The 10 Most-Hated Money Saving Tips

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

The 10 Most-Hated Money Saving Tips

I came across this cute little article on the Free Money Finance blog. The article really is worth reading (it is linked in the title), but I will list the most-hated money saving tips briefly here (in reverse order of hatred):

10. Be healthy.

9. Move to a foreign country (or visit one for health care).

8. Quit smoking.

7. Buy used things.

6. Buy a house you can afford.

5. Cut your cable TV.

4. Take your lunch to work.

3. Limit small spending.

2. Do not buy a pet.

1. Moving to a lower cost-of-living city.

Urghhh!

What's worse is that these things work.

OK, I have mentioned them. Now I won't need to mention them ever again!

Michael

[Chris Grieb]

Any one who has read the Greenspan biography knows that reporters noted the size of his briefcase as whether there were problems with the Fed by Greenspan explanation he some days he brought his lunch.

I must add that I think I would rather be in the US with health problems than many foreign countries.

You don't include paying your credit cards each month in full.

[James Heaps-Nelson]

The 10 Most-Hated Money Saving Tips

I came across this cute little article on the Free Money Finance blog. The article really is worth reading (it is linked in the title), but I will list the most-hated money saving tips briefly here (in reverse order of hatred):

10. Be healthy.

9. Move to a foreign country (or visit one for health care).

8. Quit smoking.

7. Buy used things.

6. Buy a house you can afford.

5. Cut your cable TV.

4. Take your lunch to work.

3. Limit small spending.

2. Do not buy a pet.

1. Moving to a lower cost-of-living city.

Urghhh!

What's worse is that these things work.

OK, I have mentioned them. Now I won't need to mention them ever again!

Michael

I've done all except 8, I've never smoked, 2 we've got two cats and 6, we're still looking for a house during the downturn.

Jim

[James Heaps-Nelson]

I would add: buy big ticket used things, such as cars, at the end of April right after everyone gets done paying their taxes.

Jim

[Dragonfly]

Most of them I've done or they are not relevant to me (I don't have cable TV for example), and while I sometimes buy used things, that's for several reasons only a very small fraction of what I buy.

[Barbara Branden]

I've done #8.

Barbara

[Jody Gomez]

I've done #8 several times. Now I only smoke in order to celebrate my quitting smoking. Which is often. I love celebrations.

Edited December 7, 2007 by Jody Gomez

[Brant Gaede]

I've done #8.

Barbara

How many times?

--Brant

[pbmaltzman]

Well... I've never smoked. I buy some things used (when it makes sense to--I usually refuse to buy anything used if it has to do with food preparation).

I absolutely refuse to give up my cats. I dread the day one of them gets seriously ill, but they keep me sane. Truthfully I need to have pets. I like critters better than a lot of people.

I have both cable and DSL for work (medical transcription); one backs up the other.

I can't afford to visit a foreign country, regardless of the health care available there or here.

I want to either get out of California within a few more years, or else see if I can buy a mobile home for relatively cheap. I look on Craiglist and see decent houses being sold for far less than in So. California. The prices here are simply insane.

Good suggestions, all of them. But I absolutely refuse to do without pets. Here's a tip: Feeding your pet the best food you can afford (such as putting a dog or cat on a mostly-raw-food diet) can save you money in the long run. The animal will be less likely to get really horrific degenerative diseases. For example: Feeding the kitty good food is less expensive than taking her to the vet because she got kidney failure from eating nothing but dry food.

The 10 Most-Hated Money Saving Tips

I came across this cute little article on the Free Money Finance blog. The article really is worth reading (it is linked in the title), but I will list the most-hated money saving tips briefly here (in reverse order of hatred):

10. Be healthy.

9. Move to a foreign country (or visit one for health care).

8. Quit smoking.

7. Buy used things.

6. Buy a house you can afford.

5. Cut your cable TV.

4. Take your lunch to work.

3. Limit small spending.

2. Do not buy a pet.

1. Moving to a lower cost-of-living city.

Urghhh!

What's worse is that these things work.

OK, I have mentioned them. Now I won't need to mention them ever again!

Michael

[Brant Gaede]

Well... I've never smoked. I buy some things used (when it makes sense to--I usually refuse to buy anything used if it has to do with food preparation).

I absolutely refuse to give up my cats. I dread the day one of them gets seriously ill, but they keep me sane. Truthfully I need to have pets. I like critters better than a lot of people.

Pam: Come to Tucson; when California slips to the North and into the SEA, you'll have beachfront property!

--Brant

Edited December 7, 2007 by Brant Gaede

[Greybird]

Most "hated"? Most resisted or hardest to implement, perhaps ... if this is meant, as vague and flippant as some of these are, to be taken entirely seriously.

I'll play along, on behalf of myself and my brother-and-flatmate:

Be healthy

Well, duh, but that's a multivariant, multivariable task. And sometimes you have no choice in the matter (metaphysical versus human-made maladies). We've both done pretty well, apart from marginal inherited matters, except that I don't get enough exercise, and Tim gets almost too much on his job.

Move to a foreign country (or visit one for health care)

Presumably, not-the-U.S.? For elective surgery, perhaps so, with our absurd matters of malpractice law and litigation being bypassed elsewhere. I suspect this has the hidden assumption, "Everywhere else has Universal Care," and presumes that such socialism (or fascism, depends on territory) is All Good.

Quit smoking

Never smoked. (As a habit. I think we all know what college students share.)

Buy used things

All the time. I just played my used DVD of "Little Miss Sunshine" again last night. I'm wearing the best $1.50 belt I ever got, from a thrift store.

Buy a house you can afford

No, not in the recent bubble market, either expanding or deflating. Don't buy a house, PERIOD! For new ones, the construction is shoddy as against the past. For older ones, the market and financing is too fickle, and you need two (or three) incomes. Pay rent, as we have, and invest the difference, if possible. Besides, who these days is at home very much, unless (like me) you work from there?

Cut your cable TV

Non-starter, especially if you have lousy over-the-air service. (Soon to be less of a reason with mandated digital broadcasting, true enough.) Or if you love movies. For the same $45 of the $90 bill that goes to Encore, HBO, Showtime, and The Movie Channel, we get at least 20 movies in a month that we enjoy seeing, often more. That's what would only get five theater admissions these days, disregarding the gas to get there. We're saving buckets of money.

Take your lunch to work

Already doing that. Or fixing it at home anyway, for me. Lunch is overpriced almost everywhere unless you get some far-too-greasy fast food. (Subway is an exception.)

Limit small spending

Yeah, the $5.00 lattes add up, so we've never gotten them. An occasional treat feeds the spirit, though.

Do not buy a pet

Well, an aquarium might work, but we've never even had one of those. Pets and rental properties don't mix, anyway.

Move to a lower-cost-of-living city

The unadmitted other half of this: It usually means far lower potential incomes, as well. Apart from the housing market in smaller cities being less frenetic, I'd say it's a wash. And with differing job markets and family ties, it's not as blithely simple as the author suggests.

[Reidy]

One more: don't be a transvestite; one wardrobe is expensive enough.

[Chris Grieb]

Reidy; Your last post reminded me that someone said be a bi-sexual because you have twice the chance of having a date Saturday night.

Edited December 7, 2007 by Chris Grieb

[Reidy]

Yes, but that won't save money if you're paying.

[Chris Grieb]

Yes, but that won't save money if you're paying.

How True!

[studiodekadent]

I've done #8 several times. Now I only smoke in order to celebrate my quitting smoking. Which is often. I love celebrations.

LOL, thats hilarious. I smoke only for ceremonial purposes, but hell, the only people that smoke more than Objectivists are Goths and Im both.

[Lights up, celebrating the fire in man's mind, and mourning over its extinguishment in a life thats only pain] Oh, woe is me in a world that hates man's mind! Damn, Im inventing a new stereotype arent I? lol

[pbmaltzman]

Hi, Brant: Northern Arizona is on my list of places to check out; maybe Phoenix (depending on the condition of the A/C). But frankly, although I've heard good things about Tucson, I'm not sure I want to live that close to the U.S./Mexico border.

I'm a libertarian, but not really an open-borders libertarian. IMO gotta get rid of the welfare state first.

Heh... beachfront property is expensive everywhere. And while I realize that the idea of beachfront property in Arizona is a long-standing joke, it's my understanding that because of the way the earth is actually moving along the faults, and because of the way Baja California is drifting, California isn't about to fall off into the ocean.

Sorry about that, but I guess Arizona will stay desert for the foreseeable future. I'm in the desert here in Lancaster, too... about an hour's drive north of L.A.

Well... I've never smoked. I buy some things used (when it makes sense to--I usually refuse to buy anything used if it has to do with food preparation).

I absolutely refuse to give up my cats. I dread the day one of them gets seriously ill, but they keep me sane. Truthfully I need to have pets. I like critters better than a lot of people.

Pam: Come to Tucson; when California slips to the North and into the SEA, you'll have beachfront property!

--Brant

[pbmaltzman]

Two comments:

There are pet-friendly landlords, but they're getting harder to find these days, especially in the big city.

WRT moving to a lower cost-of-living city: I guess I'm lucky in this, because I can take my job with me. I do medical transcription in my home office, and I can work for my boss from any of the contiguous 48 states, wherever I can get DSL and/or cable modem. I've already gotten one pay cut, and he won't cut my pay any further if I move elsewhere. Luckily I'm not working using dial-up internet anymore.

If you're in a place like big cities in California, however, even in the big city, for a lot of jobs the wages are pretty stagnant, and you may not be able to make enough to overcome the insane costs of housing.

I guess that some folks will do okay buying houses in this slumping market... when the bubble has burst and real estate prices come down at least somewhat, those with money saved up could probably snap up some bargains (okay, maybe not in So. California, but in other places). A friend recommended to me that I consider places in the Midwest such as Indianapolis, Indiana... housing prices are still relatively cheap. When I get some bills paid off, it's possible that I could move there, take my job with me, buy housing for the first time (maybe even income property), and have some passive income. At any rate, it's something worth checking out.

Most "hated"? Most resisted or hardest to implement, perhaps ... if this is meant, as vague and flippant as some of these are, to be taken entirely seriously.

I'll play along, on behalf of myself and my brother-and-flatmate:

Do not buy a pet

Well, an aquarium might work, but we've never even had one of those. Pets and rental properties don't mix, anyway.

Move to a lower-cost-of-living city

The unadmitted other half of this: It usually means far lower potential incomes, as well. Apart from the housing market in smaller cities being less frenetic, I'd say it's a wash. And with differing job markets and family ties, it's not as blithely simple as the author suggests.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Steve,

Just for the record, the "hated" part came from the owner of the Free Money Finance blog linked in the opening post. (He does not give his name, or at least, I have been unable to find it.) The excerpt from the blog post is self-explanatory.

I know a bit about saving money. In 2005-2006, I wrote 519 money saving posts (which I summarized in 301 Saving Money Posts -- Hundreds of Ideas on How to Save Money) and this year I've added almost 200 more. So at over 700 tips now, I know a few things about saving money.

After all of those thoughts, suggestions, and ideas, one thing I can tell you about saving money is that despite the fact that they can save you a boatload of money, some tips are hated. And I don't mean disliked a little. I mean people HATE them. They hate the thought of them, the suggestion of them, and the fact that I would have the nerve to even list them. How do I know this? I read the comments. I get the emails. I see the blog posts rebutting the suggestions. Believe me, there are just some money saving ideas that tick people off.

If you want to see why they were hated by the blog readers, the guy discussed them one by one. Here is the link again for the sake of convenience: The 10 Most-Hated Money Saving Tips.

Michael

[Brant Gaede]

Save money: make more than you spend.

--Brant

[studiodekadent]

Save money: Choose Non-Vintage Louis Roederer Brut rather than Cristal.