Some frugal wins:
I went on a trip last week and ripped out a piece of my car to have fixed. My local shop refused to do the work and the dealership wanted to keep my car for a month, so I decided to do the work myself. Instead of $1k+, it should be $100 and a few hours of work putting everything back together.
I’m also going through and ripping all of my DVDs and Blurays and plan to cancel Netflix and Disney+ by the end of the month. I’m mostly doing it because I’m annoyed at the recent changes and price hikes. It’ll be more expensive in the short term because I’ve told my wife and kids I’ll buy movies and shows they want, but I think we’ll break even by the end of the year.
I’m also shopping for home and auto insurance, which I’m hoping will reduce spending by $200/month (was overpaying a lot on home insurance).
Just trying to counter inflation a bit. It probably won’t change my FI date much, but it’s the thought that counts.
I decided to go back to ‘alternative sourcing’ for Netflix and Amazon shows. Paid them a small fortune over the years, and more often than not they wouldn’t let me watch since I live in China and had to access it via a VPN, most of which they blocked. Payback time.
I’ve done similarly. I reached a breaking point where I’d hear about a show or movie and think I’d like to see it, only for it to be on one of the bazillion services I don’t have. Now if there’s something I want to watch, I’ll check if it’s on a service I have access to. If not, I’ll get it through other means.
A particularly sucky way to save money: skip your spouse’s birthday celebration because you both got sick just in time for their birthday.
I feel especially bad because I dragged them to an event last week and they’ve been sick since we got home. Of course karma means they gave me their illness and I’ve been feeling bad since yesterday.
so ?