Sign gym contracts in November-December. I bought my gym membership to Golds this past December - $12 a month for a great gym, not locked in, cancel anytime. Even if I signed up now, it would be $40/month.
Sign apartment leases in slow markets- if you rent, sign leases in the slow times of the year. My current rent is a bitch because I looked in June. I remember when I looked at one apartment complex, they said that rent in June is $100-200 higher than if you rent the same place in the winter.
Slow Cooking Stews/Chili & freezing in pyrex. Other threads on this- right now I cook all my meals for 2 weeks in advance, doing a big ass batch with two slow cookers going at once. It's a tad extreme but damn has it made life easy. I get the convenience of lean cuisine but with all fresh produce/meats. A lot of money gets wasted by getting hungry and splurging on fast food or take-out, or even more expensive shit at the grocery store. If you always have meals around it saves a ton -the #1 factor is being able to heat it up directly from frozen so you don't have to worry about throwing out stuff that goes bad, because that adds up too.
When trying to save money it's always important to look at the long term into account. For instance with clothes - I used to buy cheaper stuff when I was broke. But a lot of cheap shit falls apart. I have some Banana Republic dress pants I've been wearing for 4 years now that still look great (got them altered of course). I wear deep v-neck undershirts with button downs- it was an outlay of cash but I've found that my dress shirts don't get sweated up so I can go longer without needing to dry clean them. Dry cleaning costs add up - I crunched some numbers and I figure that the undershirts paid for themselves in about a year.
At the moment I'm trying to get some good quality dress shoes that will last - I'd rather pay $300-500 for a pair of shoes that will last a decade, that I can resole etc, than spend $100 for something that will start falling apart in a year. Not only does it look better, but in the long run it's less expensive.
Sign apartment leases in slow markets- if you rent, sign leases in the slow times of the year. My current rent is a bitch because I looked in June. I remember when I looked at one apartment complex, they said that rent in June is $100-200 higher than if you rent the same place in the winter.
Slow Cooking Stews/Chili & freezing in pyrex. Other threads on this- right now I cook all my meals for 2 weeks in advance, doing a big ass batch with two slow cookers going at once. It's a tad extreme but damn has it made life easy. I get the convenience of lean cuisine but with all fresh produce/meats. A lot of money gets wasted by getting hungry and splurging on fast food or take-out, or even more expensive shit at the grocery store. If you always have meals around it saves a ton -the #1 factor is being able to heat it up directly from frozen so you don't have to worry about throwing out stuff that goes bad, because that adds up too.
When trying to save money it's always important to look at the long term into account. For instance with clothes - I used to buy cheaper stuff when I was broke. But a lot of cheap shit falls apart. I have some Banana Republic dress pants I've been wearing for 4 years now that still look great (got them altered of course). I wear deep v-neck undershirts with button downs- it was an outlay of cash but I've found that my dress shirts don't get sweated up so I can go longer without needing to dry clean them. Dry cleaning costs add up - I crunched some numbers and I figure that the undershirts paid for themselves in about a year.
At the moment I'm trying to get some good quality dress shoes that will last - I'd rather pay $300-500 for a pair of shoes that will last a decade, that I can resole etc, than spend $100 for something that will start falling apart in a year. Not only does it look better, but in the long run it's less expensive.
