I live in a 126 sqft Tiny house I built my self with my partner. Saves an incredible amount on rent.
Ask HN: What's your favorite way to save money?
151–160 of 195 posts
Re: Ask HN: What's your favorite way to save money?
#152Growing a pony-tail. I have not had to pay for a hair-cut in more than 1.5 years. When I get a little neck trim-up they only cost 10 dollars. Haircuts are expensive.
Re: Ask HN: What's your favorite way to save money?
#153My method which is my least favourite but most successful was to marry a quite frugal woman. I was never the type who had any money left at the end of the month but have just put a 55k€ deposit down on a new house and have money left to furnish it (about 2 yrs of saving). I also have a young child, live in a nice area with high rent, have a car and have many hobbies which I enjoy regularly. The main savings have come…
you sound like an enormous piece of shit
Re: Ask HN: What's your favorite way to save money?
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you are very poor then clearly doing something to increase your income makes a lot of sense. For most people on HN I'm not so sure, most roles have a ceiling that is very difficult to get above without moving into upper management or starting your own business. The odds don't look so good then. On the other hand having some FU money will improve your quality of life significantly. Just being able to say no to that…
most roles have a ceiling that is very difficult to get above without moving into upper management or starting your own business Considering we're on a Site Formerly Known as Startup News, starting your own business should definitely be a real option.
Its been said many times that you should never start startup to make money. The opportunity cost and uncertainty makes its a very risky way to make money.
Re: Ask HN: What's your favorite way to save money?
#155My method which is my least favourite but most successful was to marry a quite frugal woman. I was never the type who had any money left at the end of the month but have just put a 55k€ deposit down on a new house and have money left to furnish it (about 2 yrs of saving). I also have a young child, live in a nice area with high rent, have a car and have many hobbies which I enjoy regularly. The main savings have come…
> Next on my list is to quit smoking which should also greatly increase my savings ability.
Setting aside the obvious health benefits, this can make a pretty impressive saving by itself. From memory, I was spending something like £100-150/mo on cigarettes, and in the UK at least, I think the "sin tax" on them has only increased in recent years.
Re: Ask HN: What's your favorite way to save money?
#156There are a bunch of apps that help you spend money more efficiently - but I always feel they're in the lower % of effective saving, and the real answer is 'choose not to buy that thing'. So my question is - are you looking to help people buy thing x more efficiently (and I'm not sure there's a lot of unment need there), or to help people not spend at all (in which case monetisation becomes contrary to the goal of th…
Okay, so a Chrome Extension that interrupts the user at the checkout stage when buying luxury items? The interruption could range from a simple nag screen, to an enforced cooling-off period before you can proceed with the purchase. Perhaps in the future the user could opt to move the money from their current account into a savings account instead of making the purchase. Or maybe not even let them purchase at all so y…
If there would be a realistic way to reliably identify 'luxury' purchases, you could just have a really infuriating interstitial that:
* displayed the amount of money in a personally relatable manner - "ShineyTron300 costs the same amount as your last 2 months of food expenses, are you sure? (y/N)
* make it easy to cancel/stash or defer the purchase, including as you suggest, an enforced time delay before re-prompting
* make it hard to complete (require several captchas, solve a maths puzzle, or complete a couple of levels of Duolingo or something) before letting you through.
* Enforcing a personal 'luxury sales tax' that padded the total amount of some %, and transferred that amount to savings if you complete teh purchase.
Basically, go hunting for dark patterns, and use them against yourself.
I'm not sure how far you could go without it just being too annoying and disabling/bypassing it though.
Re: Ask HN: What's your favorite way to save money?
#157I physically put a piece of electrical tape over my Visa card number. It sounds completely weird but I encourage everyone to do this. You'd be amazed that when you whip out your card all excited to buy something that it really, really makes you embarrassed to use it in public. Aka save the money, or you can't afford it.
Re: Ask HN: What's your favorite way to save money?
#158My father always says : "saving money is the beginning of being poor". So I always try to save money by thinking how can I make more. These days money = time is a strong equation, so just don't loose your time and use it in a way to make money. Stop thinking about saving money and spend your thoughts on revenue stream. That's why I rarely use services like that and don't count the pennies ( I'm neither rich nor bragg…
I used to use this excuse to justify ridiculous levels of spending. My time is valuable, etc. It's definitely true for some people but probably not most and certainly not me. Unless you actually are earning more (and saving it too, not just spending it) as a result of this mindset, I'd recommend reconsidering.
Of the two (money coming in and money coming out), you can only restrict money going out so much.
You have your basic expenses you need to live (food, shelter, water), which cost most people at least tens of thousands per year.
If you live miserably only allowing money out to expense those needs, you're still only saving tens of thousands.
You have a lot more ability to increase money coming in than money going out.
I think this is the point OP's father was trying to make. Don't get stuck in a loop of allowing your employer to pay you $xx,xxx (or $1xx,xxx) for decades and restrict yourself for your whole life just to retire old and live an average lifestyle. Take control of your life and control your success.
Re: Ask HN: What's your favorite way to save money?
#159[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: What's your favorite way to save money?
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also wanted to say, its important that all of that happens automatic, so that I do not need to decide whether its right to do so or not. It should be like taxes, forced on me.
Hey, I pretty much have the same setup you've described except the second money transfer if your current account balance is above a given threshold. How did you solve this? Do you use a special tool for this such as MoneyMoney for example? (This is what I'm currently using for dealing with my bank accounts)
Actually my bank/ebanking offered this feature. It also works opposite, so as example if you have less than 1000$ it will automatically move money from a certain account to this account.