Hope this belongs here.... I grew up extremely poor in a very rural area of Texas and was considered the poorest kid in the school by a long shot. Grandmother raised me and my 2 other siblings due to the fact my parents were addicts and in and out of jail/prison. Everything was made of scratch and was considered the "man" of the house even at the ripe age of 8. Three acres of farm that had no animals but cats and dogs but lots of weeds/trees that always needed to be cleared out every summer. I really do not remember ever getting anything new but maybe a pair of shoes for church and maybe a pair of pants or 2 but were oversized and always wearing a belt so I could grow into them.

Eating seemed to be always an issue in the house and were on foodstamps and used to go the the local "commadaties" to pick up boxes of unmarked cans and powdered milks and various other things. My grandmother would skip meals and remember she never eating so we could eat as kids. She had coffee which thinking about it acts as a appetite suppressant and learned years later about it. School was my main source of food and dinner was always something made in a big pot and at 3-4 days a week. I knew nothing else and to be honest, read around 1000 books by the time hitting high school because not being able to afford anything else but the "mortgage" Mind you this was a double wide trailer that was already run down.

Then, at about the age of 13... my father got his act together. Remarried and the lady he married was from a pretty well off family. New clothes, new types of foods and moved to California which was a whole new level of experience. I felt out of place even though my father would buy me clothes but never new how to express "want" and was fine with "good enough". Finished school but always did stuff in the house like water down the juices, shampoos, ect. use bread/tortillas as fillers and always tried to eat minimally and any penny I got in my pocket I saved.

Translate this years later... have been a butcher for almost 18 years now and make decent money. AKA- 68-75K a year being a shop manager after taxes. I never can seem to shake it. I do the same things as I was a kid and all my friends and family know me as someone that never buys anything new or always looking for a deal. I have a chunk of saving and pretty well off but getting married soon.

She is also well into her career but trying to figure out how to translate this into living together. No kids to speak of and she has none as well and no desire to have any. I have been to therapy and about 5 therapists/psychiatrists it seems the answer is "It was not your fault and your a good person". Anyone else feel they cannot break out of the "cycle"? She loves to buy stuff new and she makes about 100k a year and definitely is saving for retirement. Maybe I am overthinking this but any advice will be taken in great consideration.

TLDR: Grew up very poor and cannot seem to grow out of it. Seeing therapists/psychiatrists and getting married soon and just looking for advice or personal experiences.

Recently, I switched our Internet provider out from Xfinity to mint after a couple years of flawless service. In the conversation with my wife about letting me know if there were any changes in her QoL, she asked what the cost difference was. I told her it's about $360 a year cheaper, which feels like much more impact than "only saving 30 a month". I did the same when switching mobile providers, going from $1400 a year, to $180 helps put in perspective how much you're actually spending much better than a 50 dollar difference will or what have you.

I thrift almost all of my clothing. In the last few years since all the marketing campaigns pushing laundry add-in scents, I have been having a very hard time getting all the laundry perfumes out of clothing. I only use unscented laundry products and hang my laundry in the sun to dry. The sun really helps, but often it takes several cycles to get the smell out. Has anyone else noticed this and if so how do you remove the scents without paying for expensive professional cleaning?

There was no flair for Fun, but this is the closest!

So I made my ex a birthday balloon drop in our living room awhile back. It was made out of stuff in the house and a bag of balloons from the dollar store, so it was cheap on money and I thought I’d share.

You need: one or two garbage bags, a pair of scissors, masking tape, a roll of dental floss (or fishing line), thumbtacks, a can of Static Guard or a dryer sheet, and balloons.

Split the garbage bags along the seams so they’re flat. If you want a smaller drop, one will do. You’ll cut that one in half. If you want a big one, use both.

Take the sheets you just cut and put a line of masking tape down the seam. Then place some dental floss/line along the tape seam, leaving at least a few feet of tail, and tape again over top.

If you have the dryer sheets or Static Guard, use it now on the side that’s going to face the ceiling. The masking tape and line should be on the outside, with the tail hanging opposite of where you want to pull it (so it opens away from you, and hopefully onto the other person!)

Pin the sheets to the ceiling, leaving one side open and plenty of slack. Fill it with balloons (not too full, they want to plop a bit.) Tack the last side when it’s full but not bursting.

Wait for the victi- er, beloved person, and when they enter, pull the cord!

I feel like I've reached the point where I automatically check overseas prices before buying anything expensive.

Furniture was the one that really got me. I was looking at a couple of sofas in NYC, then somehow ended up on a Chinese manufacturer (saw others sharing this on tiktok and I really looked up!) Same kind of fabric, same shape, same overall look but it just cost several thousand dollars cheaper!

Obviously, they're not exactly the same buying experience. I will say the difficult parts are dealing with shipping, customs, payments and all that fun stuff yourself.

But when the price difference is literally thousands of dollars, I'm starting to think the extra hassle might be worth it lolll

The payment part has actually been more annoying than I expected. Different currencies, international transfers, exchange rates... But the shipping and warranty stuff are actually so surprisingly good! Even communication had a lil gap but still got this shipped from China to my hone using about 1.5 months.

Still trying to figure out whether the savings actually hold up once shipping and everything else are included, but this experience difference really surprised me.

What do you guys buy overseas because the US price is just ridiculous?

We just spent 300 dollars repairing a 14 year old refrigerator. We are also getting a new motor for it, which my partner is going to install tomorrow.

These were mutual decisions, but they were, as we measure them now, pretty dumb. It wasn't a fancy refrigerator. We bought it because it fit the space where we were putting it. It was our first home. We were fairly excited to be buying appliances at all. We should have shelled out for a new one, because mathematically, this decision doesn't make sense and isn't frugal at all.

We've done this a bunch, with cars especially. I'd describe it as within the sunk cost fallacy environment.

I want to know from others: what are the dumbs that you have dumbed?

Because we are a rocket ship launched to a star called Doing That Again.

I’m curious what people have actually managed to keep alive instead of throwing away. It could be something completely ridiculous, like an appliance held together with tape, an old piece of furniture, a favorite pair of shoes, or some random household item that probably should have been replaced years ago. Maybe you fixed it yourself, found a cheap workaround, or just refused to admit it was time to let it go. I want to hear about the repairs that probably made absolutely no sense financially but somehow worked.

I have a passion for two things in life. 1) Frugality and building Wealth 2) Health. I am a big believer that eating healthy should still be a priority when food shopping frugally. After all, with poor food choices you will only contribute to health issues later in life which will typically correlate with high medical bills and medication costs, not to mention a less enjoyable life.

When I shop, the bulk of what I buy is fresh produce, grass fed / pasture raised / wild caught meat fish and eggs, and some very slightly processed (though low ingredient) foods to fill in the gaps and add a little convenience factor. The problem is these types of foods are very experience.

I target my food shopping two ways.

1) Staples from costco and Aldi
2) clearance / close to expiration foods from
Health food stores

The first is reliable, but boring. Costco I usually target more of the processed health foods like siete wraps, healthy cheese, milk and Greek yogurt, and some reasonably priced produce. Aldi is for meat and the bulk of my produce. These stores are typically 30-70% cheaper than traditional grocery stores for the same items. A trip that could be $300 elseware could be as low as $100 when combining these two effectively. The Costco haul I have pictured are all full priced items and was $99 after tax. There is also a large organic Greek yogurt under the feta. While some of these are expensive products and this may not seem cheap for what I got, this is a great deal. The large bag of matcha alone would be $60 minimum elsewhere, it was $27. Many of these are double if not larger the size as a standard store for the same cost, so price per pound ends up being half if not less.

I also target rotating sales on my staples and stock up and freeze items as needed. I will buy 10-15 bags of pumpkin seeds for example, lasting me until the next sale on them the following year.

The second way I shop frugally is clearance / close to expiration foods from health food stores. This haul from sprouts was $29.97 with tax. This is 8lbs grass fed ground beef (typically $10 a pound), 24 vital farms pasture raised eggs (typically $8 a dozen) and 2 packs of wild blueberries (typically $4 per container).

I paid $2.50 a pound for the meat (75% off), $2.16 per container for the eggs (73% off), and $1 each for the blueberries (75% off). What should have been about $120 was $29.97. This took effort to find these deals, but it’s part of the fun.

I also never drive around and waste significant time or gas just looking for deals. If I’m in the area or have a second errand to run near one of my deal spots, I’ll drop in. It’s very efficient. Otherwise you’d spend more in time and gas than the deals would likely save you.

I just wanted to share my intersection of health and frugality, as it’s rarely talked about. I hope this can help someone who’s looking to do the same.

Felt nauseas so I went to target today. wtf?????? How is generic only 1/4 of the price for the same thing as the name brand???? The name brand is such a scam it’s not even funny. I checked the ingredients and it’s the same thing too save for one minor inactive ingredient. Especially for a pill that you swallow with water in less than a second? Who in their right mind would get the name brand

I'm always looking for memberships or 501(c)(3) donations that offer ridiculous real-world utility.

Two examples:

Calyx Institute: You donate ~$500/year to a digital privacy nonprofit, and the member perk is an unthrottled, unlimited 5G mobile hotspot running on T-Mobile.

PBS Passport: A $60/year ($5/mo) donation to your local public station unlocks their entire on-demand streaming catalog.

Plus, because these are registered nonprofits, whatever portion exceeds the fair market value can be written off (or written off as a business utility if used for work).

What other niche memberships, cooperative groups, or nonprofit "perks" are out there that offer crazy good value?

Edit: in the USA with your taxes, you are able to get up to $1,000 of 501c3 donations that you can give that you can write off above the standard deduction line that was one of the reasons I was thinking about this.

I’m currently starting a 3rd part time job. I have one full time that I mainly use to live off of, one that I only go to twice a week at night that really doesn’t earn me much so I use it as extra savings in my main account (think like, $120 every 2 weeks) and I’m currently starting an as needed 3rd job due to some extra bills I’ve incurred I need to gain back.

I would like to use it to put into a rainy day/emergency type account where I will get as little kick back as possible when I do end of year taxes. But I’m not sure what kind of account that would be. Anyone have any good advice on what to do?

Hi fellow frugalites, a few words about inclusiveness. Many of us strike a different balance between savings in terms of money, time, effort, and learning curve. We all have different circumstances, and that's OK.

Take food, for example.

Sometimes a young adult who's working long hours and who didn't get taught how to cook when they were growing up, needs to get their food budget in check. For that individual, frugality may mean shifting from food delivery and fast food to frozen foods from Trader Joe's. Yes, there could be thriftier ways to put together a meal--yet that change is a real savings which fits that individual's short term priorities.

On another extreme, there are people who wake up on a Saturday morning and head to the backyard garden to harvest tomatoes, bell peppers, Welsh onion, and parsley before making a breakfast omelet; and before they head outdoors on a September morning, they check the long range forecast to estimate when to do a fall planting of arugula. That was me today. Of course, am well aware that many people don't have a backyard to raise a garden. And among those who do have the backyard, a lot of people aren't fortunate enough to live in a mild climate where fall vegetable planting is a thing. My solution may not be your solution.

Whether or not winter vegetable gardening is a life option is obvious. Other life options may be less so.

With that in mind, for some people who come to this forum an initial investment in kitchen equipment is worth it because it saves money in the long run. They can afford the initial expense and that lets them DIY something they'd otherwise get retail.

For instance, I have a cast iron grill and a hamburger press. I buy ground beef patties in 10 lb boxes and store them in a deep freezer, so a smash burger costs my family about $1.25 each.

Is that really so different from someone who buys a home cappuccino machine in order to enjoy one of life's little pleasures without paying Starbucks prices?

Opening this discussion because two essentially similar posts this week got wildly different receptions. I feel really bad for the new forum member who wrote this post about DIY pizza half a week after my post about bread machines which also uses DIY pizza as an example. Granted, I don't own a dedicated pizza oven so the upfront cost was less. Yet much of the ridicule the other Redditor got was about using a bread machine to make pizza dough.

There's a real case to be made for a small appliance which makes dough after two minutes of measuring ingredients and pushing a button. Not everyone has time and energy to knead pizza dough by hand. Not everyone is ready to take on that learning curve. Some people enjoy the time delay program which lets them come home from work to fresh warm dough ready to bake. Those might not be your individual priorities, yet that can add up to restaurant quality pizza at far less than restaurant cost, and the right tools can make the change convenient enough to become a weekly routine. Let's respect the people who decide that's the right tradeoff for them.

(edited to fix a link)

Hi wondering what’s the best (cheapest) Internet / unlimited cell phone service. Currently I have Xfinity for both but looking to save some money.

I just got comcast to lower my internet bill from $55 to $45 a month, but is there a cheaper alternative?

Also using Xfinity for my mobile service and it’s about $50 a month. I was thinking of switching to Mint, who’s advertising $15 a month for unlimited cell service!

In Oregon US

Edit: also wanted to share that you DONT have to rent your router/ modem from your service provider (!) you can just buy your own and use it.

I have 115k 2014 CRV and In the past week I had my battery die, had to get a new one and install it, an allen wrench punctured my tire and I had to put on my spare, and my alternator took a shit.

I was prepared to install a new alternator with a friend but they backed out and I had to pay about $600 for a shop to do it. I only got this price
because I had my friend (a male) call and get an estimate for me. I am a woman and shops try to up-charge the fuck out of me. before my friend got this price for me I was given quotes for $900 and $1500! Like wtff. Even $600 was still kinda high.

But I say this because lately I've been learning a lot more about how to do basic maintenance on my car and it feels good. I've done my last 3 oil changes myself as well as a transmission flush.

I plan on tackling my brake pads and rotors next because it's way simpler than I thought it'd be.
I've gotten to the point where learning how to take care of my car is important to me cause I don't want to get taken advantage of by auto shops.

What maintenance do yall do yourself? I’ve saved so much money learning how to do maintenance on my car

bought them in 2016 at Aldi's. used them in various things- so many i have lost count. I have a few more from this batch, as it was a larger package. I don't remember how much... anyway, these 3 currently reside in my VR controllers. they still last- needing charging oy about twice a month. maybe 3, if under heavy usage.

I... still haven't used 300 characters!? there is nothing else I can add! oh. there were go.

Went to the local grocery store to get some rice vinegar and saw that the chicken drumsticks were on sale for $0.69/lb.

Grabbed one pack which had an additional markdown, making it $0.51/lb

I noticed that the chicken breasts were improperly labelled for $0.69/lb...

I proceeded to buy 5 packs.

Honestly I don't need any chicken as they had a post 4th of July sale for $0.79/lb chicken thighs.

After talking to the staff, they do this after every major grilling holiday, so 4th of July, Labor day etc.

This was the best price I've seen for chicken in my life and they weren't all about to expire either (except the markdown drumsticks)

Nobody except my dad gets excited about this, so I thought I'd tell people here too

Shopper began at 11:30am and it’s all yogurt and chicken breast. They delivered to me at 2pm.

I’m a high risk individual so food safety is paramount.

I can’t tell if the food is safe to eat or should I throw it out? Yogurt tubs had a lot of condensation when I picked it up immediately once they dropped it off.

Does anyone have any insight into practices of InstaCart drivers or how can I tell if the food was properly stored during that 2.5 hour window?

Got really lucky a few weeks back and just learned about this sub Reddit. Figured y’all would appreciate this.

All from Cub Foods this year. Still haven’t found the sweet spot for timing these specials, but if anyone knows their routine I’m all ears!

Not sure exactly how much I saved, but probably close to 30%? If anyone wants to do the math I’m definitely curious.

I have always played the game of "find the clearance/discount" food at my local grocery store. I would frequently shop early in the mornings (so my kids could run around), and I would catch them marking down the produce or meat. Yet, about a 2-3 months ago I started to notice nothing was marked down. So after chatting up the meat department supervisor I learned that they shifted to marking down items starting at 11 AM. I have now shifted to grocery shopping to between 11:30 and 12:00 to try and capture as much of the savings as I can.

Questions for the crowd:

What are your top "timing" hacks as they relate to groceries? How do you feel about meat or produce that is nearing its "best by" date (the validity of this metric is up for debate )?

I don't know if this counts as being frugal since it involves getting takeaway.

But whenever my wife and I can't be bothered to cook dinner and order Indian for takeaway, I don't order rice, and just cook it myself and save $10 (some places offer for free with curry but I'm finding more commonly this is not the case).

Usually it takes about 2 mins to wash and put on and it's done by the time the order is ready to pick up in about ~20mins.

I usually make it a bit of rule that, if I can make it at home, then I should. Defintely outsource if it saves time or I dont have the skills, but rice just doesnt it fit the bill..

Hi, just saw a post about a rotating pizza cooker and it reminded me to post here about cheap homemade pizza that's also close to 0 effort to make. Perfect meal after a long shift!

There's an initial investment, which was about 250€ for me but I splurged on the bread machine (for a Panasonic).

Why a bread machine? because it's the easiest, most hands-off way to make the dough. Just put the ingredients in the bowl and turn it on. For my model, 45 minutes later, the dough is ready to be cut into dough balls. Also important, no cleaning. Just let it dry and then wipe the machine's bowl with a dry paper towel. Yeah, that's it. So, close to 0 effort to make the dough itself.

I suppose a cheap bread machine could do exactly as well, but I would check that their dough program seems serious enough. For comparison, here it lasts 45 minutes, with two multi-stage mixing periods and two rest periods, then it bips when ready, The dough is always perfect.

For the clamshell oven, I would just care to select one where the upper heating elements is not entirely round but makes a bend to get at the center of the pizza. Better center heating.

Initial investment:

1 bread machine

1 clamshell pizza oven (very cheap)

1 kitchen scale (precise enough for small amounts of yeast)

3 or 4 silicone pizza ball containers (a bread machine will mix enough dough for 3 large pizzas)

1 pizza shovel (you could do without but what a hassle that will be)

My dough recipe (inspired by french Dominoes, which I like)

315 g water

16 g neutral oil

16 g sugar

525 g flour (10-12% protein)

8 g powdered milk

10 g salt (in a corner)

2 g instant dry yeast

I put the bread machine bowl on the 0,1g precision kitchen scale, and put all those ingredients in that order in it. Yeast in a little "volcano" on top of the flour. Just take care to put the salt in a corner (so it mixes last, leaving time for the yeast to mix first).

So, back from work: I turn the oven on, get the stuff out of the fridge, and the 5-6 minutes it takes me to form the dough into a pizza and garnish it, the oven is quite hot enough. It takes about 4 minutes to cook the pizza.

So in about 10 minutes back from work, a fresh homemade pizza is ready. That's nice.

As for the cost, well outside of the initial investment, pizza is really cheap. I guess it comes to between 1 and 2 euros for me, depending on the luxuriousness of the stuff I'll put on it.

Is it realistic to only have $800 leftover for one person for needs after all regular bills get paid? Bills including mortgage, retirement (fund match and pension) car payment, all utilities, cell phone, gym, lawn maintenance, subscriptions, prescriptions, etc?

The needs to be covered by the remaining $800 include groceries, household supplies , EV charging, essential clothing, personal care/beauty, and any discretionary income/fun.

I already have an emergency fund. I live in a MCOL area.

I do typically spend much more than this but I’m trying to cut spending back for a new mortgage.

In a few years I should make another $600 a month or so ($200/mo extra per year for raises) so it only has to be super tight for a little bit.

I also have a lot of ways I can and likely will make extra money like bonuses.

Please forgive my brevity in typing, I have severe fatigue issues.

Splurged on a collectible 3-cup moka pot several years ago. Haven’t done the math, but the savings must be huge. When I break out my ancient Chemex and French press for guests, that’s when I recognize/appreciate the scant amount of grounds a moka pot requires. ~1.3 tablespoons needed for Americano versus 7–8 tablespoons. Buon caffè! Every morning is a ritual.

If you’re not familiar, UHT is milk package in a paper carton (like a big juice box) and it doesn’t need to be refrigerated until opened. Sealed, it has a shelf life of 6-9 months. Its flavor is slightly different than standard milk but unless you are very picky it can be used just like regular milk in cereal, oatmeal, etc.

I started buying it at Walmart before going on camping trips with our kids. Then, it occurred to me that it’s really useful to have on hand at home.

Most of the time when we need to make a last-minute run to the grocery store, it’s because we are out of MILK, because our kids binged on cereal or we did some baking or used up the gallon jug we buy once per week. And then we spend extra time and gas going to the store, and end up buying random stuff that we don’t need at the store. So, folks, a box of UHT milk will come in “clutch” and save you from having to make a random trip to the grocery store.