gasbuddy.com Put in your zip code and it gives the where-and-how much for stations in your area.
And local free events are good (if it doesn’t take too much gas to get there and back.)
Or depending on the situation, giving up the land line might be the way to go.
I also used to be a single gal earning a decent wage without a care in the world, and I developed some bad spending habits. I wasn’t exactly extravagant (as in, I didn’t spend beyond my means), but I would spend everything I had with no thought of having anything leftover at the end.
Now I have a boyfriend and we are saving for our future. Having some kind of end goal in mind is a huge help when I want to fall back into my old ways. Mostly I just avoid going into stores and browsing unless I have a clear idea of what I need to buy. I’ve more or less forbidden myself from spontaneous purchases, and that has really cut down on my expenses. I’ve also given up luxuries like regular pedicures and massages.
As for our groceries, we usually buy meat and canned stuff in bulk from Costco or the Internet. One Costco run costs us about 300-400 dollars, but it lasts us for 2 months. Our day to day grocery shopping is mostly things like milk, bread, and vegetables.
[quote=“drbhoneydew, post:54, topic:602169”]
[li]Learn substitutions. Leeks and onions are freely interchangeable. Judge value from garlic clove/head size rather than it’s class (I don’t know how they pack it up in the US, but Class I garlic here generally ends up meaning pretty but small cloves while Class II are cheaper, not as pretty but bigger and just as tasty). When cooking, tinned tomatoes are usually as good as fresh, etc , etc.[/li][/QUOTE]
Just when you think you’re so cosmopolitan and you know everything about the world you find out some weird basic fact of life somewhere else that blows your mind. You have… graded garlic? We just have, you know, garlic. Or garlic for fools that’s packaged in a little box with two heads, for people who are scared of the big bin of garlic or something. (You can’t feel the heads, so you can’t see if they’re going bad or not. Who buys that?)
Canned tomatoes are the ONE exception to the “don’t buy canned things” thing. Frozen almost everything else unless it’s in season, but unless you have an asston of seasonal tomatoes from somebody’s garden you cook with canned. Those are picked at the peak of freshness and canned immediately.
Toiletries and cleaning products are where you can really save big on the coupons and flyers thing. There’s entire websites devoted to The Drugstore Game but the simple version is just getting a weekly paper and scoping out the deals. The big chain drugstores each have their own version of things, one might be a rebate system that you have to log receipts, or a store card, or money back on your next order, etc. Decide to start with one store and learn their system.
Brand loyalty goes out the window, but many people find that getting top brand stuff for next to nothing is always better than paying less for the cheapy store brand. I’d much rather have colgate or crest in my preferred style that I got for under a dollar than crappy tasting store brand stuff for the same price that doesn’t make my teeth feel as clean. I know which brands of hair product I like, and since there are a few, I can always stack the coupons on top of deals and stock up for cheap.
Razors are another place many folks overlook because they’re married to the specific style and are stuck buying expensive replacement cartridges. My husband and kid always have fancy ‘name’ disposable razors to use, not the no-brand face destroying multi-bagged kind, so they don’t really care if it’s Fusion one week and Mach 3 the next. A $4 off coupon and a store rebate for $5 means a brand new razor with two cartridges costs 2-3 bucks. I do kind of regret throwing away all the excess plastic and packaging, but not enough to pay full price for replacement blades. Granted, neither of my menfolk are daily shavers so YMMV, but it’s worth looking into.
Something I did, in terms of psychology of not-buying, when money was very tight was as follows:
What I can spend is a very finite resource. So if I spend money on unexpected-thing A, that means I can’t have part-of-my-regular-routine thing B. So before I buy a thing, I ask myself “what am I willing to give up to have this?” If the answer is “nothing” I move on. If I can think of a thing I’d be willing to give up then I think about if I’m really serious about sacrificing that thing, and if anyone who might be affected objects. Then if, after leaving the thing behind and considering the sacrifice, I STILL want it, I go ahead, understanding that if I break my deal with me, I will never make this deal with me again, because apparently I’m a real jerk about money.
Agree with the advice to never browse; use a list, get your crap and go. And to budget in some small splurges so you don’t snap under the Austerity Measures.
Phones. Our cell phone is the third line on our son’s plan. Even with 3 phones, we never go over the alloted minutes.
Land Line? Vonage, under $350 a year for unlimited calls to the USA, canada, and much of Western Europe. Our local Grace Fergerson Screen door, Airline, and phone company stinks. We pay less for unlimited phone and high speed internet than we use to pay for local service and dial up. Local, very local, the far side of the county was 10 cents a minute.
I know a lot of people find it useful to say to themselves, “How much work is this?” As in, if I make $20 an hour, and this sweater is $100, then I will work (before taxes, but let’s keep it simple) 5 hours to buy this sweater. Is that worth it to me? If yes, fine. If no, then there you go.
I also know somebody who does the cash in envelopes thing but has credit cards - she keeps them frozen in a block of ice in her freezer. They’re there for emergencies, or if she JUST HAS to have something (or if there’s an amazing deal), but it will take long enough to defrost the card that it won’t be an impulse purchase.
There’s too much nickel and dime stuff here. While it’s not bad advice, it’s been my observation that *transportation *is the single biggest area where people get in over their heads. Simply put, they buy a vehicle they can’t afford. If it takes you longer than three years to pay off a car, you have no business owning it.
I have *never *had a car loan, nor have I ever purchased a new car; I buy used vehicles with cash. Of course, this means I drive around in 10 year old cars. But it has saved me a boatload of money over they years.
Depending on where you live, the 99 Cents Only stores carry good quality produce and other items that can really make a difference in your budget.
But you have to be careful not to end up with a false economy - a lot of people end up spending too much money keeping an older car running. It depends somewhat on how much car knowhow you have, for one thing.
I agree with both Crafter_Man and Zsofia here. We don’t buy new cars. In fact, I think the newest car we’ve ever bought was six years old at the time, and that felt extravagant. But, there have been times in the past when if we’d stuck to only what we were able to buy with cash, we’d have wound up with a clunker that cost us tons in repairs. The last vehicle we bought was 8 years old when we bought it. We had a trusted mechanic check it out before buying. We took out a small loan for it, and four years later the vehicle is completely paid off and is still running beautifully with no expenses other than routine maintenance.
I stumbled upon the dollar store in the nearby rough neighborhood which is SIGNIFICANTLy better\different than the dollar store where I grew up.
Staples like
-canned salmon (wild! boneless and skinless!) for $1; it’s $2 at Trader Joe’s and $3 at the regular grocery
-canned tuna (starkist, chicken of the sea brands, albacore too) $1
-greeting cards. I was paying $4 a card - I can get them for 50 cents-$1 now
-windshield wiper blades, $5 apiece, opposed to $15 apiece at AutoZone or Target
**
Zsofia**, I’d wager that many more people buy new cars (or new to them cars) simply when their cars are “old”. I see it all the time - usually around the six or eight year mark when the body of the car is now 2 cycles old. Instead of paying $250 for a nice wash and detailing, paint touch up and new seat covers they up and get a new car.
My car was recently in the shop for 900 clams; six months ago it was 400. $1300 is like 3 car payments, not 12.
You know how much a letter costs, as opposed to a greeting card? And is a million times more awesome and appreciated?
I like greeting cards. And there’s no rule saying you can’t write a personal message on the inside. 
Oh, nothing wrong with them, I just think it’s funny to talk about “I found out where you can get them for 50 cents a pop as opposed to two bucks!” where a sheet of paper and a bit of sincerity is practically free.
The best advice I have to save money on groceries is hardcore, but it works. Figure out how much you want to spend. Say, $100 a week. Take that much in cash, and leave all credit and debit cards at home.
This forces you to not go over your budget.
It’s hard. You have to really pay attention to what you are buying and what it costs. Sometimes you still have to put something back because you are a little over. But you’ll end up buying only what you need.
And the condescension served unsolicited!
Supposedly you can get 3 Hallmark greeting cards for free at CVS this week. In reality, my CVS doesn’t carry Hallmark greeting cards…
Yesterday I got myself free Blistex, toothbrushes and toothpaste at Walgreens, though. That was awesome.
You would think this to be true, but I have seen a few TV segments showing that many of these “deals” in 99cent stores aren’t such a deal. The packages are way smaller, and price per ounce is often more than the full size brand name in regular stores. They also compared prices in these 99cent and dollar stores to deals you can find at even your local Walgreens or other small pharmacies, and show the pharmacy chains often have better prices.
I am not saying you can never find good deals there, but be cautious before you fill up your shopping basket with every item that seems like a good deal just because it costs a dollar or less.