I would like to mention that I do not intend to open new bank accounts, so yeah…
Stop buying take out food. Since pandemic starts we now make all food at home. Last week we were out of town and had to stop on the way home for dinner, two sub’s at subway was $26. Normally that $26 at our local independent grocer gives us more than a week of food.
If you spend money on entertainment, stop doing that and pirate shit instead.
!piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com (inaccessible for lemmy.world users)
Sail free on the high seas! 🏴☠️
If full-blown piracy is too scary, start by at least using grey-market streaming sites for watching movies and shows 👍 c/piracy has a good megathread for sites: https://wiki.dbzer0.com/piracy/megathread/movies-and-tv/
Learning where your money goes.
Fill your time with free things that you think are healthy. Walk. Invite friends over. Go to the library and get something for the night (book, movie, video game).
The more free things you do, the less time spending money.
Quit smoking. Vapes and mix your own liquids is cheaper than tabacco or premade liquid/pods.
Define “healthy”, OP. Like, mentally healthy? That’s pretty dependent on what your personal tastes are - the game is to find the things you can tolerate that most people can’t as well, and to save on whatever those may be. Medically healthy? Aside from food most unhealthy habits are expensive anyway. If food, canned veggies are underrated, at least where I live.
One pretty universal thing, I guess, is not spending on the first thing put in front of you, metaphorically or physically. The entire surveillance capitalism and marketing economy is set up to part idiots from their money that way.
If you don’t do it already then start to Meal-Prep and cook more at home instead of going out. Saves you a lot in the long term and it’s usually healthier too.
You need to analyze how you are currently spending money. You can’t know what to cut if you don’t know what can be cut.
Do you drive? If you live, work, and buy groceries within five miles distance, consider ditching your car and cycling instead. If you’re nervous about how feasible this is, you can save on gas by keeping the car while you get used to riding. But the full savings come when you’re not paying for insurance, parking, and maintenance of the vehicle.
Big talkUnfortunately, that’s a huge ask if you’ve never crossed a six lane stroad on foot. The American transit system is often downright hostile to anyone not in a car. It can be goddamn terrifying. Adding: If OP can get around safely and feasibly on a bike, this is great advice.Otherwise, there are ways to cut down on car costs if you need one. What car you own matters. Get something extremely common that never breaks. A 1998 Camry or Corolla are probably two of the most solid cars money can buy and junkyards are full of them. Parts are cheap and available.
Learning to do your own basic maintenance will also save you lots of money.
- A dealer might charge sixty bucks to swap a cabin air filter. It takes one minute and a replacement for my Honda Civic is eight dollars on Amazon. Same story with the engine air filter.
- Check your oil and transmission dipsticks every once in a while for level and condition.
- Check your brake fluid level and clarity.
- Tire pressures are on the inside of the driver door jamb. Learn how to properly inflate your tires, including the spare.
- If your car came with a scissor jack, a tire iron, and a compact spare, you can rotate your own tires in 30 minutes without buying any tools.
- On an inline four cylinder engine, spark plugs are often on the top of the head, below a cover, and are insanely easy to replace. Just be aware of torque specs, especially on an aluminum head. A torque wrench can be yours for ten bucks at Harbor Freight.
- Check your lights and blinkers every once in a while and learn how to replace bulbs. This is important on older cars that use halogen and incandescent lamps. A tail light is a few bucks, takes 15 minutes to replace, and will probably save you from a ticket.
Learning how to replace some parts is also a big plus and parts stores will often lend you small tools for some jobs free of charge.
Many states also offer discounted rates on yearly registration for older cars. In Oklahoma, it costs me $26 a year to tag my '97 Honda.
Finally, get a dash cam and the cheapest insurance you can, and drive like you’re on probation and on thin ice with your parole officer.
I haven’t owned a personal auto in a decade, and doubt I ever will again. The more you eschew our auto centric way of being, the more ridiculous it will look. When I see people in traffic now all I can think of is how fat, angry, miserable and lazy your passing motorists will look.
Everyone’s got reasons they can’t give up their cars, and unless you’re a farmer they’re almost all bs.
I’m not going to put my wife’s wheelchair on my bike as we travel, especially when it would be 5-6 hours by car to go to her dad’s place.
Right there. You’ve normalized driving 5 hr, roughly 200 miles? It’s a crazy way to be. No one’s proposing you strap your wife to your handlebars
I don’t have to be a farmer… About 330 miles, actually. I don’t have to worry about doing that anymore (he recently died). However, my wife and I went to a major city twice last month, an hour and a half one way, for medical reasons. We go at least once a month.
I also have to take an obese person to another city 45-60 minutes away multiple times a month. I did so today and will again Friday. He can hardly see me. No way would he be able to ride a bike.
You don’t seem to realize that there are people with health conditions that preclude them from riding a bike. I actually used to walk everywhere when I was in college. It’s not really feasible now even if it’s not about 120 degrees outside.
In good cities (countries) you take a train, and take the bus to the train station, where the bus lowers itself to the pavement so you can wheel right in. I’m guessing you live in USA though.
Yeah. I should have provided more context. I have heard that one can visit multiple countries in Europe in one day. It takes two days to cross Texas. The country, especially in the west, has lots of smaller towns and cities that are spread out.
In Utah, almost of the population is in the Salt Lake City Metropolitan area near the top of the state. The middle of the state is practically barren and the southern area only has St. George (~100K population).
In Nevada, it’s Las Vegas (642K) in the south and Reno (264K) in the east. Almost all of the state is federal land.
When I was in Tucson, Arizona, (542K) I used the bus system a lot. The wait times were between 10 minutes and an hour.
The city I went to for my first college had a population of less than 5K at the time (now about 5.5K), the next city is 10K, and the county now has about 39.5K.
My city has about 20K and we have to travel to see any specialists.
Stop going out to eat and or drink. Besides saving money you will probably lose some weight
