to Las Vegas. We've started eating PB&J and grilled cheese sandwiches. While it's not the college ramen staple, it is still something out of ordinary for us to scrimp in order to save. We don't have to do it, but then something else in the budget would have to give.

The last time we did this kind of scrimping we did it 100% so that we could buy where we live right now. We did it for 2 years... this time it will be a little shorter, but we have some additional goals in mind. This time it's for a few months, just so that we can take some additional travel in for larger goals.

allaboutmusic · 05-27-2008, 03:43 PM

That sounds a lot like London. Lots of people I know are getting to the point in their lives when they're questioning if London is really worth the trouble.

pocon1 · 05-28-2008, 12:16 PM

nothing to say

Tully Mars · 05-28-2008, 02:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pocon1

About dating:

Just get a hooker. You will get exactly what you pay for, and the cost is up front. No dinners, no movies, just the three G's. Get In, Get Off, Get Out. It will save money in the long run.

Umm, you may have left off a "G"- Get to the clinic.

Baraka_Guru · 05-28-2008, 03:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pocon1

About dating:

Just get a hooker. You will get exactly what you pay for, and the cost is up front. No dinners, no movies, just the three G's. Get In, Get Off, Get Out. It will save money in the long run.

I would have just said find yourself a woman who makes at least double what you do. But whatever.

smoore · 05-28-2008, 07:58 PM

Back on track:

I don't know if I or someone else mentioned this before but... power strips. They are your buddy. We have all our "vampire loads" plugged into them and we turn the power strip off when not using said "charger pucks". When a computer gets powered down, it's power strip gets powered down too.

It's kinda fun to go into the yard and watch the 'fridge kick on via the power meter.

denton · 06-01-2008, 03:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Baraka_Guru

I would have just said find yourself a woman who makes at least double what you do. But whatever.

As long as she doesn't consistently spend 120% of your combined incomes like my woman does.

Cynthetiq · 06-28-2008, 09:08 AM

Quote:

View: Food-Shopping Tips Direct From the Store Manager
Source: NYTimes
posted with the TFP thread generator

Food-Shopping Tips Direct From the Store Manager
June 28, 2008
Your Money
Food-Shopping Tips Direct From the Store Manager
By RON LIEBER
At the bottom of some of its receipts, Heinen’s Fine Foods prints its phone number and asks customers to call in with comments. And each week, Tom Heinen, who runs the 17-store chain in the Cleveland area with his twin brother, Jeff, listens to a recording of those calls as he drives to work in his Chevy Blazer.

This week, he let me listen in as we made a lap of the suburbs, visiting his stores and those of the competition. While lots of self-styled shopping experts have been trotting out the same tried-and-true advice recently on clipping coupons and avoiding the store while hungry, I thought we could learn something new about shopping tactics by talking to a grocer who actually sets the prices.

It’s a tricky time to be selling the high-quality foods Heinen’s offers. Egg prices in May were up 18.2 percent from a year ago, while bread rose 15.9 percent and milk was up 10.2 percent, according to Consumer Price Index data. With those kinds of spikes, the big question most consumers are asking is whether it’s time to switch grocers.

On those phone calls, Heinen’s customers are indeed complaining a lot about prices. But so far, most of them seem to have stuck by the chain.

Their loyalty suggests a couple of things about the kind of middle- and upper-class shoppers Heinen’s tends to attract. While they are concerned about price, they’re increasingly thinking about their foods’ origins and quality. So they would just as soon not trade down from a store like Heinen’s that offers handsome local radishes and an excellent stir-fry station.

And they almost certainly don’t want to drive around to six different stores cherry-picking deals. “With two adults working and the kids going to soccer, I defy you to show me how they can do it,” Mr. Heinen said. “They’ll be in the nuthouse.”

But the chain has chosen to do a number of things differently, given that Whole Foods entered the Cleveland market last year and regional chains have been relentlessly papering the area with circulars. (Whole Foods itself has its own initiatives under way, which I’ll describe below.)

If your grocer isn’t trying some of these same experiments, you’re probably paying more than you need to. And the questions the Heinen brothers and others have been asking are the same ones you should be asking of your grocers. Here are a few of them:

HOW MUCH ARE YOU THROWING OUT? According to one Agriculture Department estimate — though it is more than 10 years old — Americans waste 27 percent of all food available for human consumption. Tom Heinen is well aware of this, since grocers have to get rid of all sorts of food past its prime. But he thinks that grocery shoppers share some of the blame as well. His solution is to spend more money but waste less food.

He explained his logic in front of a display of sausage-stuffed Hungarian peppers, assembled in Heinen’s kitchen and ready for cooking at home. “It’s not cheaper to make it yourself if you throw parts of the peppers or the sausage away,” he said.

The theory here is that if you buy marinated meat or washed lettuce or other convenience items, you’re not creating any waste in the preparation. If you chop and stuff those peppers with sausage yourself, however, you may buy too much of one or the other and neglect to use it or throw out parts of the pepper that don’t work in the recipe. You may also buy the ingredients but never get around to making the dish.

This way of shopping puts money in the grocer’s pocket, so take it with a grain of imported sea salt. But if you value your time and find yourself throwing away half-heads of lettuce on a regular basis, these sorts of convenience foods may be more economical than you think.

WHERE ARE THE ARTISAN-QUALITY DEALS? Heinen’s has won “best cheese selection” honors from Cleveland Magazine for several years running, a tall order for a nonspecialty shop. To keep that title, with cheese prices up 14 percent in the last year nationally, the store’s managers knew they had to make some adjustments.

“We went to vendors and said to them, ‘Go out and find us artisan equivalent cheese,’ ” said Chris Foltz, the company’s director of operations. What Heinen’s was looking for was the unusual, the delicious and the gently priced.

Now, Heinen’s is selling an Australian cheddar and Monterey Jack cheese for $5.99 a pound and is promoting those new offerings with signs that say “Heinen’s Great Value Cheeses.” There’s an offering from Wisconsin, too, for shoppers concerned about how far their food has traveled.

If this all sounds a bit familiar, it’s because Trader Joe’s has been using similar strategies for years, helping it to develop a cult following. “Too many of our customers think they’re too cool,” Tom Heinen said of Trader Joe’s. “We’re worried more about them than we are about Whole Foods.”

Your grocer ought to be eyeing the competition, too. Does it offer fair prices on unique products? Is there a conscious effort to stock interesting and inexpensive wines? Good olive oil for under $10? If not, ask why.

IS IT LOCAL? One way to keep prices low is to buy local produce, since it travels fewer miles to the store and tends to pass through fewer hands. Heinen’s now has a produce buyer whose primary job during the warm months is to shop the local produce auctions. The chain buys from 45 farmers, most of whom are no more than two hours away.

This last week, for instance, radishes and green onions from K. W. Zellers & Son in Hartville, Ohio, sold for 99 cents for two bunches, and they sit under a “Home Grown” sign highlighting their origin. When local bell peppers are in season, they sell for 59 cents a pound, a fraction of the price that peppers from far away fetch in the winter. At Heinen’s, local produce is cheaper about three quarters of the time.

Local products aren’t always less expensive. Heinen’s carries a goat cheese, for instance, that costs about $24 a pound. But grocers generally promote such items anyway, since many shoppers like the idea of supporting nearby businesses and buying items that didn’t consume too much diesel fuel to get to the store.

WHO’S MY TOUR GUIDE? Not every grocery store bothers to highlight local products. So you may need to ask what comes from nearby and who grew or made it. “One of the things Whole Foods taught us is the need to tell stories” about our products, Mr. Heinen said. In fact, Heinen’s has 50 stories that it trains employees to tell customers about its meat, produce, baked goods and other items.

This month, Whole Foods took another step forward on this front, designating one employee from each store as a “value guru.” Those employees now give regular tours highlighting sales, local and seasonal items and popular selections from its private label brand.

I learned a couple of new things on my tour with Alli Krohn Smith in the company’s Union Square store in Manhattan. First, you can order many grocery items by the case and receive a 5 percent discount. In the health and beauty aisle, where many grocers try to rob you blind, Whole Foods has its own brand of shampoo and conditioner. They each sold for $3.79 for 32 ounces in New York, which is a nice deal.

Though your store may not have a guru per se, there ought to be someone knowledgeable enough to answer the following questions: What’s new? What’s local? What’s exclusive to this store or chain? What’s the best deal in the store right now? What did you buy this week for your own pantry?

WHAT KIND OF GROCER DO YOU PATRONIZE? Running a grocery store is a tough way to make a living. Industry veterans refer to it somewhat derisively as a “1 percent business,” because of its rock-bottom profit margins. The stores are labor- and logistics-intensive and riddled with waste and costs of every sort.

So this is what you have to ask yourself: If you are patronizing a grocer that doubles your coupons, discounts your gasoline or runs other expensive promotions, how exactly are they staying in business? Are they gouging you on the second most popular brand when the most popular one goes on sale? Do prices bounce around so frequently that it’s impossible to keep the baseline in your head?

Shoppers can play the discount game and win by shopping six different stores, buying only the sale items and products they have coupons for, buying in bulk and then cooking from the pantry and freezer.

But if you don’t want to live that life, you shouldn’t beat yourself up. Demanding more from a single store on price — and quality —may be a better way to fill your belly.

here's tips from a gorcery manager

genuinegirly · 06-29-2008, 11:45 AM

Cyn: Thanks for the tips from the grocery manager! Interesting to think about consistancy of prices. The key really does seem to be this: THINK.

pocon1: Not sure if you realized, but it was a woman that started this thread (me!). Not all women are out to make use of your money while out on a date. If you honestly feel that a string of hookers can be less expensive overall than a girlfriend or a wife, you're spending time with the wrong women.

Tully Mars · 06-29-2008, 01:01 PM

Yeah, I think if you're going to look at a cost benefit analyst prior to beginning a relationship your life's going to be pretty shallow and lonely.

genuinegirly · 06-29-2008, 03:01 PM

Tully_Mars: While I agree with you completely, there is something to be said about finding someone who is compatable from a financial perspective. If you have similar goals and self-control when it comes to money, you'll find there are fewer conflicts. So many otherwise solid relationships fail because of differing perspectives on finances.

Tt and I are doubly happy - I never thought I'd find a man who was as frugal as me, turns out he was just under my nose. His father mirros my mother with their deal-hunting habits, his mother is like my father with their classic style. Throw those backgrounds together and you get us: a pretty awesome duo that can live below the poverty line while fitting in with the upper-middle class.

laconic1 · 07-15-2008, 09:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by itlain

The other thing that I've done is to move from the disposable razors like the Fusion or the fancy Gillette type razors to a double-edge safety razor like:

Again, it took a bit of up-front investment in that the badger brush cost about 30$, a container of shaving cream was about 20$, and the razor was free. So for about 50$ I have a razor that will last a lifetime, a brush that will easily last about 5-7 years, the shaving cream will last on average about 4-6 months for me (not to mention my skin feels so much better with a natural sandalwood instead of processed goo), and the replacement blades only cost about 3-5$ for 10 blades. I go through maybe 6-8 blades a month right now and that is shaving everyday. So after 3 months, I've already saved money and from now on it will just keep adding up.

I did the same thing a few months ago. My upfront investment was a lot higher that yours, my razor was $55, my brush was $80. My shaving cream was $16.00 and the tub will most likely last me about 2 months, since I tend to use quite a bit. I bought a pack of 100 blades for $14.20 shipped, which at my current usage will last about 1 year. The aftershave balm I use cost $19.00 and will last about 4 months. So that works out to an upfront cost of $135.00 with an annual supply cost of about $150.00. Compare that to when I was using a Fusion going through two $3.00 blades a week and one can of $5.00 shaving cream every three months. Annual supply cost of $325.00. So it won't pay for itself yet for another six or seven months, but once it does then the gains will be pretty significant. Better yet, my skin feels better and is noticeably healthier, with virtually no red bumps or irritation visible now compared to when I was using a Fusion.

clavus · 07-16-2008, 10:10 AM

I only shave a couple of times per week, and I don't use shaving cream. Just run the blade over my face right out of the shower. That solution might not be for everyone, but it works for me. My face got used to no shaving cream pretty quickly.

Baraka_Guru · 07-16-2008, 10:25 AM

I've been using the same electric razor my mother bought me when I was 16. That was 16 years ago. My rent has hydro included. How frugal is that?

I also cut my own hair, using a number 2 or 3, depending on my mood.

Frugalicious.

clavus · 07-23-2008, 12:36 PM

Oh ya. Free haircuts. My wife does the whole family (except for herself). We have an understanding. If she ever really screws up, it's OK to shave my head. It will grow back.

tangerineflower · 08-06-2008, 09:54 PM

Very helpful thread. When I have the time, I'll go through all of the links. I would love to spend less money on food and I know all the ramen I eat isn't that great for me. This has helped to motivate me to make a change.

I'm already doing some money saving things that are also good for the environment. We have a nice big garden which gives us vegetables throughout the summer. We also have a flock of chickens, a dozen in fact. They give us us cheap eggs to eat, surplus eggs to sell and wonderful fertilizer. All we have to give them is food, water and love.

Halx · 08-07-2008, 01:26 PM

I fail in so many ways at being frugal. I order delivery and eat at restaurants on a regular basis. I purchase for quality over price. I buy myself presents all the time. I go to the movies a lot and go to bars and wine and dine. I live in Manhattan. I can tell you that if I had been a little more patient in pulling the trigger on HALF of my big ticket purchases, I would have been able to make about 50% MORE big ticket purchases. I favor buying over shopping. I probably own a lot of things that I can live without. I've probably upgraded a lot of things that didn't need improvement.

Sometimes I regret it. The rest of the time, I use all the time I would have spent strategizing over it to just enjoy it.

Cynthetiq · 08-07-2008, 02:17 PM

quality is relative if you're going to be buying something that is supposed to last a lifetime. why buy 10 $50 watches in your lifetime when 1 $500 Rolex will do.

Quote:

View: Life on $7 a Day
Source: USNews
posted with the TFP thread generator

Life on $7 a Day
Life on $7 a Day
March 04, 2008 12:09 PM ET | Kimberly Palmer | Permanent Link

My friend Zack, who lives in New York City, recently told me that on average, he spends only $7 per day on food. I asked him to share his tips, many of which he gleaned from the personal finance blog the Simple Dollar. Here's how Zack saves money on food:

• Buy in bulk. Zack drives to the suburbs in New Jersey to shop at bulk retailers, such as Sam's Club. He fills large duffel bags of food to bring back to the city and estimates it saves a significant chunk of change each month.

• Stockpile supplies. Cans of beans and tomatoes are cheap, store easily, and make quick, filling meals.

• Compare prices. For some items, such as fruit, buying from street vendors turns out to be cheaper than shopping at Manhattan grocery stores.

• Cook big. Zack makes lots of soup, chili, and other big dishes that can turn into leftovers or even go into the freezer for a future meal. To spruce up the dishes and make them even bigger, he often adds pasta or rice.

• Plan ahead. By loosely deciding in advance which meals to cook on which nights, Zack avoids getting home from work—starving—and eating out just because it seems easier.

Cynthetiq · 10-04-2008, 11:03 AM

Here's just a few ways that we go to see many of the broadway and off broadway shows for little to no money here in NYC.

Quote:

View: Seeing the Show Without Breaking the Bank
Source: NYTimes
posted with the TFP thread generator

Seeing the Show Without Breaking the Bank
October 5, 2008
Weekend in New York
Seeing the Show Without Breaking the Bank
By SETH KUGEL
PRESIDENT BUSH and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson have announced bold initiatives to calm the nation during these times of financial crisis, and Congress has weighed in. But no one has mentioned any relief whatsoever for one vital sector of Americans: theater fans planning a trip to New York City. One hundred and twenty dollars plus fees for an orchestra seat to see a Broadway show? In this economy?

When the government fails to act, Weekend in New York must step into the void. There are plenty of ways to go to the theater — and even get great seats to Tony Award-winning Broadway shows — for under $50.

Probably the best deal is the front-row ticket lottery for shows like “In The Heights,” “Avenue Q,” “Hairspray” and “Wicked.” There is no better feeling in theater fandom than standing on West 46th Street in front of the Richard Rodgers Theatre and hearing your name called by the friendly folks who run the lottery for “In The Heights,” the Tony Award Best Musical for 2008. Winning snags you a pair of front-row orchestra seats for $26.50 each on the day of the show.

The odds are actually not bad. Weekend In New York’s attempts to win were successful on the third try, landing two tickets right-of-center, close enough to see the sweat drip from the dancers in the upbeat story of a Latino neighborhood in northern Manhattan. (Boy, do they sweat.)

And it wasn’t a once-in-a-lifetime stroke of luck: an average of about 80 people have been entering the lottery lately, and there are 11 sets of two seats available. If you run the numbers, a couple visiting New York who enters the lottery for three of five weekend shows stands about a 60 percent chance of winning at least once.

Here’s how it works: You and your companion bring photo ID’s and cash to cover the tickets to the theater two to two and a half hours before the show (though times vary for the other shows). You each fill out a little slip of paper, and then wait for the drawing. No problem arriving at 5:59 for an 8 p.m. show; in fact, that’s the best way to do it, since early birds have no advantage. (Just one of you has to be there to win a pair, but your odds are sliced about in half since you can only fill out one slip.)

And there’s a great consolation prize: The theater is on the same block as the TKTS discount ticket booth (tdf.org), where they sell same-day seats for sharp discounts, usually 25 to 50 percent. Thirty seconds after you lose, you can be in line there. (And it’s only a couple minutes’ walk from the other theaters.) On those three recent visits, the wait at 6 p.m. at TKTS was negligible.

As always with TKTS, bring a magazine or newspaper with theater listings, so you can look at the ever-changing screen that announces what’s available and choose wisely. Since even half-price tickets on Broadway can go for more than $50, the Off Broadway shows on the right side of the screen are often the best bet. (Off Broadway theaters have fewer than 500 seats; Broadway theaters have 500 or more.)

If you’re intent on seeing a Broadway show, but don’t want to take your chances with lotteries or last-minute discounts, several shows have tickets for under $50, usually for seats in the back rows (not bad) or with obstructed views (kind of bad). Among them: “Spamalot” (excluding holiday periods) for $36.50; “Phantom of the Opera” for $26.50 if you go Monday through Thursday, and “In The Heights” for $41.50. As of recently, many performances had cheap seats available just a week in advance.

Off Broadway shows are cheaper, although not necessarily cheap. At New World Stages, a sort of multiplex of Off Broadway shows on West 50th Street, a few shows offer seats for $25 or under. Tickets for “Altar Boyz,” the absurdly funny mock concert given by a Catholic boy band (with one accidental Jew), are $25, and all you need is a decent neck: the seats are on the far ends of the front row, and aren’t bad at all.

That’s the regular price, but there are also discounts available for many Off Broadway shows. The Best of Off-Broadway (bestofoffbroadway.com) is a user-friendly site that doles out codes for sharp discounts on around 20 shows, saving you 20 to 40 percent and sometimes more on good seats. (Registration is required, but easy.) Other Web sites offering discounts are broadwaybox.com and goldstar.com, and there is a comprehensive discount page on nytheatre.com that also mentions rush tickets, which are last-minute bargains often restricted to students with ID.

But the absolute easiest way to find inexpensive theater is to hit Off Off Broadway, by definition theaters that seat fewer than 100 people. The shows are usually $18 or less, and take place in cool spots like Performance Space 122, housed in an old public school building in the East Village, and the SoHo Repertory Theater, which even offers 99-cent seats for Sunday shows, though good luck getting those.

Since the shows’ runs are short and attract less press attention, a couple of Web sites can help you sort through the mess. Indietheater.org has thorough, impressively up-to-date and easy-to-read listings with links to learn more about each. Offoffonline.com’s listings are less helpfully formatted and not as up-to-date, but the site publishes its own reviews and feature articles. That’s an invaluable service: sure, trying for front-row “In the Heights” tickets sounds risky, but choosing an Off Off Broadway show without guidance? That’s the real lottery.

Painted · 10-05-2008, 11:15 PM

I live in a treehouse I built myself. Totally secluded, in a ravine in a sparsely popuulated area. Spent the summer there. Rent? Never heard of it. Where am I now? Wintering at my SO's place

Threadjack: I bought one of these: Windsor Bikes - The Hour from bikesdirect.com last Thursday. They shipped it same day I ordered it, and apparently they sent me something, because they sent a tracking number that shows my address. A friend used them and said they work, so they're probably okay.

Rekna · 10-06-2008, 01:51 PM

Two ways I save a lot of money are 1) learn to cook 2) netflix. Cooking at home typically yields much better food than going out at a fraction of the cost. Also netflix is cheap if you utilize it a bunch. At home we do 2 DVDs at a time. Whenever a DVD comes in the mail we rip it and send it back immediately. Then later that weeks we watch the DVD and delete it. Usually by the time we watch the DVD we already have the next one ready to go. Sometimes we will get 3-4 DVDs ripped at a time giving us a good backlog of DVDs if we get a lot of extra time.

Also if you are single and want to save on entertainment consider getting a fun MMORPG where the monthly cost is fairly low. I remember playing Everquest and getting many many hours of entertainment for $10 a month. Also when playing that game I probably skipped over $10 worth of meals....

genuinegirly · 10-06-2008, 03:48 PM

Halx - Yep, shopping around isn't for everyone. If you don't get a thrill out of the hunt, it's not necessarily worthwhile.
Cyn - thanks for the great tips!
Painted - A tree would be a fun place to live. Now that's a new frugality extreme.
Rekna - Yes! Learning to cook is a great tip. Netflix is great. So is Hulu.

Cynthetiq · 10-10-2008, 05:27 PM

here's more tips for seeing theater in NYC

take notice that some of these tips will apply to other cities, such as student discount seats, senior discount, or even SRO.

Quote:

View: Bad Times, Good Prices
Source: Nytimes
posted with the TFP thread generator

Bad Times, Good Prices
October 10, 2008
Cheap Seats
Bad Times, Good Prices
By BEN SISARIO
CULTURE can be expensive, no matter which way the Dow is pointing. But in belt-tightening times, the cost of enjoying the arts in New York might seem particularly daunting.

Take Broadway, for example. The average price paid for a ticket last week was $76, according to the Broadway League, which represents theater owners and producers. For many shows that will barely get you a spot in the rear mezzanine — or, in the case of the “Equus” revival at the Broadhurst Theater, one of the 52 seats onstage.

Or do you prefer rock ’n’ roll? Prices for pop concerts are higher than ever. The national average for entry to this year’s major tours is slightly more than $67, the trade magazine Pollstar has reported, and — surprise — New York is the most expensive market in the country. The top price for Neil Young’s shows at Madison Square Garden in December is more than $250, which is also what a prime seat at the Metropolitan Opera will cost you.

Fortunately for anyone who wants to maintain a busy cultural calendar but hears the call of frugality — and for those of us who pinch pennies regardless — New York is also the home of the bargain ticket, with an array of discounts, promotions and freebies for everything from poetry readings downtown to the glamour of opera at Lincoln Center.

Kate D. Levin, the city’s cultural affairs commissioner, says markdowns are part of basic arts economics.

“Revenue from ticket sales will always be important,” Ms. Levin said, “but remaining affordable to serve loyal patrons is likely to be a priority for most organizations during times of economic uncertainty.”

Here are some suggestions for how to get the most for your cultural dollar.

The Great White Bargain

Perhaps nothing symbolizes the entertainment draw of New York better than Broadway, and the theater world has the most extensive discount system.

The classic Broadway buck-saver is the TKTS booth, operated by the nonprofit Theater Development Fund (tdf.org). With tickets at 25 to 50 percent off, and sometimes more, it has locations in Times Square, South Street Seaport and, since July, downtown Brooklyn. On Thursday its gleaming new Times Square facility will open with a bonus: credit cards will finally be accepted.

Broadway and Off Broadway producers also advertise through Season of Savings, a booklet of coupons for up to 55 percent off, distributed in newspapers and available on the Web (seasonofsavings.com). It was created in response to the drop in theater attendance after 9/11, said Nancy Coyne of the Broadway advertising agency Serino Coyne, which runs the program.

“We were nervous that New Yorkers needed more than just Giuliani telling them to go to the theater,” Ms. Coyne said, referring to reassurances at the time by Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani.

In addition, most Broadway shows have rush or standing-room tickets sold before the performance; a handful, including “Avenue Q,” “Wicked” and “Hairspray,” have daily lotteries for front-row seats under $30. Onstage seating is available at “Spring Awakening” ($40) and “Equus” ($76.50 for most shows; details at equusonbroadway.com).

Among Off Broadway’s many deals, the New York Theater Workshop (nytw.org) is selling all Sunday tickets for $20, and the Keen Company (keencompany.org) is offering 15 seats to Jan de Hartog’s “Fourposter” on Tuesdays for $15. A cluster of Web sites, including broadwaybox.com and nytheatre.com, have sizable deals for Broadway, Off Broadway and beyond.

One major new bargain in town is Free Night of Theater, a nationwide event organized by the Theater Communications Group. Begun three years ago in Philadelphia, San Francisco and Austin, Tex., it has now expanded to 120 cities, including New York for the first time.

In New York 115 theaters are giving away about 6,000 tickets for performances from Thursday to the end of October. “Fuerzabruta” at the Daryl Roth Theater, “Streamers” and “The Language of Trees” at the Roundabout Theater Company, and “Woyzeck” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music are all on the list. Free Night’s Web site (freenightnyc.net) began accepting reservations last week; most spots have been claimed, but theaters may add more, said Phillip Matthews, the director of audience programs for Theater Communications Group.

Students of Savings

There is a kind of benevolent class system to the discount game, favoring students and retirees — at least those with time to spare.

The New York Philharmonic (nyphil.org) sells $12 tickets to students and has deals for people 65 and older. At Carnegie Hall (carnegiehall.org), students are eligible for subscriptions at $15 per concert and both students and those 65 and older can get into some concerts for $10; student entry to the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (chambermusicsociety.org) is $10 at the box office the day of the show, or half-price in advance.

The catch is that it is almost a job in itself to keep track of all the rules and schedules. Those student tickets at the Philharmonic go on sale 10 days before the performance, and tickets for age 65 and over the day of the concert, if the show is not sold out; Carnegie’s discounts go on sale weekly.

Students and those 65 and older, get to the Brooklyn Academy of Music (bam.org) 90 minutes before show time for $10 entry. But you’ll need to act fast to get the special $20 orchestra seats at the Metropolitan Opera (metopera.org), offered for most performances Mondays through Thursdays. They go on sale two hours before showtime, and the line forms early for the most popular shows.

Dance Theater Workshop (dtw.org) gives 40 percent off to students and those 65 and older, as well as performing artists, who should be prepared to show some proof of creative employment (a review, for example).

The rules are even more byzantine on Broadway.

For “Spring Awakening,” for example, student rush tickets go on sale each day when the box office opens, but for “The 39 Steps,” be there two hours before the curtain; “Mamma Mia!” has rush tickets, but only on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Rush tickets for “Chicago” are available for each performance except Saturday night, and you need not be a student, but for “Speed-the-Plow” they go on sale two hours before showtime — and have that student ID ready.

Got all that?

For a Song

Discounts are nice, but you can’t beat free. Besides Free Night of Theater, there’s a wealth of world-class arts events in New York offered gratis.

On Friday the World Financial Center (worldfinancialcenter.com) presents a piano marathon honoring Thelonious Monk, with Geri Allen, Randy Weston and Chucho Valdés. Later this season are the composer Bobby Previte (Oct. 28), the Limón Dance Company (Nov. 4) and 20th-century choral music with Musica Sacra (Nov. 18) — all free.

The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s new “Poems & Pints” series (lmcc.net) presents major American poets at Fraunces Tavern, one of the oldest buildings in Manhattan. Paul Muldoon and Mark Strand read on Nov. 4.

Joe’s Pub (joespub.com) is celebrating its 10th anniversary this weekend with 10 free shows, including Jill Sobule, Allen Toussaint and Roy Nathanson. For classical fans, St. Thomas Church (saintthomaschurch.org) is in the midst of a six-concert run of Messiaen’s organ works on Saturday afternoons, and on Monday the Daedalus Quartet begins a lunchtime Haydn series at Philosophy Hall at Columbia University (millertheater.com). The Juilliard School (juilliard.edu) has a cornucopia of free concerts.

Lovers of the visual arts are particularly fortunate. Galleries are free to browse, and for the Metropolitan (metmuseum.org) and the Brooklyn Museum (brooklynmuseum.org), among others, an entry fee is suggested but not required. Many other museums offer discounted hours: On Friday nights, for example, Asia Society (asiasociety.org) is free, the Guggenheim (guggenheim.org) is half-price, and you can pay what you wish at the Whitney (whitney.org).

The Art of the Deal

It may be too soon for many arts institutions to gauge how the recent economic tumult will affect attendance and sales, and to decide how to react. Some are starting with community outreach: in response to the bad news on Wall Street, the 92nd Street Y has added career counseling to the programming of its new downtown branch, 92YTribeca, which opens next weekend.

But for the city’s most dedicated cultural bargain hunters, a good deal is a good deal no matter what is happening in the economy.

Outside the Metropolitan Opera one afternoon this week, 100 or so patrons were lined up for $20 orchestra seats to see Strauss’s “Salome” — seats that normally cost up to $175. (Starting Monday the Met will offer prime tickets to John Adams’s “Doctor Atomic” for $20 and $30 thanks to a $500,000 donation by Agnes Varis and her husband, Karl Leichtman, who financed the original $20 program, which is now three years old.)

They had brought books and magazines to read while waiting for the tickets to go on sale at 6. Linda Larys, 70, said she went to the opera about five times a season and got the discount whenever possible.

“These are cheap tickets,” she said. “That’s why we’re here.”

ngdawg · 10-10-2008, 07:46 PM

Before I leave for work, I shut off everything-computers, lights, unplug phone chargers...the only things running are the fridge and clocks.
I buy marked down meats and haven't had steak in two years.
We only run the clothes dryer for a few minutes, then hang everything on a line in the basement or on hangers.
I'm learning to buy off brands-I was always a bit of a brand snob when grocery shopping but now I look at prices.
I put my kids on a weekly allowance to cover lunches and their entertainment. This way, we're not shelling out $10 here and there or scrambling to do so.
I'm collecting Coke points. The spouse checks the freebie lists and Craig's list daily for freebie stuff.

Tully Mars · 10-11-2008, 05:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ngdawg

I'm learning to buy off brands-I was always a bit of a brand snob when grocery shopping but now I look at prices.

I rarely buy name brand anything. Half the time the difference between name brand and store brand is the label... and the price.

I buy "Wally World" mouthwash and I swear it's Scope but the price nearly 1/2.

Cynthetiq · 10-11-2008, 05:03 PM

pay attention to newspapers.... local or your destination. You'll notice that the last few posts I've made have come from the New York Times.

When we locate a destination, I start subscribing and bookmarking as local as I can find of the destination. This is two fold reasoning. I get to know the location in some fashion as we travel about, I'll see recognizeable names that aren't necessarily in Fodor's and DK Travel Guides. Second, because locals can't afford what tourists pay for things on a regular basis, so I'll find cheaper off the beaten path finds.

Quote:

View: Frugal New York
Source: NYTimes
posted with the TFP thread generator

Frugal New York
October 12, 2008
Frugal New York
By MATT GROSS
AT its most generous, New York bestows a rare gift upon visitor and resident alike: it makes you feel young. Stride down its granite-steel-and-glass corridors, and your viewpoint is instantly that of a child, eyes directed forever upward.

But New York offers a deeper sense of youth, too, the earnest expectation that one day, out of the blue, your real, true life will finally begin. A subway scene inspires a novel, an encounter at the bodega nets a stock pick, a salsa class sets you down a new career path — whatever it is, it will seem predestined, a turning point, the kind of epiphany that, as Cindy Adams would insist, can only happen here, kids.

Unfortunately, the corollary of youth is poverty, and New York has a way of reminding everyone from hourly wage strivers to uptown trust-funders that it is always possible to have more, and to spend more. The million-dollar studio apartment, the $50 restaurant entree, the $1,000 bottle of vodka — these are a capricious city’s perverse challenges to would-be Gatsbys.

Yet after a decade of living in New York City — nine years in Manhattan, 18 months in Brooklyn — I’ve learned that big-ticket amusements merely obscure the city’s more affordable (and more enjoyable) corners, something I was recently prepared to put to the test. One weekend in late September, my wife, Jean, and I set out to rediscover our hometown as frugal tourists, on a budget of $500, about $30 less than the rent on my very first apartment, a shared two-bedroom tenement on the edge of Chinatown.

Bargains like those are harder than ever to come by, especially if you’re a tourist uninterested in signing a yearlong lease. Jean and I first scoured the Web for affordable bed-and-breakfasts — and found all the good ones fully booked through the fall. Then we looked into vacation rentals through Craigslist, long a source of cheap (if not always legal) short-term sublets, and Roomorama.com, a newcomer, and turned up a few affordable possibilities (including a shared walk-up on Allen Street, our old block) before realizing that this was supposed to be a vacation, and we were all too familiar with cramped New York apartments.

So I settled on the Chelsea, perhaps the city’s most storied hotel, and discovered a forgotten bargain. Once home to Mark Twain and Dylan Thomas, Arthur Miller and Ethan Hawke, Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen, the Chelsea is a haven for artists and bohemians. And despite changes in ownership and management, it still offers rooms for far less than just about anywhere else: $149 a night (pretax), a pittance in New York.

On a clear and cool Friday afternoon, Jean and I checked in. In the lobby, long-term residents and transients like us sat in armchairs near an unlighted fireplace, tapping on their laptops, watched over by a fat pink girl on a swing — a sculpture. Other “vaguely alarming artworks,” many donated as payment for rooms, lined the dim hallways and a “baronial staircase” — in the words of Joseph O’Neill, whose new novel “Netherland” is partly set at the Chelsea — swept up the hotel’s 10 floors.

Our room — No. 828, where the Beat writer Herbert Huncke once lived and the artist Elizabeth Peyton had her first show — was airy, crusty with age but crisp and clean, with a broad southern view, a Marimekko-esque duvet and big, soft towels curled up on the dresser like sleeping cats. The only drawback was that we had to share the bathroom down the hall. But given the hotel’s price, history and central location, we hardly cared — the Chelsea was a no-brainer.

One could probably spend an entirely entertaining weekend within the Chelsea, observing the antics of thin European tourists and oddball residents, but Jean and I had other plans. We caught the F train to the Museum of Modern Art, where admission, normally a prohibitive $20, is free on Friday evenings.

We admired Mikhael Subotzky’s photographs of South Africa — trash-pickers in the Vaalkoppies dump, a jackal hunter and his kills — and the fantastical array of creatures in the “Wunderkammer” exhibition, then descended to the museum’s basement for a free movie.

Set in Singapore but shot in New York, “The Letter” tells the tale of a planter’s wife who murders her former lover who’s left her for another woman. Aside from its historical importance — it was the first talkie shot in the city, according to the Museum of Modern Art — the 1929, 65-minute film features a surprisingly modern (and Oscar-nominated) performance by Jeanne Eagles as the pathological Leslie Crosbie, who ends the movie with the mad declaration, “I still love the man I killed!” (The film was remade with Bette Davis in a 1940s release that earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress.)

When the film let out, we walked north to the Parker Meridien hotel, crossed the polished marble floor of its airy lobby, ducked behind a maroon curtain and found ourselves in another tax bracket: Cheap-looking wood-paneled walls hung with “Sopranos” and Ramones posters. Elvis on the stereo. A little old lady in a housedress who kissed the employees good-bye. Cardboard signs written in magic marker. A line out the door. Welcome to Burger Joint, one of New York’s great open secrets.

Jean and I ordered at the counter, snagged a booth and attacked our very good burgers, fries, beer and soda — at $29, not the cheapest meal in Manhattan, but certainly the cheapest in a luxury Midtown hotel. Then a young man with a 1970s-pornography-star mustache approached us through the crowd and asked, “Yo, can I call dibs on your table?”

Sure. In New York, it’s dibs, not dollars, that matter.

EARLY the next morning, I went jogging down Hudson River Park, a stylishly landscaped parcel of waterfront that runs from Battery Park City, near the southern tip of the island, to 59th Street. For most of New York’s history, this zone was, uh, gritty, but now there are no traces of sailors, prostitutes, drug addicts or cruisers. I saw only sparkling piers, a Nike-sponsored runners’ hangout, dog walkers — a yuppie paradise.

Actually, the grittiest area was Battery Park City, a swarm of modern towers that were once derided for their soullessness but now seem an inextricable part of the city’s fabric. Chinese women were practicing tai chi there, while a homeless woman chattered to herself near the water.

I turned and headed home, making an eastward detour to City Bakery for coffee, tea, a whole-wheat croissant and a pressed chocolate sandwich ($8.50), then discovering a mid-19th-century Spanish-and-Portuguese Jewish cemetery on 21st Street near Avenue of the Americas. For two years, I’d worked around the corner from these slanting tombstones but never knew of their existence.

Conversely, I’d long known that the Metropolitan Museum of Art was essentially free — admission is pay-as-you-wish — but as a regular New Yorker I rarely took advantage. As budget-minded tourists, however, Jean and I braved the mid-Saturday crowds to see the inspiring J. M.W. Turner show that was about to close and paid the museum $2 for the privilege. (If you’re headed to the Met this month, I recommend the Jeff Koons installation on the rooftop sculpture garden, which closes on Oct. 26. The art is trippy and the setting offers unparalleled views of Central Park and the Manhattan skyline.)

We would’ve seen more, but hunger drove us into the street, onto the No. 6 train (using one-day unlimited Fun Passes, $7.50) and down to Curry Hill, the Indian business strip of Lexington Avenue between 26th and 30th Streets. Among the dozens of restaurants, some dives, others upscale, we chose the original, 32-year-old Curry in a Hurry, where rice, two decent curries, nan and unlimited salad cost about $10. In the sunlit dining room, where Bollywood movies show on a big TV, we tried to finish our meals ($21.12 in all), and Jean remarked on the diversity of the clientele: French tourists, Indian families, old-timers — none seemed to be in any particular hurry.

We, however, were. By scouring Time Out New York and New York Magazine, as well as FreeNYC.net and ClubFreeTime.com, I’d found dozens of enticing no-cost events. At 2 p.m. was a tour of Central Park’s Belvedere Castle. At 3, “Romeo and Juliet” on West 55th Street. At 5, Circus Amok in Washington Square Park; at 7:30, Calo Flamenco in East Harlem. Whenever we wanted, we could catch the ferry to Governors Island for the art show. The city was taunting us with impossible itineraries.

In the end, we rushed back down to Greenwich Village — by taxi, a $10 necessity — to catch a tour offered by Friends of the Hudson River Park. Henry Strouss, the knowledgeable leader, spent an hour on the area’s history, pointing out the sanitation station where Herman Melville had worked (it was a Customs office then) and the playground sprinkler that marks the mouth of what was, long ago, Minetta Creek. He showed us a new work by Richard Meier — the all-too-obvious glass towers — and one of his oldest, the renovation of Bell Labs into the Westbeth Artists Community.

All these things I felt I should already know — as New Yorkers feel we must — and yet the history of our city is endless, each block a trove of art, architecture, politics, music and literature that no one can ever fully master. Anyone who says they know it all is, well, a know-it-all.

Which is what I was come dinnertime. I thought I’d game the system and save money by choosing a B.Y.O.B. restaurant (from the lists at NYMag.com and nycorked.wikispaces.com), and yet Ivo & Lulu, a cute, seemingly inexpensive French-Caribbean bistro on the western fringe of SoHo, left me disappointed. Sure, the jerk-spiced duck confit was nice, and the bottle of Colombelle white — a favorite of budget-minded art galleries, according to the Chelsea Wine Vault shop — was only $7.58, but somehow dinner came to $53 with the tip. (I later realized we should’ve hit our old standby, Great Jones Cafe, for hearty jambalaya, a fantastic jukebox and lower prices.)

Feeling the pinch, Jean and I decided to revisit our own days of youthful frugality and walked to the Lower East Side, where we had had our first date. Back in 1998, the neighborhood was emerging from its dark days as a center of drugs and crime, and as I showed Jean the landmarks I remembered from those early days — Max Fish, Shakespeare in the Parking Lot, and especially Katz’s, the legendary delicatessen — we’d felt a frisson of discovery. At Katz’s, for instance, I had quickly learned the value of pretipping the counterman (an extra buck got you extra meat) and of filling up on free pickles.

Today, the Lower East Side is a magnet for young people with pop tastes and a lot of money (or a lot of credit-card debt). Velvet ropes abound, and the mobs of partiers transform the tenement-lined streets into a hipster version of crowded Times Square. Below Delancey Street, the scene was cooler and calmer (Fontana’s, for instance, was having a wicked, no-cover soul-music party), but Jean and I felt like outsiders — like the Brooklynites we’d become.

As it grew later, Jean, who was six months pregnant, tired and headed home, but I kept walking the streets of my old neighborhood. I’d heard that a new club, the Delancey, was giving away cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon from midnight to 1 a.m., but when I saw the velvet ropes, I knew I wasn’t going in.

I called a friend to join me and after he arrived, we soon found ourselves amid a small pack of revelers, headed to a bar called Boss Tweed’s that was loathsome in its frattiness, but had an appealing special: two pints of Bud for $3. It even had some historical relevance: William M. Tweed, the infamous 19th-century party boss, died in a jail on nearby Ludlow Street.

After a final refueling at Pommes Frites, whose $4.50 cones of French fries have been sustaining New York University students since 1997, I walked back to the Chelsea, slipping into bed around 4 a.m. Who says I’m not young anymore?

On Sunday morning, Jean and I acted our age and took the D and N trains to Sunset Park, Brooklyn’s Chinatown, where the markets, restaurants and tea shops are as good, if not better, than in Manhattan. The scene, though, was strikingly similar: streets crowded with people inspecting live blue crabs, sucking down bubble tea, wrangling cranky toddlers and buying and selling tube socks by the dozen.

Joined by our friends Ted and Amber Phung, we indulged in that classic New York brunch of dim sum at the shiny Pacificana, where the vast spread of dumplings, radish cakes and really, really good chicken feet came to a puny $11.75 a person, tip included.

Finally, we returned home, to South Brooklyn, and I spent the afternoon at the local yacht club — O.K., the Gowanus Yacht Club, which has neither boats nor membership and is named for the Gowanus Canal, one of the nation’s most polluted waterways. It ain’t fancy — just a concrete beer garden where two cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon will set you back $5.

I sat in the shade, ordered a plastic cup of Sweet Action ale ($6, and worth it), and found myself chatting with a guitarist who records music for commercials and a British artist whose ceramic models of burning houses are sold at the New Museum for Contemporary Art in Manhattan. As we talked, I felt something happening. My life changing? Perhaps. But maybe it was just the rumble of the F train, screeching its way through my city, right under my feet.

TOTAL: $539.07, almost exactly my Chinatown rent 10 years ago.

A TREASURE TROVE OF BARGAINS

WHERE TO STAY

Hotel Chelsea, 222 West 23rd Street; 212-243-3700; www.hotelchelsea.com; doubles with shared bath are $99 to $199; those with private bath $199 to $299.

The Chelsea is not the only option for budget-minded visitors. There are bed-and-breakfasts in every borough, many starting around $100 a night, but they fill up fast. LanierBB.com, Bedandbreakfast.com, BBOnline.com and bnbfinder.com have extensive listings.

Short-term apartment rentals are an increasingly common and affordable choice. Craigslist.org is the leader in terms of volume, with apartments of all sizes for as little as $75 a night. But for those worried about handing over cash to a stranger, there’s Roomorama.com, which takes credit cards, offers automated booking and is more organized than Craigslist. Still, as in all New York real estate transactions, buyer beware.

WHAT TO DO

Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street; 212-535-7710; www.metmuseum.org; suggested admission, $20.

Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53rd Street; 212-708-9400; www.moma.org; admission $20, but free Fridays from 4 to 8 p.m.

Friends of the Hudson River Park runs free tours May through September. For more details, visit Friends of Hudson River Park Home Page.

WHERE TO EAT & DRINK

Burger Joint, Le Parker Meridien, 119 West 56th Street; 212-245-5000; LE PARKER MERIDIEN New York.

Curry in a Hurry, 119 Lexington Avenue at 28th Street; 212-683-0900.

City Bakery, 3 West 18th Street; 212-366-1414; The City Bakery.

Fontana’s, 105 Eldridge Street near Grand Street; 212-334-6740; FONTANA'S NEW YORK CITY.

Gowanus Yacht Club, 323 Smith Street, Carroll Gardens section of Brooklyn; 718-246-1321.

Great Jones Cafe, 54 Great Jones Street at the Bowery; 212-674-9304; Great Jones Cafe | New York City.

Ivo & Lulu, 558 Broome Street at Varick Street; 212-226-4399.

Boss Tweed’s, 115 Essex Street between Rivington and Delancey Streets; 212-475-9997; Boss Tweed's Saloon, an olde style NYC bar in the Lower East Side.

Pommes Frites, 123 Second Avenue near St. Marks Place; 212-674-1234; Pommes Frites Inc./Menu.

Pacificana, 813 55th Street at Eighth Avenue, Brooklyn; 718-871-2880; Pacificana Chinese Restaurant of Brooklyn, New York City serving DIM SUM and Chinese cuisine.

mixedsubstance · 10-14-2008, 09:37 PM

I'm not a big coupon collector....yet....I usually tend to just watch for and buy items at Safeway when they go on sale. We also have a Cash & Carry nearby (it's like a restaurant supply store that is now open to the public)- but we buy a lot of food (especially frozen food) in bulk to stock up on in the freezer to last us months.

My boyfriend's the cook, but we try to plan our meals out for the week. If we need something at the store for one of the meals, we either get the smallest/exactly what we need or a bulk version depending on how much we'd use it in the future.

Also, here's what i just did-The first step is to look at the big picture. I re-analyzed our bills and expenses to see what I could chip off. 1- Cell phone bill. Any extra services we didn't need, I removed. 2- Auto Insurance. I just went on an online window shopping spree, got some quotes, and found several that would save us around $100/mo. Next step- cancel current insurance, sign up for the other. (PS- I found Nationwide to be the best, Progessive came in 2nd). It never hurts to get quotes. But there were other things I personally was able to cut back on, due to my unemployment status and schedule with school, only having my son in after-school karate 3 days instead of 5 days.

We try to go to the Safeway gas station to get gas there, even though it's a little out of the way- but since we have a Safeway card and have racked up a lot of gas points, it saves us A LOT.

Oh and Ebay & Craigslist are my best friends. I am always on the look-out for great deals- and tend to find a lot of them.

I am also trying to shop for things off-season. Such as the after-Holiday sales. And save the items for the following year.

And if possible, sell the good condition items from the past or that you don't use anymore. People on Craigslist are like rabid squirrels or hungry bears when it comes to cheap, local, used items.

Eating in as much as possible. Only eating out/ordering in when we have coupons/gift cards/discounts. (Except occassional special nights, etc.)

My boyfriend (if you have a man who plays video games, this is for you) gets through his video games once, then either trades it in at the video game store or sells it on eBay/Craigslist depending on its value. He only holds onto just a few 'important' games. The rest he consigns. I tend to do the same with clothes sometimes. I get it, end up not liking it that much but knowing someone else will love it, and sell it.

I only have 1 credit card with a low credit limit ONLY for emergencies, and a Target card for tight times during the holidays, which I prepared for this year. Credit cards, I've always considered dangerous, so I've stayed away from them until recently- but vowed not to touch them unless- say- the car needs repair- or some other unexpected expense pops up and we don't have the available funds and it is mandatory that we pay it right away.

Once a year- go through your entire house and see what you can get rid of. Sell it on eBay/Craigslist or have a garage sale. Have seasonal items out for the upcoming season.

RESEARCH. Plan ahead and research for big purchases and trips. When you take your time, you will find a great deal.

Turn lights off when you're not in a room! Leave lights off when it's light enough- and open your shades. Turn off your computer at night. Turn off heaters when not at home. Get a programmable heater. Unplug small appliances & power strips when going on a trip or being gone for more than 1 day.

Baraka_Guru · 11-14-2008, 11:34 AM

I just wanted to demonstrate some frugality at work (literally).

At work, there's a health-food store around the corner that sells cheap bulk food. I can get protein powder, Nature's Path granola cereal, and soy milk at reasonable prices.

I've calculated the cost as such:
• 1 cup granola cereal (currently the Nature's Path HempPlus Granola)
• 1 cup unsweetened soy milk
• 2 heaping tsp protein powder

Nutritional information (approx.):
Calories: 485
Protein: 35g
Carbohydrates: 50g
Fat: 14g

Total cost per serving: approx. $2.50

With a low cost like that, I've started to add things as a rewarding treat. This week I bought a small bag of dried blueberries. For those who don't know, these can cost a lot ($14.99 lb. at this affordable store, which should be a good price). But I only use a couple of teaspoons per serving, so I should still be around $3.00.

At this price, that's a lot of nutrition. It's filling and quite tasty. Yay cheap and tasty!

But I don't think I'll continue with the blueberries. They're good, but I'd enjoy currants as well I think. I want to keep it close to $2.50 per serving. I like that number. It makes me look financially responsible.

Jozrael · 11-14-2008, 12:04 PM

Someone I know at my work (college spending money

) feeds 3 (1 a baby) on 15-20 dollars a week.

Lasereth · 11-14-2008, 12:46 PM

The single biggest one I can think of is eating out. I see people bitching and moaning everyday about two things: they are out of shape, and they are broke. And then they eat out for 2 meals a day, every day of the week. If you eat in you can make a meal for 2 for under $5 easily just by buying canned foods at the grocery store. For some reason many people believe that eating out at $20 a pop doesn't really add up. It can add up and it does. A few coworkers of mine spend $600-$800 a month on eating out. Imagine the savings (and weight loss) they would experience if they ate soup and a vegetable or rice instead of spending $20 a meal once or twice a day.

genuinegirly · 11-14-2008, 01:19 PM

Mixedsubstance, lots of great advice there. I'm currently going through my stuff and finding all sorts of things to pass along. Since we're gearing up to move and I'm in the midst of a semster, it's not so much an option to sell them on craigslist or ebay. I donated about 150 books to our local library and have a stack of clothes I keep adding to that I'll post on freecycle in the next month. If I had made it a habit to go through my things yearly to sell, I would have been able to make a pretty sum of money.

Baraka, I love those bulk stores. I wish there was one in my area.

Jozrael, Incredibly impressive friend you have there. I don't think I've eaten that cheaply since I was cooking only for myself.

Lasareth, that's a great point. Eating out does add up. Meals from a can are not the most tasty thing around, but they are cheap and easy to spice up. Here's a few other ideas when it comes to worktime meals.

Brown-Bag it!
It's incredibly easy to pack a lunch before you leave for work. It gets quicker every time, too - my mom could throw together 5 bagged lunches in 3 minutes flat, including a hearty sandwich, fruit, a drink and a snack. Easy and cheap. Another thing I noticed, once I was used to packing my lunch every day, if I forgot my lunch one day, I'd become frustrated at the lunchtime traffic rush. Much more rewarding to spend those extra few minutes chatting with friends who also packed their lunch.

Lunch Potluck
At one place where I worked, there was a group of women and men who made lunch into a potluck every day. Each person would bring a small dish to share. Most of the time it was leftovers from their family meal the night before. They always had the most delicious-looking meals. Plus, they would all sit around and chat as they ate - they turned a matter of convenience into friendship.

ASU2003 · 11-14-2008, 02:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lasereth

A few coworkers of mine spend $600-$800 a month on eating out. Imagine the savings (and weight loss) they would experience if they ate soup and a vegetable or rice instead of spending $20 a meal once or twice a day.

I'm going to start doing this when I can go home for lunch next year. I spend quite a bit of money eating food that isn't exactly good for you.

(you do need to watch out for sodium levels in canned food. Some have a lot in it.)

laconic1 · 11-16-2008, 09:17 PM

Another thing is credit card rewards. I have two credit cards right now, and I pay them both off every month. Well actually I pay one off each month and the other one hasn't been used in six months. Why? Rewards. The one card I got when I was in college doesn't have any rewards at all. The other one I got earlier this year gives me 1% cash back on all purchases at the end of each year. As a result I use that card a lot, even for normal everyday purchases. Since it's paid off each month I'm not accruing interest, so it makes sense to use the card instead of writing a check. I'll get about $60 back at the end of this year. Not a ton, but every bit helps.

It also helps to look at what kind of rewards you get on a card. Points? Miles? Can they be redeemed at stores you shop at regularly? I don't know a whole lot about those types of programs, but most of the ones I've researched wouldn't work for me since I would not be able to redeem the awards any where I want. Make sure any rewards program is worthwhile.

Cynthetiq · 12-12-2008, 11:04 PM

with regards to rewards programs... pay attention to the VALUE of what it is that you are saving up for... Sony Points are wonderful, but if the redemption of things isn't what you want... well it doesn't have any value.

We use frequent flyer miles for our rewards, we have enough FF miles for 4 round trip tickets to the Pacific Rim/Asia, approximate value is $10,000 each seat. There's no way that we'd get that same value with Discover card cash back or Starwood points.

want to know how much something adds up from day to day buying like lunch instead of bringing your own?

Lunch Savings - Financial Calculators from Dinkytown.net

05-01-2008, 09:16 AM	#42 (permalink)
smoore Crazy Location: West of Denver	Uh oh, hope it doesn't devolve into a bike thread. re: no bike shops: I'm loath to recommend it but there is a website called bikesdirect.com I've heard really bad things about customer service but the prices are REALLY tempting. I've never ordered anything from them, caveat emptor. I've been lusting over a trek fixie they have for something like $200. There is also http://www.performancebike.com/ the prices are higher but I've actually had a CS issue with them and can give their service a rousing thumbs up. Others have had negative experiences so YMMV. Here is a list of bike fit calculators: http://www.cyclemetrics.com/Pages/Fi..._fit_links.htm I have no idea how well they work, I ride all used bikes so I just get on the thing and see if it fits re: hills and single speed: I feel your pain, sister. I live in CO and I sold my cruiser for that exact reason. I could get away with it now that I live in Lakewood for short trips but gears are good. A stronger cyclist could use one around here pretty well but I'm flabby and out of shape. re: bike thieves: Scum of the earth. I feel for people who have to keep their bikes outside. I just bring mine in the house. It's leaning right over there. Sure, it's not too neat for the house but I like my bike so looking at it isn't an imposition. Be wary of U-Locks, they are not created equal, buy a good one. I don't understand vandalism and never have. Why would someone stomp a bike's wheels? (or rip the antenna off a car or break a window or...or...or...) Assholes. edit: oh yeah! Some people put Huffy or Magna decals on their nice bikes, I don't know if bike thieves actually know what to look for or if they just steal via brand name. __________________ smoore Last edited by smoore; 05-01-2008 at 09:20 AM..

05-07-2008, 07:57 PM	#43 (permalink)
NoSoup Non-Rookie Location: Green Bay, WI	Perhaps I'm Biased, but one of the easiest, least expensive ways to save a ton of cash throughout your lifetime is to have great credit. If you're interested, you can learn more here ->http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthread.php?t=67686 __________________ I have an aura of reliability and good judgement. Just in case you were wondering...

05-07-2008, 08:55 PM	#44 (permalink)
genuinegirly Eat your vegetables Super Moderator Location: Arabidopsis-ville	Thanks, NoSoup! Great advice! It really does make a difference. Convince yourself to spend less If you enjoy windowshopping as a hobby, leave your credit card and cash at home. Bring only a small change purse, no bills. See what catches your attention. Explore. Develop your tastes without indulging. Learn what a reasonable price is for the items that appeal to you the most, by walking (or surfing) from store to store, comparing prices, styles, and quality. Touch items. Learn about textures and textiles. Find what you've determined is your favorite. Wait a month. Do you still find it interesting? It's probably on sale or clearance by now. When your shoes have started to give out, start looking around. If they're dress shoes, polish them. Wait a month before purchasing. You'll realize those shoes had a lot more life than you thought. Throw away if the sole is literally worn through or the body torn noticeably. Build a Budget As an exercise in frugality, design yourself an unreasonably low budget. Keep to it religiously for a minimum of 4 months. Determine just how little you can live off of. Weigh your comforts and needs. By the end of that 4 months, you will realize you could have spent/wasted less. Make it a game. Try it again. __________________ "Sometimes I have to remember that things are brought to me for a reason, either for my own lessons or for the benefit of others." Cynthetiq "violence is no more or less real than non-violence." roachboy Last edited by genuinegirly; 05-07-2008 at 09:40 PM.. Reason: Automerged Doublepost

05-16-2008, 03:33 PM	#46 (permalink)
Cynthetiq Tilted Cat Head Administrator Location: Manhattan, NY	keep shopping until you are committed to the purchase. I do this for rental cars when we travel. I sometimes can save a HUGE amount just by continuing to shop the different aggregators. Don't lock in with a credit card unless you absolutely must. __________________ I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not. What's the best nation in the world? DO-NATION!

05-28-2008, 12:16 PM	#49 (permalink)
pocon1 Banned	nothing to say Last edited by pocon1; 07-06-2008 at 10:41 AM..

05-27-2008, 03:43 PM	#48 (permalink)
allaboutmusic Aurally Fixated	That sounds a lot like London. Lots of people I know are getting to the point in their lives when they're questioning if London is really worth the trouble.

05-28-2008, 07:58 PM	#52 (permalink)
smoore Crazy Location: West of Denver	Back on track: I don't know if I or someone else mentioned this before but... power strips. They are your buddy. We have all our "vampire loads" plugged into them and we turn the power strip off when not using said "charger pucks". When a computer gets powered down, it's power strip gets powered down too. It's kinda fun to go into the yard and watch the 'fridge kick on via the power meter. __________________ smoore

06-29-2008, 11:45 AM	#55 (permalink)
genuinegirly Eat your vegetables Super Moderator Location: Arabidopsis-ville	Cyn: Thanks for the tips from the grocery manager! Interesting to think about consistancy of prices. The key really does seem to be this: THINK. pocon1: Not sure if you realized, but it was a woman that started this thread (me!). Not all women are out to make use of your money while out on a date. If you honestly feel that a string of hookers can be less expensive overall than a girlfriend or a wife, you're spending time with the wrong women. __________________ "Sometimes I have to remember that things are brought to me for a reason, either for my own lessons or for the benefit of others." Cynthetiq "violence is no more or less real than non-violence." roachboy

06-29-2008, 01:01 PM	#56 (permalink)
Tully Mars Living in a Warmer Insanity Super Moderator Location: Yucatan, Mexico	Yeah, I think if you're going to look at a cost benefit analyst prior to beginning a relationship your life's going to be pretty shallow and lonely. __________________ I used to drink to drown my sorrows, but the damned things have learned how to swim- Frida Kahlo Vice President Starkizzer Fan Club

06-29-2008, 03:01 PM	#57 (permalink)
genuinegirly Eat your vegetables Super Moderator Location: Arabidopsis-ville	Tully_Mars: While I agree with you completely, there is something to be said about finding someone who is compatable from a financial perspective. If you have similar goals and self-control when it comes to money, you'll find there are fewer conflicts. So many otherwise solid relationships fail because of differing perspectives on finances. Tt and I are doubly happy - I never thought I'd find a man who was as frugal as me, turns out he was just under my nose. His father mirros my mother with their deal-hunting habits, his mother is like my father with their classic style. Throw those backgrounds together and you get us: a pretty awesome duo that can live below the poverty line while fitting in with the upper-middle class. __________________ "Sometimes I have to remember that things are brought to me for a reason, either for my own lessons or for the benefit of others." Cynthetiq "violence is no more or less real than non-violence." roachboy Last edited by genuinegirly; 06-29-2008 at 03:04 PM..

07-16-2008, 10:10 AM	#59 (permalink)
clavus pow! Location: NorCal	I only shave a couple of times per week, and I don't use shaving cream. Just run the blade over my face right out of the shower. That solution might not be for everyone, but it works for me. My face got used to no shaving cream pretty quickly. __________________ Ass, gas or grass. Nobody rides for free.

07-16-2008, 10:25 AM	#60 (permalink)
Baraka_Guru warrior bodhisattva Super Moderator Location: East-central Canada	I've been using the same electric razor my mother bought me when I was 16. That was 16 years ago. My rent has hydro included. How frugal is that? I also cut my own hair, using a number 2 or 3, depending on my mood. Frugalicious. __________________ Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing? —Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön Humankind cannot bear very much reality. —From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

07-23-2008, 12:36 PM	#61 (permalink)
clavus pow! Location: NorCal	Oh ya. Free haircuts. My wife does the whole family (except for herself). We have an understanding. If she ever really screws up, it's OK to shave my head. It will grow back. __________________ Ass, gas or grass. Nobody rides for free.

08-06-2008, 09:54 PM	#62 (permalink)
tangerineflower Upright	Very helpful thread. When I have the time, I'll go through all of the links. I would love to spend less money on food and I know all the ramen I eat isn't that great for me. This has helped to motivate me to make a change. I'm already doing some money saving things that are also good for the environment. We have a nice big garden which gives us vegetables throughout the summer. We also have a flock of chickens, a dozen in fact. They give us us cheap eggs to eat, surplus eggs to sell and wonderful fertilizer. All we have to give them is food, water and love.

08-07-2008, 01:26 PM	#63 (permalink)
Halx Please touch this. Owner/Admin Location: Manhattan	I fail in so many ways at being frugal. I order delivery and eat at restaurants on a regular basis. I purchase for quality over price. I buy myself presents all the time. I go to the movies a lot and go to bars and wine and dine. I live in Manhattan. I can tell you that if I had been a little more patient in pulling the trigger on HALF of my big ticket purchases, I would have been able to make about 50% MORE big ticket purchases. I favor buying over shopping. I probably own a lot of things that I can live without. I've probably upgraded a lot of things that didn't need improvement. Sometimes I regret it. The rest of the time, I use all the time I would have spent strategizing over it to just enjoy it. __________________ You have found this post informative. -The Administrator [Don't Feed The Animals]

10-05-2008, 11:15 PM	#66 (permalink)
Painted Pleasure Burn	I live in a treehouse I built myself. Totally secluded, in a ravine in a sparsely popuulated area. Spent the summer there. Rent? Never heard of it. Where am I now? Wintering at my SO's place Threadjack: I bought one of these: Windsor Bikes - The Hour from bikesdirect.com last Thursday. They shipped it same day I ordered it, and apparently they sent me something, because they sent a tracking number that shows my address. A friend used them and said they work, so they're probably okay. __________________ I came across a nice rack at the department store

10-06-2008, 01:51 PM	#67 (permalink)
Rekna Junkie	Two ways I save a lot of money are 1) learn to cook 2) netflix. Cooking at home typically yields much better food than going out at a fraction of the cost. Also netflix is cheap if you utilize it a bunch. At home we do 2 DVDs at a time. Whenever a DVD comes in the mail we rip it and send it back immediately. Then later that weeks we watch the DVD and delete it. Usually by the time we watch the DVD we already have the next one ready to go. Sometimes we will get 3-4 DVDs ripped at a time giving us a good backlog of DVDs if we get a lot of extra time. Also if you are single and want to save on entertainment consider getting a fun MMORPG where the monthly cost is fairly low. I remember playing Everquest and getting many many hours of entertainment for $10 a month. Also when playing that game I probably skipped over $10 worth of meals....

10-06-2008, 03:48 PM	#68 (permalink)
genuinegirly Eat your vegetables Super Moderator Location: Arabidopsis-ville	Halx - Yep, shopping around isn't for everyone. If you don't get a thrill out of the hunt, it's not necessarily worthwhile. Cyn - thanks for the great tips! Painted - A tree would be a fun place to live. Now that's a new frugality extreme. Rekna - Yes! Learning to cook is a great tip. Netflix is great. So is Hulu. __________________ "Sometimes I have to remember that things are brought to me for a reason, either for my own lessons or for the benefit of others." Cynthetiq "violence is no more or less real than non-violence." roachboy

10-10-2008, 07:46 PM	#70 (permalink)
ngdawg peekaboo Location: on the back, bitch	Before I leave for work, I shut off everything-computers, lights, unplug phone chargers...the only things running are the fridge and clocks. I buy marked down meats and haven't had steak in two years. We only run the clothes dryer for a few minutes, then hang everything on a line in the basement or on hangers. I'm learning to buy off brands-I was always a bit of a brand snob when grocery shopping but now I look at prices. I put my kids on a weekly allowance to cover lunches and their entertainment. This way, we're not shelling out $10 here and there or scrambling to do so. I'm collecting Coke points. The spouse checks the freebie lists and Craig's list daily for freebie stuff.

10-14-2008, 09:37 PM	#73 (permalink)
mixedsubstance Crazy Location: Where the wild things are.	I'm not a big coupon collector....yet....I usually tend to just watch for and buy items at Safeway when they go on sale. We also have a Cash & Carry nearby (it's like a restaurant supply store that is now open to the public)- but we buy a lot of food (especially frozen food) in bulk to stock up on in the freezer to last us months. My boyfriend's the cook, but we try to plan our meals out for the week. If we need something at the store for one of the meals, we either get the smallest/exactly what we need or a bulk version depending on how much we'd use it in the future. Also, here's what i just did-The first step is to look at the big picture. I re-analyzed our bills and expenses to see what I could chip off. 1- Cell phone bill. Any extra services we didn't need, I removed. 2- Auto Insurance. I just went on an online window shopping spree, got some quotes, and found several that would save us around $100/mo. Next step- cancel current insurance, sign up for the other. (PS- I found Nationwide to be the best, Progessive came in 2nd). It never hurts to get quotes. But there were other things I personally was able to cut back on, due to my unemployment status and schedule with school, only having my son in after-school karate 3 days instead of 5 days. We try to go to the Safeway gas station to get gas there, even though it's a little out of the way- but since we have a Safeway card and have racked up a lot of gas points, it saves us A LOT. Oh and Ebay & Craigslist are my best friends. I am always on the look-out for great deals- and tend to find a lot of them. I am also trying to shop for things off-season. Such as the after-Holiday sales. And save the items for the following year. And if possible, sell the good condition items from the past or that you don't use anymore. People on Craigslist are like rabid squirrels or hungry bears when it comes to cheap, local, used items. Eating in as much as possible. Only eating out/ordering in when we have coupons/gift cards/discounts. (Except occassional special nights, etc.) My boyfriend (if you have a man who plays video games, this is for you) gets through his video games once, then either trades it in at the video game store or sells it on eBay/Craigslist depending on its value. He only holds onto just a few 'important' games. The rest he consigns. I tend to do the same with clothes sometimes. I get it, end up not liking it that much but knowing someone else will love it, and sell it. I only have 1 credit card with a low credit limit ONLY for emergencies, and a Target card for tight times during the holidays, which I prepared for this year. Credit cards, I've always considered dangerous, so I've stayed away from them until recently- but vowed not to touch them unless- say- the car needs repair- or some other unexpected expense pops up and we don't have the available funds and it is mandatory that we pay it right away. Once a year- go through your entire house and see what you can get rid of. Sell it on eBay/Craigslist or have a garage sale. Have seasonal items out for the upcoming season. RESEARCH. Plan ahead and research for big purchases and trips. When you take your time, you will find a great deal. Turn lights off when you're not in a room! Leave lights off when it's light enough- and open your shades. Turn off your computer at night. Turn off heaters when not at home. Get a programmable heater. Unplug small appliances & power strips when going on a trip or being gone for more than 1 day. __________________ Well, isn't that just kick-you-in-the-crotch, spit-on-your-neck fantastic?!? Without energy, there would be nothing. Last edited by mixedsubstance; 10-14-2008 at 09:47 PM..

11-14-2008, 11:34 AM	#74 (permalink)
Baraka_Guru warrior bodhisattva Super Moderator Location: East-central Canada	I just wanted to demonstrate some frugality at work (literally). At work, there's a health-food store around the corner that sells cheap bulk food. I can get protein powder, Nature's Path granola cereal, and soy milk at reasonable prices. I've calculated the cost as such: • 1 cup granola cereal (currently the Nature's Path HempPlus Granola) • 1 cup unsweetened soy milk • 2 heaping tsp protein powder Nutritional information (approx.): Calories: 485 Protein: 35g Carbohydrates: 50g Fat: 14g Total cost per serving: approx. $2.50 With a low cost like that, I've started to add things as a rewarding treat. This week I bought a small bag of dried blueberries. For those who don't know, these can cost a lot ($14.99 lb. at this affordable store, which should be a good price). But I only use a couple of teaspoons per serving, so I should still be around $3.00. At this price, that's a lot of nutrition. It's filling and quite tasty. Yay cheap and tasty! But I don't think I'll continue with the blueberries. They're good, but I'd enjoy currants as well I think. I want to keep it close to $2.50 per serving. I like that number. It makes me look financially responsible. __________________ Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing? —Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön Humankind cannot bear very much reality. —From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

11-14-2008, 12:04 PM	#75 (permalink)
Jozrael Junkie	Someone I know at my work (college spending money ) feeds 3 (1 a baby) on 15-20 dollars a week.

11-14-2008, 12:46 PM	#76 (permalink)
Lasereth Knight of the Old Republic Location: Winston-Salem, NC	The single biggest one I can think of is eating out. I see people bitching and moaning everyday about two things: they are out of shape, and they are broke. And then they eat out for 2 meals a day, every day of the week. If you eat in you can make a meal for 2 for under $5 easily just by buying canned foods at the grocery store. For some reason many people believe that eating out at $20 a pop doesn't really add up. It can add up and it does. A few coworkers of mine spend $600-$800 a month on eating out. Imagine the savings (and weight loss) they would experience if they ate soup and a vegetable or rice instead of spending $20 a meal once or twice a day.

11-14-2008, 01:19 PM	#77 (permalink)
genuinegirly Eat your vegetables Super Moderator Location: Arabidopsis-ville	Mixedsubstance, lots of great advice there. I'm currently going through my stuff and finding all sorts of things to pass along. Since we're gearing up to move and I'm in the midst of a semster, it's not so much an option to sell them on craigslist or ebay. I donated about 150 books to our local library and have a stack of clothes I keep adding to that I'll post on freecycle in the next month. If I had made it a habit to go through my things yearly to sell, I would have been able to make a pretty sum of money. Baraka, I love those bulk stores. I wish there was one in my area. Jozrael, Incredibly impressive friend you have there. I don't think I've eaten that cheaply since I was cooking only for myself. Lasareth, that's a great point. Eating out does add up. Meals from a can are not the most tasty thing around, but they are cheap and easy to spice up. Here's a few other ideas when it comes to worktime meals. Brown-Bag it! It's incredibly easy to pack a lunch before you leave for work. It gets quicker every time, too - my mom could throw together 5 bagged lunches in 3 minutes flat, including a hearty sandwich, fruit, a drink and a snack. Easy and cheap. Another thing I noticed, once I was used to packing my lunch every day, if I forgot my lunch one day, I'd become frustrated at the lunchtime traffic rush. Much more rewarding to spend those extra few minutes chatting with friends who also packed their lunch. Lunch Potluck At one place where I worked, there was a group of women and men who made lunch into a potluck every day. Each person would bring a small dish to share. Most of the time it was leftovers from their family meal the night before. They always had the most delicious-looking meals. Plus, they would all sit around and chat as they ate - they turned a matter of convenience into friendship. __________________ "Sometimes I have to remember that things are brought to me for a reason, either for my own lessons or for the benefit of others." Cynthetiq "violence is no more or less real than non-violence." roachboy Last edited by genuinegirly; 11-14-2008 at 01:28 PM..

11-16-2008, 09:17 PM	#79 (permalink)
laconic1 Junkie	Another thing is credit card rewards. I have two credit cards right now, and I pay them both off every month. Well actually I pay one off each month and the other one hasn't been used in six months. Why? Rewards. The one card I got when I was in college doesn't have any rewards at all. The other one I got earlier this year gives me 1% cash back on all purchases at the end of each year. As a result I use that card a lot, even for normal everyday purchases. Since it's paid off each month I'm not accruing interest, so it makes sense to use the card instead of writing a check. I'll get about $60 back at the end of this year. Not a ton, but every bit helps. It also helps to look at what kind of rewards you get on a card. Points? Miles? Can they be redeemed at stores you shop at regularly? I don't know a whole lot about those types of programs, but most of the ones I've researched wouldn't work for me since I would not be able to redeem the awards any where I want. Make sure any rewards program is worthwhile.

12-12-2008, 11:04 PM	#80 (permalink)
Cynthetiq Tilted Cat Head Administrator Location: Manhattan, NY	with regards to rewards programs... pay attention to the VALUE of what it is that you are saving up for... Sony Points are wonderful, but if the redemption of things isn't what you want... well it doesn't have any value. We use frequent flyer miles for our rewards, we have enough FF miles for 4 round trip tickets to the Pacific Rim/Asia, approximate value is $10,000 each seat. There's no way that we'd get that same value with Discover card cash back or Starwood points. want to know how much something adds up from day to day buying like lunch instead of bringing your own? Lunch Savings - Financial Calculators from Dinkytown.net __________________ I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not. What's the best nation in the world? DO-NATION!