Not rich yet, but...

I've been monitoring the Save $1,000 in 30 Days Challenge at iwillteachyoutoberich.com.  So far there are 8 tips:

Tip #1: Pack lunches for the rest of the week
Tip #2: Turn your thermostat down 3 degrees
Tip #3: Sell something on eBay today
Tip #4: Involve your friends in your savings challenge
Tip #5: Optimize your cellphone bill
Tip #6: Use gas prices to become your own hedge fund
Tip #7: Create a “No Spending” day once a week
Tip #8: Implement the A La Carte Method

As I've mentioned before I've been a proud tightwad from way back, so I'm looking at this list with a jaundiced eye, wondering if I can actually save money.  Generally, I find very little helpful about tips from the modern media since I'm already doing and have long been doing more than what they suggest.  Still here's my comments on the above:

#1 Pack lunches - We started doing this in late September, and I think we have definitely saved money.  It's been a two steps forward, one step back process, but we're working it out.  J. and I both get to eat one lunch out per week without guilt and we've mostly been sticking to it.  I'd say, adding lunches up with savings from making coffee and breakfast at home for J. has probably netted $30-35 a week.  So, a useful tip, even though I was already doing it. 

#2 Turn the thermostat down - I've already done this whenever possible for years.  I actually like a cool house at night, but J. won't put up with it, and it's a real deal-breaker for him.  I turn the heat down to 65 or even 64 when he isn't home and try to keep it at 68 when he is.  This is sometimes a fight.  It's possible too that we may save some money from replacing the leaky door in the basement and installing glass block windows this summer.  It's certainly warmer down there.   It will probably be years, however, before we recoup from lower gas bills what we invested there.

#3 Sell something on Ebay - I have stuff listed on half.com that hasn't moved in months.  I do have a few books I can also list, but that's not going to net much.  I do think decluttering and eliminating the extraneous is valuable psychologically.  For us, however, since we don't spend much and since we had a big garage sale just a year ago, there isn't much to sell, at least that we could make any money on.  I'm a wimp too, about sales.  I find it stressful.  I'd rather give stuff away than sell it.  This tip is potentially helpful, esp. for people who have done their therapy the retail way and are in need of quick cash, but we don't represent either group.

#4 Involve your friends - I'm lucky.  I come from a family of tightwads, and I have a great tightwad friend, A.M.  So I've got the support already there.  Also, J. has been surprisingly adaptive to this new round of belt-tightening. Go, J.  [Claps wildly.]

#5 Optimize the cellphone - My M-I-L generously added me to her family plan, so I pay nothing for my cellphone.  If I had to pay, I'd get rid of it in a heartbeat.  It's nice to have in an emergency, but I use it sparingly and don't really need it. 

#6 Use gas price savings to build savings for future expenses - this I did find helpful, and I am planning to check out the ING savings link given.  October was one of those bi-annual 3-paycheck months, and that added to the money we saved eating out less and shopping at ALDI instead of Meijer, means there is more in my account this month.  I would like to get more interest on it, even though it will probably be eroded in the form of inflation by the government's money printing spree.  I have no idea of how much I'll get, though.  

#7 Create a no spending day - I think I could do this.  I'm not sure I could talk J. into it.  I think it's valuable, though; a sort of variation on the "write every expense down" tip given by any consumer credit counselor.  The idea being that you wake up to how much you spend on impulse.  If you control that impulse regularly, you can net real savings.  Since I never go to malls and rarely shop outside of grocery stores and have already curbed my eating out habit, only modest savings can be realized here for me.

#8 - Dump subscriptions - I essentially have no subscriptions.  No cable, no netflix, no magazines, no book club, no health club, no nothing.  As I've mentioned before, if they don't have it at the library, we don't watch it.  J. can bring home newspapers and news magazines from work, and I get the rare women's magazine I read from the library, partly because of the money factor, but partly because I do not appreciate the worldviews of most magazines [Spend! Spend! Spend your way to happiness!  Focus completely on yourself and your own needs! Sleep with anyone, anytime; it's liberating!] , nor do I appreciate how nosy the paparazzi are in the lives of most celebrities, so I withhold my dollars because I don't want to subsidize either.  The only fee I pay monthly is my internet bill which is bundled in with my phone bill, and I shopped around for that first.  I think these things can REALLY add up, though, and most people don't realize how quickly.  It's a useful tip, it just doesn't help me.  

So, to sum up, I'd say from tips #1-8, I think I can save $150 - $180 a month, most of it from tip #1 which I'm already doing but need to keep on doing.  Not $1,000 saved for me, but I can believe it might be for someone.  

Another thing, too - and I might blog some more about this - involves how you define "rich."  I've been doing most of these tips for a good long time, and I don't live in a mansion or even a Mcmansion and I don't eat caviar or have a late model car.  However, I do have a house that is paid for, savings for emergencies, enough to eat, a safe, warm, place to sleep, a car that gets me where I need to go, books to read, entertainment to enjoy, and money for the occasional small splurge.  I have time to spend with my family and friends.  I have been home for my son's young childhood.  I also can sleep at night.  I think that would be interpreted as "rich" in many places in the world.  So I am grateful for my life as it is, unglamorous as it is.

tags: saving money  thrift