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My advice for those with little/no money

joecool85

joecool85

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 9, 2005
1,355
4
Maine
Get a jar and put all your change in it for a couple months...my gf and I have been doing this for about a month and a half or so and we have like $75! It's going to be used for a trip, but I started a second jar for a mac mini! haha! Since I won't buy a mini until it gets up to 1.7ghz or so, 1.8ghz preferrably, its ok that it will take me a year or so to get the money hehe. :cool:
 
joecool85 said:
Get a jar and put all your change in it for a couple months...my gf and I have been doing this for about a month and a half or so and we have like $75! It's going to be used for a trip, but I started a second jar for a mac mini! haha! Since I won't buy a mini until it gets up to 1.7ghz or so, 1.8ghz preferrably, its ok that it will take me a year or so to get the money hehe. :cool:
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That's good advice. Everyone always complains about how hard it is to save, but really all you have to do is go without for a little while. It's really not all that difficult. As for the mini reaching 1.8GHz, I've got a feeling you'll have more than a year to wait... :(
 
Some more tips-

Save your new shoes from wearing out, just wear them inside your house.
Save water by drinking less.
Save on your electricity bill by using candles at night.
Save money by spending less.
Save people from reading obvious advice in threads by not posting them.
Save the Whales (had to include that one).
 
I do this all the time - I an old one liter german stine glass that all my coins go into and when its full I usually get about $125 out of it. Its a nice little way to get some *extra* cash.

And a lot of grocery store have Coin Star - sure, the take 7% or so, but all that time rolling the coins makes it worth the few bucks you end up losing by just dumping it into the machine.

D
 
Yeah, I keep all my coins too. Every now and then I'll use them to buy something random and it's like I'm getting it for free because I've already written off the coins in my mind as not being real money. It's great. :D
 
I'd been saving all my change for ages. Counted it all out a few weeks ago. £155!!!

Goes towards buying the new powerbook ;)
 
mad jew said:
Yeah, I keep all my coins too. Every now and then I'll use them to buy something random and it's like I'm getting it for free because I've already written off the coins in my mind as not being real money. It's great. :D
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I had a girl friend once who thought it wasn't real money either and she used to steal the quarters out if she needed cab money. It was a pain, because I was continually putting coins in and I noticed that it was getting lower one day and asked her about it. She told me, but continued to do it. Bleh

D
 
here is prolly the best way to save money. Get your paycheck direct deposited, and then move 75%-80% of the check to your savings account. Or have a second savings account and put the money into CDs

Its how i save.
 
Heck yea use the coin method ! I have one of those 3 litre shasta bottles half way filled. Im goin to be vary excited when it comes time to cash that in.
 
eva01 said:
here is prolly the best way to save money. Get your paycheck direct deposited, and then move 75%-80% of the check to your savings account. Or have a second savings account and put the money into CDs.
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I don't get CDs anymore since we have iTMS. Went looking while on vacation and the shops wanted US$18 or $19 for a CD. :eek: I guess i't been a while.
 
Mr. Anderson said:
I do this all the time - I an old one liter german stine glass that all my coins go into and when its full I usually get about $125 out of it. Its a nice little way to get some *extra* cash.
Click to expand...


On the other hand, I'm that annoying woman ahead of you in the queue that insists on paying the exact amount in change just to continually get rid of the stuff.

If it costs £17.63 and I'm not using a card, then that's what I'm paying... :eek:
 
Blue Velvet said:
On the other hand, I'm that annoying woman ahead of you in the queue that insists on paying the exact amount in change just to continually get rid of the stuff.

If it costs £17.63 and I'm not using a card, then that's what I'm paying... :eek:
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That not really an annoyance - for me the annoyance would be carrying around all the change needed to make the exact amount. Which is one of the main reasons I would empty my pockets out every night into the stein - start over the next day with no coins..... :D

D
 
Blue Velvet said:
On the other hand, I'm that annoying woman ahead of you in the queue that insists on paying the exact amount in change just to continually get rid of the stuff.

If it costs £17.63 and I'm not using a card, then that's what I'm paying... :eek:
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I do this too :p But I do have my money ready, organised into vague order so I can hand over the exact cash quickly. Which I think considerably less irritating than people who stand while their stuff is scanned, and then act all surprised when they're asked for payment and start rooting around in their bag. :mad:

Therefore, I am perfectly justified in continuing this practice, when people like that exist. :D

And, yes, I save my money in a jar as well. Although there was a big thing a while back about how the British have got a sizable chunk of the country's currency squirreled away in jars, and how we'd be all much better off earning interest on it. But then we'd know it was there and spend it, wouldn't we?!
 
joecool85 said:
Get a jar and put all your change in it for a couple months...my gf and I have been doing this for about a month and a half or so and we have like $75! It's going to be used for a trip, but I started a second jar for a mac mini! haha! Since I won't buy a mini until it gets up to 1.7ghz or so, 1.8ghz preferrably, its ok that it will take me a year or so to get the money hehe. :cool:
Click to expand...
Well, I did that to save up to my current iBook... and after just over a year of saving all my coins (and in Norway we have coins all the way up to NOK 20, more than US$ 3) I had about NOK 3500 (= US$ 550), which paid about half my iBook (didn't pay sales tax ;)). :cool:

The problem is that if you really don't have any money, you cannot even save the coins, because you need those for groceries etc... The last year or so I've been really broke (paying a huge loan on the new house) and the only coins I can afford saving is the 50 øre coins (about 8 cents). All other coins goes back into the day to day spendings... :eek:
 
My tried-and-true way to save lots of money...

Before making any purchase, regardless of price, ask yourself this exact question:
"Do I really need this stupid piece of junk?"

If the answer is yes, then wait one day and ask it one more time.

If the thing in question is, say, a shiny new PowerBook, then you'll know that the question is utterly invalid. :D But a lot of other times, it can save you from having stupid junk lying around your house not being cash.

Considering all the amazing varieties of absolutely worthless junk being sold these days, this is porbably one of the best money-saving techniques available.

This technique does wonders for the environment too.
 
Mr. Anderson said:
And a lot of grocery store have Coin Star - sure, the take 7% or so, but all that time rolling the coins makes it worth the few bucks you end up losing by just dumping it into the machine.
Click to expand...

I just take my jar to my bank. Since my account is there, they do it for free. Usually I just deposit it into my account, but sometimes I don't. That way you don't have to pay coinstar. The machine at my grocery store takes 10%!!!
 
Lau said:
Which I think considerably less irritating than people who stand while their stuff is scanned, and then act all surprised when they're asked for payment and start rooting around in their bag. :mad:
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I hate these people so much, I was moaning about this just two days ago after being behind someone at the petrol station who stood there for ages doing f**k all and then when the cashier asked for payment she rooted around her bag for a while and then realised her purse was in the car...

I find the best way to save money is to avoid cash-points. If I withdraw £10 to buy a sandwich and a drink at lunch, somehow magically by the end of the day I have about £1.50. Once you've broken that note, that's it, it's gone.

AppleMatt
 
We have this huge jar that every one in the family puts their change into, and last time that it got full, there was ~$600 in it. It takes about 9 months to fill, however...:p
 
im not poor but ive been saving £1 and £2 coins left over from uni days and i got to about... £11. yup. :cool: but i dont spend much money anyways... and i ended up giving it my dad because his wallet went missing.

a general tip to save money; dont spend more than what you have coming in!
its obvious but the amount of people who run to the bank for loans is quite shocking.
 
CanadaRAM said:
I don't get CDs anymore since we have iTMS...
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There's also something at US banks called "Certificate of Deposit", which is usually a fixed-term higher-interest bearing account (since the bank is guaranteed your money for the period of the certificate). I think this is what he meant...

My partner and I do the "fill the jug" thing with an old glass water cooler bottle - we use the cash in it for pin money whenever we go on vacation, so it never actually fills up.

Another way to save money (one which I'm currently doing) is to completely stop using credit cards. Only buy things for which you have cash on hand. This allows creating a savings for emergencies and major purchases (such as car repairs) without having to use credit. It's amazing how many Americans live beyond their means with credit cards.
 
i've been doing this for a while. probably cashed in over 1000 dollars, but, sadly, i spend it on stuff rather than save that cash. another tip: commerce bank has this thing they call "penny arcade" and you pour in the coins and out comes a receipt. you bring it to the teller, and hand in the receipt, and they give you cash (no 8.5 percent service fee like at CoinStar). you don't need an account either
 
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