Hey r/frugal.
I recently wrote out some counterintuitive money-saving tips for my blog. I know you are strict about linking blogs so I'll just copy and paste it here for you to read (let me know if this is not allowed). I hope you enjoy, and I'd love to read your thoughts and your own counterintuitive frugal tips.
3 Counterintuitive Money-Saving Tips
If you’re even the slightest bit into being frugal, you’ve heard the basics. Buy in bulk, buy on sale, buy the store brand, and choose the cheaper option wherever possible. These are good tips if you want to make short-term cost-cutting your highest priority.
But making this your highest priority involves making sacrifices. Sometimes you sacrifice the longevity of the product, and sometimes you sacrifice the variety in your diet.
Before you know it, you’ve amassed an extra-large bag of name-brand prunes, a gallon of olives, and a pantry full of stale pumpkin seeds. And you’ve got to keep eating them because it’s a sunk cost.
These tips are aimed at people who want long-term bang for their buck. Some of them may seem counterintuitive at first, but they have proven helpful in my life. Here are my three counterintuitive money-saving tips.
My first tip is to sometimes buy small.
You’ve probably heard the opposite many times: buy the big bottle, it’s cheaper per unit! This is absolutely true, but only if you are going to use everything you bought (or enough of it that you still come out ahead).
Personally, I’ve bought the $7 box of organic salad and seen half of it rot before I could get through it. In those cases, buying the $5 smaller size would have made more sense.
This tip applies more to those of us with smaller families who may not go through everything fast, but can apply to anyone in certain circumstances.
It is especially important when purchasing perishable items. Buy the small size of anything you’re not certain you can use all of before it goes bad. This includes condiments (mayo goes bad, and mustard goes crusty, people!) and fresh food items, but also vitamins and supplements, and some cosmetic products. Know your needs and what you will realistically get through in the time you have.
Things like dish soap, paper towel, and canned goods can all safely be bought in bulk, storage notwithstanding. But anything that has a date on it, including dried goods like nuts, could go bad or stale before you finish it.
This tip also applies to items you’re trying for the first time. When splurging for a new item, it’s tempting to think you’re saving money by getting the bigger size. But when those 120 passionflower pills don’t work for your insomnia, you’ll feel silly for having spent more on the bigger bottle.
It’s easy to buy massive packages of everything they sell at Costco, but ultimately this can be self-deceptive and not save you money.
Think of it like insurance for the uncertainty of trying new items. Accept the fact that it’s not the best deal to buy the small size first, and that sometimes you’ll lose money for making this choice the first time. But in my experience, making this choice can save you money in the long run by weeding out the products you do and don’t use.
My second tip is to shell out for quality.
This one is not too groundbreaking, but I’d advise people to apply this rule pretty broadly. This means you’ll be able to buy fewer things overall, but you won’t have to replace them as often, which is more efficient. I try to really think about when and where to do this.
I’ve found it’s been a learning process to find out which products can be bought at the dollar store, and which need to be top-notch.
In the process, I realized that I’d replaced a number of items purchased at the dollar store, or from a cheap factory in China. I’d save the price of the cheap item if I’d shelled out in the first place.
Some items I find are fine to skimp on are: simple staple food items like canned beans, basic cleaning implements like cloths, scrub brushes, and sponges, and generic medications.
But other times, I’ve tried to save money by buying cheap and have ended up having to replace the item soon after. I now have rules that I try to avoid cheap clothing (especially jeans) and shoes, having bought too many low-quality items of this type.
Buy good quality, highly-reviewed items wherever possible.
My third tip is to avoid temporary purchases.
A temporary purchase is the purchase of a cheap item to temporarily satisfy a need until you purchase a better-quality item or better solution to your problem. Such purchases should be avoided unless absolutely necessary.
It is better in the long run, and less self-deceptive to identify whether the cheaper or lower-quality item will actually satisfy your needs. If it will, it’s a good purchase — and frugal, too.
But if you don’t really love it, or it won’t really help you in the end and you’ll need to buy something else, avoid it and save up for what you really wanted.
An example could be buying a cheap, poorly-made and poorly-designed vacuum cleaner. It won’t clean well and it will annoy you until you can buy a better one. If you’d held off on buying the cheap one, you’d be that much closer to affording the price of the better one.
Also included in this category are rogue substitutions for expensive needs. If you want lovely-looking curtains, but can’t afford them quite yet, it’s not ideal to buy some crappy ones that are half the price for the meanwhile unless you really have to.
In this situation, it could be helpful to thrift some curtains for a couple bucks or use something you already have to cover the windows.
I know this is starting to sound like “hey, have you tried not being poor?” but that’s where the minimalism comes in. You have to try to only shell out for the important things. Spend more on fewer things!
Keep your ultimate goals in mind and avoid spending money on something you intend to replace.
tl;dr:
While the typical frugal tips are often helpful (buy in bulk, buy the cheapest option, etc.) they sometimes prove inefficient in the long run. Consider buying the smaller size of perishable items, and try to save up for quality whenever possible. And avoid spending money on items you know won’t satisfy your needs in the long run unless absolutely necessary.
Link to post can be found here if you want to follow me.
July 31, 2017 at 12:18PM
