Twenty-One Tips for Living On Less:
This list is compiled from my own experience and the experiences of the other folks interviewed for this article.
1. Bring your lunch to work. Even fast food gets expensive, not to mention boring. Save up for meals with your friends, when the meal can be more of an event.
2. Make a list of five things that you like to do that don't cost any money. Tape this on your bathroom mirror and do one of these things every week (or every day if you can).
3. Buy second-hand.
4. Make sure your apartment is decorated to suit your tastes. If you like your home, you will spend less money going out. You can invite friends over for dinner or a six pack or lawn croquet.
| Make a list of five things that you like to do that don't cost any money. |
5. Decorate your home with trash. If you live in a big city, check the streets on trash day for furniture. You wouldn't believe the great things that people throw out! Tables, chairs, lamps, TVs. Besides my bed and couch, my entire apartment is decorated from things I found on the street. Every time I move, I put a few things out for the next "dumpster diver."
6. Don't be afraid to find clothing in the trash. Take it home, wash it, wear it.
7. Trade tapes and books with your friends instead of buying new CDs and books. Use your local public library.
8. Sell your car and use public transportation.
9. Go camping.
10. Start a hobby. Invite your friends to join you and share your resources.
11. Go to schools for cheap services. Check your local colleges for dental work, acupuncture (health services should always be performed by interns, students almost ready to be licensed,
| Make sure your apartment is decorated to suit your tastes. If you like your home, you will spend less money going out. |
under licensed supervision — don't be afraid to ask if this is the case), massages, haircuts, and meals (cooking school restaurants like L'Ecole in New York City offer very fancy meals at low prix fix costs).
12. Go to free nights at museums.
13. Most municipalities spend a fair amount of time and money planning free or low cost events. Contact your city's department of tourism to find out about free festivals, outdoor movies, concerts, plays, craft festivals, etc.
14. Be a tourist and a buy a "cheap guide" to wherever you live.
15. Pay off your credit card in full every month. There is no reason why you should be paying compounded interest to the pig system, dude. If you have large balances on several cards, get them consolidated and get a loan to pay them off — then pay the loan back. You will pay lower interest and build good credit at the same time.
16. Be smart with the money you do have. Change banks so you don't pay fees; check and see if you might want to use a CD rather than savings; start an IRA; invest in a mutual fund.
17. The stock market is the single best possible long-term investment. We are in the biggest bull market in history and the younger you are when you start, the better.
19. Go to free seminars sponsored by companies who sell mutual funds to find out about them; check ratings on the Internet; read books from the library to educate yourself.
| Be smart with the money you do have. |
20.If you don't like the market, think about buying art, or rare books, or maybe property, or a business. Put your money somewhere where it will grow, be it a traditional place or not.
21. Be financially self-sufficient, no matter what job you have to work to do it. Nothing makes for a feeling of control over money like the knowledge that you are going to work and make more. Never be "too good" to take an entry-level job. If you work a job and do it really well, people will notice, and you will move up.
Mostly importantly — always realize that it's just money. Your financial life does not have to be the place where you express your inner feelings of crisis and lack of control. It has no intrinsic meaning. It is only a means to an end, not an end in and of itself. Decide what your personal ends are for your money, whether that's spending it on a fur coat or giving it away to charity, and always keep them in mind.
Living Large Home|
Ann Faison|
Christi Delarco|
Kate Kirtz
Jean Railla is a freelance writer and Web producer living in New York City.
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