Two More Cheap Living Tips That Kick Butt

Notice in my title I put "Cheap Living Tips That Kick Butt”…I really mean it. I won’t (and can’t) say that these types of tips won’t cost you a little something, or that they won’t be hard to swallow, or that they won’t hurt a little bit, because some of them will. But it’s going to boil down to how serious you are about getting a handle on your finances. If you’re willing to just continue on in a direction that permits you to be haphazard with your finances, then so be it…but don’t complain when the crap hits the fan, or when you’re 20 years out and absolutely NOTHING has changed about your financial picture, or even if your financial picture is worse. Folks, anything in life worth having is worth putting in the hard work and “sweat equity” to really see it happen. This will require something of you—and that’s self-discipline. Again, this is not the most popular thing to say, but it is something that can bring measurable results.

As you can probably tell, I have been pretty heavily influenced by a guy named Dave Ramsey. To me, he’s one of the most straight-shooting, common-sense people I have ever heard speak on money matters. I’m a big fan of his; he has a lot of wisdom in financial matters, and he’s not afraid to tell people the painful truth. The funny thing is, the type of methodologies he teaches as far as money management goes seem to be “revolutionary” or cutting-edge, but actually they’re several centuries old…he even uses the Bible as support for some of the financial principles he teaches. The reason why is simple…common sense never goes out of style. But enough about Dave for right now; I will definitely talk more about him in future posts. Let’s get back to some cheap living tips that can help you right where you are…

Cheap Living Tip # 6: Buy Generic Brands at the Grocery Store

I learned this one as an “insider” way back in the day. I used to work in a grocery store a long time ago, and I found out from the managers in the store that the generic products that they sell that are comparable to the name-brand products (and usually sitting right beside the name-brand products on the shelf) are actually most of the time being manufactured by those same name-brand companies! I always crack up at the cheesy names they come up with to try and imitate the name-brand products—for instance, instead of Apple Jacks, they’ll have a box of “Apple Joes” sitting close by on the shelf. Too funny to me. It was even more funny when I found out that the same company that makes the Apple Jacks makes the Apple Joes too! (Just an example; I can’t remember if this is true for that particular product or not). So I said “To heck with it!” and started buying generic oatmeal, cereal, bread, soft drinks, and all the other stuff they offer that’s similar to the “real deal” name-brand products. You’ll find yourself saving a ton of money by making this one small adjustment, as the generics are almost always significantly cheaper than the name brands.

Cheap Living Tip # 7: Never Go to the Grocery Store Hungry

I’ve found this out the HARD way several times. Just don’t do it. It’s a splurge getting ready to happen. You’ll find yourself buying cans and boxes of stuff that you wouldn’t normally even look twice at in the store on a regular trip when your stomach is full. The Bible talks about how to a hungry person, every bitter thing is sweet (Proverbs 27:7). In other words, when you’re hungry, even things you don’t normally care about all of a sudden look appealing to you. You’ll walk out of that store with about 30 to 50 bucks of extra crap that you’re probably never going to eat. Avoid this like the plague. Make sure you go to the store when you have time to shop, when you’ve already eaten, and when you have a pre-written list of what you are going to buy. This small adjustment will help you save tons of money over the long haul.

Okay, I believe I’ve shared a couple of very powerful cheap living tips with this post…please remember to use your newfound powers for good and not evil.