Posted by Helen on: 08.27.2007 /
It seems to me there’s usually a trade-off between money and effort. If I want to spend less money, it takes time and effort to figure out how. Also, doing something myself rather than paying to have it done obviously is more time and effort on my part.
Of course, not everyone has enough money to have the option of not caring how much they spend, or of paying others do so something for them.
When I’m in stores like Macy’s, I notice that other people are better about collecting and using coupons than me. I rip them out of catalogs more diligently than I remember to take them. Or sometimes I have them but I don’t want to use a Macy’s card because it’s harder to keep track if I have specific store accounts that need paying. And if I forget to pay, the fee for that wipes out what I saved with the coupon.
I’m pleased when I find childrens’ clothes on sale (buying childrens clothes is not an option) but I don’t particularly track when they’re on sale; it tends to be luck if I’m there on a sale day.
If I’m going to buy something particular I do price comparisons on the internet to see where it is cheapest.
I don’t do those surveys at the end of receipts that promise me discounts.
I do buy more non-perishable items at the grocery store when they are on sale. I heard that on the radio once and I realized it was a great idea. On the other hand, I go to the grocery store location most on my way or closest to me, rather than always going to the cheaper one (the grocery store chain I go to most has different prices at different stores for the exact same products)
Sometimes I’ll make an effort to save a small amount of money then through being stupid (traffic violation, playing with my iphone in Europe), I waste much more on something else.
Basically I’m not very consistent spending less. Partly because I’m not as organized as I could be and partly because I don’t want to spend the time and effort to spend less money. And I feel guilty about it sometimes. Although, time is a limited resource too; so perhaps it’s ok to save time rather than money sometimes. (But I don’t have a good excuse for being disorganized)
How much effort do you spend to spend less money? What have you found most effective and doable?
Comment by: John Koh
1Lets see – (from a stingy asian single guy living in expensive europe) here’s what i do to cut down on my expenses:
1. prior to buying things, i ask myself questions like “do i *really need this*? where do i put it? can this wait?” Normally, prices do go down during summer and winter sales, especially for clothes.
2. if a purchase is inevitable in the “immediate timeframe”, i’ll check out competitive pricing. of course, here, the quality factor is brought into play as well – but generally, i’m able to balance it out. Cheap doesn’t always equate good. (neither are expensive things necessarily top notch) It all depends on your needs.
as you pointed out, it takes alot of effort to save money.. good luck!
Comment by: Helen
2Thanks John – those are some great suggestions!
Comment by: Rachel
3I hate it when that happens! On one recent grocery store visit, I came prepared with a list of sale items from the store flyer and lots of coupons. I was very pleased with my savings total at the cash register. But it wasn’t until the next day that I realized that a huge package of toilet paper had been paid for but left behind (still on the bottom rack of the shopping cart?). By then it was too late to go back and reclaim it, so all my coupons were canceled out by the $7 or $8 package of TP! ARRGGH!
Comment by: Stephan
4For children’s clothes I find it helps to have cousins a size or two larger than your kids. If you didn’t plan your family well enough to have this, too bad for you.
Back when we were first-married and poor, my wife and I used to be much better at finding bargains, but we now have the means to buy pretty much whatever we want. That doesn’t mean we buy everything we want, but it means we work less to find the bargains.
We buy the Sunday paper, not so much for the news but for the coupons. We consider it an investment. It pays for itself several times over.
One change I made a little over a year ago was to change to public transportation to get to work. It is a fixed cost rather than fluctuating with gas prices and it means less wear and tear on my car. Not only has it saved money, it has saved aggravation of staring at someone else’s taillights for an hour a day. And in Chicago you have even better public transportation that we have in Minneapolis/St. Paul.
We also set our thermostat at the very edge of comfortable in both summer and winter, and we use the air conditioning as little as possible. That is a consistent savings each month.
Comment by: Helen
5Rachel – I so know how you feel! I’m sorry you couldn’t go back and reclaim what you’d paid for.
Stephan, great ideas! I like the children’s clothes one, since they grow out of clothes so quickly. When they were young I found their clothes tended to get lots of stains on by the time they were done. But now they’re older the clothes are often in good condition after they grow out of them.
We have the oldest cousins, plus we live far away – two ways in which we failed to plan well ;-). However, sometimes friends have given us childrens’ clothes which got too small for their children and we’ve appreciated it.
Thanks for the other ideas too.
Comment by: Laura M.
6It’s always funny (I really mean it) to hear people with plenty of money say that it takes a lot of effort to try to save money.
You would think that a poor person would be just busting with advice on ways to save money, wouldn’t you? But truthfully, I have no idea what to say.
My ex-husband pays for whatever my two sons need, and my oldest daughter (20 years old on Nov.1) supports herself with financial aid from school/fed gov. and by working full time.
That leaves my husband, daughter and myself to survive on about 24K a year (I’m a stay at home Mom). We seem to manage just fine.
We have two cars (three really if you include our old Dodge truck), four TVs, typical kids electronics-Playstation, X-box, Gameboy, PSP etc., my 7 year old has a walk-in closet packed (both poles each side) with clothes, 20 some pairs of shoes, a room overflowing with toys.
We have everything everyone else has. The main things are that we can’t afford expensive summer camps- but the district provided and park rec.programs my kids have participated in are great. Obviously we can’t afford expensive vacations, which is sad really because my husband hasn’t seen his sister in Mexico in about 10 years.
Oh, and we live in an apartment. Houses are very affordable in Texas (everything’s vey affordable in Texas), but still beyond our reach, which is fine with me. We have a lovely shaded courtyard right outside our apartment, a beautiful pool and workout room provided by our complex, and our part of town is full of gorgeous parks.
The only time I regret not having more money is when ‘birthday time’ rolls around. All four of my kids b-days fall during the 2 month period between Oct. 4 and Dec. 4.
Yes isn’t it wonderful, right during the holidays too.
So as for advice about money….welllll, I don’t want to be a smart aleck, but if you want to save money, just stop spending so much of it 8-)
Comment by: Helen
7Laura wrote:
Sorry…I guess I am one of those people.
Comment by: Laura M.
8The reason I think it’s so funny is because I’m the laziest person I know 8-)
I’m not known for putting a lot of effort into anything.
Comment by: Laura M.
9Here are a few ways to not spend so much.
Only buy clothes when they’re on sale, and only buy them if you need them, not if you just want them…with rare exception:
Have a limited number of wants per month. Pick a specific number of wants, whatever you think is reasonable per month, and stick to that number. Whenever you buy something, figure out if it’s a Need or a Want. If it’s a want, and you decide to go ahead and buy it, subtract one Want from your total number of alotted Wants for the month.
For clothes, don’t buy items/fabrics unless they are durable or will be lasting. Don’t buy expensive, disposable clothes.
Buy clothes that are multiseasonal, unless they’re for an unbelievably fabulous price/value.
It’s Ok to buy clothes in bulk (just like toilet paper etc.)- when it’s on sale/clearance. For kids, deliberately buy things a size or two larger so they can wear them when they grow out of what already fits.
Just remember do not buy impractical things unless it’s a gift or you really, really, really want it !
Comment by: Steve S
10This is a great topic for us Westerners…
I think this just about sums it all up for those of us who live outside of the two-thirds world.
If you haven’t already seen it, check out The Global Rich List
The Federal poverty level for a family of two is 12G a year. I have a family of 4 1/2 and (minus student loans) we could easily live on that amount. (Of course we don’t live in the Bay Area or Manhattan, but we do live in what would be considered a ‘nice’ neighborhood.)
My own ‘advice’ on how to make your money stretch isn’t really my own, it comes from Jesus. Spend more time with people who have less than you and it will be eaiser to live with less. Keeping your eye on your neighbor with a bigger house will only motivate you to pursue what she has.
My advice:
Befriend those poorer than you. (The local ghetto, a neighborhood retirement home, or rural China, doesn’t matter all that much which one.)
Regularly give away one of your best possessions.
Tip a minimum of 50% no matter how crummy the service is.
Give away a percentage of your money.
Regularly do without something that you ‘need.’
Sorry if I don’t come across very compassionate on this one, but I don’t have very much compassion about this issue…
;-)
Comment by: Steve S
11Hey Helen,
the above comment is ‘awaiting moderation’ that happened before.
Am I doing something wrong?
Comment by: seekingsomething
12I agree with much of the above. I come from a relatively poor background and now have a relatively high disposable income. I still shop in sales (it’s like an instinct I have) but I pay late bank charges out of laziness/stupidity sometimes :(
One thing to add is that investing time in doing things economically sometimes yields greater reward than simply saving money. These days I get a huge sense of accomplishment and well being from cooking meals from scratch and renovating old furniture for my house… and these are ‘new’ pleasures that I’ve learned with age, rather than being born out of necessity like the compulsive ‘sales’ thing…
Comment by: Helen
13Hi Steve, yes, you didn’t show enough compassion ;-)
Seriously, no, you didn’t do anything wrong. It’s a mystery to me what goes in the moderation queue and why. It happens to most commenters some of the time. I get e-mailed each time a post goes in there and I set it free the next time I’m at my computer.
Comment by: hoverFrog
14I just try to earn enough money to pay for the things I want rather than save for them. The advantage of this is that I am at work so often that I rarely have time to spend money. ;)
Comment by: Helen
15I’m glad I’m not the only person who sometimes wastes money through making stupid mistakes – I appreciate the honesty of those of you who’ve admitted to doing that too!
Comment by: Paul
16yesterday we wentto the the DIY store, picked up a few small items, paid, put the kids in the car and drove off. My wife said to me later, where are the DIY bits? In the trunk i said. She went and checked, “no they’re not” she said. “Did you put them in the trunk?”
“Erm, no,” I said, i was putting the kids in the car, i thought you were putting them in the trunk!”
“But you took the trolley back to the store, didn’t you see it had the stuff still in it.”
“I wasn’t looking in the trolley cos I thought you had taken the bits out, i was looking to see where i could put the trolley and run…”
So that was £16 ($30) down the drain then…
Comment by: Doreen A Mannion
17Great topic Helen. I waste money more than I should. I never did this when I didn’t have money. I don’t do things like sending in rebates or medical reimbursement forms.
I only buy clothes on sales (and only at Macy’s). I’ve learned to get groceries every few days, otherwise too much goes to waste and that really upsets me.
I’ve started buying all my seminary books used.
I love this from John:
Comment by: Laura M.
18Yeah, that’s what I meant when I said I don’t know how to give advice on saving money. We don’t really ‘save’ money since we have so little to begin with. There’s no room for savings. But you learn from birth how not to spend it, ’cause you’d be homeless in a month if you did.
When you’ve been doing something your entire life it’s as natural as breathing, and just about as necessary when it comes to poor folks not spending much.
I wouldn’t know how to go about teaching someone how to breath, I could only tell them how not to hold it in (blow it out!).
To not spend money, I guess you could do what I have to do (out of necessity) and not carry any money on you, except when you know you have to go shopping that day.
Comment by: Elaine
19I waste money when I am not paying attention.
Right now, I seem to be in a “not paying attention” mode. We have run up our credit card debt, again! Eek!
What does paying attention look like for me? For me, the best I’ve done is the time we operated on a “cash basis” – which meant, I was alloted $xx per week – I called it my allowance – to use on my personal expenses (haircuts, my car maintenance, gas for my car, lunches, etc.) If I blew my allowance on a really nice lunch, I might have to wait on my next haircut.
When I operate in the “cash basis” mode, it gives me a sense of FREEDOM. It means I am “actively” choosing how I invest my money. Vs. the other way, which means I am passively working myself into debt, by not paying attention.
I do not like the feeling of being ENSLAVED by my credit cards.
Hmmm, this was good writing about it. I am going to begin taking steps to move myself back to the cash basis mode.
thanks, Helen.