The "Ways To Save Money" Thread

[username]

Originally Posted by Oil Stain

I guess it depends on what you mean by retiring rich. For example, if I was 20 years old today and wanted a retirement income of $100,000 at age 65 (Which won't be a whole lot of money in 45 years time), I would have to stash away $16,000 dollars a year until I reach the age of 65.

Most people don't make $160,000 a year so they are going to have to make some huge sacrifices if they want to get rich through savings only.

So many things wrong with your statement that I'm not even sure where to begin.

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by Oil Stain

Most people don't make $160,000 a year so they are going to have to make some huge sacrifices if they want to get rich through savings only.

I believe most North Americans have looked at this and said - "well F that!" and thus don't save at all.

[troutman]

http://consumerist.com/2007/04/snl-s...nt-afford.html

SNL offers a revolutionary debt and money-management program. Chris Parnell teaches Steve Martin and Amy Poehler the secret to financial success. It's all detailed in a new book called, "Don't Buy Stuff You Can't Afford." Every debtor in America should read it

[Art Vandelay]

We use our PC Mastercard for everything. Collect PC points which we can use on groceries at Superstore. Also, we buy our gas at Superstore. We get 9c/L back in groceries at Superstore.

I think we save around $200/yr in groceries. We pay the card off every month and it has no annual fee.

[GreenLantern]

My biggest spending is on concerts. I love live music, and I love live music even more with 3-4 pints. So if I go to the local indie spot, 10-15 bucks a ticket, then 3-4 guinness I am at $28-$39 just for the show. Then I always hit up the merch table to support the band if they are good, usually buying a few CDs or latest EP/LP + t-shirt, so thats another $20.

So $50-$70 right there.. and the night usually doesn't end after that. And that is the cheapest option, any higher scale concert the ticket price goes all the way up to 60-70 to 100 depending on the band and the drink prices increase.

It is damn expensive, so what do I do? Stop supporting the bands I love to listen to, stay at home and download them illegaly?

Maybe limit myself to a concert a month as a reward? This month I will be hitting... 4 concerts total, April I already have tickets bought for 4, Feb was 4... so I would say that is my average..

[WilsonFourTwo]

My grocery specific tips......

1. Eat 1/2 the meat and twice the vegetables that you currently do. Going from 500g of chicken to 300g is recipe makes a HUGE difference on the wallet AND your waistline.

2. Plan at least 5 meals per week. The more you plan, the less miscellaneous stuff you'll buy, the less you'll waste.

3. Only pay for food that does good things for you. There's just no way to justify bags of cookies and cases of Coke. (Infrequent treats notwithstanding!)

4. Don't get sucked into buying "More because it's cheaper in bulk". Chances are that bulk saves you pennies per dollar on an item. If you waste just a little bit, the advantage is long gone.

5. CHECK YOUR RECEIPT. Seriously - mistakes happen, especially for items that require manual entry (produce, bakery). Entering "Organic Tomatoes" instead of "Hothouse Tomatoes" could easily cost a few dollars. Not getting credit for promotional pricing is another huge area of loss.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by WilsonFourTwo

5. CHECK YOUR RECEIPT. Seriously - mistakes happen, especially for items that require manual entry (produce, bakery). Entering "Organic Tomatoes" instead of "Hothouse Tomatoes" could easily cost a few dollars. Not getting credit for promotional pricing is another huge area of loss.

I always use the selfcheckout machine now. That happened all the time, where I'd pay the "organic tax" on produce when I only bought the regular stuff. I wouldn't notice until I got home, and wouldn't bother driving back to the store for the 2-3 bucks.

Now I do self-checkout, so I get a cashier who can correctly key in the 4 digit number on the sticker every time.

[Starfishy]

Working downtown also means that I eat out for lunches all the time. It is hard for me to plan to bring a lunch as I am not always sure what the day is going to bring. I have found I can save a lot of cash just by storing a couple quickie lunches in my desk (noodles, chili, soups). It saves me a lunch or 2 a week.

[Knalus]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern

My biggest spending is on concerts. I love live music, and I love live music even more with 3-4 pints. So if I go to the local indie spot, 10-15 bucks a ticket, then 3-4 guinness I am at $28-$39 just for the show. Then I always hit up the merch table to support the band if they are good, usually buying a few CDs or latest EP/LP + t-shirt, so thats another $20.

So $50-$70 right there.. and the night usually doesn't end after that. And that is the cheapest option, any higher scale concert the ticket price goes all the way up to 60-70 to 100 depending on the band and the drink prices increase.

It is damn expensive, so what do I do? Stop supporting the bands I love to listen to, stay at home and download them illegaly?

Maybe limit myself to a concert a month as a reward? This month I will be hitting... 4 concerts total, April I already have tickets bought for 4, Feb was 4... so I would say that is my average..

People make money for a reason, and it isn't just to save. Be smart about spending on the things you love, but don't stop doing them just to save money. Besides, there are likely a tonne of other things going on in your life where you could make better spending decisions to save money at where you don't have to sacrifice your life to do it.

[VladtheImpaler]

To echo some others, especially Troutman, saving is great, but don't forget to enjoy your life along the way. If you are leaving all the "fun" until you are 65, you just may never have any fun because you'll be dead. Could I save double what I do now? Sure, but then I wouldn't have seen China, Norway, Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, etc. The key is a balance. A lot of the guys that write those "how to be rich" books are snake-oil salesmen, but one bit of advice is solid and very helpful - pay yourself first. That means automatically deduct a good amount every month for "savings", but also automatically deduct an amount for "fun". There is no reason to ever eat a meal at McDonalds, A&W and the like, but you should go to Caesars once in a while...

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by TylerSVT

Best way to save money. When you make more... dont spend more.

Its funny, i know people who make 100 grand a year and still have money issues, there seems to be this progression with the more you make the more you spend...

If you were content with something before... stick with it as you start earning a higher income.

People as soon as they start making 60 grand assume they deserve a BMW and a nice big condo... so dumb.

This is beyond the smartest thing I have ever read, that you posted, on this message board.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by VladtheImpaler

The MBNA Platinum Plus cash-back card is not advertised (supposedly only available to existing MBNA customers, but I phoned them up and got one), but it gives you 5% back on gas/groceries for the first 6 months and 3% thereafter. Of course, that return is limited to the first $600 per month, so you have to make sure you use it efficiently. I have this card plus the Capital One Aspire for the travel rewards. According to my research, those are the best 2 reward cards in Canada - if someone knows otherwise, please post the info here.

It's on their website, so they must have lifted any restrictions they had: https://wwwa.applyonlinenow.com/CACC...=CJB8&lc=en_CA


Here's a site with a side-by-side comparison of all the major Travel Rewards Cards in Canada: http://www.rewardscanada.ca/cccompare.html


Right now, I use the Scotiabank Gold Travel card. It has an annual fee, but that's offset by not needing to buy separate travel insurance. Also, if you book flights or packages through their rewards website, you get 5% of your out-of-pocket cost back. They also have a sign-up bonus that's equivalent to $200 and another $100 on the first anniversary of your using the card, so that offsets the fee for the first couple of years.

I got the card in May of last year, and booked a trip to Barbados in August. The total cost of the trip was just over $1700, but after redeeming the points and getting the cash back, it worked out to just under $1400. The 5% cash back on travel purchases is only on flights and holiday/cruise packages, so if you're booking a trip a la carte, you don't get the 5% back on everything, but even if you book a $500 flight through their site, that would be $25 back (plus the $5 worth of rewards points you'd get for using your card).

[flamesfever]

I think it's helpful to prepare a simple Present Worth Statement once a year, where you list all your assets and liabilities. It will give you a sense of how you are doing financially, and hopefully reinforce your resolve to continue on your path, or to make necessary changes.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Pinner

Oil patch welding is pretty hard on a guy, knees and especially the neck. They eat a lot of smoke too. What the guys are doing in Fort Mac is probably relatively easy ??? but those guys probably spent a lot of years pipelining, putting in long hours, especially in the winter. Not exactly an inside job.

Very true, but like I said, I only see the T4s and I dont think I've seen a welder in the Fort make below $100K, and remember they're generally living in camp so meals and accomodation are paid for so they tend to take most of that home after taxes.

[DownhillGoat]

Originally Posted by Starfishy

Does anyone have a suggestion for one of these 2-3% cash back cards. I did a search for a card like this a while ago and all I came up with was my 1% cash back MBNA card.

Amex Cashback/Costco card is pretty decent, especially if you're shopping at Costco.

[The Yen Man]

Originally Posted by Locke

Very true, but like I said, I only see the T4s and I dont think I've seen a welder in the Fort make below $100K, and remember they're generally living in camp so meals and accomodation are paid for so they tend to take most of that home after taxes.

Minus all the booze, drugs, and hookers of course.

[linecook]

The wifes pregnant so we had to get in to a budget with her going on maternity leave. Some of things we did to cut back spending are as follows (other than the obvious):

1. Looked at every bill and see how we can save. We shopped around for better house & auto insurance, found better rates for gas and electricity, cell phone plans were reduced, we got a better rate with Shaw, found a better package for our banking services, and even use less water. Monthly savings ~ $175

2. We did an early renewal on our mortgage and lowered our interest rate. Monthly savings ~ $250

3. Do our own oil changes. Saved ~ $200 every 6 months

4. Put film insulation over windows to save on heating costs. Saved ~ $20 month (just a guess but with the winter we just had, our bills were a lot lower than last years).

Hope that helps!

[Prototype]

Look at all the bills you pay right now, including Insurance (car, home, etc).

Call up every place, and ask them to see if there's any way you could be saving on your bills.

I've done this after my wife went on maternity leave. Had to cut some things out of our lives, but nothing that had immediate impact.

- I don't get many incoming phone calls to my cell phone, which I would dump if I didn't have a year and a half still owing on my contract. Having said that, I got rid of a $20/mth package that included caller ID, unlimited text and voicemail. Now, I still text often, so I got the $5 package for ~250 texts, which I think is the minimum package available, although I'm sure I could pay 0.10 per text and still save money.

- Sat down with the wife, and looked at what channels we actually watch, and how many of those channels only had one show we watch. Were those shows on the basic package (Canadian channels)? Saved anywhere between $20-$30 on our TV bill making sacrifices.

- The other part to the Television bill was that I was paying something like $5 to have sports channels added, and another $5 to get them in HD on one package, and another $5 to get the other sports package in High Def. $10 per month to watch the occasional Flames game in glorious High Def was something I though was over the top. I still pay the $5 to get both main sports channels, in standard, but I don't pay the extra right now for High Def.

- If you've been with a company for a while, and your all nice and friendly on the phone with them, I've found that most companies are willing to look and see if there's a bundle or something they can do for you. It doesn't happen all the time, but sometimes they have a better grasp on what you're doing with your money when it comes to their products, and what's available, than you do.

[Knalus]

Another tactic I've used to save money: When a salesman calls you on the phone from your cellphone provider, cable provider, bank, credit card ect... you actually have the perfect opportunity to pester THEM about lowering your current rates. I've gotten major reductions in my phone bill from them calling me, and minor reductions on my cable and credit card (I'm sorry sir, all I can do is reduce your interest by 1%. That's better than I thought I was doing before you called me up).

It takes the annoyance you have from being called up out of the blue and turns it into something constructive for you and frustrating for the person on the other end to deal with.

[Kswiss]

Buy a bad ass video game and stay home for the next couple weekends...at least 150 dollars saved!