Let’s get a list going. Like with a Target debit card you can get $40 cash back and it takes 1 to 2 days to be withdraw from your checking.
Food banks. Look at your local church, synagogue, or mosque. A lot of them do community outreach and have some kind of food bank.
If you’re skipping meals or you have $5 'til next Friday, the food bank is for you. Don’t feel like you’re taking something away from someone “more needy.” It’s you. You’re needy. Take the help. That was a hard lesson to learn in my 20s.
If you have a gurdwara in your area, they often do free meals, almost like a restaurant. Baptist churches tend to have dinners on Wednesdays, and the Hare Krishnas are always good for some heavily dairy vegetarian foods. I wish more people knew this.
A what?
I meant to define what that was in the comment and forgot. Sorry. A gurdwara or gurudwara is a Sikh worship house. Like a mosque/temple/church.
Oh, that’s awesome! Sounds Sikh (sorry). But seriously, thanks for the info!
I’m not poor but this always helps everyone. Wait for a while before you buy the thing off your shopping list. Wait for a week and reconsider whether you indeed need it.
If the answer is still yes, buy it. It is a must do for expensive things. Never break this rule for any massive purchase like a car or something!
If you add an item to your cart but don’t buy it right away, you will sometimes see a discount that it meant to encourage you to buy it.
To add a light structure to this approach I always liked the “wait $100 a day” approach. Want to buy something that costs $300. Wait three days after you have decided you want it. Want to buy something over $1000, think about it for a couple weeks. A $50 impulsive purchase, maybe think about it over lunch.
With no offense intended, I don’t think you’re as poor as you think you are
Yea for me every extra hundred is at least a couple days, even a $20 item usually sits in the cart until i make a decision on if i actually need/want it enough to warrant it
You are not wrong. I’ve been pretty fortunate in my adult life and I’ve adjusted the threshold as I go. Really the point is to slow down your decision making and reduce impulsive purchases.
…also, thank you for calling me out. I grew up pretty poor, and didn’t ever make much more than minimum wage until I was over 30. I think I internalized the frugal lifestyle as part of my identity during that time, and I often forget that is not my situation anymore. I appreciate the occasional reminder to be more grateful of my current privilege.
Be right back, waiting 10,000 days before I buy that house
I was looking for a new car (leasing) and kept checking different for some weeks until I stumbled upon one offer that was 100€ less than any other while being essentially the same (power, space, etc). That was nice and I don’t really care about brands as long as they are somewhat reliable.
Interesting I guess this is why my partner does this. Kind of drives me nuts though because then we’ll have something on the list for months and he keeps putting it off until I finally just go on my own to buy it because I actually need it. Obviously not for big purchases but for stuff we don’t use often like flour or jam or something.
Growing up my parents sheltered me a lot more from the financial instability we faced, his did not and he’s still stuck in survival mode even though we are past it, so we have very different spending habits.
That’s not a bad idea
I try to never buy something the same day I learn of it. I’ll take someone’s business card, look it up online, comeback later, etc. that way it’s only if I really care about it and not just feeling pressured or spending money for fun (buying stuff feels like an accomplishment, but the feeling never lasts).
My suggestion is only for things, not people.
I’m not sure what you mean here. I can only think the confusion is on business cards, where I am from it common for little shops and individual vendors to have business cards to look them up later. Sales people for big things too like cars, and houses.
Ok. I thought you meant some other thing. Nvm
No worries!
- Get a cheap subscription to a 24h fitness with warm showers, lockers and wifi.
- Combine with a library card.
This will allow you to live in your car or be homeless, in relative(!!!) comfort, and still be presentable enough to hold down a job.
How enraging is it that this is genuinely the best advice for a huge chunk of the US population, we are the richest country in the world :(
I echo the sentiment, but the US is barely in the top 10 richest countries in the world.
https://www.worldatlas.com/gdp/the-richest-countries-in-the-world.html
An interesting read, thank you
A lot of those countries are just tax havens where companies like to “headquarter” their businesses and where rich people hide their money. Some have a low official population, and rely on exploiting foreign workers for much of the labor done (non-citizens don’t count towards “capita”).
You do first need to have said car.
Learn to fix things yourself. Mend your clothes, fix your bike or car, patch drywall, whatever. Learning to do things gives you the option of to save money doing it yourself. If you don’t learn, your only option is to pay someone else to do it.
Absolutely.
Changing the oil in your car only requires a spanner, pan, and household stuff like cloth rags. You can do it in your driveway faster than you can drive it round-trip to the dealership. I’ve saved heaps over the years.
House painting is a good skill. I knocked over $20k off my house build price by picking up a paintbrush. It was about 2 weeks of work and maybe $1k in supplies.
Learn computer maintenance. Like, how to format it and start over. How to diagnose and fix small issues. So many people buy new computers just because their old one is clogged with cruft. I fixed computers that others threw out, and avoided upgrade costs for decades.
Most importantly - learn to cook. Home cooking is so much cheaper.
Same goes for home repair. Learn to spackle and patch drywall, change a doorknob, install a toilet, snake a drain, and replace a capacitor or heating element in your hvac system. These are things anyone can learn to do with minimal tools and inexpensive parts, but will cost hundreds to hire a professional.
A lot of times its even quicker than calling someone, making time and then having them work at your house.
Also spackling is the fucking best.
It also broadens your horizon because you know how things work and what to look for in them quality-wise
I know credit cards can be a slippery slope for some, so learn how to practice financial discipline before getting one.
That said, if you’re not paying with a credit card, you’re paying at least 2 percent too much for everything you buy except the things that can’t easily be paid for with a credit card.
That adds up big over the years.
Plus if you’re young it builds a credit score. Get a credit card, pretend that it’s your debit card. Set up automatic payments.
Credit cards should be avoided at all times, unless you have the money to pay them off each month. Or if you’re getting zero-interest financing and you are able to stick to the plan of paying it off before interest gets added.
Getting into credit card debt is one of the most common and worst poverty traps. Getting behind on credit card bills can ruin your credit and take years to repair, which impacts your financial stability when it comes time to make a purchase with Real Credit such as a home or car.
My best poverty tip is to not buy expensive things that are unnecessary. Also cook your own food at home, and learn to repair anything that you value. I’ve saved thousands of dollars over the years by doing my own car repairs, and driving old cars long past having them paid off.
A credit card is a spending tool, not a debt tool. If you buy things with a CC that you can’t pay for right away you are doing it wrong.
Get a cashback $0 fee card and use it for everything you need and nothing you want.
When I started out my limit was less than I made in a month and I paid for everything with it. That was hard to fuck up and helped me build good spending habits. Currently I have one that is about 2x my monthly salary that I use for larger purchases but still the concept remains similar.
I know credit cards can be a slippery slope for some, so learn how to practice financial discipline before getting one.
My neighbors living in a slumlord’s two bedroom apartment Rent to Own everything. The got a TV from Rent to Own so big it had to be delivered cause it didnt fit in their car … i got the cheapest roku pos tv at walmart for $50.
Their daughter when she comes over to play with my kids has told me about so many frivolous things from Rent to Own they probably pay more to Rent to Own per month than in actual rent for their appartment.
As someone who used to work at rent a center. Fuck rent a center and rent to own businesses in general.
Knocked out 80% of my Christmas shopping on my cash back this year.
This is the way. December is always my spendiest month and cash back from the previous year nearly always makes up for the difference.
On average people spend around 5% more with credit cards. That 2% cash back is a partial refund of increased spending.
Yeah, don’t spend more. Use it as a debit card.
And, again, make sure to be financially responsible and literate before you get a credit card.
Any place to get a proper gist of what financially literate means in this context? I know maybe a few basics but always wondered about the best way to utilize credit to a long term benefit.
Basically use any credit card as you would any debit card. That means never spend any money you don’t already have in your account. And always pay the full statement balance every month on time to avoid paying interest.
That way you will get all the rewards and none of the drawbacks.
And what happens when a big purchase comes along that I really need, like my car breaking down or just a new mattress? I always figure that’s where the utilization starts going up and there’s only so much that can be paid off before the next billing cycle.
Do whatever you would do if you didn’t have a credit card.
Which has usually been borrow to buy things.
Some debit cards have great cash back too. Some even have good interest rates (2-4%).
Take care of your teeth.
Remember a lot of effort and money is spent into brainwashing us from young ages to be constantly be buying shit we don’t need and to feel like we are living bad lives if we don’t have it.
Remember it’s bullshit, remember that you are more than the fucking trinkets and landfill filling they want you to trade all your time for.
Boycott shit, find any reasonable moral cause as a good reason not to buy something. There’s almost always a good reason not to buy something that you don’t need.
I feel like it would take just as much effort and basically a whole other upbringing, in a sense, to become accustomed to all the things we were raised with. So i get what you mean, but I dont know exactly how possible it really is, or none of us would really be here, for example.
For sure, to me it’s just take every step you can, nothing is ever perfect.
learn the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and make sure your money has a most bang for the buck in regards to shelter / food / safety
The library has all your entertainment if but it does require a change of mindset
stay away from anything that only has one type of use, find things that can be used for multiple uses and try and buy it used if possible
Thrift stores sell clothing for pennies on the dollar. You can put together a professional wardrobe for less then a new pair of Levis
Mostly agree, but a lot of thrift stores in the US have gotten significantly more expensive and lower quality over the past 10-20 years. You can blame resellers (like vintage stores) for at least the second part of that, but also fast fashion in general.
I have been to hundreds of thrift stores across the country. Rarely are any two the same. Rarely are they the same store if you visit it months later. And some are expensive but if they are, they usually have better stuff. Visit the stores in the areas that are generally poor and you will still find lots of hidden jems at deep discounts to the retail price. So much so that it’s always worth the extended trip outside of your neighborhood.
Very fair! You’ve definitely got a wider perspective than I do, I appreciate it.
Heck I have a some near me that I know as different places to look for things. One area is cheaper, one more high end goods, one tends to have older stuff, just because it depends on the people donating!
I cook a lot, I strongly agree with avoiding things that only do one thing.
That slapchop looks real handy, don’t it? Wait till you gotta clean it. Any time savings are instantly lost, and now you have nooks and crannies for bacteria/detritus to hide in.
Look, generally speaking: if you don’t see professionals using something, there’s likely a good reason for it. Maybe you’re doing something smarter than a pro. But that’s rare, remember that.
Sometimes the reason the pros aren’t using a thing is because they have spent 10 hours a day, 6 days a week for 20 years learning how to do it that way. Sometimes the tool is just more sensible.
You’re right, sometimes it is. However, in a society whose existence is centered around consumption, beware the salesman. The point is to think about the purchase: most of the time you don’t need it.
To add onto this, Goodwill is the worst thrift store, so try to poke around and find some mom and pop thrift stores. They do more good with donations and charge far less when you’re buying (plus will usually help you out if you are really in a bind and need something)
It requires a bit of financial discipline, but having a credit card that you religiously pay off in full every month can be a really powerful budgeting tool when money is tight. It lets you combine paychecks or borrow from a future week’s budget so you can take advantage of bulk prices or a really good sale price to stock up on things you use a lot of. And once you get stocked up on all your staple items, the money you would have spent on those things gets freed up for other things for weeks, or maybe even months at a time.
Speaking of stocking up on bulk items, my Costco membership has saved me a ton of money since I’ve had it. It might not make the best budgetary sense for everyone, but my membership fee more than pays for itself just with what I save on gasoline. Even when they don’t have the best price on something, often the quality you get for the price still makes a lot of their stuff worth it for me. But even if I don’t find a deal on something it’s always nice to be able to grab a huge rotisserie chicken that I can make meals out of for most of a week for $4.99.
Brush your teeth twice a day. Floss daily
Go for a 20 minute walk a few times a week
Don’t have a pet
Prevention is much cheaper than dentists and doctors in America
Pets are amazing but if you’re searching the couch for extra change for a meal they don’t need to be in your life.
Holy crap pets. Both of my dogs passed, but it was about $1,000/yr each for normal stuff, when you add it all up. Food, vet, boarding, toys, beds, etc. you aren’t kidding.
I also know that people will skip better food and the vet, meaning they end up with unhealthy pets too.
Still cheaper than having a kid.
All of the foods suck, just use your dog as a food disposal for healthy stuff that is starting to get sketchy. There stomach can handle it, and honestly my dog will pull it out of the trash or compost bin completely wrotten and eat it anyway.
Also don’t buy a dog if you live in an apartment, or don’t have land and refuse to walk, it’s just mean. They are meant to expend a crazy amount of energy, and the blame only falls at your own shoes when they inevitably destroy your apartment or have health issues.
A huge part of living poor is buying and selling items when you no longer need them. This applies to a lot of things but I have the most experience with cars. For the love of God, research exactly what you’re trying to sell. Learn everything about it, it’s features, age, learn how to fairly and objectively grade its condition, and learn what the actual value of it is (not just what you want to get). If you don’t know exactly what you’re selling, there are so many people put there who will try to get one on you by lying about it. The other day, I had someone tell me that my car wasn’t worth as much as I had it listed for “because it wasn’t one of the manual ones” for a model that was only released in automatic.
Wearing thick clothes instead of paying for heating.
Also drink tea, or just mix some boiled water with your regular water. Drinking room temp water when your room is cold will make you feel cold.
Get a thermos that has proper insulation and you will have a cold/hot drink for half a day.
Yes and also get a hot water bottle - thay direct heat is also just super cozy
Wouldn’t the plastic melt?
I mean one of these guys
Not every plastic, but you’ve got the point, turns out PET softens at 70°C
LDPE bottles are more suitable for the task although I wouldn’t pour outright boiling water in those.
Or get a small room heater and use it instead of central heat
This gets complicated. The small heater is almost certain to be resistive electric heat. Your central heat could be anything. In my area, the gas furnace is usually cheaper to run for the entire house than it is for a space heater in a single room.
OTOH, if you have a resistive electric furnace, your advice is spot on
Electric heaters may actually cost more in electric bills than you would spend on heating. It depends on the type of heating and the size of your space, but something like natural gas might cost less to keep the whole house at 65 degrees, rather than trying to warm a single room from 45 degrees with a space heater.
Well in my case we spent $500 on heating centrally and only about $200 after switching to space heaters
If you have a Sam’s or Costco in your area, you can get past the membership by using a gift card. You can also buy a gift card without a membership. Sometimes they’re sticklers about it if you’re there super early, because that’s apparently “special members hour” or some shit, but the worst that happens is they tell you to leave.
If you can save up $15-20 for a 25lb sack of rice, it’ll last about 100-150 meals, which means it’s about 10-20¢ per meal. Just keep it in a plastic container to keep bugs out.
Get some cheap frozen vegetables and bulk, dried beans and you can eat pretty good for like a dollar per day.
Honestly it’s kinda cruel that buying in bulk saves a ton of money, but the people that need it most can’t afford to.
I’m not 100% convinced that buying in bulk at Costco saves significant amount of money. At least on staples anyway.
The best deals I’ve gotten at Costco were electronics. But things like chicken thighs ($1.39 / lbs at Costco vs $1.49 / lbs at the local grocery store)…I don’t think it’s worth the price.
I bought soap there for $2 or so less than at Walmart. I’m sure it all adds up but between the shitty parking and long lines, I’ve been debating giving up my Costco membership.
Be sure to compare unit cost, not just overall cost. Often times, the thing you buy at Walmart for $5 is less quantity/weight than the comparable thing you buy at Costco for $4.75.
Access to their gas pump alone will cover the cost of the membership if you drive.
pharmaceuticals are probably the most notable point of savings in-store.
They also sell a lot of expensive shit, so you definitely need to be selective.
In my area, a rotisserie chicken is $10 now, but it’s still $5 at Costco.
The thing is, “significant” in this case is subjective. I perfectly understand why it wouldn’t be worth it for some people.
But things like chicken thighs ($1.39 / lbs at Costco vs $1.49 / lbs at the local grocery store)…I don’t think it’s worth the price.
2 things:
- The chicken you get at Costco is probably a better quality, and generally you get more actual chicken per pound. Google “air chilled vs water chilled.”
- Get the things there that make sense for you. We like calrose rice in this house for a lot of stuff, go through quite a lot of it. At costco, the gigantic bag is like $20 compared to a tiny little bag that is $10-$12 at the cheapest regular grocer.
Combine those factors and I think it’s worth it. I have things that are “costco items.” Bulk spices, rice and some grains, dog food and treats, chicken, paper towel and TP, plastic wrap, hot dogs, pretty much any cheese, laundry soap, frozen convenience foods (dino nuggets, kirkland pizza, eggos, etc) and even some produce. Anyway, I go maybe once a month, and I’ve done the math many times over and it more than pays for itself. I wish I lived closer, because there are some things that I would buy more frequently that are way cheaper usually - milk, eggs, salad mix, fruit, etc.
But yeah, this is a 6 person house, with 3 adults and two teenagers.
Oh, last thing. Buying quite a lot of things at Costco is basically like buying an extended warranty or insurance. If you’re going to buy a TV, for example, and Costco sells something that’s close, buy that one. The OEM is going to offer a 1 year warranty, Costco will take that return for much longer.
Costco’s return policy and extended warranty also make it a much better place to buy higher price electronics
You aren’t entirely wrong. Most items at bulk clubs aren’t cheaper than other stores, just bigger. There’s generally a handful of items worth getting, and everything else should be avoided. Also Costco is usually more expensive, because they have random products that are organic, non-gmo, artisan things that cost more without good justification.
Costco meats are very good quality afaik so that might be why they seem similar prices, or meat is just not something you save on at costco. Buying cheese at costco is like 75% off & cereal is like 50% off. Pretty sure I could make a costco membership worth it with 1 visit of non-perishables.
It really depends on what you buy. Some stuff is crazy cheap, others are pretty much the same price. If you’re buying a single shirt from Sam’s you’re probably better off going to Walmart. Always check the per-unit price, and only buy what you’re sure you will use. My favorite brand of yogurt is cheaper per unit than the great value brand at Walmart, and is almost 50% lower compared to buying it in packs of 4… But it takes up half a shelf in the fridge. But generally meat is just as expensive at Walmart/Kroger, often you can get it cheaper on sale at Walmart/Kroger than you can get at Sam’s, and it’s already in packages that you can just toss in a freezer.
Also, I don’t know if Costco has it, but the Sam’s app lets you scan and pay with your phone, so there’s no lines for checkout or anything. That doesn’t work to use the gift card trick though.
I live in an area with a Sams club a inconvenient distance away and no Costco, Sam’s has been getting less and less worth bothering with, as the prices are getting less competitive, and the product quality degrading as Walmart’s distribution takes its toll (don’t even get me started on the shit quality of Walmart these days) plus dealing with large quantities of product when you have a small home can be very annoying. At this point I only buy soaps, toilet paper and baby wipes at Sams Club and that barely comes out ahead of the membership cost, and I’ve already had to stop buying one of the soaps because they switched to only selling a container that would simply be too inconvenient at home.
Aldi seems to have the real food savings, although my last trip I noticed the prices had crept up a little, they still beat Walmart and the local supermarket chain on prices by far
Tell you to leave? Not if there’s a pharmacy inside! Non members are allowed to use their pharmacy and their food court.
I believe the pharmacy one is by law, too.
I think they get around this by having the pharmacy hours be a few hours offset from their actual business hours. My local Sam’s opens at 8 for “plus” memberships and the pharmacy doesn’t open until 10 when the
poornormal members can start shopping.This may no longer be true, but when I had my own Sam’s membership it was cheaper to get the business club card than the regular you imply is for the poors. They did zero checking that the business even existed, you only had to list a business name.
If you have any public drug coverage and you can’t afford food, you might be able to get your dr to “prescribe” food (stuff like Ensure, Resource, etc) and have it filled for free from public exceptional coverage.
Buy expensive shoes. Well, let me rephrase that. Buy GOOD shoes. A good pair of QUALITY shoes will save you money in the long term as they will last a lot longer than buying many pairs of cheap shoes.
As the old saying goes: being poor is expensive.
We aren’t rich enough to buy cheap things
And shop around
Realized the 80 dollar slip resistant work shoes I got at Shoe Carnival were like 20 bucks at target. Same shoes, just didn’t have a football player’s name on the tag.
Put em side by side they look identical and I wear them interchangably not even noticing a difference
Don’t pay for advertising
I would also argue that many pairs of shoes can also have the same effect. If you can rotate shoes, you’re not wearing out any one pair excessively. I have shoes that are in still good condition but are a discontinued Adidas line that’s not available anymore. Although I do have shoes I still haven’t worn so there’s definitely a point of having too many pairs lol
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