VA: 6 Painless Ways to Save Money on a Tight Budget
Aug 24th, 2007
(21 votes, average: 2.81 out of 5)
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It cracks me up when people tell me it’s impossible for them to save money. I always tell them the same thing: “Give me a copy of your pay stubs, […]
Original post: 6 Painless Ways to Save Money on a Tight Budget
People’s children are responsible for $50/month of the electric bill? WTF? If you left 700 watts of lighting on 24 hours a day for a month, at 10 cents a kilowatt-hour, that would be $50… Even if you don’t use CFLs, most houses don’t have 700 watts of lighting total, and the lights aren’t on 24/7 no matter how stupid you or your kids are, but if you do use CFLs, they are typically 7 watts/bulb, so you’d need 100 light fixtures… Now, if you are just too stupid to turn the lights off when you leave the room, (and I admit it, I am,) replace all your switches with motion detectors. You walk into the room and the lights go on automatically, and when you walk out, a few minutes later, the lights go out automatically. (And to answer the obvious question: The one in my bedroom has a little bypass switch on it, so that I can force it to go out.)
But $150/month sounds more like the kids are playing with the thermostat. They make little locking covers for them, people might be wise to invest in one of those. Likewise, big screen TVs use a lot more power than the lights. Make sure you turn those off when you leave the room. And if you really can’t figure out what is wrong, most electric companies have people on staff that will come to your house (for free,) and figure out where you are using power, and even give you some CFLs for the trouble… (Try finding another industry that wants to help you use less of their product…)
And 5 miles is a little more than most people like to walk. 1 mile I walk, 5 miles I bike. It takes about 5 minutes more than driving. Get a rack for your bike so that you can carry stuff: a week’s worth of groceries will fit easily on a bicycle once you get the hang of it. (And don’t f***ing impulse shop for TVs!)
“Give me a copy of your pay stubs, your bills, and a month’s worth of receipts and I can find money in your budget to save. I can squeeze blood from stones.”
Maybe *that’s* why people keep saying they can’t save any money…free financial consultation=)
Officially, for Americans, a quarter mile is “walking distance” and up to 2 miles is biking distance.
For the Japanese, its about half a mile for “walking distance”, not sure about biking.
But if you’re pinching pennies, not a bad way to go…and most of us can stand to lose a bit of weight anyways.
My friend and I, bereft of a car, decided to walk the two miles to Walmart. We were bored out of our skulls and my buddy had a paycheck burning in his pocket.
We wanted a ps2 in the worst way.
I have to say that it’s a very surreal experience, walking along the freeway. Aside from obviously being very disoriented by exhaust and cars speeding by at 50 mph not two feet to my left, I noticed A LOT on a route I’ve traveled down hundreds of times by much speedier methods.
Some sort of local board committee thingy had posted a tiny two foot sign, hidden behind a tangle of foliage, explaining some sort of ordinance that was to be put into effect and that the public was welcome to join the discussion, though it did not disclose a time, date, or place. Very fishy indeed.
My friend, a car enthusiast, shouted at driver’s with crappy cars. It was great fun and a novel experience.
How pathetic is that to say? I mean REALLY.
What a friggin’ spendthrift! Cut the kids’ allowance? Why in the heck are they getting an allowance? Dry out that tit, and if they leave the lights on, thrash ‘em with the belt you got at Goodwill.
Oh, and no use wasting money at Goodwill to buy clothes for the little bastards. If you just let them keep wearing whatever they’ve already got, sooner or later someone will give them clothes. This world is awash in perfectly good used clothes - have you ever tried to sell clothes at a garage sale? We send perfectly good clothing to landfills because even the starving millions in Africa don’t need as many clothes as we throw away. The only excuse for wasting money on Goodwill clothes is when you have a job interview or something like that.
And why the hell would you use electric lights anyway? Abraham Lincoln never used an electric light, are you better than him? You really shouldn’t need to pay for heat, either. With all those worn-out clothes and used motor oil that people will be pleased to give you for nothing, you can keep your house as warm as you like for nothing.
That is, if you’re some profligate who insists on living indoors.
*blinks at #4*
I have to agree with a lot of this. There was an article on Get Rich Slowly a few months back, where a financial planner’s friend asked for advice on setting up a budget and saving money, but refused to do anything that involved, like, real work and sacrifice.
Ah, here it is: http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2007/06/27/you-are-your-own-worst-enemy/
If you want to save money on your electric bill, TURN SHIT OFF. It’s that simple. I used to leave my computer on all the time. Now I shut the damn thing off, and our power bill went down by $5/month. We replaced all our bulbs with CF. Another $5/$10 a month. We have a 2200 sq ft house, and after installing CFs and measuring stuff with a Kill-A-Watt, our electric bill is about $30/month in the winter, and about $100/month in the heat of the summer.
Other ways: Get rid of the movie channels and go to basic cable. We realized that we weren’t really watching many movies, and if we really needed to, there’s a Blockbuster within walking distance. Or get DirectTV or Dish Network. They’re almost always cheaper than cable. Or just ditch it completely.
Dump the cell phone. This is something that people seem to have a hard time with. People got along just fine without being connected and available 24/7. We were spending $70/month on cell phones. And of course, there’s that phone upgrade that people seem to think they need every year or two. Now I spend $0, and don’t miss it.
Ditch anything that’s a “subscription”. We had a Netflix account. Didn’t watch too many movies (see above), and canceled. Same with the Blockbuster that replaced it.
I used to grab a breakfast taco and egg sandwich from the cafeteria at work for breakfast. That was $5/day, 5 days a week. That’s over $100/month. Now I just eat a bowl of cereal.