Skills that Save Money

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Polentic

Polentic

I DID IT FOR THE PINS!!!!
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kiwifarms.net
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May 29, 2021
What are some skills that you have learned/are learning that have saved you some money?

I've always appreciated the ability to cook your own meals. It's set me apart from others and has probably saved me thousands at this point.
 
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Shopping. Knowing the best differences between generic brands and name brands, budgeting, the best deals, buying bulk, couponing if you aren't one of those retards who get addicted to it. Getting lightly used furniture instead of buying expensive new ones that won't last, same with clothing.
 
Car maintenance is a big one. I can't imagine how costly going to a mechanic every time I need some kind of fluid change would be.

Oh, and piracy. I've recently learned that Zoomers are tech-illiterate retards who can't figure out torrents.
 
Cooking, duh. I still cant believe that theres people who just don't cook.
Soldering saved me a couple of times, though I'm not neat enough to do it properly but it at least gave my electronics like a couple of extra mounts of live if the cause were torn or withered wires .
Just general handiness. Honestly I didn't even knew there were a services to assemble basic furniture. Like getting you closet build i get it, i takes like 3 hours if you do it alone and like 20 minutes when you pay the 2 guys who delivered it from the store, plus there can be parts may need some trimming to be a better fit. But I heard of people paying to assemble a chair. you just need a hexagonal key that comes with it.
 
Sewing, patching clothes is cheaper than buying new ones
 
Knowing the basics of plumbing and electrical work. Stuff like fixing taps (washers, valves, etc), replacing taps, repairing pipes, upgrading light fittings etc. Simple stuff that a plumber or sparky would charge hundreds of dollars for, but anyone with half a brain can do themselves without burning their house down and/or flooding their basement.

Ofc it may be illegal to do your own plumbing and/or electrical work where you live. DYOR, YMMV etc.
 
Knowing your way around a computer and the capital-I Internet, like what @Apochrypha said with shopping but with software and accessories instead: paint.net instead of Photoshop, generic cheap no-brand mice that'll last you a good while instead of shitty Razer-ware, and so on. Also being able to disassemble, debug, and clean your own PC, you can easily add a couple months onto to the lifespan of a PC and save hundreds in potential repair and diagnosis costs if you do the aforementioned things.
 
learning the basic cleaning and maintenance of the shit you own and the confidence* to at least attempt repairs. Paying to get washer/dryers/ovens/hoover/dishwasher/etc repaired sometimes isn't really worth it compared to just buying new device but when you take out the repairmans fee it is.

*confidence to try is more important than skills if you're not a complete retard.
 
Ibanez RG 350EX said:
Car maintenance is a big one. I can't imagine how costly going to a mechanic every time I need some kind of fluid change would be.
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I'd say changing your brake pads is the biggest one, plus knowing when you actually need to change them.

Changing your own oil never really made sense to me. It's used as a loss leader by auto shops so they can upsell you on other things. It costs me about $20 less to get full synthetic than doing it myself. Might depend on your area I guess.
 
Froggy Fresh Sextape said:
I'd say changing your brake pads is the biggest one, plus knowing when you actually need to change them.

Changing your own oil never really made sense to me. It's used as a loss leader by auto shops so they can upsell you on other things. It costs me about $20 less to get full synthetic than doing it myself. Might depend on your area I guess.
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- Where I am, it's about the same price to change my own oil as it is to take it to Walmart. However, I like crawling under my cars and pulling on everything to see if something is loose. A oil change guy is never going to give the kind of inspection that you can give to your own wheels. I try to combine oil changes with other jobs like wheel bearings, bushings, under coating, etc.

- I think the biggest way I've saved money is getting involved in my community. My neighbor has a dump truck and another has a front end loader. This was great when I needed to do some land moving on my property. Neither neighbor wanted money, but I paid them both a few hundred and made them some pastries because they saved me thousands. Knowing people in your community is massive. No financial guru told me this was such a big deal.

- I've been learning carpentry. I'm not good at it but that's also been saving me a lot while I upgrade this house to sell it or rent it.

- I pay for a debrid service instead of streaming or cable. I don't feel guilty stealing movies I don't own.

- I pick up as many side gigs as I can and pop that cash right into retirement

- I walk to places when I can. Mostly for the exercise and to clear my head but saving a buck on gas is nice too

- pack you lunch, obviously. Keep lots of snacks in your office or your car or bag. It's a good way to make friends too.

- thrift your clothes. If you must buy new clothes for interviews, weddings, funerals, undergarments, etc., I like Burlington coat factory.

- if you're in the north shut off your natural gas in the spring/summer/fall. That's about $60 a month in my area just for the privilege to turn on my furnace when I don't even need it.

- buying something non-namebrand? Check out eBay! Great prices for one-job tools

- I've found better prices and advice buying stuff at mom-and-pop stores than chain stores most of the time. There's some really terrible ones, sure, but I've struck gold a few times and I'll go back to them every time I need something.

- you can avoid a gym pass if you hike, run, bike ,do community sports, calisthenics, work blue collar, etc. Being in good shape saves you so much at the doctor, and boosts your confidence.

- replace soda and energy drinks with water and coffee

- I wish the combo instapot/air fryer/slowcookers existed when I was dirt poor and living in big cities. I swear they're one of the best ways to cook on a shoestring.

- buy used smartphones online. I break mine about every 3 years. Why spend more than $200 on a phone when I can get last year's flagship with a tiny scratch on the glass?

- have a lot of work parties and events? Ask to help clean up. I get sent home with all of the cheese and meat and fruit you could ask for.

- have something break? Pop in the model number into Google. There might be a video or a forum post with someone with the same issue

- keep good oral hygiene. Getting surgery on your mouth is expensive.
- spend money, and mostly time, on the people who are important in your life
 
With the right wiping technique, you can get two or three uses out of a single piece of toilet paper. And don't waste your money on that overpriced 2-ply stuff either.
 
I do cost-benefit on pretty much everything, because eventually - unless you love doing the thing - it's better to pay someone else to do it. There's a reason we specialize things into professions, and the more professional you yourself get, the less appeal DIY holds, since it just takes time away from your profession.

Some tips are 'evergreen' and help your whole life though. Try before you Buy is a big one. Eg. I take on a lot of hobbies and then drop them. So I look for the minimum investment to get into something to see if I actually have a taste for it. Usually I drop that thing three weeks later but I still have the shirt on my back and am not worse off for it. Renting a car before buying it will tell you a lot more than a test drive at the dealership ever could, too. Put your kid in soccer to see if he's an athletic team-player, first, before you put him in hockey where the gear is thousands of dollars.

There's a guitar on my wall I bought at a thrift store. I don't play guitar. It's just there to constantly remind me that whenever I fancy a musical instrument, it is a spell of retardation. The guitar is my memento mori but for hobbies. 'Just play the guitar on your wall, if you want to play music so much.' I say. And I never do. And so I never waste money on musical instruments.

DIY vehicle maintenance pays bigger than ever now because Suhkdeep will fuck up your oil change, probably on purpose.

Home cooking, obviously. Every time someone touches your food, the price doubles:

Your own sandwich? $5.
Pre-made sandwich? $10.
Sandwich at a restaurant? $20.

DIY vices can save a lot of dough if sin taxes are high in your state: brewing your own booze or at least U-Vin/U-Brew. Wholesale tobacco leaf can cut 75% off your smoking costs if you're a Marlboro Man. etc.

Whenever you are staring at something that costs more than your hourly wage to fix, you should take a moment to ask if you want to fix it yourself. A couple youtube vids and some AI prompts will tell you if you're in over your head or not.
 
Torque Wheeler said:
- I wish the combo instapot/air fryer/slowcookers existed when I was dirt poor
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You have no idea how right you are. Especially on slow cooker. It's very versatile tool. It can fry you something, stews are great in those. Soups too
As for contributing to the thread:
Sewing. Just basic thread and needle work. It'll give your clothes extra years of usage
 
Learning how to sew so you can fix your buttons and seams. Never let a chauvinist tell you sewing is women’s work because male tailors exist and they perform an invaluable service to the community that far too many pig-headed males take for granted. You don’t know true craftsmanship until you have a grizzled old Italian guy hemming your dress pants.
 
Mild child neglect has served me well: I taught myself to cook because I couldn't count on anyone to fix food for me when school was out, later I taught myself to sew because I couldn't count on my parents to replace torn clothes. Other than that I've changed light fixtures, outlets and PVC drain pipes and that was all pretty simple.
 
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