How Do You Save on MEAGER BUDGET

[BeerParticipant 11832]

Keymaster wrote:

OF ALL the lessons she taught about “saving money”… there was not a single lesson about how to EARN more money.

Most people scoff at a second job…like an extra hundred bucks a week isn’t worth the effort…but even just 100 bucks a week can be a massive boost to your savings.

Let’s just say you need 1500 bucks a month to stay afloat and your making 1600 a month…you can only save 100 bucks a month. Add in an extra 100 bucks a week, or roughly 400 bucks a month…and one month with that part time side gig allowed you to save what otherwise would have taken you 5 months to save.

Its only really worth it to do this though if you are investing it and building passive income. I know guys that work second jobs or lots of overtime just to spend it as fast as they get it…and really wtf is the point? I know one dude that was working three jobs for years on end…probably averaging 80 hours a week at work…and he was paying for a premium HBO cable package that was like 180 bucks a month or some obscene s~~~. He wasn’t ever home to watch it! In cases like that, they need to listen to your mom about saving money…but in reality one can only be so frugal before its near impossible to save any more money and the only way to pad your bank account at that point is to earn more.

[FrankOneParticipant 1417]

Yes, I shop at thrift stores ALL the time. Just bought two rugged Carhartt T-Shirts for working out for only $2 each an hour ago at one. A girl I went to high school with noticed me in the parking lot, and followed me in to say ‘hi’, she couldn’t believe I shopped there (she had a PhD and was a college professor). I got the usual quizzing ‘what do you do for a living’.

I tell people at work I buy some of my clothes there and they ask ‘aren’t you afraid of bedbugs or getting a disease’? NO I explain they sanitize the clothes and I wash them prior to wearing… and that just because people are poor doesn’t mean they are diseased…

Keymaster: My Mom is the same way about closing the damn fridge even though she is worth several million dollars! BUT those that grew up with such frugality, are mostly children of the Depression. Try to find a frugal woman that shops at thrift stores nowadays!

If I have this right, you are spending 1.5 hours commuting, is that one way? Can you ask a work colleague who is closer if they have a basement or spare room they can rent or know anyone who does? You indicated the job pays above minimum wage, if it isn’t a great job, can you get a similar job closer to you? Or can you get an apartment at the same cost as where you are now, even with a roomate, that is closer? If you’re single, can you work shift work in manufacturing?

Do you pack your lunch or eat it out? My colleagues ask ‘where are we going to lunch’ (I work in a professional position), I say, I’m eating in. I bake up chicken, put toppings on a sandwich with fresh bread, bake up a pizza in my convection oven (I put a dorm size fridge in my office too). I brought in leftover grilled steak last week, they asked what I was eating, and I said a sirloin sandwich, that cost me less than the prison grade meat served up at McDonald’s. I can literally eat TWO steak sandwiches for less than it costs to eat at McDonald’s. I usually don’t eat steak sandwiches, but I think you get my point…

There’s nothing to be ASHAMED of in not having money. I didn’t have much money in my early 20’s. Not having lots of money doesn’t make you a ‘failure’. I know people who live in cabins in the middle of nowhere who are HAPPY. Still, you should consider saving for retirement. If you save you can invest and generate passive income. I just rented one of my properties last week. It’s been paid off for years. The rent from this single property, covers about HALF of my total living expenses (my house is paid off, as is my car).

[AutoliteParticipant]

Anonymous wrote:

TLDR: An older friend of mine in my 20s talked me into start investing in retirement. Glad he did.

My parents taught me zilch about financial responsibility. All my Dad knew how to do is spend.

In my early twenties, it was a co-worker who told me about savings bonds and RRSPs and s~~~. Today, I own my own home free and clear mostly because of what that guy told me.

Start socking it away as soon as you can. It’s never too late to start…

[Author]

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