25 Frugal Changes You Can Make Today

Wisebread, one of my fave personal finance blogazines posted: THIS LIST a while ago of 25 Frugal Changes You Can Make Today.  Then I saw it the other day on another of my favorite personal finance blogs Free Money Finance. 

Let’s see how we rate:

1. Reduce/Eliminate Daily Luxuries – 

That’s probably the best tip.   Those things really add up.  I do this now, thank goodness, but probably not as much as I could.  If I ever hit dire financial straights I could tighten my belt here a bit.

2. Carpool –

Ummm….New York City Transportation = The Ultimate Carpool!
We don’t carpool otherwise. (I wonder if any NYCers do)  John takes the car or his motorcycle to work at nights and I take the Iron Horse.

all my “carpool” buddies

3. Prevent Repair Costs –

 What kind of tip is that? It’s basically saying…don’t ruin your stuff.  Gee, thanks for that. I guess we do this.  I somehow ripped my coat pocket open (Discovered only when I put on my coat and felt my keys whack me against my knee since they’d fallen to the bottom inside the lining of my coat. — getting that out of there was fun.) and sewed it up myself instead of taking it to my tailor or the cleaners.  That counts right?

4. Share Toys –

I’m not good with sharing.  I’m an only child. (yes, I know I have a brother)  I figure BabyH is going to inherit so much toys and “stuff” from others and toys are going to be bought by everyone else so John and I won’t have to spend that much on them.

5. Shop on a Full Stomach – 

I break this rule always.  And somehow when I go to Pathmark even if I’m full…somehow I need to go get a fullsize bag of chips to help me make it through the rest of the aisles.  But I get their point, and we do stick to our list when we go shopping with only a few extras tossed in. *COUGH* by john *COUGH*

6. Share Baby Clothes –

Oh yeah, I’m going to get all the hand me downs I can get!! John’s sister has 3 kids and a garage full of goodies to share.  Super grateful.  (PS I’m currently taking hand-me-UP clothes from my rapidly growing brother! It’s great.  We’ve come full circle.)

 

7. Purchase Generic – 

This is a no brainer for us.  We buy a lot of stuff generic.  And only certain few things we buy name-brand.  It’s great when we have a coupon that brings the name-brand item down to below the cost of the generic stuff.  Winning! Duh.

8. Buy in Bulk –

We don’t do that too tough. We did get a costco membership last week so we’ll be buying some bulk items.  I’m totally going to bring my calculator…ok my cell phone… and figure out the cost per use for these things because sometimes these bulk items are not the deal they pretend to be.

9. Turn off the Lights –

We’re so all about this.  I get excited when the con-ed bill comes to see how much lower it is than the prior month. (can’t believe I just told you guys that lol)  Sidebar: I’m dreading summer coming because I know that bill is going to skyrocket since I live with Johnny Mac 24/7 Air Conditioner at -0 degrees Man. (yes, negative zero degrees. It’s EXTRA cold)

10. Purchase Used Items – 

I’m all about the used books! Other than that I don’t buy used. I’m not a thrift store clothes person. I’ll take used items from friends when they’re tossing stuff. But I feel weird about wearing pants that were rubbing up long term against a stranger’s crotch.  ::blank stare::
We have a used car and I doubt I’ll ever buy a brand new car. Certified pre-owned works well enough for me.

11. Cut Food Costs –

Well, good thing about breakfast and lunch being provided at work is my daily food costs have dropped dramatically.  We don’t eat out too much anymore either since we started planning (read: saving) for Baby H. 

12. Reduce Reoccurring Costs –

I did lower my phone payments by switching from sprint ($90) to virgin ($25) But other than that….::blank stare:: We got rid of cable a couple years ago and our recurring costs are now things required to live in NY…ok…and the internet svc.

13. Save Your Spare Change –

Totally on this.  John’s got Jars.  I’ve got my old Commerce Bank “C” piggy bank.  We’re change savers fa sho! I love the Penny Arcade at TD Bank!

uh oh

14. Shop Online –

Now you already know!!  I told you girls about how to save money shopping for anything.  And I told you about my shopping binge where I got like 65 pieces for a grand.  I’m ALL about the online shopping!

16. Start Bargaining – 

We do this a lot on vacation in those markets ya know….  But I can’t really walk into Macy’s and be like “oh this shirt says it’s $25.  I’ll give you $10.”  The sales person would call security on my ass!

17. Eat Steak at Home –

I don’t buy steak very often.  We barely eat steak at home.  And when I lived with my parents, almost every meal was steak.  Maybe I got all steaked out?  (or maybe steak is frickin expensive and I always pick up a sack of chicken breasts and tilapia fillets instead…)

nom nom nom

18. Pre-Drink at Home –

Yeah… No thanks….that’s a little to alky for me.  I have a drink or two when I’m out with friends or out to dinner.  I don’t do much pre-gaming.  Thank goodness. And John barely drinks.

19. Use Coupons –

Oh fa sho! I’m no extremecouponer or anything but I do use my coupons whenever I shop. Online or in person.  I love it!

20. Watch the Game at Home –

Game? ::blank stare::
We don’t watch games at all.  Im sure if we had cable we’d watch some football and basketball though.  Now, it’s just the big games we’ll watch streaming online.

21. Fix It Yourself –

I do! I hand whatever is broken to John and he hands it back all fixed! 🙂

22. Romance on a Budget –

Sex is free yall.

23. Be Debt Focused –

Umm….no.
I’m financial freedom focused.  I’m abundance focused.  I’m wealth focused.  No debt here and there never will be….except for mortgage and John’s med school loan.  And even then we’ll focus on the positive outcome and not the debt.

24. Do Your Own Taxes –

I totally do.  I actually love doing my taxes.  I know that sounds abnormal. I don’t care. It’s so much fun to me.  Next year I’m asking my CPA aunt to do it for us.  She does my parents’ and now that I’ll have the business, and John and I will file married…it’s a more complex story.  I don’t wanna mess anything up.

25. Learn More about Frugal Living – 

I guess I kinda do this.  I read some frugal chicas’ blogs and pick up tips where I can.

How do you stack up? Do you have any of the habits listed above?What do you think you’ll start doing in the future?