Here’s a couple examples from my life:
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Safety Razor. I get a better shave and it’s like $15 for 100 razor blades, which lasts me a couple years. Way way way better than the disposable multi-blade Gillette things, which sell 5 heads for $20.
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Handkerchiefs. I am prone to allergies, so instead of constantly buying disposable tissues, we now have a stack of handkerchiefs that can just be used a few times and then thrown in the wash. This has also saved me loads.
What about you?
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Wear a condom
Yes, kids are very expensive.
condoms contribute to landfill. babies left in the woods do not.
/s/hjBabies left in woods grow up to kill and eat horny teens in festive seasons, disrupting the local economy.
not to be all social darwanist, but i think if a baby can survive on its own in the woods, it deserves to grow up to be a horny teenager
It is hunting and killing the horny teens in a horror film-like fashion.
I know how to fix almost anything mechanical and I usually try to buy really high quality things when I can. It means spending more money up front, but things tend to last a lifetime and I don’t have to buy it again.
An interesting realization was that “saving money” and “reducing waste” are often competing optimums. I live in the developing world where there people waste a lifetime sitting at home doing nothing to save money. I am one of two or three people in my neighborhood with a job – the rest “save tons more money than I do” but don’t have jobs so their real income after inflation is negative.
Anyway, I figure out what my time is worth (based on what I estimate I could earn by grabbing extra contract work). Then I don’t spend my time saving money unless it saves something at least comparable to my hourly rate, or it’s in a context where working would be impossible, or there’s a nontangible element (e.g. repairing a thing I like a lot).
I prioritize not wasting my time first (it’s the only resource I can’t buy more of), and spend most of my spare effort finding ways to make more money (I regularly cram-study 2-3 hours per day for this purpose, usually tech). Then with the extra money I make, I can save 80% of my income on a good month.
When I started this habit, I made about 135 USD per month and had zero savings. Even if I saved 100% of my earnings, it still amounts to essentially nothing – so it became obvious that the best way to save more money, was to earn more money. When I had a little money, I didn’t put it in the bank – I invested it in myself by buying tools to learn more things and provide more services to accelerate my gains.
Anyway it’s not the right advice for everyone, I’m just another fool like the rest of us, but I hope it’s maybe useful to someone out there.
This comment did not go where I thought it was going but very interesting. You’re clearly making the right call for your personal finances.
I assumed you were going to say something about like expensive composting equipment or aluminum straws.
Haha oh goodness no. Things I actually bought to save money (when I could afford to) were an efficient A/C unit with an inverter (better sleep = faster learning = more money), and a new motorcycle. Not having reliable transit was costing me a lot of money in wasted time so that was a big one to fix. It’s more fuel-efficient too, I use 2-2.5L of petrol a week. I also moved somewhere safer, where the building hadn’t literally collapsed on me before.
Poverty is complicated, there’s no simple way out of it, and the people who say there is… have generally never really been poor (although some have, there are few universal truths here). Saving money is rarely a useful solution – it’s more important to bootstrap yourself to better opportunities, which is really hard without any financial security. The way to do this is super specific to the exact circumstances – and there’s probably not always a way out. If you have money, of course you can afford to take time to study a new skill and so on. If you don’t, perhaps you’ll pay for it with a part of yourself that you’re not going to get back.
Saving money is not entirely useless, it’s a really effective strategy if you already have made some money, and are about to have a sharp reduction in income. It lets you protect your gains better than other people with wealth, so you inch ahead of them every time the market corrects (you don’t have to invest to be affected). The inverse strategy (look for ways to spend) you have to do earlier, to inch ahead again. Your timing has to be better than the market, and it has more information than you, because you don’t have the money or connections to have better information. So again, you’re going to have to pay in the currencies of the desperate – cut out those kinder parts of your mind that betray you to mediocre financial decisions. Then you can perhaps (very slowly) convert modest sums of money into more life-changing sums of money, and eventually land ownership.
Health is a problem too. It’s hard to cram-study engineering if you’re busy dying of cholera. Not my fondest memory, but perhaps an instructive one. I learned that I don’t fear death, only failure.
I guess escaping poverty wasn’t some glorious victory I feel proud of. It was more accurately a series of sad, Faustian bargains. Where at each step, you can end up receiving nothing. Even the devils of our fictions are kinder than the market, and less hungry.
Buy and use whole chickens instead of buying chicken pieces. They’re not difficult to break down yourself, a youtube tutorial is all you need.
Then keep the bones and stuff that would normally be considered waste. Put them into sturdy ziplock bags and freeze until you have a few of them. Then take them out and use them to make a chicken stock that can be the base of a soup or stew.
Adding some more
- Reusable canvas bags when shopping
- Compost (all cardboard in the US is compostable btw)
- Buy directly from farmers. I bought half a cow and a whole pig a year ago and it’s lasted me this long. I wanted to see how much money I saved off market price of the cuts and it was around $2000
- Reusable storage containers and bags for leftovers. I have silicon ziplock bags and glass containers. Works amazing.
- Plastic wrap can be replaced with beeswax wrap (reusable) or basic cloths and works really well too
- Bar soap is better for the environment too
Im pretty certain since cardboard has plastic on the outer layer for graphics
Yeah peel off plastic the rest is compostable even the ink used on cardboard
Aleppo soaps are great. We buy like 5 bars. Lasts us about a year or more. Better than normal/modern soaps. Ancient wisdom makes these soaps.
- Reusable canvas bags when shopping
I’m sorry to be that guy, but this most likely will be worse for the environment.
Reusable bags are alot more poluting than plastic bags, because the manufacturing process can use up to 100x the energy.
What you SHOULD buy as a reusable is a higher quality plastic bag that is made from reusable plastic.
This sounds wrong I know.
I will also be that guy and say mine have already reached carbon neutral. I’ve had them for 4 years now and probably close to 1000 trips and have saved thousands if not more plastic bags in that time already. They have no rips or tears and I expect them to last another 10 to 15 years. I don’t think reusable plastic would get that sort of shelf life unless you rarely use them.
You are probably right if you can get that many trips out of it. And I was also only focusing on the environment and not the money saved, which is also wrong of me taking OPs question into account.
My thermostat has a setting which allows for a greater temperature swing. I have it set at 2*. With the temperature set at 68f the heat refill not come on until the temperature reaches 66f. This causes the heat to run longer but less frequently, which is more efficient than running in short bursts. I also have a setting which runs the fan for a few minutes after the heat stops which scavenges the remaining heated air out of the air ducts.
I also open up my eastern/southern facing drapes/blinds in the morning to allow the sun to heat up the house through the windows for some free heat throughout the day.
Removing the window screens in the winter helps a lot too.
If you have a dishwasher, do NOT rinse things before putting them in. Just scrape off the bits into the bin. A big part of the efficiency of a dishwasher comes from not running more water or the water heater unnecessarily. If you rinse you might as well hand wash.
Also, use the cheap powder and make sure to use it in the prewash phase.
Good tech connections video: https://youtu.be/_rBO8neWw04
If you have space to store stuff buy bulk in things that don’t expire.
Make your own cleaners for some things. Vinegar, dawn soap, and rubbing alcohol are the base for most.
Boardwalk laundry detergent has been a great cost saver. You have to buy 40 lbs at a time, but it works great. We typically use half the recommended amount since it’s made for larger washers.
Watch for commercial products as sometimes this is the way to go for simple items that need to be durable.
I think I’ll be looking into Boardwalk. I haven’t heard of that before. How long does that 40lb detergent bucket last you?
About 6 months. It even seems to be working for the sensitive skin person in the house.
To continue your first point buying a decent shaving puck and brush goes a lot further than buying shaving cream. Plus, I find it much more soothing on my face than the cream. A decent shaving soap is ~$5 and lasts a month at least.
You can also buy bar body wash instead of liquid, which is far cheaper as well.
Plants / gardening.
You get free food while reducing waste in its purest form. I have alot of indoor plants giving me seasoning, fruits and vegetables that are also pretty plants and great for the indoor environment.
If you don’t own it, don’t pay for it. That’s one of my main principles and the motivation why I don’t pay for streaming services anymore. I also noticed that I wasn’t enjoying music and movies as much anymore anyway when it was in such high quantities. That’s just about saving money.
Other one is, I don’t buy anything of which i know of that it won’t work or keep much of its value anymore after several years. So I rarely buy anything with irreplaceable batteries, that basically ends up on the junk pile after 3 years.
Chest freezer if you have room for it, and a Costco membership if there’s one within a reasonable drive. Being able to buy in bulk and freeze what you don’t use can save a lot of money over time. Costco gas is also typically the cheapest so you will save a few dollars each time you fill up your car too.
The college geography department will sometimes sell old and outdated maps to raise some funds, rather than just recycling them. They make great wrapping paper that’s unique to you.
Use a budget
I also use a double edge safety razor, but have an electric razor also for a quick morning shave. Other things I do:
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I cut my hair with clippers I bought 15+ years ago for the price of 1-2 haircuts. This probably only works for people with simple, short hair, but has saved me thousands of dollars compared to getting a monthly haircut at $20+
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We put a basket with cloth napkins next to the dining table and a basket with washcloths on the kitchen counter and have drastically reduced the quantity of paper towels that we use
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