The "Ways To Save Money" Thread

[Pinner]

Originally Posted by Option84

Don't get a girlfriend or wife. (or at least find one who is rich or has a rich daddy)

Some women are very expensive I disagree with the rich daddy advise, marry a girl that knows the value of a dollar.

My wife who has never supported herself, pisses money away with no regard whatsoever.

[Muta]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

Stop eating out, especially for breakfast.

Damn. I don't know if I can do that.

I love eating out...

[JustAnotherGuy]

Originally Posted by Maritime Q-Scout

..... I have the reusable filter with my Keurig and I use it every day. .........

I have a Keurig and the reusable filter always makes a big mess and is completely unusable. I have searched all over the net for ideas of how to make it work properly but none of them work. While searching the net some people say it works fine but there are a lot of people who say it doesn't work at all. Do you have any tips of how you make it work? Thanks.

[Table 5]

Originally Posted by bc-chris

how to save money... pretty simple - spend less than you make

Also....make more money.

I know it sounds obvious, but putting more focus on the things that make you money can be as important as trying to save it.

I'm a designer by day, but a few years ago I got into investing and stocks, and was spending hours a day looking things up, researching, trading, diddling away....taking time away from my job, and at the end of the day, not being that much better off. I realized that for me the best way to make money was to focus on what I do best. I still think investing is important, but once I switched to a couch potato strategy, and put my focus back onto my actual job, my income went up.

[gottabekd]

I'll second the rewards credit cards angle. You want to be careful, though. There is a psychological effect that makes you spend more, because "I'm getting points back, so it's okay".

Really, the best card out there is the MBNA Smart Cash Platinum Plus.

• No annual fee
• For the first 6 months
  • 5% cash back on gas and grocery purchases
• After 6 months
  • 3% cash back on gas and grocery purchases
• 1% cash back on all other purchases

The only cards that *might* be better are travel rewards cards. If you do a lot of travel, look into them. But if not, the Smart Cash card is the best you'll find.

One other thing to mention (for Canadians) is the Tax Free Savings Account. A lot of people don't know about it, fewer have opened an account, and even fewer have maxed out their contribution room. If you have ANY savings, and have not maxed out your TFSA, you should consider putting the savings in the TFSA. You don't pay ANY tax on any income or gains from these accounts, and can withdraw your money any time, and get the contribution room back from any withdrawals the next calendar year.

And of course...cut back your consumption if you want to save money. A penny saved is a penny earned, and all that.

[shermanator]

Unfortunately, it's hard to be frugal in our consumer-driven society.

The easiest way to save money IMO? if you can, put 5-10% of your paycheque into an RRSP away before it gets deposited in your bank account. A lot of companies do this, most match your contributions up to a certain percentage, and your savings grows pretty quickly. You never see the money to begin with, so you can't spend it. If you manage to live fine the next 6 months, start putting another 1-2% in.

Rinse, lather, repeat.

[Maritime Q-Scout]

Originally Posted by JustAnotherGuy

I have a Keurig and the reusable filter always makes a big mess and is completely unusable. I have searched all over the net for ideas of how to make it work properly but none of them work. While searching the net some people say it works fine but there are a lot of people who say it doesn't work at all. Do you have any tips of how you make it work? Thanks.

There's a rubber washer on the needle in the top of the unit, make sure you pull that down so it forms a seal on the reusable filter. As long as you do that you should be fine.

[chalms04]

Originally Posted by gottabekd

One other thing to mention (for Canadians) is the Tax Free Savings Account. A lot of people don't know about it, fewer have opened an account, and even fewer have maxed out their contribution room. If you have ANY savings, and have not maxed out your TFSA, you should consider putting the savings in the TFSA. You don't pay ANY tax on any income or gains from these accounts, and can withdraw your money any time, and get the contribution room back from any withdrawals the next calendar year.

And of course...cut back your consumption if you want to save money. A penny saved is a penny earned, and all that.

This combined with "Simply Save" from TD. Every time I use my debit card, it throws a certain $ amount into my TFSA. As a side effect, it's made me mindful of how much I actually use debit. (a lot more than I thought I did.)

[TylerSVT]

Stop eating out.

ME and my GF stopped going out for dinner a couple months ago and have easily saved 3-400 a month by not going out for meals.... its stupid how much money you spend going out for dinner and drinks and buying lunch etc.

[Winsor_Pilates]

mint.com
Really helpful site for tracking your spending, planning savings, getting email/smartphone reminders when you're breaking your budget.
awesome and free!

[3 Justin 3]

Originally Posted by kunkstyle

I'll probably get flamed by someone for this one...

Credit cards with benefits. Absolutely everything that can goes on my credit cards. For purchases you're making anyways, why not get points or cash back for it? Assuming $3000 a month in purchases/bills, a 2% cash back card will get you $720 back at the end of the year. Using airmiles for products instead of trips is great too.

The only rule: Pay it off every month. If you carry over ever go back to cash only.

The other nice benefit is that at the end of the month you have a nice detailed statement of all of your spending, without having to log it yourself.

I agree, but only if you have the funds to pay it off (you touch on this though). My limit is $3500 but I always make sure I have enough cash in the bank to pay it off the same day. I don't nessecarily pay it off the same day, but I make sure if I buy something that costs $500, I have $600, etc.

Even though I only get 1% cash back, it all adds up. When I pay tuition (my biggest expense) I get $5 back a class, with 10 classes a year I am up a nice $50.

[JustAnotherGuy]

Originally Posted by Maritime Q-Scout

There's a rubber washer on the needle in the top of the unit, make sure you pull that down so it forms a seal on the reusable filter. As long as you do that you should be fine.

Oh my god.. It worked. Thank you. Your explanation was perfectly clear with what was needed to make it work. Thanks.

I will be saving a lot more money now. LOL

[MarchHare]

I do so many things that savings experts tell you not to do. For example:

1. I spend $5 on fancy coffees practically every work day.
2. I buy my lunch everyday instead of brown-bagging it.
3. The wife and I go to restaurants 2-3 times each week.
4. I make all kinds of other frivolous purchases without even thinking about it.

All that said, I'm probably in the best position in terms of savings of anyone I know. I have my bank account setup to automatically contribute 10% of my gross salary to my RRSP every payday. Since I'm paid twice monthly (e.g. 24 times per year), I also automatically contribute $208.33 ($5000 split into 24 equal deposits) to a TFSA each time my salary is deposited.

Sure I could save more if I really wanted to become miserly and cut back on some of the frivolous things I enjoy, but I can afford to both save and spend. This is only possible because my wife and I made two lifestyle choices that I'm sure would be deal-breakers for many people, though:

1. We don't currently have and are not planning to ever have children.
2. We live in a downtown condo and walk to work (and everywhere else), saving us big bucks that most suburbanite couples spend on car payments, gas, insurance, parking, car repairs/maintenance, winter tires, etc.

[sevenarms]

Go to the library instead of buying books and dvds. It's a $12 membership and then everything is free.

[JohnnyB]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

Stop eating out, especially for breakfast.

I was getting into a nasty habit of stopping at Tims or McDonalds for breakfast lately. 6 or 7 bucks a day for breakfast is ######ed. It's such a cheap and easy meal to do at home, it's silly to pay so much for it elsewhere.

I only eat out. Really.

There hasn't been cooking in my apartment since September or October, and that wasn't me doing the cooking. Eating out for every meal is kind of awesome, in a hilarious bachelor kind of way. Still, I save about 50-60% of my salary every month, so my savings are doing alright.

[killer_carlson]

When I do speaking sessions for the general public, I will usually put a topic in on how to reduce your legal fees. One of the most basic that people don't do enough of when using lawyers for their person or small business is to organize your documents and put a detailed table of contents with them.

Others:
give clear instructions in terms of what you want by finishing this sentence: At the end of the day, I want _______,
listen to your lawyer's instructions (even when you don't like the answer), and
respond when asked to respond.

Lawyers are to seperate the emotion from the issue, and by doing the above, you'd let us get to the issue much faster and efficiently.

[username]

The best and pretty much only way to really save money is take 10% of your pay cheque and put it away. You do that for your entire life and you'll retire rich.

If you learn to live within 90% of your income and then you also get bonuses and stock options you can use that money for vacations, cars, stocks, and paying down mortgages.

It's actually really simple.

[Stranger]

We used to always rent movies. With the PVR now we just record them and watch them for the $15-20 per month it costs to get the movie channels. I know we easily save $50/month on rentals. We tend to be about a year behind on seeing some movies, but it doesn't matter to me anyways.

[To Be Quite Honest]

Stop paying taxes.

Stop driving cars and use horses.

Live on a remote mountainside with renewable energy like a "methane reactor".

Make moonshine.

Sell it right next to Reggie Dunlop while people drive to Banff.


In all seriousness my woman is the most organized person I know. She just got out of college two years ago and has saved just under 50 thousand already. She puts me to shame, but I support her goals and I also plan on saving... My biggest expense? Probably beer.

[Locke]

I've found beeing a Freeman on the Land has saved me a lot of money.

I mean, take what you need whenever you want, pay for nothing, its like being a rockstar without the cocaine, unless you know some hapless dealers that leave their stock unattended a lot, then its just like being a rockstar.