[Migrated, see pinned post] Casual Conversation

Ignore the big price label you see on bread, coffee and other food items. Look for the small number in the corner that says €/kg. That’s the only number that really matters in the long run.

If you have only 15 € in your pocket, and you need to survive till the end of the month, this tip might not be very helpful, since you also need to be aware of the sum you pay at the checkout.

A bargain is still spending money.

Learn to cook from raw or whole ingredients.

The amount we pay for processed bullshit that makes us sick is mind-boggling, we're talking like a factor of 10 to 1 almost.

And before you come at me, I meticulously budget my food, I make everything from scratch

Just as one example, frozen pizza. The absolute cheapest, worst piece of shit you can get in my area would be about $6 on sale. Compare that to making homemade crusts, sauce, and topping it myself for around 75 cents per pizza.

Many people use the excuse that they don't have time. Funny how they have time to go to work for 2 hours and earn $40 that they can just pay to Skip the Dishes, but don't have half an hour to make some homemade spaghetti.

Track your spending and expenses. Even if you don’t plan to change your spending habits at first, I’d say it’s pretty hard not to once you see where all your money is actually going.

Beyond that - and while it’s not exactly a “saving” tip - I’d argue that investing is the biggest lever you can pull when it comes to growing your wealth. I’m a blue-collar worker, and while I do okay for myself, I’m by no means rich. But the money I’ve put aside from my wages and invested now pays me passive income each year that roughly equals two months’ worth of income. That’s money I don’t have to work for.

I’d seriously struggle to save that much each year through budgeting alone - especially since I’ve already picked all the low-hanging fruit when it comes to frugal living.

A lot of people avoid credit cards, but if you get one that has good "cash back" rewards and only use it for stuff you're already buying anyway then you basically get a discount on everything.

I have a PayPal card that is like 1.5%-3% back on everything so I just do all my normal purchases on there, even insurance payments and stuff, then pay it all off as soon as I'm "allowed" to. I basically get a few hundred dollars a year back from stuff I'd be buying no matter what.

Just be careful of your cards maximum... I literally just learned this the hard way this week... I did all my normal shopping/payments like I always do, but I also rebuilt my computer so I ended up using 50% of my available credit and lost 20 fucking points off my credit score for it!!! Such a scam system lol

• In my country you have to pay an annual fee if your bank account exceeds a certain limit (5000€), so I opened another bank account to split the amount and not pay any fee
• In my country if you pay your medical expenses with a debit/credit card, you get 19% of what you spent back the next year, so I always use that
• I track all of my expenses. It helped me see where my money went. I'd rather download .mp3s on my phone than paying 12€/month for Spotify because all of these little expenses are like half a salary per year, no thanks
• The money it don't immediately need is put in money markets. At least it's revalued for inflation

I'm kind of obsessed with money because I got traumatized from a time where having 30€ more could mean eating for another week

I use tinder to get free meals and grindr for a free place to sleep.

Track your spending. It's insane how obvious that might sound, but having all your outgoings over a month laid out in front of you can make it really clear where there might be savings to be made. I used to pick up a pack of biltong and an energy drink before work every weekday - it was only £3 every morning. However, that's £63 a month right there.

Other than that; see if you can change your routine or mindset in some way to allow savings. I've started waking up earlier so I can walk to work, and not being so anxious to get home early so I can enjoy the walk home a bit more - I'm lucky to live within three miles from my office, and to be able-bodied (and have the area be walkable etc.) but it saves me about £150 a month on train tickets, at the cost of walking about 2 hours a day.

Before you buy something, take a look at all the useless junk you've accumulated over the years and now need to get rid of. After that, ask yourself: did it ever give you what you were really looking for?

Make lists and use them to think twice before purchasing anything.

I started making lists of stuff I wanted to buy instead of, well, buying it whenever I thought about it and and it worked great to teach me to differentiate between what I need and what I waaaaant ;)

Put bread in the fridge. It lasts much longer. You can also freeze bread and cheeses for even longer storage.

Expiration dates on most foods don’t mean much. Your salt isn’t bad just because you owned it for a year. Just pay more attention to the food after the date.

I got a twist for the fellas! Look at women's clothes at the thrift. There's far more variety than in the men's section and it's stupid cheap. Also, if you're non-fat, women's tops tend to cut in subtly at the waist, trés chic. Imagine, clothes that don't look like they used a whiskey barrel for a mannequin.

A good chunk of my shoes are from the female section. Got several jackets and other winter tops that look dead sexy. Used to pay way too much for white linen to wear at the beach or river. Here's the top I wore yesterday. (Boat's too small for 4, even though we're all tiny. Kids took turns getting towed.) Pulled two white tops at the thrift and my wife was shaking her head, "No! Those are for girls!" Yesterday she thought I looked hot and tried to give me told-you-so that the tops would look great on me. Whatever.

Here's one of those tops with a woman's vest, $4 for both. Just noticed, that's a woman's watch, $2 plus a new battery. Wish I had more pics handy, but you get the idea.

CAVEAT: The buttons and zippers are ass backwards.

Write down every single thing you buy before you buy it. Name and price. It gets your rational mind to engage and many times, I change my mind because I realize I don't need the thing and maybe don't even want it.

I'll focus on food money saving tips. Don't follow them blindly, check if they apply or not to where you live (it varies quite a bit). It all boils down "buy cheaper, when cheaper, and use it well".

1. Bulk preparation saves money twice: one less reason to buy prepared food when in a rush, and you can buy larger amounts of the ingredients when they're cheaper.
2. At least where I live, cost for proteins go like: mutton > beef > pork, chicken > eggs. Focus on the cheaper ones; this doesn't mean you need to eat only eggs, but that if you can include eggs into your dish it'll probably turn out cheaper. [Vegetarians: the reasoning should be the same for seitan, soy protein, tofu, lentils, beans, etc.]
3. You can introduce a lot of variety into your meals, without raising their prices up, by changing the main carb: polenta, rice, potatoes, bread, pasta, yucca, etc. This gives you a bit more of leeway to repeat the protein, so you buy the cheaper ones more often.
4. Even if you don't have a garden, you can grow herbs in old margarine pots in a window. Herbs make do for variety of base ingredients.
5. Deboned chicken is typically more expensive by kilogram of meat than bone-in chicken. Plus check #7 on the bones.
6. If you're OK with offal, it's often cheaper. Chicken liver, cow tongue, etc. can be delicious if prepared correctly.
7. Have a container in the freezer for bones, veg peels etc., that you can use to make stock. Stock + leftover ingredients = soup for almost no cost.
8. Veg oils are pretty much interchangeable - pick whatever it's cheap where you live. Don't fall for the trap that it's "imported", "fancy", "with health benefits" whatever. (For me it's soy oil.) This does not include extra virgin olive oil.
9. Waste not, want not. Have a few recipes just for the sake of repurposing leftovers. For me it's rice/vegs croquettes, vegs/meats omelette, and potato pancakes. Note that rice croquettes can render even overcooked rice into a treat.
10. Banana peels and citrus skins can be made into sweets. No reason to throw them away.
11. Don't go too hard on yourself, otherwise you'll binge expensive food. Also, take nutrition into account; if you reduce costs at expense of your health you aren't saving money, meds are more expensive than food.

1. Simplify your life. Example: Cleaning products. Find 1-2 products that clean almost everything safely. Don't buy a product for every type of cleaning.
2. You don't need to own every "cool" thing, or the latest trend. You are wasting money, it becomes clutter quickly, and you have to expend time & money later to get it out of your life, and it eventually goes to the landfill. Less crap, fewer expenses = more happiness and time.

Keep in mind you pay extra for convenience in many situations. It was said here before, but home cooking is the prime example.

Speaking of which, buy the stuff you use a lot off cheap, buy the expensive stuff only if you use it in small amounts. Example: I'm really into curry, so I use a lot of carrots and potatoes, the cheapest veggies here, but that alone is a bit bland. So i use moderate portions of whatever hearty veggies are in season (sweet potato, zucchini, pumpkin, eggplant). There's also this really good curry paste I like, and I didn't even bother comparing its price since I know I will need to buy a new one in half a year at the earliest.

As a consequence of that rule, skip on meat. Too expensive and too big portions. Even if you still want to celebrate the end of a week/month with it, you really need to learn some veggie recipes for the work week.

I find rice to be the perfect balance between work-intensive potatoes and pricey -in- comparison pasta. So I of course use literal 10s of kilos of it and don't buy the minute rice (again, surcharge for convenience), but from the local Asia mart for cheap.

Wear 2 sweaters instead of turning up the heat when it's chilly.

Don't go to college.