I don't recommend any of these, or maybe some of them, I do. Nonetheless, I do not take any responsibility for how you use this information. Here we go, ways to save money:
1. If you pay for power at home, just don't be at home. Use the library as much as possible. Un- plug everything and live like they did before there was electricity. In fact, un-plug your computer right now!
2. Read books instead of watching TV. Again, using a TV means using power. So go buy a book!
3. Buy books used instead of new. If there's a new book you want to read, go to your local library and ask them to order it. Then wait. Then when they call you and say "The book you ordered is in," pick it up and read it. If it's not a very long book, just go to the book store and read it there, so long as the store policy allows it. Chapters anyone?
4. Don't use pay-as-you go on a cell phone. Pay-as-you-go is a ploy, a dark hole, the scam of the century. You just end up paying double or triple what a plan would cost. If you have a cell phone, be on a plan. But a good plan.
5. Don't use a cell phone. Get a home phone and pay a base fee any time. If you want to make long distance calls, download Skype and get a Skype (phone) card. It's way cheaper to call long-distance through skype. Better yet, if your long distance friends and family have Skype too, you don't need a Skype (phone) card. Skype-to-Skype is free (if your Skype asks you to pay money for a skype-to-skype call, you may have to change a setting).
6. Use Line instant chat messaging. It has all kinds of features, so if your friends get on board, you may never have to send a text message again (if you so choose to have a cell phone). There are plenty of places with Wi-Fi these days. That's all you need (unless you're obsessed with messaging everywhere you go, 24/7).
7. Carpool if you're going to the same place. What ever happened to car pooling?
8. If you are married or have a significant other and go eat out, you do not both need to eat dessert. It's not like an ice chocolate parfait is high in nutrients anyway. You already ate dinner. One dessert is enough for two. Or if you love dessert, ditch the restaurant and go hit a grocery store/ supermarket. Freeze what you don't eat and then repeat the process next time you eat out.
9. Instead of eating out, cook together with friends, preferably at someone's apartment where they have an all-inclusive rent deal (for example, 1200/ month for everything, as in, including power).
10. Even Starbucks sells tea, as in tea for around 2 dollars. A latte is about 6 dollars. It's okay to drink just a simple tea or coffee sometimes. Cafe au lait is something you can make at home. All you need is coffee and milk, maybe some honey. If you're with a significant other and desperate for something fancy, split the cost in half by sharing a "Double Chocolate Mocha Frappuccino" instead of getting two.
11. If you love super nifty special dandy drinks, make friends with a Barista. Or work as one for a few months part-time and then make all the stuff on your own.
12. You can go to a movie for about 15 dollars. You can rent one for about 5 dollars. You can find something about par or maybe even below and sometimes above par to watch on YouTube for free. If you don't believe me, just go to YouTube and type movies in the search. Or...read a book.
*For the record, I love movies and not going to give them up any time soon. However, I have also come to love reading*
13. Have a "stamp card system." For example, if you cooked something together with friends or by yourself at home instead of eating out three weeks in a row, you stamp three stars on some sort of card. Then the fourth stars is "Congratulations! You can go eat out today!" Just be careful not to splurge or go overboard. A good trick is to eat a potato (or something starchy...but not bread) before you go out. Then you won't eat too much at the restaurant. If you have left-overs, you can always save them for the next day.
14. Sometimes food court food is just as good as at a restaurant. And you don't have to pay tips at a food court. Key word here is SOMETIMES. Choose carefully.
15. Play sports or board games with friends instead of expensive activities like bowling or golf. Or if you really love bowling, make your own version of balls and pins and play in your friends' back yard. If you don't have a friend with a back yard, find an open field at a park somewhere. There are no limits!
16. Going to Open Mic Night or Karaoke night at your local cafe, pub, or coffee shop is much cheaper than going to a concert, and is in itself a more unique experience.
A lot of this advice, I have not taken. Yes, I said it. I have not taken a lot of my own advice (although a lot of them, I have started to take). I might say that some of these are borderline ridiculous. But I think the point was to get the juices flowing, get the hamster wheel turning and trying to think outside of the box, beyond the norm. Actually, a lot of these things are completely the norm. Just google search "How to Save Money" and I'm sure we can find a lot of these same comments, just packaged differently. We all need filters, though. So go ahead, read these over again, and filter. To tell the truth, I'm essentially telling this to myself. These are merely my thoughts, some of them maybe recycled from things I've heard somewhere, some of them just made up. Then you decide what advice is worth taking. See, I was talking to myself again there.
Oops! Gotta' go. My latte's here. Ha ha!
1. If you pay for power at home, just don't be at home. Use the library as much as possible. Un- plug everything and live like they did before there was electricity. In fact, un-plug your computer right now!
2. Read books instead of watching TV. Again, using a TV means using power. So go buy a book!
3. Buy books used instead of new. If there's a new book you want to read, go to your local library and ask them to order it. Then wait. Then when they call you and say "The book you ordered is in," pick it up and read it. If it's not a very long book, just go to the book store and read it there, so long as the store policy allows it. Chapters anyone?
4. Don't use pay-as-you go on a cell phone. Pay-as-you-go is a ploy, a dark hole, the scam of the century. You just end up paying double or triple what a plan would cost. If you have a cell phone, be on a plan. But a good plan.
5. Don't use a cell phone. Get a home phone and pay a base fee any time. If you want to make long distance calls, download Skype and get a Skype (phone) card. It's way cheaper to call long-distance through skype. Better yet, if your long distance friends and family have Skype too, you don't need a Skype (phone) card. Skype-to-Skype is free (if your Skype asks you to pay money for a skype-to-skype call, you may have to change a setting).
6. Use Line instant chat messaging. It has all kinds of features, so if your friends get on board, you may never have to send a text message again (if you so choose to have a cell phone). There are plenty of places with Wi-Fi these days. That's all you need (unless you're obsessed with messaging everywhere you go, 24/7).
7. Carpool if you're going to the same place. What ever happened to car pooling?
8. If you are married or have a significant other and go eat out, you do not both need to eat dessert. It's not like an ice chocolate parfait is high in nutrients anyway. You already ate dinner. One dessert is enough for two. Or if you love dessert, ditch the restaurant and go hit a grocery store/ supermarket. Freeze what you don't eat and then repeat the process next time you eat out.
9. Instead of eating out, cook together with friends, preferably at someone's apartment where they have an all-inclusive rent deal (for example, 1200/ month for everything, as in, including power).
10. Even Starbucks sells tea, as in tea for around 2 dollars. A latte is about 6 dollars. It's okay to drink just a simple tea or coffee sometimes. Cafe au lait is something you can make at home. All you need is coffee and milk, maybe some honey. If you're with a significant other and desperate for something fancy, split the cost in half by sharing a "Double Chocolate Mocha Frappuccino" instead of getting two.
11. If you love super nifty special dandy drinks, make friends with a Barista. Or work as one for a few months part-time and then make all the stuff on your own.
12. You can go to a movie for about 15 dollars. You can rent one for about 5 dollars. You can find something about par or maybe even below and sometimes above par to watch on YouTube for free. If you don't believe me, just go to YouTube and type movies in the search. Or...read a book.
*For the record, I love movies and not going to give them up any time soon. However, I have also come to love reading*
13. Have a "stamp card system." For example, if you cooked something together with friends or by yourself at home instead of eating out three weeks in a row, you stamp three stars on some sort of card. Then the fourth stars is "Congratulations! You can go eat out today!" Just be careful not to splurge or go overboard. A good trick is to eat a potato (or something starchy...but not bread) before you go out. Then you won't eat too much at the restaurant. If you have left-overs, you can always save them for the next day.
14. Sometimes food court food is just as good as at a restaurant. And you don't have to pay tips at a food court. Key word here is SOMETIMES. Choose carefully.
15. Play sports or board games with friends instead of expensive activities like bowling or golf. Or if you really love bowling, make your own version of balls and pins and play in your friends' back yard. If you don't have a friend with a back yard, find an open field at a park somewhere. There are no limits!
16. Going to Open Mic Night or Karaoke night at your local cafe, pub, or coffee shop is much cheaper than going to a concert, and is in itself a more unique experience.
A lot of this advice, I have not taken. Yes, I said it. I have not taken a lot of my own advice (although a lot of them, I have started to take). I might say that some of these are borderline ridiculous. But I think the point was to get the juices flowing, get the hamster wheel turning and trying to think outside of the box, beyond the norm. Actually, a lot of these things are completely the norm. Just google search "How to Save Money" and I'm sure we can find a lot of these same comments, just packaged differently. We all need filters, though. So go ahead, read these over again, and filter. To tell the truth, I'm essentially telling this to myself. These are merely my thoughts, some of them maybe recycled from things I've heard somewhere, some of them just made up. Then you decide what advice is worth taking. See, I was talking to myself again there.
Oops! Gotta' go. My latte's here. Ha ha!
"We only limit our future by not disciplining ourselves in the present." What do you think? Thoughts? Ideas? Questions? Concerns? Please do comment!
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