Saving money

Yeah, we also know what it's like to run around in rummage sale clothes and shoes too, don't we? We made recycling everything a way of life long before it was popular and acceptable.

there was a really good article on yahoo about saving money....here's the link. i know that the people are making decent money to start with. but even if you made little if you follow their lead you can put money in the bank:)
here's the link:
http://financiallyfit.yahoo.com/finance/article-110102-5999-1-secrets-of-extreme-savers?ywaad=ad0035

I saw that article too, JB. A lot of it is stuff I've been doing for years, like brown-bagging lunch almost every day and not eating out for dinner as often as many of our friends do. I guess that makes me an extreme saver too! The difference is that we don't have the big salaries that some of those folks do. I used to buy new cars more often than I do now too - I like the vehicle I bought 5 years ago on a 0% interest deal (which I just paid off last week - YAY!), so I'll be keeping it for quite awhile. We should have our 30 year mortgage paid off in about 17, and since we have lived here almost 10 years already, that means it will be ours in 7. I wish like mad that I could find a way to pay it off even sooner, but we've come to like our vacations, so I'm not going to sacrifice them. Any extra money that may tumble our way will go toward shortening that timeline, however. That's my biggest dream now - I want to own the house outright. Then if something, God forbid, happens to one of us, the other won't have to worry about the burden of a house payment.

hey just paying off the morgage without having to refinance (or whatever the correct term is) is a BIG thing nowadays! i remember my parents buying our house and sometimes only being able to pay $5 a month on it...but when dad finally got a union job mom was able to scrape more money together and the paid it off when i was in college.

i guess my 'vacation' would be the three days at NYCC..i don't get to stay overnight anywhere (though i tell ya, a hostel in NYC is getting to be real close to the cost of my bus trip every day!)but its something i save up for all year and at least i get out to see people. and pretty much all the money for it comes from my saving my change all year long.

i'm trying to save money to either be able to afford a place to live when i can't live here in the basement any more or to finally move.that's where i put a certain amount from paychecks every month. its hard cuz it really does mean doing without what most people consider basics. but this morning i was thinking and i realized i'd finally saved up the amount of money i got when my dad died and what i got when the company i work for closed before i moved here. I can't believe i basically gave away all that money (I think we all know how that went). but i'm proud that i have the money now and i'm not stupid enough to 'give it away' again. ANd its also there if i need it for something like a medical emergency!

i found a few more 'money saving things i'll put in another post so they don't get lost in this one;)

here is an article about how you can watch a lot of tv and even cable tv without having to pay for cable. (though the cable things i think you need a computer for...but still, ISP is usually cheaper than cable)
http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/110122/you-dont-have-to-pay-for-cable-tv?mod=series-a-article

this is a good resource about making money doing things on the net....i need to have time to read deeper into it, but it does have some interesting info...
http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/110123/4-ways-to-make-cash-online?mod=career-selfemployment

Good for you Jeane.

I second that emotion Sue, good for you Jeane. I know how hard it is to save money when your paychecks are small and the bills are not.

when the paychecks are small you save money and make your waistline small:) i'm glad i have a lot of tea bags...cuz tea can be very filling;)

When my paychecks are small I end up eating mac n cheese and other stuff that's cheap but happens to be fattening. I can't starve myself with only tea. Went that route once and that's why I can't lose the weight now, I totally messed up my metabolism.

i eat a bowl of cereal but have tea pretty much for my 'lunch' when i'm off work.or when i'm working but only like 4 hrs i have a yogurt. i'd rather drink tea and money in the bank in case i need it. i was put on diets when i was around 8 yrs old...nothing is going to make my body any worse than it already is.

i found a couple pennies today i need to put in my jar.i don't think i'll hit the $10 mark this month but i'll close to 60 cents toward that last $

I managed to find a 20 dollar bill the other day, blowing down the street!

I remember when my savings account was down to nothing, practically, and they were taking out fees every month, but Ive managed to build it up again by putting in the checks I get from the rite aid rebates. and any other rebates like sometimes when the opinion polls I belong to send me money for answering a long questionaire.

It just steams me when banks do that.

there was a news report...i think on yahoo..recently about a person who tried to get a check cancelled and they kept charging the guy every 6 months to keep the check cancelled!
i know of several banks in town i woudln't put my money in because they charge for every little thing. i'm pretty happy with the bank i have now.

i'm waiting on one of those checks from the survey sites right now, LK:) i don't know how long its going to take to get to me but i think i put in for it back in mid June. won't worry about it til its been at least 8 wks though. (but i hope it comes before NYCC:) ).

i broke down and gave myself the two pennies i needed to make the last $ so i'd have $10 in my found money jar;) i lucked out and in this last week i found a quarter and a dime! $10 in approx 7 months, not bad;)

LK...i see they're going to (or trying to?) raise the trans prices again....every time i hear it i think about you and hope those found cards keep adding up!

i found a really good deal on some grape jelly today...not something i crave, but it comes in handy. 32oz jar for $1.67. even the little bitty jars are $1.99. there were two left so i scooped 'em up. if nothing else,i'll live on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for a week here or there. i have some peanut butter...but they also have that on sale this week. (I remember they used to have welches grape jelly, the same 32oz jar (or close to it)for 99cents and the same jar of peanut butter for 99cents on sale at the end of Aug or the start of Sept for years. but not in recent years....i think they did it to help people go back to school....though it would be better to have it at the start of summer...so the kids could make their own lunches!).

I heard about that guy and his check! I think it's a rotten thing for the bank to do to him.................

I got some of that fake crab on a really good sale: 99cents a pound! Bought 10# worth and stuck most of it in the freezer for later on, to make my seafood chowder with.

they have these packs of cookies that were usually 2/$1 now 3/$1 so i got three packs. they will be good for either breakfast at work or with some tea. these last paycheck has left me with only $24 a week so there's not a lot of luxuries. 3/$1 cookies are looking like a luxury this week!

I've got over $100 now in found discarded metrocards, I keep consolidating them into bigger amounts.
I haven't really used them, other than when jeane was here for Earth day, but I'm holding on to them "in case"
If they raise the fare to $99 and cap it at 90 rides that's still a good deal, as long as I use it more that the normal to and from work. at the current $89 dollars if I use it only to and from work (40 rides a month I pay $2.22 a ride which is just below the regular price of $2.25 (though they are going to raise single rides to $2.50) in the new scheme of things at $99 I will be paying $2.47 a ride for the 40 rides, which will be more than the regular $2.25 fare, but every ride I take after the initial 40 brings the price down, so if i use it on weekends to go to the city or the library (More on that later) or on evenings when i go to meet my friends at grand Central it keeps on going down per ride.

okay, the library. another cut . they have closed almost all of the brooklyn libraries on Saturdays. Only 5 are still open, which means I can no longer go to my regular library which is only a short walk from my house. I now have to take a bus to and from the library. (( I used to wak to this library which is about a mile from my house, but in bad weather or hot weather, or when my arthritis is kicking up I can't take the walk, so I'm using the card.
But it still pisses me off that they closed down the library on Saturdays. I don't tyhink they really did any kind of survey as to how many people were actually using the libraries they closed because the one by my house was always very buy, with lots of kids, and teens using it every Saturday. the other one is very quiet and not many people are using it. i suppose I should be happy about that as there are only 4 computers at the new library where there were 10 in the one that is closed.

I know, same thing here. The first that hits the chopping block
is the libraries. They've closed pools etc, what are the kids going to
do? It will help keep some of them from running wild and getting into
trouble because they are bored.

i don't know if they closed a lot of pools in NY but they did here and people have been raising hell. not around here....there are private pools all over the place here.
the library by me is closed every Sat and SUn and doesn't open til the afternoon on Mon. i don't know how long that's been going on. But it would seem logical to keep libraries open either on Sat or on Sun...at least one of the two days in NY.

personally i found a way to cut cost and stretch a quart of milk. i buy the whole milk and when i pour it into my cereal bowl i add some water to thin it/stretch it. doesn't taste any 'thinner' than skim or 2% milk. Since whole milk costs the same as skim or low fat etc it just makes more sense.

You can cut whole milk by adding nearly 2 gallons of water to a gallon of milk. It will still taste richer than 2% by a long shot.

well,i don't cut it that far...but i really can't afford $5 for milk..i buy the quarts for a few pennies over $1 and cut that a little bit. one quart lasts me a week...sometimes more depending on whether i'm eating cereal every day or not.
i remember the days (in TX..i think it was the Kroger store) when gallons of milk would be on sale for 99cents...even if they only did it for one day and only allowed two gallons per person it was a real treat!

i sometimes wonder why they don't do something like WIC for low income people. it would be something for people who might not qualify for food stamps (or food credit caRd or whatever its called now...i know its a card now)but who need some help to eat balanced. I think its pretty much the same as it was when i was staying with someone who was pregnant and then had her baby.....she got milk,juice,peanut butter and i think beans. (but with WIC it doesn't matter how much you make EVERYONE can get it!).
Come to think of it....that system would be really good for seniors....a lot of them do without a lot and could use the protein!

I found 3 $1 coins in the return slot at one of the metrocard machines yesterday. Don't know if the person just ran off to catch a train and left them, or maybe thought they were foreign coins or what. I needed one for my coin collection and used the other two for my breakfast this morning, and swapped out 3 1$bills into my kitty.

they probably thought they were chucky cheese tokens! i don't know if said anything about it in the other forum...but either last year or the year before i found nearly $10 in those gold one dollar coins in the trash at one our registers. the cashier was so stupid they thought they thought they weren't money! i'm glad i found them cuz the drawer would have been seriously short!
hell,i woulda picked up those coins if they were my change even if they were chucky cheese tokens. but i'd glad you found 'em LK:)

here's a link i found on yahoo just now...there's some good info and the best is a link to a legit place to get your credit checked for free (real free and not one of those places the automatically enrole you in something you have to pay for a few months down the line).
they also explain how its just as good to drink tap water as spending money on bottled water....i wish they gave more info...Penn and Teller did a very good show on it years ago but i'm not sure if the info is still up or not.

here's the link"
http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/110199/10-expenses-you-dont-need?mod=bb-budgeting

Just got back from Tom Thumb and bought close to
$20.00 worth of meat for $10.00. Children that will
feed me for a month. Also had a coupon for $3.00 off
$10.00 worth of fresh produce. So I was able to afford
one my favorite squashes.

wow you did get enough to get through the month!
what kind of squash did you get??? I hope its not zucchini cuz those people try to give away for free!
i got two boxes of cereal in the dented section for under $3 both together:) puffins and shredded wheat.AND a can of milk AND buns for both hot dog and hamburgers (though i use the latter for chicken patties for lunch for work).all over that was under $5;)
i'm doing some research to find the out what tp lasts the longest, costs the least and comes in a package thaT i can carry home in a tote bag. i swear that's going to be a novella pretty soon..i could write a book on how to find toilet paper that lasts!