this blog isn’t current, but it’s been an interesting read. somewhere he says he wishes he had named it something else - more about** life **than retirement. and boy, does he do thrift.
a combination of simple living, anticonsumerism, DIY ethics, self-reliance, and applied capitalism
my current extreme in thriftiness is the house I rent - very cheap, but it’s because I live in a tiny town far from anywhere. I do miss civilization so I see it as temporary. I also don’t spend much on recreation like going out or paying for TV.
I buy everything second hand. Everything except my laptop and my knickers. I try very hard to wear and extra layer when it gets cold, instead of turning up the heating. I buy food at the market, or at a discount because of its sell by date. I don’t have a car (or a tv, but I don’t think that saves money?)
Heh, that’s cool, now I feel like I’m pretty thrifty!
No actually, I do a pretty good job of shopping for bargains at the store, “manager specials”, house-brands and such.
I do 75-99% of all my car and home repairs. Try not to waste stuff. Recycle/reuse all that I can. I’m also a world-class “McGiver-er”.
Actually, I know of* no one *with my “standard of living vs. level of income”. So I guess I do pretty well. Live within our means, stay out of debt. My wife is pretty good, too but sometimes does stuff that makes me pull my hair out.
I have a TV but only get the free over the air channel. that’s right, there is ONE. and then I feel sorry for myself.:rolleyes:
I read a magazine called The Caretaker Gazette which is an interesting mix of jobs. been reading it for years (it is online now, but used to be an actual newspaper) and you can find everything from “live free in the school bus parked in my yard in exchange for 2 hours a week caring for my goats” to high paying jobs where you supervise the staff at all their properties. a wide variety, IOW.
Thrift is more than a way of life or spending habit–it’s a state of mind, an art, an avocation and a sport. It can achieve levels of expression that are pure ingenuity, that have nothing to do with saving money.
My laptop computer needs a plug in keyboard and mouse to work and must be plugged in to work ( won’t charge) but I won’t replace it till it dies altogether.
My diet is entirely cheap protein sources and cabbage, plus what veggies I can stand from
school lunch.
i hand wash all my clothes to avoid paying for the laundromat ( little time lost if you just wash it and hang it to dry right after you take it off. Yes , I do use the laundromat to wash fabric and bedding.
Vacations are all one day or campout affairs at easy to get to beaches.
Holiday season is the perfect time to pick up a second job on weekends and evenings. You’d be amazed how much money you can make working ten hours a day, seven days a week from Thanksgiving to three days before Christmas!
I buy as much as I can in bulk and cases on sale. I like to check out ethnic grocery stores for bulk staples as well - the cheapest beans and rice are there, not to mention the best selection.
I don’t buy disposable kitchen items, using dishtowels and cleaning cloths, no plasticware, paper plates or cups. There’s no deposit here in Utah but there’s a metal recycler just around the corner where we take all our metal waste (we’re renovating our house).
We maximize every discount; for example the $1-2/gallon off at Kroger family stores is up to 35 gallons. We take both vehicles and line up so both gas tanks can be reached w/o replacing the nozzle. It saves us nearly $70 between his F150 and my hybrid Escape.
We prepay anything that’ll give us a discount for doing so, like our veterinarian. It’s only %5 off but w/ 2 cats it helps.
Typically, no food gets wasted. Bones get frozen for soup; peels and ends get shredded or pureed and added to rice dishes; fresh fruit and vegetables get dehydrated if they’re a few days from turning; our freezer has a high turnover of the juice from canned fruit and vegetables as they get used in steaming rice. Almost every grocery store has a clearance section or cart and a shelf of sad-looking produce for cheaper than the perfect stuff. I often find cans of things I also have coupons for; my best haul was 12 boxes of Frosted Mini-wheats w/ Fruit in the Middle that were expiring in a month that were marked down %50, I had a coupon for each AND the store was having a Kelloggs promotion that when added up made each box 29 cents. There were 2 carts of them marked down. They’re the sweet part of the dry hot cereal I make for my husband from the other bulk grains.
In laundry, I use a little less detergent, a little more baking soda and always pre-soak the very full load. I add a cup of white vinegar to each dishwasher load to keep it clean and doing a good job.
A little prevention goes a long way; I brush our cats’ teeth w/ a fingertip brush and though they don’t like it they’ve always gotten a great report from the vet on their teeth.
I coupon like a crazy mofo w/ the help of several blogs that match them up w/ sales. This gives me very good nearly-free stockpiles of hygiene and first aid items and about every other month I box up extras and send a care package to a deployed service member or a shelter of some kind or a church in an area that’s had a disaster like the flooding and storms of the last few years. W/ the grocery stockpile I’m able to affordable take in a monthly lunch for a dozen or so of the airmen in our shop, which means more to them than the effort I put into making it.
We have a family of 6 (me, my hubby and 4 kids) and we do just fine with only one car. It’s hard sometimes when we have to be in different places at the same time, but that happens rarely, and then we just take a cab. An occasional (like once every few months) cab is WAY cheaper than another car. Even with teens, we don’t need another car. I know so many people who have more cars than family members, it blows my mind!
I’m half thrifty. I save money on some things, and waste it on others. I haven’t bought a new car since 1985. Used car prices are high now, so it may not be as good a way to save as in the past. A few years ago I installed a new oil furnace myself for about 1/3 the price of estimates. I all the plumbing and electrical work in the house, along with all the restoration, repair, and improvements. I won’t get to do as much of that as I find myself continuing to get older in defiance of my desires. I don’t pay for expensive labels of any kind, I buy the level of quality I want regardless of appearances.
But then I live well. I buy toys, eat well, pick up rounds at the bar, buy tools, spoil my family, and I don’t really need some of the cars I save money on by buying used.
Chick peas! Chick peas are the real magic beans (or peas or something). They cost nothing if you buy them dried & in bulk. Soak them overnight and they can become anything! Falafel, hummus, stew, soup-chunky-maker…
Hm, let’s see…
shave my own head to save on haircuts
skip shaving my face several times a week to save on razors (I know, but I hate wearing a full beard)
wear the same 3 shirts to work every week
dilute all laundry & dish soap by 50%
I clip coupons and use them regularly, make my own laundry detergent and use the internet to ruthlessly comparison shop and scope out deals.
I have a decent paying job that could be a great paying job if I were willing to put in lots of overtime. My coworkers boggle at me for turning it down, but I get so much more enjoyment out of saving money rather than earning it, and I get to be at home with people I love, it’s no contest.
I have a vegetable garden which provides most of our vegetable needs for most of the year, plus last Christmas I made preserves for a bunch of people and saved a fortune on buying presents - and it turned out people liked the preserves better. Most of them gave me back the jars with requests to refill them and give them back this Christmas!
I wear my clothes until they really can’t be worn any more (though that’s as much from hating to shop).
Unwanted stuff goes to car boot sales - last time I did one I made £200+ from stuff that had just been cluttering up the house.
I go to Europe pretty frequently, and things are cheaper there. I always bring back a lot of groceries (dry goods but I also have a coolbox if I’m in the car or insulated bag if I’m flying) which means I really don’t shop here except for perishables like milk.
Ummmm- do your co workers ever look at you sideways? As if you walked in with a dog turd on your shoe? I know a lot will depend on climate and what you actually do for employment but I’ve known a couple of people who save money by skimping on washing things and other people know.
(I am not being snarky with the poster- I am just not convinced this is a great idea for a lot of people).
I don’t skimp on washing anything. I shower and launder all my clothes daily. I just use half the suggested amount of soap, because it seems like way more than necessary. And I spend very little of my life outside the protective embrace of air conditioning, so…
buy a lot of the less expensive/generic brands of stuff at the grocery store; much of it is the same and people are such suckers for marketing
use coupons some
have a “dumb” phone - I only use it to call people (weird eh?) not a trend whore, plus the “smart phones” are IMO a ridiculously unnecessary waste of $ at least for me
never buy high-end clothes (polo etc) which are also hideously overpriced
almost never eat out, although that’s more due to the obnoxious brats and/or their alleged parents than the cost
couldn’t care less about keeping up with the Joneses (eg flashy cars. wide-screen TVs, numerous other gee-whiz trendy doo-dads, etc)
don’t have cable TV as most of what’s on TV is IMO crap so why bother
rarely buy top of the line anything as mid-to-low range stuff is usually plenty good enough and the diff’s often exaggerated to non-existant, so why piss away money
Hmm…although I was born in the late 1950s I’ve always thought of myself as a child of the Depression. New Zealand. Both of my parents were farm children in 1929 etc and saw tramps coming to the door asking for food in exchange for work. They saw work gangs on the roads and railways. Family life was hard.
On top of that they were both from Scottish Presbyterian families which understood that penury and poverty were only a breath away. If the father faltered (he was gassed at The Somme) then the farm failed.
So despite being a wealthy man in modern terms I still live a careful life. Wealthy in the sense that my wife and I have four houses and a little money in the bank. Yet I still test every purchase no matter how small.
I guess overall its worked well for us. I believe we have a pleasant life and can provide for our children who are at university age. I don’t wear Nike but my children do. In fact most of my shoes come from a Habitat For Humanity shop but my kids would never shop there lol.
and then I feel sorry for myself.:rolleyes: