I've started driving slower. Not during peak drive times, but early morning and late evening when there is less traffic. I'll set the cruise control around 60. It makes a difference. And every little bit helps.
Consider a reverse osmosis system as in the long run it is cheaper than Costco bottled water and cleaner
How much is your car payment every month? Sell you car and pay cash for a hooptie. No car payment = more cashflow every month. Stop living paycheck to paycheck because of your stupid car. Too many people out there with nice cars that don't have $1,000 to their name. Your average Texas Bubba can't afford to save for retirement or pay for his kids' college...and a 5K emergency would totally bankrupt him.......but by god he sure drives a nice truuuuck (with an $800/month payment)... #priorities
Issue with selling a car to downsize right now is the value of used cars is ridiculous. He could get good money for his car but it will take serious work to get a hoopty close to normal value. I just sold a 00 Camry with no a/c and a blown water pump for $2500
If he's buying and selling at the same time, the crazy market doesn't matter as much. The 2 transactions cancel eachother out. Make money on the sell, lose money on the buy. At least the monthly payment is gone. Some other small things I do: Save the water you use while waiting for hot water. Fill up your coffee maker, fill up your dog's water dish, fill up empty gallon milk cartons and put them in the fridge for drinking water....don't waste that water. Houston water is EXPENSIVE. Turn up the thermostat and put fans in every room. Turn off computers and monitors when not using. Unplug anything that charges once it gets to 100%. Don't let things charge all day Don't do 3 small loads of laundry, do 1 gigantic load. That dryer uses a LOT of energy, don't use it unless it's totally full. And empty that lint trap! This one is much harder if you have a family, but I like to play a game to see how long I can go without spending a single penny. Skip the grocery store one week and just eat everything in your freezer and pantry. Stay off of Amazon. When you turn it into a game, it's actually kind of fun.
Because I lost a power struggle with my business during COVID (I paid the employees and didn't lay them off and my partners took me down), I have had to cut back on expenses. Also, there is no doubt that the cost of staple items have gone through the roof and I believe well beyond what the news and government claims. I have tracked our spending for the same items and it has gone up over 20% in the last 16 months. As far as cutting back costs, I don't know how frugal you already are. What I did was write out a list that had necessities that had to be paid (mortgage/car note/etc) that there was no way to realistically change. Then I wrote out a list of food shopping choices. I noticed that my wife did things like have a milk man deliver milk, had a service deliver groceries, used door dash often, bought groceries for her friends. I wasn't upset at her and didn't accuse her of wasting money, just said until I am making as much as I did before, we needed to budget better. I had her prioritize her spending and we got rid of things like the milk delivery and cut down how much she spent on friends groceries. The third group of spending I attacked was impulsive spending. I did this by taking so much cash out every two weeks and limited impulse spending to how much each of us had in our pocket. This limited eating out, stopping at service stations, etc. Last I started planning vacations more. You discussed going to San Antonio. You can still do that if you plan it out right and set a strict budget. You will not get to go to a place as exotic, but there are still things to do in San Antonio and it is away from where you live, and you can have something to look forward in the future. In our case I told my wife there wouldn't be any cruises to Europe or any plane trips to Ireland or Italy. Instead we went to Wisconsin and it saved me a LOT of money. Adjusting isn't easy - but planning helps a lot.
one thing i did for the grocery store was buy the bigger package of chicken from HEB. i put what i dont need that week in the freezer. then after a couple weeks i dont buy any chicken for the week and use what i have in the freezer. the bigger package chicken cost 40% less. also i eat out even less than before. sorry but a lot of restaurants have gone down hill while the prices have gone up. glad my gf agrees
The biggest saving I've seen in families is consolidating the family into one home. Yes. You lose some of your freedom, but in most cases nobody even notices the added bodies. That saves so much money it almost cannot be matched. For some, it will put your entire salary in your pocket. It's a quick road to recovery when things are tight, but often overlooked.
I will be honest, I am cheap at baseline but have not done anything differently because everything costs more. I still waste money of lunch at work despite it being $5 more. I drive aimlessly sometimes. I keep the AC at 73. Good life.
This is the most Unamerican option that will get ridiculed the most but it's just a simple fact. If this country could beat this rugged individualism trope out of it's toxic culture people could have savings to buy a home going into their 30's. Instead you have parents who see a child's 18th birthday as the end of their parental responsibilities. Funny too considering the debate about an 18 year being able to buy an AR-15. I will never force my kid out of the house to "teach them" anything. Families move as a unit and if keeping everyone together saves money to allow greater success then so be it.
agree. cutting back on biggest monthly expense (shelter) will be the most impactful. called this at the beginning of the pandemic that multiple people/families in the same house would be the future. just look at basically every other country. you don't have to live with family. I was roommates with a friend of mine for 5 years in my late twenties with the goal of saving $ for a house that i could be very comfortable financially affording on my own on a monthly basis. i hear all the time from people that absolutely refuse to have a roommate. it sucks that house prices jumped so much in past couple years but at the same time F you because i made a sacrifice you didnt want to do.
I feel you. Just had my wife's 50th bday party over the weekend. Rented out a local brewery and hired 2 bands and a food truck. So yeah....my new budget starts..........NOW.
We still plan on taking a florida beach vacation, but will likely be making most of the food in the condo or wherever we stay. Gas is bananas and so is food, but we havent really been anywhere since 2019, other than some camping. Meal prepping will be pretty key going forward, as well as working from home fairly often. I'm also searching for a new job. My company merged and now they're "right sizing" salaries and bonuses. Bonus and Stock plan went down. They "offset it" with a raise in base pay, but it's still lower when you consider total compensation. Not to mention they dropped the 401k match in 2020 and it still hasn't came back. We also became members at our neighborhood pool, so we'll probably just be spending a lot of time there VS other events which would cost money.
