Save Money

If there was ever a category of item that we felt justified in spending money, books would be it. Our parents begged us to read as kids. We were forced to read as students. And now as adults, if we find ourselves interested in a book, we can have it on our doorstep by 8AM the following day. Thanks, Amazon. Saving money on books is not going to make or break our savings strategy. But it is another example of making a convenience sacrifice for a certain financial future that most people don't have. Let's talk about saving money on books. Saving Money on Books You've…

If you’re anything like me, you’ve kind of just assumed that your only options for having cell coverage was T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon, or Sprint. And, you probably assumed it was just worth getting unlimited data, because that’s what everyone has right? Well, last month I discovered prepaid wireless carriers and realized that I didn't have to spend $124 a month on my cell phone service plan anymore. So I'd like to talk about how to save money on cell phone service. My Story To be completely honest, this is one of the areas I've been most excited about my savings because after setup, I literally forget…

Before this year, I could count on two hands how many times I'd been to a dollar store. But with the prodding of my wife and the introduction of the 99 Cent Only store, I continue to stand amazed at the quality for price ratio. Saving money at the dollar store is one of the easiest hacks to living a more frugal life. Many times, you can buy the same exact brands as you would at Target or Albertsons for a fraction of the cost. Saving Money At The Dollar Store This is another examples of one of those slight changes in behavior that puts more…

Quite often, my posts are about pointing out ridiculous things we waste money on when we could simply substitute for something of equal or better quality at home. But this is not one of those posts. No, this is actually a recommendation for those who are wanting to find long term success in moving to a frugal life. So, let's talk happy hour savings and why I believe it's a critical part of your frugal future. The Happy Hour Savings Are Real Happy Hour is a beautiful thing. Now, historically, I always thought that anyone who was crazy about happy hour must be an overworked alcoholic…

The lunch topic could easily be thrown into the 'Eating Out' post. But I have reason to believe that 'Lunch' warrants it's own post. The truth is, the cost of eating lunch out is a sneaky one. It's one that's easily justified. And one that keeps you in the workforce for much longer than you need to be. In the course of my adult life to date, I knew very few people who packed their lunch. In high school, my parents packed my lunch for me every day. But when I went to college, I didn't grocery shop much. I sure didn't take the time to…

The topic of saving money on haircuts is a deep one for me. You see, I started my 'no paid haircuts' journey long before I ever cared about financial independence or frugality. It all started with a conversation between my best friend Jordan Evans and I. We were living together during our Junior year of college and asked each other, "Why are we paying for crappy haircuts when we could just cut each other's hair? How hard could it be?" Personally, I get so much anxiety when getting my haircut at Supercuts. It's always someone different and they always seem to mess it up somehow. On…

Growing up, I always thought people that shopped at Costco bought convenience, not savings. It was only after I started taking my financial independence seriously that I started to realize the potential for savings at Costco. And let me tell you, Costco is a great place to save money. I think the rub for a lot of us is paying a membership fee to 'Save money'. For some of us, we just can't quite see how paying out of pocket to go buy in bulk is going to be something a frugal person would do. But the truth is, a big part of embracing frugality is…

There are many expenses in our life that are actually icebergs. They appear to represent $X of cost in our monthly budget, but in reality there is sometimes a lot more underneath the ocean than there is above the surface. This is without question the case when it comes to looking at the real cost of gym membership. This is very much the case with gym memberships. When we think of a gym membership, we really only think of the cost of the gym membership. We typically don't think about the commute costs, time costs, or social costs of this way of staying in shape. How…

If you are like me, coffee is the very first thing you think about in the morning. But the cost of coffee is probably the last. I know for many, morning coffee is their one and only ritual. Something about our coffee is just… perfect. Warm, strong, energetic. I can’t think of a better pick me up to get me started with my day. Is it the fact that caffeine is really just a legal drug? Yes, probably. But I won’t get into that in this post. In this post, we are talking the dollars and cents of your coffee habit and how coffee can help…