Six Money-Saving Lessons to Learn from the Poor
Monday, December 24th, 2007When you don’t have any money to spend, you simply don’t spend it. You find ways to make your paycheck stretch until the next one comes around. As a result, there are a number of tricks that people with low income employ which can be useful to the middle class person who is trying to save some money.
Here are six areas of life where you can save money if you act as though you don’t have any:
Gas. Gas is expensive. Poor people often walk or take public transportation unless absolutely necessary in order to avoid the cost of gas. This also saves money because you’re putting less wear and tear on your car.
Groceries. When you don’t have money, you quickly learn that you don’t need the $5 cereal when the $2 bag will suffice. You learn that rice goes a long way to feed a family and that fresh vegetables cost less than frozen ones. Pay attention to the price on the things that you’re buying and spend low.
Dining out. In addition, people without a lot of excess money rapidly learn that they’d better eat those groceries at home because eating out at restaurants is just too expensive. When they do dine out, they try to reduce the cost of the meal by drinking only water, skipping appetizers and sharing entrees between two or three people. They can also be counted on to always know where the two-for-one nights are being held.
Heating and cooling. Enter the home of someone who doesn’t have a lot to spend on their utilities and you’ll find that the temperature inside doesn’t differ much from outside. Wear an extra sweater in the winter and use fans instead of AC in the summer.
Thrift store shopping. There’s no shame in participating in recycling by buying clothes that someone else has used before. Instead of paying the price for a brand new outfit, check out what unique designs are available at the local thrift store.
Free events. If you look around your town, you’ll find that there are a whole lot of things going on that you can do for free. Stop spending money on movie tickets and concerts and start checking out performances in the park.
There are many little tricks that you can adopt from people with no money to try to save some yourself. The basic thing that you need to do is stop before making any purchase and think, “is this a necessity or a luxury?” If it’s not a necessity, you might not want to waste your paycheck on it after all.
