Money Saving Hacks From "The Street" - Add Your Own!

[Dicey]

This article is a pretty good start. What would you add to the list?

https://www.thestreet.com/personal-finance/money-saving-hacks-15104400?puc=yahoo&cm_ven=YAHOO&yptr=yahoo

[ysette9]

Yeah, not too bad. The first tip is by far the most powerful in my personal experience. For many years we have automated savings and then lived on whatever is left over.

I think looking first at buying used is another good way to save money. I love our FB Buy Nothing Group, FB Marketplace, Craigslist, eBay, etc. Sometimes you just get damn lucky, like when I found a 2-kid bike trailer for free. Score!

[YttriumNitrate]

From the article:

18. Do a "Daily Double" Deposit
You want to save $3,339.75 the easy way? Here's the deal. Start the process by popping a nickel into a piggy bank or large empty jar today. Tomorrow, double it, and put a dime in. Keep on doubling your daily contribution (without fail) and after 365 days you'll have saved the $3,339.75. The beauty part? Your largest daily contribution is only $18.25.

I don' think this author checked their math. If you were to double your daily contribution every day for a year starting with a nickel, on the last day your contribution would be $19 million googol with the total amount for the year being $37.8 million googl.

[ender]

From the article:

18. Do a "Daily Double" Deposit
You want to save $3,339.75 the easy way? Here's the deal. Start the process by popping a nickel into a piggy bank or large empty jar today. Tomorrow, double it, and put a dime in. Keep on doubling your daily contribution (without fail) and after 365 days you'll have saved the $3,339.75. The beauty part? Your largest daily contribution is only $18.25.

I don' think this author checked their math. If you were to double your daily contribution every day for a year starting with a nickel, on the last day your contribution would be $19 million googol with the total amount for the year being $37.8 million googl.

I think what they meant was to add $0.05 every day, so day 1 is $0.05, then $0.10, then $0.15, $0.20, etc.

[DadJokes]

From the article:

18. Do a "Daily Double" Deposit
You want to save $3,339.75 the easy way? Here's the deal. Start the process by popping a nickel into a piggy bank or large empty jar today. Tomorrow, double it, and put a dime in. Keep on doubling your daily contribution (without fail) and after 365 days you'll have saved the $3,339.75. The beauty part? Your largest daily contribution is only $18.25.

I don' think this author checked their math. If you were to double your daily contribution every day for a year starting with a nickel, on the last day your contribution would be $19 million googol with the total amount for the year being $37.8 million googl.

It's way more than that. On the 30th day, the contribution would be over $26.8 million. On the 365th day, the contribution would be $1.878 * 10^105. That's a 1 with 36 commas after it.

I'd say that's a great way to save more money. Just set aside more money than has collectively existed throughout the history of the world.

To actually add something useful: credit card churning. The cash value of 3 card bonuses that we churned this year was $2k. We'll end up using it for travel and getting even more out of it, but that's not a bad deal for changing nothing about our normal spending.

[YttriumNitrate]

If you were to double your daily contribution every day for a year starting with a nickel, on the last day your contribution would be $19 million googol with the total amount for the year being $37.8 million googl.

It's way more than that. On the 30th day, the contribution would be over $26.8 million. On the 365th day, the contribution would be $1.878 * 10^105. That's a 1 with 36 commas after it.

When I run the example in Excel, I get $1.878E108 for the last day's contribution, which I believe is the same as $1.878 x10^108, or within 2% of the $19 million googol of the original post.

[DadJokes]

If you were to double your daily contribution every day for a year starting with a nickel, on the last day your contribution would be $19 million googol with the total amount for the year being $37.8 million googl.

It's way more than that. On the 30th day, the contribution would be over $26.8 million. On the 365th day, the contribution would be $1.878 * 10^105. That's a 1 with 36 commas after it.

When I run the example in Excel, I get $1.878E108 for the last day's contribution, which I believe is the same as $1.878 x10^108, or within 2% of the $19 million googol of the original post.

That's my mistake - I had never actually heard the word "googol" before - I just looked it up. I just assumed that it was a weird typo initially, or some kind of slang for something you had googled.

[BECABECA]

Thanks for sharing that list, there are some good ideas there that could help motivate somebody just starting out.

One I’d add to the list is anytime something breaks, try to fix it yourself. Even if you aren’t successful, you end up learning a lot about how things work and how to troubleshoot. It’s a very useful skill to have and to strengthen. And sometimes there’s a really common problem that has a fix that’s so easy that you could make a side hustle out of it.

I just came across one of those last weekend: my lawn mower stopped working and it ended up just needing a new spark plug. You could get non-working lawn mowers for free off Craigslist, spend 2 dollars for a new spark plug and I’d bet that’d fix about half of them, which you could resell for $50+. Then half of the remaining ones probably just need their carburetor cleaned, which is a little messier than replacing a spark plug but doesn’t even cost $2. The remaining 25% that you couldn’t fix with those simple fixes you could just unload for free again on Craigslist. Get paid to tinker and help keep perfectly good machines out of the landfill.

[martyconlonontherun]

Feel a lot of this is aimed at Boomers/Beginners.
"13. Ditch Your Credit Cards
No, that doesn't mean cutting your Visa ( V - Get Report) card up with a pair of scissors. What it does mean is to stash your credit cards away in a safe place until you need a card for a financial emergency. In the meantime, with no card in your pocketbook or wallet, it's nearly impossible to use it while you're out and about."
Thought this was funny since 90% of my spend on my credit cards is through my phone/online.
"14. Create a Grocery List and Stick to It
Yes, this money-saving hack seems too obvious but the fact is, a grocery list works. Why? Because if you stick to the list and only buy what's on it (and what you need) you'll save on those onerous impulse items. Make the task easier with a mobile app like AnyList or Yummly that can easily categorize your shopping list for you."
To take it one step further, just order it online if no fee.