Oh, so true on the modern thing, Myschia. I find if you grab a palette of three colors (one of which should be white) and stick with them, everything comes together so much better. I used to have very fussy tastes, but now modern eclectic is that way I keep it cheap and fun.
Five Frugal Tips for Perpetually Lazy People
Photo: Maestro AU
Are you a serious slacker? Does being frugal give you a brain cramp? Here are five ways to save money and time that barely require lifting a finger.
Go modern.
With your décor that is. The uncluttered look ensures you'll have to buy less, dust less, and pack less when you need to move. And as I mentioned in Fake it Till You Make It, streamlined can be incredibly sexy.
Live somewhere walkable.
Choose a location where you can walk to many of the establishments you frequent. You'll get there quicker, save on cab fare (or gas), and have more money left over for cocktails and traveling.
Two for one restaurant coupons.
Hate to cook? Looking for something easier? If you love to eat out often and hate the regular coupon clipping hassle, consider some of the restaurant coupons in your city's weekend paper. Many of the chains such as Sweet Tomatoes have two for one coupons, as do many of the more popular local favorites. Other coupons such as free appetizers or a certain amount off an entrée are also available. While I admit to never appreciating having coupons used when someone was taking me on a date, now that I'm married with different priorities, I don't have a problem using them, especially when we are out and about errand running and not eating out for a special occasion. I particularly like the Sweet Tomatoes coupons because we end up eating a ton of produce ingredients we would never normally buy. Bonus? They are super healthy there.
Annual memberships.
Museums, tourist attractions like Busch Gardens, aquariums, arboretums . . . the list goes on. If you live next to something you like to visit a great deal, or live next to something most people find fun and routinely have lots of company, this is a way to play host without paying the same entrance fee again and again. Some even come with free beverage options. I know the Desert Museum in Tucson did. Free coffee rocks. And you don't have to dig out the card to pay for these entertainment options more than once a year.
Salvation Army's pick up service.
Need all the tax deductions you can get? Salvation Army has an eight hundred number you can call to schedule a truck. They will come to your house and load up your donations (don't expect them to haul away garbage nobody else would want) on to the truck. They even give you a printed out itemized receipt of your donation. If you bought everything cheap to begin with, this is also a great way to liquidate and save on moving costs.
So that's it, folks. Five simple ways to be frugal with very little finger lifting. Got another lazy way to save money? Frugal minds want to know.
Best of Wise Bread
Hi,
Everything you said are very much practical and If the suggestions are followed ardently than one can certainly live a frugal life without much to compromise.
I would like to add two more things that can help you spend less are :
Taking part in some kind of indoor games with family members and friends and trying to spend the weekend in a group at home or a common place rather than partying out.
Secondly, If someone starts spending some time with in studying religion that would also help a lot in cutting costs.
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We've been donating to the Salvation Army for years. We're lucky we get a legible, accurate handwritten receipt from the guy who picks up. Printed, itemized receipts? Where do YOU live?
And they are very selective in how much and what they will pick up. (They currently have a minimum donation of five bags and everything for pickup is "at the driver's discretion.")
So you better hope you're driver wants to take your stuff!
Plus, you have to stay home a whole day waiting for a pickup.
In some cases, you'd lose more more money by not working than you would from any donations that you could deduct.
It would be great if every block or every few blocks in a city , like NYC, had donation bins. So much stuff that others could use just gets chucked because most people don't take itemized deductions and find it easier to throw stuff out than take off work to wait for a pickup.
And it's not easy to get heavy stuff to the Salvation army in a city where we don't have cars. You really can't take your lamps, rugs and other big stuff onto a bus or subway.
Even if Salvation army scheduled "drive throughs" once a week or once a month in various neighborhoods, they could get a lot of stuff.
The real beneficiaries are the superintendents and those who pick through the trash.
A lot of people do try to donate stuff that is truly junk, but a lot of people have good stuff that could be recycled and reused. So many people could truly benefit from what's tossed, especially in a city like New York, where students and others often toss out lots of perfectly good stuff when they leave college, switch apartments or redecorate. Factor that times the number of people in this city who do that each month and you'd be amazed at how many homes you could fill.
I lived just outside of Tucson when I used this service numerous times and I always got a laser printed itemized receipt. And they always took my stuff.
Now, I donated quality pieces that could easily be re-used and since I worked from home, it was no sweat for me to wait. But they usually gave a similar or better window than most repair man, so I didn't really see a difference anyway.
For smaller items, I dropped them off at the store on my way to grocery shopping. So, I only scheduled pickup when I had several larger items. Now, they were more than happy to take smaller stuff if they were coming for the larger load as well, but I didn't call them until I had things I didn't want to fit in my car. We have also used our own tow behind for other items when circumstances were different. But when I was in a hurry and the cart was already loaded for the cross country move, I used this service successfully then as well. Thanks for your comment.
In my job as an Estate Agent (realtor in US??) I visit many repossessed (foreclosed) properties. The first thing that strikes me is always the amount of "stuff" that the repossessed family have. Electronic good, magazines, ornaments, pictures, toys - the lot. To me a tidy house is a tidy mind. By decluttering your life your finances will have an automatic uplift (never mind the the extra cash you'll raise from Ebay!)
