Reply #63: There are plenty of hints for living poor [View All]

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Maybe you already know all of them...maybe not. Americans haven't done much economizing lately, but there were a lot of books out during the lean years of the 70's with money-saving tips. I still have one kicking around somewhere called something like "Living Poor with Class."

Some examples:

- Swapping services. If you need work done on your house, find out if there's someone who would trade the work for babysitting or some other service you might be able to offer.

- Keeping down your fixed expenses as much as possible. Insulation, for example -- depending on how old your house is, there's a lot that can be done to keep in a few pennies worth of warm air here and a few there. Rope caulk, for example, works wonders on drafts and may even let you kick the thermostat down a couple of degrees without feeling chilled.

- Changing how you eat. Eating too much refined starch is bad for you -- but eating less meat and more beans and lentils is healthy. Get a couple of vegetarian cookbooks and do veggie a couple of nights a week.

- Living second-hand whereever you can. I buy shoes and underwear new, but almost everything else I wear comes from thrift shops, yard sales, or clearance racks. A fair amount of my furniture was picked up off the streets, where neighbors had set it out with a "free" sign or just left it for the trash pickup. Anything I have to get new, I'll get at the discount store if I possibly can, or off the remainder counter in the case of books.

- Researching for bargains. For example, our local farmers market -- which is cheaper than the supermarket to begin with -- is only open weekends, and if you go in late on Sunday afternoon, the produce stands are selling off the last of their goods dirt cheap. Craigslist has listings of stuff people are giving away free. And so forth.