My breakable piggy bank: worked when I was 5, still works to help me save today
his year I’ve been struggling to save any money. Keeping it in the bank meant online shopping was too easy and keeping it in cash meant I always spent $20 when I walked out the door. To cure this, I purchased a pig bank that I absolutely love!
I wear your granddad’s clothes, I look incredible: Avoiding undergarments and 6 other advanced thrifting methods
I’ll go ahead and admit it: I love a good bargain. I think most people do, but I take it a step further. I scour the internet for Ebay stores and vintage shops that have great clothing at decent (we’re talking $12.99 or less, minus shipping) prices. I love Internet window shopping, but there’s no way I’m going to pay anything over $15 for a piece of clothing unless it’s really fucking awesome and unique, or I have somewhere fancy to be.
Enter: thrift stores, otherwise known as my home away from home. If you’re not sure where your local shops are, ThriftShopper might be your new best friend. Since I’m something of a seasoned pro (I’d say at this point, around 85% of my clothing was thrifted), here are a few tricks of the trade that I’ve picked up…
7 creative ways to save energy costs, even in your rental!
With a little practice, I have been able to save around 20% on my energy usage each month. Imagine if your electric bill for your one-bedroom apartment is $100 in the winter, these few tricks will save $20 right away, which means an extra $240 in your yearly budget. You could do things like: treat yourself to a cheap dinner out, buy yourself that fancy new tablet, or just load up on the geeky swag of your choice! Here are some things you may not have thought of to help you use less in your rental…
Curbing the “it’s out of my budget!” kneejerk reaction
Different people react differently to things they find that are out of their budget. Some people get a sad. Some people shrug. Some people lament. Some people have a straight up OMG freak out moment, wherein they can’t believe anyone would ever spend that much money ever on anything, ever. You can’t stop yourself from your immediate internal reaction, but you definitely have control over what you do afterward. Here are some coping tips for the “it’s out of my budget!” freakout…
4 ways to make extra cash that’ll make you say “why didn’t I think of that!?”
Sometimes saving money doesn’t feel like enough when household emergencies happen or there’s a big ticket item on your calendar, and your regular income isn’t going to cut it. When we were first discussing our new budget, a friend who was preparing to move suggested, “Why not sell some of your old stuff?” I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t thought of it myself. Here are some things I’ve sold, considered selling and how it’s worked out for us…
Store your tips in these sweet-ass tip jars
My husband and I want to collect all my tips in a jar to be used for going out to eat, ordering pizza when we are feeling lazy, or anything else that might not quite fit into our budgeting. I want to have a tip jar on the main floor of our home, so it is easy to both drop my tips in right when I walk in the door, but I want something decorative, but not see-through since our main floor is all windows. I know my Offbeat Homies will have great ideas!
We stopped fighting over money when we started emailing
Nothing can throw a relationship into the doldrums like a nice, long, unsexy talk about money. These types of conversations are the necessary evil of living together, but the arguing with my now-husband getting just plain evil. One day, after slogging through a slew of boring budget work emails, I had an epiphany about how we can talk about money without derailing both our sanity and intimacy.
Super inexpensive alternative housing
My fiance and I are having a terrible time finding an apartment or other traditional living space here in New Jersey, and I am looking for inexpensive alternatives, but am not sure where to start. He is in the Army Reserves and neither of us make a lot, so we would like to save as much money as we can.
I spent several childhood years living in an RV, and it was an amazing experience, but there aren’t really any trailer parks in our area… does anyone have any thoughts on other extremely low-budget alternative housing options for us?