Good morning! Today I am guest posting at Work Save Live, check out my post about how to save money on your new house!
And remember you can still win $1,000 on the biggest giveaway ever hosted here. There is another $100 to win at the end of this post!
I got that huge wardrobe for free
This post is part of a 13 money resolutions for 2013 series. You can check the first post for an updated list of the following ones.
I know, I know, easier said than done. During the first steps of the 13 money resolutions, we have trimmed the fat, reviewed expenses, and found plenty of ways to save money on those things that we absolutely need. But the first saving would be not to buy in the first place.
Stop buying things you don’t need
Buying because you are sad, bored, used to buying usually leads to waste and won’t make you feel better.
Go over what you have.
Certainly your pantry is stocked for weeks and you can limit your spending to fresh items.
Reuse your clothes, mend the ones that are missing a button or need a small fix, find new ways to wear and match your items.
Read the books you own before getting new ones.
Try to find fun free dates instead of expensive ones.
Fix your broken toaster, upgrade your computer and delay having to buy a new one.
Get the things you need for free.
Food
If you really can’t afford food, there are programs for food stamps, charities that give away free food, soup kitchen and free meals programs at the school cafeteria.
If you can afford food, you can still get stuff for free. Start a garden. No space? Start an herb garden on your balcony or window. There is a sense of pride in growing your own food that I really enjoy, and it is a hobby that takes me away from the computer, plus I get to eat organic food. Win. Win. Win.
Check out what kind of food grows well where you live. What I like to do is a mix of foods I eat a lot, like tomatoes, garlic, potatoes … and foods that I do enjoy and find pretty expensive at the market, like bell peppers, melons, basil and coriander.
I also have cultures that will transform a glass of milk into yogurt in a day or two. I like to freeze the yogurt with fruits or honey.
Open your eyes for free food. It can be a friend that has a big harvest of this or that, like I recently got a huge harvest of citrus and grapefruits from the ranch, and gave it away to friends, or it can be that blackberries just started getting ripe on your morning jog track. I used to go pick up mushrooms, berries, nuts in the woods back in Europe.
Entertainment
You can stream movies and music for free.
You can get free books at the library.
Some community centers organize free classes.
Your town’s calendar is filled with free concerts, festivals and art shows.
Skills
You can learn just about anything online.
Learn how to diy around the house on Youtube
Go to online universities for free lectures and classes
Learn a language for free.
Free stuff
You can get almost anything for free on Freecycle. People with too much stuff connect there with people who need stuff. From furniture to clothes to kitchenware, just put a local add and get what you need for the price of pickup. I used Freecycle a lot in the UK when I furnished my 3 bed flat. At first I just checked what people were offering and it was often a race to pick things up first. And a lot of guys were picking up stuff they didn’t need to resell later. It worked best when I started asking for what I needed. A house phone? No problem. Kitchen mixer? A girl just happened to have one.
People often watch requests in order to really fill a need instead of putting up their own add. When my little chinese scooter wouldn’t start after using the crap out of it, I listed it and made a teenager very happy to work on a mechanical project with his dad.
There are also a few free listings on Craigslist, and if you see people moving, you can ask if they have stuff they don’t want in their next house.
Check out the day your town accepts big items on the trash and you can also find good stuff. When I was about to tile my Paris flat, I found lots of unused tiles an office had just disposed on the sidewalk.
Again, keep your eyes open and you may find treasures.
Free clothes
It works best for kids clothes because they grow out of it so quickly. Again on Freecycle people often give away full bags of clothes.
You can organize a clothing swap with your friends, it is a fun activity. Everyone brings 20 items, you sort them by size, and each guest can leave with 20 items. Then at the end any unwanted items can go to people who already picked 20 or to charity.
Free services
It is easy to swap services with friends. There has to be something you can do for them in exchange for them lending you a hand.
You can trade
- Baby sitting nights
- Picking up kids at school and driving them to activities
- Recipes, each cooks a batch at home and you swap one portion.
- Computer repairs
- Help on DIY and repairs
- Oil changes and maintenance on a car
- Painting jobs
- Help moving house
- Your language skills for another language
- Tutoring in maths for tutoring in history
- Web design
- Translations
Free Money!Now on to the giveaway! This time again, you can win $100 cash through Paypal or Amazon gift card, your choice! All you have to do is follow @RFIndependence on Twitter for an easy entry. Check out the other participants to win more entries. Good luck!
Are there other things you can get for free?
Very thorough writeup on how to save money! I definitely agree that people need to STOP BUYING THINGS WE DON’T NEED! For some reason it’s harder than you would think.
”Some reason” is because everything in your life pressures you to buy! Friends, family, ads, marketers… It is no picnic to say no all the time.
This is a great post and I’d definitely say I made use of a lot of these suggestions. There are so many ways to get around paying hard earned cash for stuff, all it takes is a little know how.
Thanks Jordann. There is almost always a way to avoid paying retail for something, you just have to do a little research.
If you were to ask me this question, I’d have found it challenging to think of some things. However, you proved that it’s easy to stop buying things if you really sit and think hard about how to get stuff for free!
I’ve been wanting to plant a garden but we’ve gotten some horned worms/slug things and it’s turned us off from wanting to try again.
Oh sorry about that, I have little annoying flies and the hens are regularly having a feast of my spinach and coriander, I know the feeling. But I decided not to stop the garden, I’ll put a fence and try to find some natural repellent for the flies, it is more a hobby than anything but it is fun to see stuff grow.
I’m all about starting a garden….except when it comes time to plant every year. Apparently I talk a good game. This is something I have to get done….home grown food tastes SO MUCH BETTER than the crap at the grocery store.
And it is fun! Start by putting some herbs by your windows, you can grow at any time, no more excuses!
Great write-up Pauline! I think all it takes is a little creative thought to find many ways that you do not need to spend money. In the end, so much of it is just plain stuff we don’t need. We’re looking forward to the spring so we can get back to gardening ourselves. It’s always fun to see the kids get so excited over all the colors the veggies are. 🙂
Sounds like fun! I hope to reach that point one day, so far with lots of rain and the hens eating the sprouts, it is hard to grow something.
My wife and I might start up a garden this year, but it all depends on what the weather looks like it is going to do. If it is anything like last year, it would be an exercise in futility and would probably make my water bill insane! We might also wait a couple years until our son is old enough to “help.”
We are also excited to stock my sister up with baby clothes. Our friends gave us a ton of clothes are we are just paying it forward
The weather is pretty weird around here too, thankfully I have a lake to take water from, not sure it would be worth gardening with high water prices, except for the sake of eating healthier organic foods.
I love giving things too, knowing they get a new life with people who will use them is great.
I haven’t tried an “official” spending diet, but I think it would help me to be more creatively resourceful!
I started being resourceful as a student and now enjoy the game of minimizing the price I pay for stuff, even though I could afford more expensive and new items, I don’t like to waste.
I have a serious weakness for free things 🙂 And I love, love, LOVE Freecycle!
Happy to co-host with you!
Freecycle is really an awesome concept. Looks like more and more people are into giving used things a new life after an overdose of consumerism.
We would love to be able to grow a garden, but the summers are too short here. Last year my husband tried to grow potatoes but they didn’t work out either. My father always grew a delicious garden and I miss it, esp home grown tomatoes.
I saw on freedom 35 that Kevin had just bought a farm in Saskatchewan, it looks like they are able to grow in spite of the short window, but I don’t know how much fertilizers they need to speed up the crop. I used to grow tomatoes indoors in the UK, a very small crop obviously but they tasted delicious!
Saskatchewan gets a lot hotter than we do. In our province we sometimes still have snow in June and it can easily start snowing again in September.
I do know of people that have built greenhouses here in their backyards. They are expensive, but if you plan to live in that location for years to come then it could be worthwhile.
Wow snow from September to June, that is tough!
Another great and thorough post Pauline. I have been working hard on not buying things that I don’t “need”, but some days the line gets blurred!
Thanks Grayson. It does get confusing, especially as we get older and need our little comfort. Or tech stuff that we went without until someone invented them for us.
My best trick is to do something other than go to a store. If there is no way to make a transaction, you can’t buy anything. We’ve been using the library and rec center lots this winter. The Rec center does have a annual fee, but for what we get, it’s very cheap. Building snowmen is also free, but you need snow!
I am sure you’d be building a sand castle if you didn’t have snow! Rec centers are fabulous, I took my niece to one that my sister goes all the time, and they have a toys borrowing service, like the library, you can take 4 toys home for a couple of weeks then come and switch. They even have dolls and lots of cool stuff, and on top of evolving with the kid’s age, it teaches them that the toy is not theirs so they have to take care of it and part with it after a while.
I agree with you about buying less stuff. I’m not advocating minimalism, since I don’t play that. But really, I see many people buying tons of stuff just because. It’s not related to some hobby or passion of theirs. It doesn’t materially improve their quality of life. It just happened to be on the shelf and they just happened to have some money, or some credit. And boom! More stuff.
PS: Don’t pick your own mushrooms unless you know what you’re doing. You’re likely to wind up with a trip to the ER, which is never fun.
I used to go to the drugstore with the mushrooms, if unsure. They had a book and knew a bit about the goods ones. Otherwise I know a couple of kinds that are common where I pick them and stick to those ones.
Nice, good tips. I like going to the thrift stores and finding items there. I’ve also been meaning to try and sell some of my clothes back to a used clothing store in my neighborhood.
So many free things if you just look for them! I have to admit though, I’ve never owned an apple device and bought an ipod touch 5g the other day because I had a gift card for Best Buy. Did I need it? Most likely not 🙂
Great tips but I probably would still have a hard time doing the free food part. I think I’m lacking in that department, but my favorite is finding free entertainment. Or at least cheap. If there’s a will there’s a way!
I am loving this series Pauline – Great work!
I had never heard of Freecycle before, what an interesting concept.
Great ideas here, Pauline!
Oh, when people say that have nothing to eat, it drives me crazy. My wife and I used to be friends with this one woman whose cupboards were always packed full of cans and boxes and had to get a mini-fridge for beverages because they wouldn’t fit in the full size refrigerator. But every week, she would complain that she had no food and would buy $100+ worth of groceries! I once snuck a peak in her refrigerator and found three open containers of tofu.
That is extreme! I sometimes feel like I have nothing to eat if I have zero fruits and vegetable, but still can go on without shopping for days with the pantry and freezer. I miss fresh food though.
We are trying to do something similar. We are looking to buy a house around mid year. Due to my medical expenses we have spent quite a bit of our downpayment savings. So we have decided not buy anything, other than the absolutely essential stuff for the next 4 months. No clothes, no new books, cds… anything. Just food and gas. It is working out well so far. If only I can cut out restaurant expenses, but then I will go mad I guess.
With all the things you are already cutting you can have a treat once in a while! I’m sure you will replete your account in no time.
And don’t forget free haircuts! When I’m feeling pinched for cash, I go to hair schools to get my hair cut instead of a salon. It’s free, and you just need to have a bit of time and a small tip for the student.
That’s right! I used to go as well, now my local salon charges $3 so I forgot to put it on the list… You have to free your whole afternoon though, not for the busy ones.
Hi Pauline, Perhaps one of the best things that we need to do is to stop buying what is not necessary. We just do not reach financial independence. We also save money and learn how to budget our finances.
That’s true. Waste is nonsense, whatever your financial goals.
I Love it! STOP BUYING. I wish I could, that’s probably one of the biggest challenges in my life in terms of eliminating my debt and gaining financial independence. The impulse buy is probably my biggest challenge. I have definitely gotten better at it, one technique I use to stop me in my tracks when I’m tempted to “Impulse” buy something is to stop and analyze the purchase. Do I really NEED it or is it something I WANT? Invariably it’s a want and that helps me walk away from that purchase.
Thank you Jose. I agree that it is not always easy but if you throw out all the items you are not really using in life you will see all the money wasted and it will motivate you to limit your spending to needs and the occasional treat.
Thanks for all of these great ideas, Pauline. I’m currently in a no-spend month and the library has saved me. There’s just something so satisfying about leaving every week with an armful of books, magazines, movies and CDs. I’m so happy to find your blog!
Thank you Eliza!
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