Looking for the stuff that sounds small but adds up to hundreds or thousands a year. What is yours and how much did you saved with it?
For me it was quitting drinking coffee at coffee shops and making coffee at home. I am saving roughly $1500 each year and I cannot say that I am really missing the barista stuff. Took maybe a week to get used to it. Wild how fast your brain changes when you see the actual numbers.
What’s a frugal win that surprised you with how much it actually saved?
byu/St3fanHere inFrugal
Posted by St3fanHere
13 Comments
I gave up Nespresso and started doing pour-over. It’s saving me a fortune. I would never get a coffee out, it’s too crazy expensive.
Hair cuts. One of COVID’s gifts to me was I learned to cut and fade hair. Not amazing but it’s fine. Been doing my kids’ and my hair for a few years. Now I just need the wife to trust me with a trim 🤪
I feel like coffee’s kind of the cliché example at this point, so I’ll give another one: cancel streaming services. You can’t watch more than one at a time anyway. So activate one and immediately cancel it. Watch just that one for the month. Rotate around as desired.
Switching to (semi)annual payments with your insurance provider. If they still allow it, put that bill on a credit card that gets rewards.
Not eating out.
We either eat a hotdog at Sam’s or we take lunch with us.
Even going from $8 each week down to $2 makes it $416 down to $104. And occasionally we would treat ourselves to a buffet which added $25 3 or 4 times each year.
Not eating out.
We either eat a hotdog at Sam’s or we take lunch with us.
Even going from $8 each week down to $2 makes it $416 down to $104. And occasionally we would treat ourselves to a buffet which added $25 3 or 4 times each year.
Eyeglasses, online basic glasses are $10 if you decline all the options. At LensCrafters they would be over 100
Doing my own beauty treatments. Hair cuts, hair styling for events, brow shaping and tinting, waxing, nails, tanning etc.
I didn’t realise how much I was spending each year to have someone else do these things for me. Over the years I’ve slowly taught myself how to do it all myself to a very high standard. I’m saving easily at least $5k each year.
Quit smoking. Making our own yogurt and granola, no car payments.
solar heating and i dont even mean solar panels just the black water pipes in a box on the roof cut out electric bill by more than 60%
Go to the library and get dvds instead of bothering with streaming services. I currently have 11 dvds checked out from the library, and 3 of those are season sets of TV shows. And considering i already go near the library on regular errands anyway, it’s not like I’m spending much more gas money driving there. So I feel like I’m effectively saving the entire cost of the streaming service.
Buying used cars from people I know and paying cash. I have been able to save for used vehicles and work my social network to buy used cars for a fraction of the price they decided to spend on a new car. Not only does it save so much money on the purchase price, but my car insurance is lower because the car value is less. I buy Honda’s and they continue to work well past 250k in mileage.
Drastically cutting down on Uber/Lyft. I have cerebral palsy, so I would find every excuse to take a Lyft despite living close to everything I need. Sure, there are times when I am in pain or it’s too hot or cold, but I can manage walking or bussing – especially if it’ll save me thousands per year.
I have a $12k EF, a $45k investment portfolio (mostly in background) and I pay for my tuition out of pocket. I am also lucky to have cheap rent.
You were spending over $1,500 a year at coffee shops? Holy smokes. That’s more than my annual eating out (coffee shops included) budget for a family of 4.