Money Saving Tips - Discuss how you save money and spend less

[Chaos Theorist]

Ordered something on Amazon and dipshit delivery man left it with a neighbour (well, someone in my road, not a neighbour) and didn't leave a note through my door just marked delivered. Took an hour of going through the shittest customer service online ever and speaking to some barely sentient pajeet just for them to say "they marked as delivered and gave gps location of your road".

I checked all people on my road, finally found it 4 doors away, one that neighbour was in to answer.

I figured fuck them making me work for it and claimed a refund as not delivered and them saying they claimed it was delivered, which is true. Refund granted.

Delivery driver: pajeet in my country.
Useless tech support: pajeet in their country.

I just want natives to do the jobs here so they are done competently, and it should be fucking illegal to outsource support.

UK moment?

 

[Noble Redditor]

Today I am bringing you a huge tip. It will save you twelves of dollars. There's a barbeque "restaurant" chain called Dickeys Barbecue Pit. It's really quite bad if you've ever had actual Texas barbecue and I do not recommend eating there unless there's literally not any other barbecue places nearby. Its $23 for a three meat plate and you get a very small amount of meat for that price. So if you ever happen to eat there I have some tips to get your money's worth:

Steal the ice cream and paper towels. They have a soft serve ice cream machine by the soda fountain. Get a large soda cup and fill it all the way to the top with ice cream. Take it home, put it in your freezer. They don't use napkins at nasty Dickeys. They try to be cute by having communal paper towel rolls. Big fat rolls of brown paper towels. If you order your food to go they'll give you your order in a big brown bag. You can fit an entire roll of paper towels in there on top of your food. By the time staff realizes you stole them you'll be miles away, at home, drying your hands for free!!

This tip could also theoretically work with their barbecue sauce as well, but their sauce is trash and should be avoided.

 

[glass_houses]

Today I am bringing you a huge tip. It will save you twelves of dollars. There's a barbeque "restaurant" chain called Dickeys Barbecue Pit. It's really quite bad if you've ever had actual Texas barbecue and I do not recommend eating there unless there's literally not any other barbecue places nearby. Its $23 for a three meat plate and you get a very small amount of meat for that price. So if you ever happen to eat there I have some tips to get your money's worth:

Steal the ice cream and paper towels. They have a soft serve ice cream machine by the soda fountain. Get a large soda cup and fill it all the way to the top with ice cream. Take it home, put it in your freezer. They don't use napkins at nasty Dickeys. They try to be cute by having communal paper towel rolls. Big fat rolls of brown paper towels. If you order your food to go they'll give you your order in a big brown bag. You can fit an entire roll of paper towels in there on top of your food. By the time staff realizes you stole them you'll be miles away, at home, drying your hands for free!!

This tip could also theoretically work with their barbecue sauce as well, but their sauce is trash and should be avoided.

They sound dreadful. It'd make more sense to buy your own meat and cook it yourself.

 

[NoReturn]

drying your hands for free!!

My towels are all rags. It's even cheaper.

 

[Gender: Xenomorph]

Here's a good tip:

Ownmaxx, don't be a rentcel. Own your house, own your car. You can save a lot of money on that. All that money that goes paying your loan goes back to you. The money that goes on the rent simply disappears; you get nothing out of it.

 

[NoReturn]

Here's a good tip:

Ownmaxx, don't be a rentcel. Own your house, own your car. You can save a lot of money on that. All that money that goes paying your loan goes back to you. The money that goes on the rent simply disappears; you get nothing out of it.

I'm trying goddammit.

 

[glass_houses]

If you desire a product from Etsy or eBay, save it to your favourites list on your account. Many shop owners will send you an offer for a discount on that item. This is much more likely to happen on Etsy than eBay, but either way 10% off is 10% off. Also, if the product you are eyeing off is listed with exorbitant postage (I've seen some Etsy stores do insane shit like charge $50 postage for a $5 bookmark) it doesn't hurt at all to contact the seller directly to ask if they're willing to negotiate on the price of shipping. Again, some will, some won't, but it's worth asking anyway.

 

[ryuichi]

how to save money spend less:
Go to walmart.

 

[Yandex Captcha Solver]

If you own a dog or cat here's some money saving tips.

Spoiler: Heartworm medicine

Most heartworm medicine on the market is Ivermectin based. The cheapest pills on Chewy for example are $10 per pill. Thankfully Ivermectin is one of the most common drugs in livestock, I was able to pick up 8oz of "sheep drench" which is an oral Ivermectin solution for $35 at the local agriculture store. This will provide 2,240 monthly doses (0.1ml) to a 15-30lb dog or 448 monthly doses (0.5ml) for a 118-147lb dog. Needless to say this will pay for itself in 4 months. Certain breeds are sensitive to Ivermectin due to the MRD1 gene mutation primarily collies, a few shepherds, and some other breeds so they should be tested for the mutation before using Ivermectin. Other than these breeds, Ivermectin has a wide safety margin and doses for mange are 50-100x higher than your monthly heartworm medicine. You will need to get 1ml oral syringes which cost ~$10 for 100 syringes. 5 months and you will be in the green. You can find more info here.

In the US you are also required to get a prescription from a vet for heartworm medicine every year. They typically do a blood test to determine if your dog currently has heartworms as if you give them prevention when they have heartworms you will kill your dog. Even if you use it properly, and monthly it is only 97% effective. Doubling dosages is safe and may be more effective. I've only seen info of Ivermectin resitence heartworms in the SE of the US. If you have a puppy under 4 months old, there is no reason for a blood test as the larve take 4 months to hatch. Ironically a prescription is not needed in Canada or Australia beating America out on freedom for the first time. You can also buy heartworm meds from Canada/Australia online w/o a prescription if you feel uncomftorable dosing yourself or you need a different medicine for your MRD1 susceptible dog. Half of the websites look sketchy to myself and have a hard time trusting some of them. A popular one is canadavet.com I haven't heard of any scams, but buy at your own risk.

Spoiler: Dewormer

One of the most popular dewormers is Pyrantel Pamoate (also one of the most effective), sometimes included in your monthly heartworm pill. If you have a puppy you should be giving them dewormer every two weeks up until 10 weeks of age. You can buy dog specific dewormer which is a concentrate of 4.54mg/ml for about $20 for 2oz. Or you can buy a human based formula of 50mg/ml for $20 with 16ozs. You will need the oral syringes as well for dosing properly, this has a wide margin of safety as well, Just search "Pyrantel Pamoate" on amazon and you'll have 10 different results. I give this monthly to my dog with her heartworm medicine as a preventive measure. This can also be used for cats. dosage info

Spoiler: Flea and tick medicine

The last one is flea/tick medicine. You ever notice that the monthly pricing for a 10lb dog is the same as a 150lb dog? Yeah your getting ripped off. If you look at the labels, they contain the same percentage of active ingredients, just a higher dosage. The SDS also agree with that information of all the different brands I've come across. A small dog dosage of Frontline Plus 4-22lbs is .67ml while the X-Large dog 89-132lbs dosage is 4.02mls. So one XL dosage is 6 months worth of dosage for a small dog. The dosage works out to be .0305ml/lb (I prefer to give my dog the least amount of poison as possible). So for a small dog, buying the Amazon basics brand for a 3 month supply at $10 will protect your dog for 18 months for $0.55 a month. Again 1ml syringes or pipettes will be necessary here as well, I store my extra in an amber glass. You can also do this with cats, even buying the dog brand to save a shitload of money. The only difference is the cat's frontline plus equivalent has a higher dosage of (s)-methoprene at 11.8% vs the dog's which sits at 8.8%. The SDS that I've found show no difference other than that (check for yourself, don't trust a retard online). More info here

You can also try brewer's yeast for flea/tick prevention, I've seen good things recently about it, am currently giving it a shot with my dog. It takes about a month to kick in but is very cheap and has no side effects unlike other flea/tick meds (also used to increase human breast milk production). You can buy a 500 count of pills for $10. You give 1 tablet per day per 20lbs.

There is also permethrin which can ONLY be used on dogs with no contact with cats for flea and tick control (will cause liver failure in cats). I haven't ran into anything about side effects from dogs. You spray it or sponge it on the dog after dilluting to the proper percentage. This is also known as "flea dipping". It costs about $20 for 10% concentrate 16oz. You can also spray it on clothing for hiking in the woods to prevent ticks. It's the same active ingredient in Sawyer's spray. Just make sure to avoid ones that use petroleum distulates unless you want your dog Diesel to smell like diesel.

You can save a shitload on basic medications for your dog. While giving them the same quality of care as buying pet specific products at a huge markup. You can get years worth of medicine for under $100. All of which will pay for itself within half a year. The info listed is primarily used by breeders and shelters. Do not be a jew and skip heartworm medicine, your dog deserves better, treatment will cost thousands upon thousands of dollars. Do your own research, talk to your vet, triple check your info, don't get ripped off by the vetjews.

 

[Equal Rights for Androids]

Stop commissioning furry porn.

 

[glass_houses]

Stop commissioning furry porn.

NEVER!

Next you're going to say we should stop buying candles!

 

[Balalaika Z Bree]

Fasting, aside from the potential health benefits and spiritual benefits, also saves a significant amount of money if it is done regularly in the long term.

Even just one cup of coffee less, or skipping a single meal a week adds up.

Fasting from other spending (e.g. walking or cycling instead of driving or paying for a bus/cab) has potential too.

 

[Aoluce]

-Watch this madlad: https://www.youtube.com/@AaronClarey
Binge watch all his videos on minimalism. This is diamond-tier advice. You don't need to pay for his extra courses if you don't want, he gives plenty of good financial advice for free. TL;DR live below your means so that you can always have multiple months, preferably years, worth of living expenses ready to go at hand. Being a month-to-month cuck is bad. Do not be a month-cuck slave.

-If you are an anti-piracy ethicsfag, stop being one. Read this book:

https://cdn.mises.org/Against%20Intellectual%20Property_2.pdf

And never feel bad about piracy ever again. IP is totalitarian fake and gay bullshit used by megacorps to fleece you. Stop letting them gaslight you. Fuck them. Learn to Torrent and VPN. If someone is a small creator you can and should toss/donate some cash their way if you want, but never paypig for any big media company ever again.

-The Dollar Tree has Lysol containers you can mix with water in a spray bottle with some liquid soap. This is just as effective as normal all purpose cleaners, but will cost you only about 20~30 cents per bottle fill as opposed to $5~10. Keeping your place clean does not need to be expensive. Pine sol also works.

-If you are poor at all, do not feel bad about taking advantage of social programs. You are paying for it in taxes whether your use it or not. Check your states website. If you make anything less than 30k, you probably qualify for something.

-Adopt the "There is no such thing as micro-transactions" mentality. All transactions matter. Divide your disposable income into a weekly budget, and then think of literally every purchase you make and weigh it against your budget amount. I do mean everything. Even something stupid like a single $0.50 can of soda from the vending machine. This mentality will prevent you from buying stupid crap and then wondering where your money went.

-Always diet and exercise. Not just because it's good for you, but because you will spend less money on both food and healthcare in the long run. The financial savings part becomes exponentially more true the older you get.
-On that note, do not ever spend money on any fad diet trash. Literally just eat fewer calories, choose higher satiety foods at the store, and lift weights + Do cardio. Nutrition is much simpler than the industry makes it out to be due to hucksters trying to sell you crap. Staying fit, done properly, should cost you LESS money, not more.
-Meals you cook for yourself tend to be more nutritious and of fewer calories, so listen to the advice of everyone in this thread giving tips on how to cook more for yourself and buy less at the restaurant. This is especially true if you are in America. Restaraunts intentionally use extremely high calorie ingredients to try and make you addicted, and of course cost more $ than making it yourself.

-Same thing with drugs, smoking, vaping, and alcohol. Go full straight edge. Buy absolutely none of that shit. If you are reading this and you do any of these things, then grow some fucking balls and quit cold turkey. Now. Right fucking now. And do not ever touch that fucking garbage ever again. Start looking at liquor stores as for-retards-only shops. After fully abstaining for a month you will find out you are overall less depressed. Plus this is a HUGE expense. Most people who do these things really have no idea how much cash they are setting on fire each month because being drunk/high screws with financial judgement.

 

[AskeDead]

Most people who do these things really have no idea how much cash they are setting on fire each month because being drunk/high screws with financial judgement.

i just spend nearly $70 at the liquor store on saturday without realizing it. unbelievable how much you spend for a buzz, so i'm abstaining for at least a month

 

[Jean ValJean]

The words "I can't afford it" are part of my vocabulary.

This would solve 99% of people's problems with money.

 

[Balalaika Z Bree]

Meals you cook for yourself tend to be more nutritious and of fewer calories

Not if you do it right lol (emphasis mine). Definitely you can avoid fillers, preservatives, and rubbish and eat more goodness with the same fullness of plate.

...alcohol. Go full straight edge. Buy absolutely none of that shit.

I think if you have a habit, definitely. Having an occasional social drink could open up new social and professional opportunities in many cultures, in fact getting properly drunk is a rite of initiation in some places still.
If you have a modest stash you don't touch more than a couple of times a year is no biggie. Kinda like having a cigar just on New Years isn't really the same waste and risk as smoking as an ongoing habit.

 

[Noble Redditor]

i just spend nearly $70 at the liquor store on saturday without realizing it. unbelievable how much you spend for a buzz, so i'm abstaining for at least a month

I'm pretty sure the cheapest way to get drunk is to buy the huge plastic container of vodka for $10 at Walmart. It tastes horrible but you can dilute it with water and still get drink for a low price. You can also buy the powdered Gatorade and mix it in for some flavor.

 

[Balalaika Z Bree]

I'm pretty sure the cheapest way to get drunk is to buy the huge plastic container of vodka for $10 at Walmart. It tastes horrible but you can dilute it with water and still get drink for a low price. You can also buy the powdered Gatorade and mix it in for some flavor.

The cheapest legal way is to get cheap fruit or sugar etc. then brew your own like they brew in prison. Minor chance of poisoning, or making vinegar!
Distilling is the explosive side, and legally much more tightly controlled in most places. Probably not good to to try that, not without some specialist training and equipment.

 

[std::string]

The cheapest legal way is to get cheap fruit or sugar etc. then brew your own like they brew in prison. Minor chance of poisoning, or making vinegar!

Methanol poisoning only becomes an issue if you're distilling, which, well, if you're building a still you should hopefully research wtf you're doing beforehand.

Otherwise, 5-gal carboy, condom, sugar, water, turbo yeast. That'll get you some nasty ass "wine" in two days,

 

[Agent Abe Caprine]

Don't buy the cheapest shit possible. You'll spend more in the long run.