If the nationwide unemployment statistics are right, it's a good bet that one in five of us are either unemployed or working part time at best due to an absence of full time work. As such, I think it's about time that we had a thread like this; herein, we shall discuss cost cutting measures, bartering, haggling, ways to live high on the hog at minimal expense, freebie deals and things like that.
The last three months I was completely unemployed and living with three family members who were also unemployed. We're also all retarded at saving money, so we were broke pretty much the whole time, but we managed to not go hungry by minimizing our expenses, making better shopping habits and trading convenience for extra cash. Here's some things I did over the last few months to save or make more money;
1. Clip Coupons. This is a big one, and requires a substantial time investment and a minor money investment. Coupons can save a lot of money if you use them correctly and understand some basic rules about grocery shopping:
Grocery rule 1 : Never buy anything that isn't on sale
Unless something is an absolute staple, or never goes on sale (cat food, spices, etc) it's not worth buying at retail price. Grocery stores have sales
to entice customers to come in and buy things strategically positioned around the sale items. They figure that they can up profits by having a sale
to get you through the door and then make up the difference and then some on premium high profit items. That salsa might be on sale, but the chips
aren't. Following this rule alone will save you hundreds or more a year.
Grocery rule 2 : Everyone has a store nearby that price matches - that store is probably wal-mart. If you have the ad, they will match the sale price.
Depending on your area and how many stores are within a reasonable distance of you, wal-mart and price matching can save you a hell of a lot of
money. You may find the company reprehensible but you're poor and don't have the luxury of standing by your principles on this. If there's another
store nearby that will pricematch any product they sell, great, otherwise Wal-mart should be your primary shopping destination. Wal-mart will price
match
anything - this includes produce and meat - provided you can produce the ad. Some wal-marts will have the ads stacked up at the
register. Depending on who you get at the store when you go, there's always a chance you will get harassed by the cashier. If you're there late
and the customer service desk isn't open, and they refuse to pricematch for whatever arbitrary reason (1oz difference between product and sale,
for example) then abandon your cart and walk away. Sticking to your guns is important. The next time they see you, they won't argue. To avoid
arguments, never go to a lane with a cashier over the age of 30 if you can avoid it. Getting ads for all your local grocery stores should be a simple
matter of picking up a sunday paper (which will also have coupon inserts) but if you don't get a particular ad, you can go to their website and print
the ad out. If you have Aldi in your area, make sure you print the ad out - their produce prices are always rock bottom.
Grocery rule 3 : You are not paying for the package on the shelf - you are paying for it's contents.
This might seem obvious, but this is usually the first thing people forget when coupon clipping comes into play. In about half of the united states,
grocery stores are required to place a by weight price next to the tag on a grocery store shelf. If you are not in one of these states you may
need to occasionally bust out a calculator to find out what is the best deal. Some stores get around the regulation by using different measurements
for different size products - the 24oz version might be compared to pounds, while the 16oz version might be compared to grams. A calculator and
a conversion chart help here.
Once you understand these three factors you are ready to begin saving serious money coupon clipping. Most coupons are good for 3-4 months after their print date - as a result, you may find that some of the coupons in your coupon folder may go weeks or even months before they are useful - anything,
anything you think you might buy, even items you think you'd only buy if you could get it for nearly free, should get it's coupons clipped when they come up. Catalog your coupons to your preference - by month of expiration, by product, whatever, but keep them organized so you can find what you're looking for when you need it. It'll take a few weeks or more of saving sunday paper coupons before you can really make use of your stocks, so prepare for a slow rampup. During this time, also collect online coupons - there's lots of places to get these - and sign up with manufacturers of products you like - they will occasionally email you coupons. You can also send emails to these companies to receive coupons by email or direct mail. If you don't have a printer, invest in one. You'll probably save the 30 dollars you spent on your first fully coupon'd shopping trip.
ONLY use your coupons to buy products on sale. If your coupon removes a fixed amount from a purchase (such as 2 dollars off 2) buy the lowest cost items possible - these usually tend to be the smaller packages. If an item on sale is a very large package and your coupon is a general item, you may want to consider saving the coupon. This can be the difference between getting a product half off and getting a product for free.
Find a website - preferably for your area - that coordinates coupons and sales. Tulsa has
918 Coupon Queen, which also does some nationwide deals - aldi, walgreens, CVS, etc - so if you can't find one in your area this is a great place to start. The coordinator website will match up sales and coupons - coupon queen matches up to the previous year on some coupons and deals, so this can be incredibly helpful. This all may seem like a hell of a lot of work, but you'll feel great the first time you walk out of a walgreen's with 30 dollars worth of groceries and 2 dollars more than you came in with.
2. Dried > Canned > Fresh
In terms of expense, fresh ingredients cost a lot more than dried or canned. This is the case with most things. Fancy fresh Bertolli pasta might be fucking tasty, but it's 12 times the cost of dried pasta. Fresh tomatoes might be nice, but if you're just making spaghetti sauce, you can get 8 tomatoes in a can for the cost of 2 fresh tomatoes. Dried beans might require soak time, but you'll get between 2 and 6 times the yield over canned for the same price. To an extent, you give up convenience and in some cases quality here - you have to get over that. A good chef can make do with substandard ingredients with the right spices and cooking methods - but he's not going to be able to get 2 pounds of tomatoes for under a dollar.
3. Buy items in the right places
Warehouse stores and Lot stores are everywhere. Warehouse stores include Pace, Costco and Sam's Club (among others), Lot stores being stores like Cheapo Deapo, Ocean State Job Lot, Big Lots, etc. These stores are unqiue in two ways - you can't pricematch their products at wal-mart, and they tend to offer products at prices that can't be found anywhere else. Lot stores deal in products they buy in lots. Depending on where you go, these could be nonperishables past their best by date, discontinued products, products from promotions that are over, etc. For example, Wolfgang Puck had a line of organic soups out recently - normally they sold at 4 dollars a can, but the product was failing, so it ended up at Big Lots for 80 cents. You can usually find your big three canned/boxed stables at lot stores - Beans, Tomatoes, and Broth/Stock. These three things can be used as a base for chili and soup, among other things, and are usually sold at an incredibly low price. Organic crushed tomatoes (canned) - 2 1/2 pounds, 50 cents. That kind of thing. Warehouse stores deal in bulk, so you are buying massive products, and don't often have sales. They also don't usually accept coupons. (lot stores never accept coupons, btw.) The bulk prices turn out to be incredibly low, though, and you usually only have to make warehouse trips once a quarter. Buy staples here - toilet paper, paper towls, paper plates, plastic cups, frozen chicken, bacon, etc. If you can put the money forth, these are also great places to buy meat. A whole pork loin can feed you on loin chops for two months. The initial investment is high but the long term savings are as well.
More to come later, feel free to add your own etc.