The thrifty life
Thanks to everyone for joining in the “thrifty life” conversation and providing tips to living on less and spending less. You can still add comments to keep that conversation going.
My wife and I have been doing some of the tips that were mentioned and some other things to save money. Some of the ideas in the comments we haven’t tried. Here’s a list of stuff that we are currently doing to save money:
- Don’t eat out much at all. If we go out to eat now, it’s usually cheap. Subway $5 footlongs, Chinese lunch specials, cheap pizza, etc.
- Split a plate when eating at a restaurant. We try to share meals as much as possible when we do eat out. Cuts down the bill and we definitely don’t need as much food as you get at a restaurant.
- Drink water at restaurants. That’s $4-5 saved every time we do eat out just by drinking free water.
- Stopped buying tons of soda. This is probably one of our hardest disciplines. We are both addicted to soda. We love it and can’t get enough. We used to stock up when we’d find 12 packs of Pepsi products on sale (4 for $10 / 5 for $12). However, even when buying soda on sale, it was still a major expense because of the amount we drank. So we’ve decided to stop soda buying for now to save money. If we occasionally buy soda, we are trying to buy the cheapest 2-liters offered at the store (not 12-packs of cans).
- Cutting my own hair. I have my wife cut my hair with electric clippers that I bought a couple years ago. Spend some money up front to get some nice ones that will last ($30-50). However, save money for years of no paid haircuts ($15-25 each!).
- Use Mint.com to track expenses. I signed up with Mint.com back in January and have found it to be a great tool for tracking expenses and sticking to a budget. The first couple months, I didn’t stick to the budget, but Mint.com showed me a visual of how much over budget I was spending. This made me become more aware of my spending and more conscience of my set budget. It’s a great tool.
- Making an itemized list before grocery shopping. I’m the worst when it comes to impulse buying at the grocery store. So, my wife has set up a habit for us to make an exact list of what we need and write down a rounded-up price for each product. That way we won’t be over our budget when we get to the cash register. She also keeps a running tally as we shop so we always have in mind how much money is already in our shopping cart.
- A minimalist wardrobe. Some people might say I’m stupid for having this conviction, but I just can’t in good conscience spend tons of money on nice, name brand clothes (even if I had the money to spend). This conviction is for many reasons. 1) I’ve been in the “I need to look good” mindset in the past and I cared way too much what people thought of how I looked. It’s such a self-centered mindset that is looking for attention from other people through superficial means. I just don’t care if I “look cool” anymore. 2) I can’t feel good about owning a bunch of nice clothes when over half the world barely has a shirt to put on their back. So give me a couple t-shirts, a pair of shorts, a pair of jeans, and a polo. That’s all I need. (I’m currently in process of emptying out a lot of clothes out of my closet to take to Goodwill.)
- No cable TV. Most TV shows can be watched online now anyways. Plus it’s just wasted money. No, I don’t need fifteen ESPN channels.
- Do it yourself/Make your own. My wife has been the queen of make your own. For example, she hasn’t bought a single curtain for our apartment. Instead, she scouts out cheap fabric and creative ideas to make her own. And she gets to have fun doing it.
- Find used before buying. If you can get stuff used instead of buying, do it. We, Americans, are known for wanting the best of everything for ourselves. However, we can’t keep consuming the world’s resources and filling landfills like we currently do. Let’s start using stuff, and when we don’t want it anymore, hand it down. Don’t throw it out. Take our living room for instance. In our living room, we have a couch, a recliner, 2 end tables, a coffee table, a lamp, a TV stand, a TV, a small dining table and 2 chairs. How much did all that cost? Well, I paid $50 for the lamp at Lowe’s. The rest…free.
That’s the thrifty tips for today. We’re still trying to learn this stuff. We just don’t want to be trapped by our debt for the rest of our lives while paying minimum payments. That’s ridiculous. Debt has held so many people back from taking big risks for the Kingdom and we don’t want that to ever be an excuse for us when we know God is calling us to step out in faith.
