quote:
That is such good advice....you can easily live without cable TV, high speed internet, and a smartphone. That's at least $150-200/mo additional cash, or more depending on your plans. The local public library has free internet (often free wi-fi that reaches the parking lot), which you've already paid for via your property taxes. Public library also checks out DVDs, e-books, and offers free streaming video. Cut those recurring monthly expenses and use the cash to pay down debt. Stop thinking of luxuries as necessities. (This might also apply to a gym membership, as you can exercise for free in the good ol' outdoors; running costs nothing.)

Food is another big hole in most budgets. Learn to like what's on sale at the supermarket; learn to cook from scratch. If you think prepared food is cheaper than scratch cooking, you don't know how to cook. Learn how. (See local public library, nonfiction 641.5.) Commit to not wasting any food you buy; food thrown away is money tossed into the trash.

Good luck....

Hey smartfrickingass --- you and everyone here all know damn well you're taking what I suggested to the extreme. I have a smartphone and high speed internet but I got rid of cable over two years ago. Hulu and Netflix it is for me - $16 a month combined with $45 a month for the high speed internet to stream and I'm saving $100 a month right there alone.

I quit drinking (because I'm not in college anymore and have a life that revolves around so much more than alcohol) and I don't go out every weekend. Cars are paid off, student loans are paid off, and we're paying a minimum of $1,300 extra to our mortgage each month because we stripped 90% of our "wants" out of our life. We are sacrificing a little now so we can be retired multi-millionaires in our late 40s. If that's not appealing to you, then I can't help you. Stick to your shitty arse immature life now. I don't care.

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Posted by hungryone

river parishes

Member since Sep 2010

11987 posts

Posted on 6/25/15 at 3:45 pm to TDsngumbo

quote:
Hey smartfrickingass --- you and everyone here all know damn well you're taking what I suggested to the extreme. I have a smartphone and high speed internet but I got rid of cable over two years ago. Hulu and Netflix it is for me - $16 a month combined with $45 a month for the high speed internet to stream and I'm saving $100 a month right there alone.

I quit drinking (because I'm not in college anymore and have a life that revolves around so much more than alcohol) and I don't go out every weekend. Cars are paid off, student loans are paid off, and we're paying a minimum of $1,300 extra to our mortgage each month because we stripped 90% of our "wants" out of our life. We are sacrificing a little now so we can be retired multi-millionaires in our late 40s. If that's not appealing to you, then I can't help you. Stick to your shitty arse immature life now. I don't care.

While I realize the internet is a poor conduit for subtlety, I offered all of my comments in earnest. Not in snark...there was no sarcasm in my post. I honestly believe that most people spend way too much on phone/internet/cable/books/iTunes and don't use the public library nearly enough. I am 100% sincere in this, nor do I find it extreme advice. I and many others are lucky enough to enjoy excellent public libraries & I save plenty of dough by not buying books and using lots of their other services. I literally go around telling people about the great free stuff at the public library, as many are unaware of the free movies, streaming video, e-books, audiobooks, databases (Lexis/Nexis, Ancestry, etc) available to patrons.

I'm flummoxed as to how a suggestion to avail yourself of taxpayer supported library services can be construed as an indicator of an immature life, or what any of this has to do with drinking. Perhaps encountering sincerity on the internet is so shocking, you misjudged my post?

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Posted by bayoubengals88