Money saving tips.

if you smoke joints,use a video box to roll them in,thus saving a fuckload of excess tobacco and hash/weed

get friends to burn you cd-rs of music you don't know much about but are curious about

Buy a coin sorter!!! All spare change is wrapped nice and neat and nobody gets hurt.

Oh, best moneysaving tip: Don't have kids.

I mean I save upwards of $25 a week doing this.

I should also not smoke too, cos that soitanly costs too much. But in Aust. one pack of 30 (cheapo shitty Peter Jacksons) is $9-10. I've cut back to a pack every 3 days or so, I'm trying to reduce it even more all the time.

Another wise one - avoid drinking out. One drink =$5+ in a bar. For $12 you can buy a sixpack of cider (for example). Invite some mates over, and wammo you still have a nice evening.

don't smoke joints. *chong voice* total waste of weed, man.
It gives you about 10% of the THC, whereas a bowl is around 30% and a bong about 65%.

I'd love to live in an old french village and swan around there for my shopping - into the boulangerie (whatever that is) for this, into the patiserrie for that.... got visions of myself in a sundress peering into the windows of a chocolat shop with a crusty baton peeping out of the top of my bag.

When I get a raise, I up the amount going into my retirement and savings. That way I don't have to think about it.

But now you've brought it to my attention again...

As for meat/fish, it depends - the specialist shops/markets are usually more expensive than supermarkets because of the quality, although I'm sure there are ways getting it cheaper...

My tip -- befriend someone with a garden that grows actual food, help out with said garden and reap some of the rewards. (In this case I was friends with said person well before the garden came along, so all was well.)

("As for me," said the little prince to himself, "if I had fifty-three minutes to spend as I liked, I should walk at my leisure toward a spring of fresh water.")

drat.

I pack all my lunches for work, don't have cable, get my books from the library, and I'm trying to learn to like leftovers. But I need more help!

i owe a few grand on a credit card (hsbc), it's likely that i'll pay it all off in the next 12 months but how can i avoid or reduce the monthly interest fees until then? can i do something like switch the balance to a different credit card and avoid paying interest for 12 months?

has anyone done this? is it still possible what with all the banks shutting up shop and huddling down for the winter?

The only way you can avoid interest by switching cards is to be offered a card with that as an introductory offer. Not bloody likely you'll get such an offer at the moment. More probable is that you might get a lower rate than you currently pay, by a few percentage points, as an inducement to switch over. Maybe.

Concentrate on paying down as fast as you can, that's where the smart play is, since you have some control over that. What you are offered is out of your control.

Good general tips for saving money:

If you know how to cook, prepare all your own meals. Basic ingredients, like rice, pasta, oats, whole chickens, eggs, flour, sugar, onions, or cabbage are nearly always cheaper than processed foods.

If you don't know how to cook, get some used cookbooks, a couple of pans and a cast-iron skillet and start learning - by preparing all your own meals. The only way to learn it is to do it.

Eat root vegetables, they are cheap and nutritious. Figure out how to use inexpensive foods you haven't liked in the past. Buy what is on sale and learn how to improvise. Eat less meat.

Make a list before you shop and stick to it like God is watching you.

drink lots of water, skip soda and beer. and no hookers!

If you don't know how to cook, get some used cookbooks, a couple of pans and a cast-iron skillet and start learning - by preparing all your own meals. The only way to learn it is to do it.

And eat your mistakes instead of starting over.

If your payment history on the card is excellent and the interest rate is high (~5-7% more than what you could get an unsecured loan at your bank for the amount of the balance), you can try phoning the customer service department and asking them to lower the rate. Generally, if they honor your request, they will also stop your charging privileges on the card too. Which really is the best thing you can do on your own: 1)Stop using the card 2) Pay it down as quickly as possible.

There are some "snowball" excel spreadsheets available for download that can calculate how fast you can pay down debt by putting some extra every month toward it.

Also, if you have money in a low interest savings account, you will probably save the most by putting that toward paying off the card rather than leaving it to compound at 1.25% (or whatever). Shifting balances is feasible, if you have an introductory offer from a competing card, but can be a dangerous practice (ooooh, I have ALL THIS CREDIT!!!) and negatively impacts your credit score for about 2 years due to the "hard queries" applying for each card causes.

Try www.moneysavingexpert.com - the site's a complete headache to look at but explains all things money related really simply. I go to it for *everything* now - travel money, mortgage stuff, credit rating, etc.

He usually keeps it up to date with what the best current credit card offers are etc.

If you're also saving, check whether your money would be better off going towards paying off the debt - if the interest rate on the savings isn't as high as that on your debt, use it to pay off the debt.

Put the card in a tub of water in the freezer so you really have to make an effort to be able to use it and think about whether you need to spend the money :)

and negatively impacts your credit score for about 2 years
do you mean applying for the other card or the fact that it's for the purpose of a balance transfer? i know you get a hard pull in any event but i would think the benefits of a worthwhile low-fee balance offer would more than offset the credit ding associated with simply applying, or am i wrong.

xp http://mymoneyblog.com is still calm and smart too.

I don't think your credit score reflects the fact you moved from higher to lower interest (because that interest rate can change in a heartbeat if you make a late payment), just that you got an additional card (or were applying for additional cards) and what your utilization percentage is on all your cards. From what I've seen, it can take awhile for the utilization numbers to catch up when you pay off a balance - it's been 3 months since I paid off two of mine, and they are still showing up as open and in use.

Those are both great links, thanks for those!

np
i just got a notice from wells fargo who's about to cancel my very first credit card(therefore prob. most my valuable fico-wise as i understand it) if i don't use it and gave me a 0% bonus period to make sure i did! pennies from heaven.

I recommend getrichslowly.org, it has helped me keep finances straight, stay cheap, and actually feel better about myself than any other finance/frugality stuff I've ever read (book or online).

What do people do for savings accounts? My bank, Commerce/TD only has something like .25% interest. I read that HSBC has an on-line only savings account that offers 3%. Should I put my savings in that? I'm hesitant that it wouldn't be linked to my checking account though. Also, I thought of changing to Citibank, who offers maybe an on-line 2-2.5% interest savings account, but there seemed were a lot of loopholes to that, and I would have to have a certain Citi checking account. Advice? My mom is always telling me to join a credit union. . . .

check out ingdirect.

^also rabo

http://bankdeals.blogspot.com/2008/12/apple-bank-for-savings-one-year-375.html
https://www.dollarsavingsdirect.com/DollarSavingsDirectWeb/index.jsp?gclid=CM6-kKD75JcCFQkcHgodoCFmDQ&fp_keyword=Dollar+Direct+Bank&fp_source=Google

thanks for the blog link earlier, abbott. i am totally freaking out right now about how to live cheaply because my projected income for the next couple months is uncomfortably close to my minimum cost of living (rent, utilities, subway pass, groceries).

by "uncomfortably close" i mean "i don't know whether it will be above, below, or just manageable" :/

https://www.emigrantdirect.com/EmigrantDirectWeb/index.jsp

My sis said I should buy a 7 mos. cd at 3.5, but then what would I do after that? Buy another cd?

ask your sister

If you have enough money to tie it up for 7 months, do that, and repeat as indicated. That's about all you're going to get nowadays. And I would say don't try chasing interest on the money you'll be needing day to day (and week to week, month to month), it won't amount to much if all goes well, and if it doesn't (falling below the minimum necessary for that type account) you'll pay more in penalties than you'll make in interest.

They do seem like a lot of work just to make $30.

invest in a variety of mutual funds and loan some of your remaining capital to the US Government.

I wonder what Suze Orman would say.

How much shld you have in emergency savings? Expenses for one month? Two? Three? More? I have abt 4 right now but wld also like to go on honeymoon maybe. Wld it be safe to sacrifice a month or two?

If you only have 4 months, I personally would not spend half of it on a honeymoon.

I don't think you need to spend a lot to have a memorable and enjoyable honeymoon trip - just enough to have the sense that you are away from your normal responsibilities and are able to enjoy one another's company in a carefree mood.

You don't need to get on an airplane or rent a car. You don't need white sand beaches or tropical weather. You don't need a fancy hotel room. But the carefree mood is urgent and key. The more days of carefree togetherness you can arrange, the less important all the other trappings become. The more you spend on the trappings, the more pressure you'll feel to live up to the commercial honeymoon fantasy.

Started air-drying the laundry recently - not only time but actually money-saving as you don't have to sit around the laundromat waiting for dryers.

sorry, I mean not only money but actually time-saving

New Mexico is awesome for that: leave towels outside & they dry faster than it takes to wash the next batch of laundry. IMO it is stupid as hell to have a dryer here.

I'm curious to see how this works in winter - worried clothes will get nasty with windows closed but also have heard that it works well as a humidifier.

I know no one else wld think to do this but drying towels in freezing temps doesn't dry the towels.

drying them outdoors
on the edge of a metal trampoline frame

in my experience clothes dried indoors in cool weather dry stiff but do dry, it takes around a day. i haven't done it when it's actually freezing but if the house temperature is fairly constant it shouldn't matter too much.

If you can point a small fan at the drying rack, towels and jeans will dry in a reasonable amount of time even in the cold. I started air-drying everything two years ago when it was just too hot in the apartment to think about running the dryer. It saves us $10-$15/month on the utility bill.

If you are in to buying such things as Vicks, you can save plenty. All you need is a little marge over the the nose and you need just a little. It really works!

WAHT

I find saving nigh-on impossible. For ten years I've been overdrawn by £2000 and no matter how much I try and curb my spending, I rarely have anything left to put away at the end of the month. It feels as though my colleagues spend a lot more than me and yet are able to squirrel it away - they eat out at lunch, go on annual two-week holidays to America/Asia/Aus etc, go shopping etc. I on the other hand go on short visits in the UK and sometimes Europe, bring in my own lunch and certainly don't buy as much music/clothes as I used to. I find that every month there's some sort of big expense, like a birthday or my bike needs fixing or a surprise utility bill comes through and I end up back at square one - but this happens to everyone right?

Budgeting is very difficult as I work in sales and get paid different amounts of commission each month. My basic salary is only just enough to cover the most basic of amenities (rent/bills/transport to and from work/minimal food) so it's not as easy to say "I'll put aside X amount each month").

IT makes me wonder what I'm doing wrong here somehow.

Easiest ways to save really are finding ways to lower fixed monthly/yearly costs -- find cheaper rent, cheaper phone plan, etc. -- because those are things you can't be tempted to break from month to month. Setting a lower food budget is good but it takes a lot of discipline to stick with.

I cancelled my gym membership and quit smoking. That got me £230 to put away straight off.

Right.

I've been served notive of my new years resolution: joint account for bills and a minimum saving amount each month of €500

My current savings, aged 34, is that I owe €750 on a credit card that will be cleared next week and that's it.

I've no fuckin idea where my money goes besides.

Tips please, and make them a lot more magical than upthread cos I do all that stuff already tbh.

It can help a lot to keep track of every expense for a full year, down to the penny, and sort them all into basic categories like rent/mortgage, utilities, food, travel, entertainment. One diligent year of record keeping will give you enough information to see where you stand and allow you make more-informed decisions. It may be that your expenses are really 98% basic stuff you can't easily economize, or there might be a good 15% of 'slop' you can change via forethought, budgeting and self-discipline.

One magical money-saving tip: farm your kids out to be raised by relatives or by mysteriously willing strangers, then move without leaving a forwarding address. There will be plenty of time to reconnect again in the future, after they are self-supporting

If you only want what you don't have, you'll never be happy.

coffee for breakfast

if you ask for matcha powder in hot water at starbucks, it's 87 cents (cad) for any size. just putting it out there

I've only recently discovered the $5 rotisserie chickens that Costco and Sam's sell. Maybe not quite a loss-leader, but good value.

We get them in the UK costco too for roughly the same, they're superior to your tesco etc rotisserie chickens and double the size

Started air-drying the laundry recently - not only time but actually money-saving as you don't have to sit around the laundromat waiting for dryers.

it'll be fine. do it and don't look back it's how the rest of the world lives and we get along fine

ish

I gotta start doing the making my own lunches thing. Ugh.

Cutting down on coffee at the coffee shop has dovetailed well with switching down to tea. A box of twenty tea bags is basically the same price as a single espresso drink at my local and (following the withdrawal period) I do feel better on tea than coffee, so that's neat.

i started to use the you need a budget app, which is expensive, but you can find places to get 1-3 months free to try it. the price went up a lot after i got it. i have always been "good" with money but was acting like i couldn't save and not really keeping track of things. now i'm like $600 from paying off my credit card and i actually have emergency money. it's weird.

I've been doing the savings thing noted above (500pm) since mid-last year and it's nice. Goes direct into a work-linked credit union. Pension also takes a whack but it's mandatory and excellent.

Still not making my own lunches, still buying too much coffee out and still grabbing sweet snacks every time I'm near a shop.

Jesus id be thin and rich with a few obvious changes huh

i'd be big & rich

horse saving tips

eternal

http://i64.tinypic.com/nci8au.gif

I am very good at saving money.

Five year update: getting there. Might even be talk of mortgage brokers next year

The deduction from wages to a harder-to-reach platform is the only game in town, tbh

Tho not having had a job that allowed for savings pre Dec 2015 is a relevant factor