OT – Piggington Tightwad

[admin]

Any outstanding money saving tips?

For the tightwads our there, have your ever shopped in Mexico to save money?

Through a connection, I got tiles in Mexico for some remodel jobs. 3000sf at 60c/sf. Cost at Home Depot for similar tiles is at least $2/sf + tax. So savings of at least $4,200.

It’s worth the trip if you have time. Customs limit is $800 per person every 30 days… but we didn’t have to file any paperwork.

[spdrun]

Authorized refurb Thinkpads are rock solid, durable, and can be had for ~$300. You can buy a new laptop for that price as well in theory, but it won’t last terribly well if it’s used in a portable fashion.

[FlyerInHi]

I love the HP small form factor business PCs I bought on CL. I used them as HTPCs. They are small and quiet (I don’t like performance PCs that are noisy because of the fans).

[jeff303]

Rubio’s original fish taco, $1.50 after 2:30PM every Tuesday.

[moneymaker]

I save money by fixing everything around the house that breaks. There’s no way I could afford to pay to have everything fixed by a handyman, literally something seems to break or need fixing almost daily.

[zk]

Get solar. I’m doing that right now. Getting estimates. It’s a no brainer if you can pay cash. Even if you have to finance, it’s probably a good thing.

[joec]

[quote=zk]Get solar. I’m doing that right now. Getting estimates. It’s a no brainer if you can pay cash. Even if you have to finance, it’s probably a good thing.[/quote]

How much is your monthly bill now?

I assume there is some break point where if you bill is x, then solar isn’t worth it until you past y.

[zk]

Good point, joe.

My SDG+E bill averages $225, of which about $185 is electric.

SDG+E’s rates, for tiers 1-4 are (where I live): 17/20/37/39 cents/kwh. That’s a big jump from tier 2 to tier 3. If you’re staying in tiers 1 and 2, it might not be a no brainer.

For me, it’ll pay for itself in about 6 years, and I’ll have free or almost free electric for at least another 19 years after that.

That’s a pretty hard return to beat, especially with basically a sure thing.

[UCGal]

My bain is reoccurring bills. Anything I have to pay monthly I want to reduce or eliminate.

Cell phone – was paying almost $100 for a smart phone and a feature phone, WITH a 20% employer discount, a few years ago… Now I’m on Ting – and I paid $68 for 4 smart phones, 3 have data plans. I buy the phones used on ebay/amazon/glyde. My highest bill was $78 (and then I threatened my son to not stream videos on the school bus – to wait till he’s someplace there’s wifi.

Cable – I screamed at time warner – I now have cable and “standard” internet for $35/month. The cable is as basic as it gets- NO hi-def channels, no premium anything (not even cnbc), no TWC provided equipment… I actually tried to cancel the video portion altogether – but this was the cheapest option.

Don’t eat out a lot… Embrace your inner chef. We buy good quality ingredients and cook at home. We have nice wine with our meals. Our food budget for a family of 4 is $1000/month… with very little of that being restaurant meals. And our food is yummy.

I picked up shopping for seafood and produce at Zion and 99Ranch from AN here at Piggington. We eat a lot of fish – and Zion is a great place to buy it for very little money.

Be your own labor. We put in a paver driveway and did the labor ourself. Saved about $7000 over the lowest bid we got for a contractor to do it. It was hard work but it came out pefectly and was only 4 days of hellish hard work.

[NotCranky]

I make my disposable razors last longer. DId you know that if you dry them off after shaving that they last up to four times as long? What you are doing by that is basically overriding the planned obsolescence factor built into each razor. They have a little strip above the blades that dissolves, making them not ride correctly so you have to toss them. If you shave quickly and dry them off it doesn’t dissolve.

[fun4vnay2]

I use my office cell phone, My wife uses pay as you go phone $10/month.
Electricity/gas is $70/month/average
No cable tv just internet at $35/month

sometimes i bike to work save on gas as well

my dream: to get rid of our second card and be more reliant on bike

[spdrun]

I make my disposable razors last longer.

I have thick beard hair that clogs most disposable razors and electric razors tend to be “lift and yank” to me.

Only way to shave is an old-school safety razor. Blades are $20 for a 100-pk or $6 for a 20-pk of a good Japanese brand. Bonus point is that it shaves closer and better than most modern stuff. It’s also environmentally better since you’re not throwing away a thick hunk of plastic.

[FlyerInHi]

I got one of the those, spd.

As blogstar said, drying the blade makes a lot of sense. I was told to cover the blades with some baby oil to prevent rusting/dulling, but i’m too lazy to do it.

Amazon had sales on blades for like $2 /with clickable coupon… so I stocked up.

[joec]

[quote=FlyerInHi]I got one of the those, spd.

As blogstar said, drying the blade makes a lot of sense. I was told to cover the blades with some baby oil to prevent rusting/dulling, but i’m too lazy to do it.

Amazon had sales on blades for like $2 /with clickable coupon… so I stocked up.[/quote]

Yeah, I just reuse my blade for 6 months…switch when the rust is very bad…

[scaredyclassic]

i was into saving money for so long…

one side effect is now that its not so tight… it can be difficult to let go and spend money

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