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I don't need this...

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by lust4life, Jan 14, 2010.

  1. lust4life

    lust4life
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    Going to the opposite extreme of the winning the lottery thread, what immediate alterations would you make to your lifestyle if you lost your revenue stream (job, mommy & daddy, the welfare tit)? Could you live without cable/SAT TV? Internet? Your cellphone? $30/bottle hair products? Is your qp/month pot habit non-negotiable?

    Alternative, more viable focus: In the wake of the recession which began more than a year ago, what have you cut back on? Have you changed your consumption habits? Share your tips and stories about what you've done to cope.
     
  2. Crown Royal

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    Just call me Topher

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    My daughter came home from he hospital right around the time Wall Street burned the house down, so all kinds of things were cut back. One: the Herculean load-up of meat at Costco every two weeks. Another: No "Whenever" beer. Drink only to get drunk or it's hot outside. No haircuts once a month, so my chestnut feathered plumage looks like the helmet of a guy about to get shot out of a cannon half the time. Little sacrifices here and there don't hurt, and I can still afford to go down south every year that way (which is a necessity in my life).

    Also, instead of buying pot I grew my own. BIG MOTHERFUCKING MONEY SAVER.
     
  3. shegirl

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    But then you just end up spending it on tissue and lotion.

    You guys think you have it bad try buying make-up, hair products and so on. How did I cut back? Well I went 3-4 months without a hair straightner. It was traumatic.
     
  4. rei

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    I can live without TV seeing as I can get the pirate bay edition of the only show I currently watch, and listen to radio streams of my favourite sport teams.

    I could cut out alcohol spending almost entirely as I work through it slowly anyway and buy expensive stuff in general. I'd just need to be careful to not become a mooch when my friends are drinking.

    I don't need my hippy-freetrade-organic-etc coffee [Kicking Horse Kick Ass if you're curious] and could easily switch down to an instant or whatever to get me going in the morning; I only care about the difference on lazy sundays when I really want to enjoy it. Or I could cut coffee all together and stick to tea which I prefer but doesn't quite get the job done the same.

    Right now I'm lucky in that my car is a diesel which is actually cheaper than RUG at the moment. Even if it does get more expensive I have amazing mileage - that said I'd drive in sport mode less and go on far less random drives to nowhere for fun.

    Xbox Live would be gone; as I play Goldeneye more than I play Halo.
     
  5. Primer

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    I've managed to cut back on all my bills fairly significantly already. Before I broke up with my ex, my monthly bills were costing me around an average of $1400-1700 a month. Most of it was vehicle payments and insurance, which cost about half of the total cost and the rest went into rent, TV/internet and food.

    Now, my monthly bill is about $400-600 a month. Even at that point, I could cut out a fair chunk of thing like TV and internet (I get free internet on my work laptop which I take home every day and have free use on) and cut out buying more expensive foods and general spending on crap I don't need. While my monthly bill would still range in the $400-500 range, it would be put to better use and used more efficiently - I would also get rid of my car, which would save me $100 a month.

    Mind you, I also live in a house with four roommates where my rent and utilities cost is already low. I would also stop drinking; I don't count that in my monthly bill but it's about $100-200 a month.

    Edit: I just wanted to say, my roommate and I, who I cost share on food have been eating more Veggies and fruit in the last month than we did before. This wasn't entirely a cost savings idea rather a "let's eat better" idea and it's managed to save us each a ton of cash. We cut back on buying beef, chicken and fish and put more money into buying food from the local farmers market (which is ridiculously cheap). Not only have I lost about 6-7 lbs. in the last three weeks but my pocketbook is heavier. One of the things we first noticed was that we didn't feel as full after eating a meal with about a third the meat product that was before so we compensated with more grains, noodles and potatoes.

    It's also helped us both discover other methods of cooking than what we were used too. Instead of throwing a ton of spice on everything we had to start marinating veggies and combining new flavours. We're also more into seasonal cooking because of the trips to the farmers market (more root products due to the season) and have had to overcome the challenge of making normal, generally filler foods as the main course (IE: Cooking more with root veggies).

    I could buy hundreds of boxes of tissue and bottles of lotion with the amount of money I spent on my ex.
     
  6. PIMPTRESS

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    I quit smoking last January. This has had a variety of great benefits, not just my wallet.

    I have cut back on my Starbucks addiction. I used to go daily, now it is maybe twice a week.

    I cook meals at home, eating out less saves money and cuts calories.

    Like Chater, I often put things back when shopping. I keep a tally in my head of what I'm spending and often dissuade myself before I get to the checkout stand.

    I go to the bars less, I drink at home if I'm going to.
     
  7. Blue Dog

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    In the last year or so, I've had to downgrade from Old Charter to Evan Williams Black Label. It didn't help that the price of Old Charter friggin' shot up by about $11 a handle from the time when I was in college to now. But the E-vahn really isn't that bad. Its not Charter, but it'll do the job. The same with Fris Vodka- Tito's is awesome, but I can get almost twice as much Fris or Svedka for the price of a handle of Tito's. Its just not worth it to me for something that I am going to dilute anyway.

    One thing that I still keep that I don't know if I can justify anymore is Cable TV. Other than football and Top Chef, there is not thing on there that I would miss. I never watch TV, but even if I did, there is probably not one that I would watch that I couldn't download or stream on the internet.

    The day they start broadcasting football games online, that's going to be a quick $100 I save every month.

    EDIT: Oh yeah, and the bar scene is all but a distant memory. I just can't justify hanging out there and dropping $70 a night to see the same people over and over. I can find other ways to interact with new people where I can drink my own booze.
     
  8. The Village Idiot

    The Village Idiot
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    Porn Worthy, Bitches

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    Right, but don't you end up turning around and spending what you save on Trannies on the boulevard? But hey, everyone's got a hobby I suppose.

    Focus: I go out a lot less, I bring lunches, and buy a lot less things like magazines and newspapers.

    I also buy cheap condoms because what could possibly go wrong there, right?

    Cubic Zirconia? Hell yeah, enjoy our anniversary baby!

    Off brand Mac and Cheese? Here honey, try this Thunderbird first, you won't even notice how bad the Mac and Cheese is after that.

    I also use homeless people like rickshaws. Less than a cab, and it helps out the unfortunate.

    I host 'bring a roach to dinner' nights at local restaurants.

    I do standup comedy in the living room for my wife. Usually naked. Well, she laughs.

    Scrounge for beer in the recycle bins behind the local hotspots. Yum! And it's already cold (during summer, you need to bring the bottles in and freeze them as bum-spit usually goes to the top and you skim this off).
     
  9. mya

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    This happened to me several years back. By some odd stroke of fate, both my husband and I were layed off on the same day. From different companies too, what are the chances of that happening?

    So, obviously, we had to cut WAY back, regroup, and come up with a survival plan for how to live on the paltry amount provided by unemployment and severance package. The biggest money saver was probably on not going out. We each had a weekly "allowance" to spend on whatever we choose. It was a pretty minimal amount, but I think it helped prevent arguments about what each other was spending money on if the other didn't know how we each spent our "allowance". In contrast to Chater, my grocery bill probably increased dramatically, but we ate all meals at home (as a side benefit, I think we both dropped a few pounds). I dropped my gym membership and took up running and free weights in my living room. I sold my car and got a beater that I could pay cash for. I stopped the salon treatments and got my haircut about 4 times a year at Great Clips or the equivalent (I am a pretty low maintenance girl, but this one stung a bit). One pretty large expense that we kept was cable TV. If we weren't going out anymore, we needed some sort of entertainment.

    One of the biggest decisions we made was for me to go back to college (and resort back to my old college job of waiting tables on the side for a little bit of extra cash). I already had a bullshit degree, but went back and got a nursing degree because anything healthcare related seemed like a pretty stable career. After both of us losing our "business" jobs, we were looking for a little bit of stability. At the time, taking out a bunch of student loans felt like a gamble, but in retrospect, it was one of the best decisions that I ever made.
     
  10. Bourbondownthehouse

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    I sent this in rep, but I feel the public should know. EW is disgusting rot gut whiskey that is nothing but a one way ticket to hangoverville. In a move similar to Blue Dog's I switched from Maker's Mark to Jim Beam white label. It is only a few dollars more than EW and the difference is notable. If you must go bottom shelf get Early Times. Early times is not actually bourbon, but is easier to drink and won't leave your stomach in similar condition to New Orleans after Katrina. Plus as an added bonus, handles of E.T. often come with a super sweet fishing lure!
     
  11. kannibis

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    I like others took up horticulture. I have calculated up how much I have saved over the past year on my "tomatoes". A staggering $7200. Its incredible to think that making $25k per year, that I was able to spend that much on "tomatoes" and not be homeless. It's really pretty amazing how well you can live, when your vices cost you nothing but your spare time. Take my band bro's for instance. They always bitch about not having any money. So I went all incog once and decided to record all of their beer purchases for a week (or at least the ones that were eventually brought to the house). At one time they were spending roughly $200ea. per week on beer. When I showed them those numbers, it was like I just said Jesus was over there blowing the nextdoor neighbor. They just couldnt believe that $800 bucks a month could be spent on beer. Next month, they bought a new vehicle (albeit a shitty chevy lumina van) and about 2k worth of equipment. You guessed it, they were still bitching about being broke. Moral of the story--moderation is the key to all spending. I routinely ask myself, if I dont have this in a month, will I still want it? Usually the answer is NO!
     
  12. amberisma

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    I could probably live without tv, because I could just watch my shows online at a later time. Plus, I have plenty of movies that I could watch instead of the shitty reality shows that are all over cable today.

    I, too, often put back groceries while shopping. I always seem to talk myself out of getting something, especially if it's not that great for me. Then, I wonder why I never have any food in my house.

    Back in the day I used to buy new clothes all the time. Yeah, that hasn't happened so much recently. It doesn't help that I don't have a job this semester, and didn't get paid shit last semester, but even when I had a decent job last year I still just wore the same old clothes. Hell, I still wear shirts from high school. I guess it at least reminds me that I didn't turn into a fat fuck. I would like to buy new outfits, but $50+ for a pair of jeans makes my almost nonexistent bank account very angry.

    I used to get blonde and red highlights in my hair. I loved the way it looked (my hair is naturally a darker blonde) but I haven't gotten them in about 2 years. That shit is fucking expensive (>$100).
     
  13. kuhjäger

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    Luckily I am a cheap bastard to begin with, and my household is financially stable, so we don't have to cut back on anything. Essentially the recession isn't a factor for us.

    The recession is not a factor for everyone in the country despite what the media is portraying. Yes, there are a lot of people out there who aren't in the best shape, but there are plenty of people who are doing well, but people seem to think that the condition that they may be in, or what they see on the news is the way it is for everyone.

    This has been evidenced by some of the responses our company has gotten to a small new product line that we have unveiled. We are mainly an amateur direct to consumer business, though with a lot of universities buying our equipment.
    We unveiled a line for universities and those few people who may have the money, or pool together the money to buy these instruments. The price tag on them is very high, and we have had a constant stream of complaints about how we shouldn't be putting these out in a recession, how stupid our design (I take personal offense to that) and marketing team are for thins. They ask how people are going to afford this in a recession, and that no one will buy them ( we have several orders already).

    I tell them that not everyone is affected by the recession, and that line, but they don't buy it.
     
  14. kannibis

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  15. Danger Boy

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    I don't understand this. What the fuck are you guys spending all your money on when it comes to your girlfriends? Are you giving her an allowance or something? I've never had a girlfriend put a financial strain on me, and if she did, she sure as hell wouldn't be my girlfriend for much longer. I understand that there's a small amount of spending involved in a relationship, like birthday and christmas gifts, and taking her out to dinner every once in a while. Other than that, she's able to support herself. You guys must be dating unemployed women with a litter of kids or something.

    Focus:
    Whenever I run into money troubles, I'll usually start scraping bottom and finding things I don't need, then selling them. Last winter I made $500 just from a few things in my garage I needed to rid of.
    Another thing I always do is save my change. Change is a pain in the ass and I never spend it anyway, so whatever I have in my pocket at the end of the day goes in the change bucket. It comes in really handy when money is tight. If I cash in the change bucket once a year, it usually amounts to $250-$300. Not a big number, but it makes a big difference when you're broke.
     
  16. Beefy Phil

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    Christ in limbo, do these tomatoes blow you and then grill you a steak afterward? The hardcore tomato-lovers that I know spend about 1/4 that amount in a given year, and they are never not tomato'd out of their gourds.

    Edit: I know what 'tomatoes' mean, people. I ken rede butwen the lins.
     
  17. PIMPTRESS

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    I imagine cocaine is more expensive. Actually, I KNOW it is. Coupled with all of the things that go with it, pot is far nicer to one's wallet.
     
  18. Kubla Kahn

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    Through college I went through a couple of bust and flushes. A big help was cutting out the fast food. I always laugh when I see a report or movie (Im looking at you Food Inc) where a fucking fat assed family claim they can't afford grocery food so they feed their family with dollar menu items. If you can't figure out a way to make bulk food purchases work for you, I don't know what to tell you. I'd try and keep my bill to 20 bucks. Rice, chicken, peanut butter, bread, and eggs, beggars can't be choosers...

    I wasnt in a money crunch but I did go 3 months without television after I had taken it home when I went on vacation. I read a staggering amount more and used the computer labs if I needed the internet. I spent the whole year I lived by myself without cable.
     
  19. kannibis

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    Well, where I live, the best and juciest "tomatoes" cost around $120-130 per 1/4 ounce. With at least one a week, plus a little extra on special occasions, and several times of "hey man, check out this juicy bastard".... "Ok, I'll take a $20" it works out to be right at that amount. Believe me I know.....It shocked me as well when I actually sat down and did the math.

    EDIT: Where can I get tomatoes that blow me and grill me a steak?
     
  20. Beefy Phil

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    Yeesh. A 1/4 oz of tomatoes per week. I suppose you should be thankful you don't have a nose clam habit.