From Affluence to Cheapskating a Saving Story
I’m probably not your average Cheapskate. I’ve never been a stay-at-home and I’ve always earned a very good income. But relationship breakups and loss of half my working hours in the pandemic have led me to reassess my lifestyle habits. Luckily, I was an admirer of your Cheapskates site when the children were little. And having been a poor university student years back all the old saving tricks came back.
When I lost half my work hours, I had high credit card debts, a large tax bill and an unsustainable lifestyle, as well as a large mortgage. One of the first things I did was phone the bank and ask for an interest reduction on my home loan. This has saved me $250 a month. I also called my pay office to query the tax I was paying and indeed, I had been paying too much given my salary had been cut. So, this was a further upfront saving. I let my cleaner go and began cleaning all the house myself. I started buying foods in bulk – large sacks of rice, huge flagons of vegetable oil, sauces, liquid soap refills, large cans of coffee on special etc. and found the savings began to add up fast. I’ve always shopped at Aldi and bought generics, but found myself throwing out food. Now I stick closely to my meal plans for the week and only buy what’s on my shopping list. I find I’m buying a lot less and still have food left over for the next week. The savings went towards paying off my credit cards. Meantime, I found a part-time job to supplement my main job. All the money from that went into making extra payments on the tax bill and credit cards.
I went through my professional subscriptions and realised that with only half a role and no way to attend conferences, I didn’t need them any more and stopped them. I started buying stationery, greeting cards and small household items at the $2 store or the Reject shop. But often I’d just go through my garage or drawers and found items I’d never used and not have to buy any at all. I haven’t bought a book in over a year, I am still reading all the ones I have at home. I have a magazine I like to read every week – I saved 40% on the shop price by buying it on subscription.
I stopped buying my cosmetics and face creams from an expensive home buying service. Now I use Aldi brands or Nivea and, instead of expensive, fragrant tubes of hand cream, I buy the economical, bulk pack of Sorbolene cream and find my skin looks/feels good anyway. I use very little makeup for working at home. I and my young adult children eat all our lunches at home and cook 98% of our dinners. I’m using less meat – I find one thick chicken breast fillet is enough to make a chicken and veg casserole with rice. Two nights a week I use just lentils, beans or eggs.
I’ve stopped picking up a coffee every time I go to the shops. I’ve cut it back to once a week as a treat and buy it from a café that charges $2 less for a lovely coffee. I realised that when we ordered takeaway we always used to order too much. Now I just order the dinner box which is a set price and it’s plenty, and that’s only once a fortnight. I now have the time to bake cakes, muffins and banana bread, my son is loving it and it’s so much cheaper.
I’ve not bought any shoes for a year and have only bought clothes for a ¼ of the price I used to pay, usually when they have been reduced twice. I’ve probably bought a fraction of the clothes I normally would in a year. And they look great! For the first time recently I bought jewellery to match at an op shop.
I drink cheaper wine now, only a glass with a meal, and have alcohol free nights (which is healthier anyway).
I weed my garden myself now, but have a Jim’s Mowing guy come and mow the lawn every two months for $50. My daughter’s boyfriend changed all the smoke alarms this year for free (I used to use a handyman). I told my daughter she would need to finance her private dancing course herself, and she has! She’s done a great job, using money from her part-time job and recent pandemic payments. When I received a tax refund, I put it all into my mortgage. My large tax bill was paid off within less than a year, I’ve put about $5000 extra into the mortgage and all my credit cards have been paid off. I have about two years’ advance payments in my mortgage should I ever lose my main job entirely. This week I cancelled the second credit card. I now have a third part-time job and plan to accelerate the mortgage repayments further. There are so many other small changes that have saved us money, I can’t begin to count them all. Your Cheapskates newsletter kept me motivated and supplied fresh ideas and inspiration whenever I read it. I also reverted to reading your first book which I hadn’t picked up in years.
For the first time in years now, I am paying cash for everything and don’t have credit card debt or any debt other than the mortgage. I’m still pretty privileged, I can drink good champagne if I want to or go for a meal with a friend if I wish. I could still take on some more Cheapskates habits as I’m not as frugal as you. I don’t make everything myself (though I make a lot these days). But I know I’m in control now and that we are spending money I’ve already earned rather than maxing out the credit cards. If things get worse on the job front, I know there is scope to tighten up more and I won’t feel deprived. I also know I won’t buy anything new until I have the money for it.
Thanks for your inspiration over the years. I knew that disaster would strike one day, I’m glad that when it did, I had my student memories and Cheapskates Club to fall back on. Keep up the great work! Everyone needs your advice and tips, even those of us who have worked full time for many years and didn’t expect to have too much time and insufficient funds to cover everything.
Samantha, Melbourne
When I lost half my work hours, I had high credit card debts, a large tax bill and an unsustainable lifestyle, as well as a large mortgage. One of the first things I did was phone the bank and ask for an interest reduction on my home loan. This has saved me $250 a month. I also called my pay office to query the tax I was paying and indeed, I had been paying too much given my salary had been cut. So, this was a further upfront saving. I let my cleaner go and began cleaning all the house myself. I started buying foods in bulk – large sacks of rice, huge flagons of vegetable oil, sauces, liquid soap refills, large cans of coffee on special etc. and found the savings began to add up fast. I’ve always shopped at Aldi and bought generics, but found myself throwing out food. Now I stick closely to my meal plans for the week and only buy what’s on my shopping list. I find I’m buying a lot less and still have food left over for the next week. The savings went towards paying off my credit cards. Meantime, I found a part-time job to supplement my main job. All the money from that went into making extra payments on the tax bill and credit cards.
I went through my professional subscriptions and realised that with only half a role and no way to attend conferences, I didn’t need them any more and stopped them. I started buying stationery, greeting cards and small household items at the $2 store or the Reject shop. But often I’d just go through my garage or drawers and found items I’d never used and not have to buy any at all. I haven’t bought a book in over a year, I am still reading all the ones I have at home. I have a magazine I like to read every week – I saved 40% on the shop price by buying it on subscription.
I stopped buying my cosmetics and face creams from an expensive home buying service. Now I use Aldi brands or Nivea and, instead of expensive, fragrant tubes of hand cream, I buy the economical, bulk pack of Sorbolene cream and find my skin looks/feels good anyway. I use very little makeup for working at home. I and my young adult children eat all our lunches at home and cook 98% of our dinners. I’m using less meat – I find one thick chicken breast fillet is enough to make a chicken and veg casserole with rice. Two nights a week I use just lentils, beans or eggs.
I’ve stopped picking up a coffee every time I go to the shops. I’ve cut it back to once a week as a treat and buy it from a café that charges $2 less for a lovely coffee. I realised that when we ordered takeaway we always used to order too much. Now I just order the dinner box which is a set price and it’s plenty, and that’s only once a fortnight. I now have the time to bake cakes, muffins and banana bread, my son is loving it and it’s so much cheaper.
I’ve not bought any shoes for a year and have only bought clothes for a ¼ of the price I used to pay, usually when they have been reduced twice. I’ve probably bought a fraction of the clothes I normally would in a year. And they look great! For the first time recently I bought jewellery to match at an op shop.
I drink cheaper wine now, only a glass with a meal, and have alcohol free nights (which is healthier anyway).
I weed my garden myself now, but have a Jim’s Mowing guy come and mow the lawn every two months for $50. My daughter’s boyfriend changed all the smoke alarms this year for free (I used to use a handyman). I told my daughter she would need to finance her private dancing course herself, and she has! She’s done a great job, using money from her part-time job and recent pandemic payments. When I received a tax refund, I put it all into my mortgage. My large tax bill was paid off within less than a year, I’ve put about $5000 extra into the mortgage and all my credit cards have been paid off. I have about two years’ advance payments in my mortgage should I ever lose my main job entirely. This week I cancelled the second credit card. I now have a third part-time job and plan to accelerate the mortgage repayments further. There are so many other small changes that have saved us money, I can’t begin to count them all. Your Cheapskates newsletter kept me motivated and supplied fresh ideas and inspiration whenever I read it. I also reverted to reading your first book which I hadn’t picked up in years.
For the first time in years now, I am paying cash for everything and don’t have credit card debt or any debt other than the mortgage. I’m still pretty privileged, I can drink good champagne if I want to or go for a meal with a friend if I wish. I could still take on some more Cheapskates habits as I’m not as frugal as you. I don’t make everything myself (though I make a lot these days). But I know I’m in control now and that we are spending money I’ve already earned rather than maxing out the credit cards. If things get worse on the job front, I know there is scope to tighten up more and I won’t feel deprived. I also know I won’t buy anything new until I have the money for it.
Thanks for your inspiration over the years. I knew that disaster would strike one day, I’m glad that when it did, I had my student memories and Cheapskates Club to fall back on. Keep up the great work! Everyone needs your advice and tips, even those of us who have worked full time for many years and didn’t expect to have too much time and insufficient funds to cover everything.
Samantha, Melbourne
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