GTKY: What are the 'Big Things' you do to save/make money?

Kahlyla · February 2015

Hi folks,

I'm still new here, so just looking to share and exchange ideas a bit! I was wondering, we talk a lot (and I think there's a lot of information out there in general) about the little tricks one can do to save money, stretch food dollars, reuse household items, etc. But what about the really big things?

Anyone living off the grid? Raising their own chickens? Making their own clothes? Renting out an outbuilding to backpackers? What kinds of really substantial decisions have you made that help you earn more money, save more money, or just live in a really interesting way?

Kahlyla · February 2015

I'll share some of what we do:

My husband and I own our own business, and we work from home. We don't work locally - it's all online (we manage the production and editorial of a series of magazines) and international. Because of this, we are able to live literally anywhere we want. For some people that might mean moving to Mexico or something, but we did want to stay in Canada, so we chose a very low cost of living area (it helps that we are also absolutely in love with our city). We only moved out here in 2012, so it was definitely an informed decision after living in many diverse parts of the country, but it was still sudden and kind of random, lol, and driven exclusively by simply wanting to be here.
Also because of this, we only need one car which we share, and only one cell phone, which we share and is a business expense. We also don't need daycare, although before our eldest started school we did actually use some daycare for our own sanity and for the benefit of the kids. Not full-time though.
We own two other homes - one just up the road and one back in Ontario - which we rent out. The Ontario one we rent out in the traditional sense to my brother, and it's basically hands-off but if something does crop up we have family there who help us manage the place. The local one we rent out three different units of (one is a cabin/bunkie) through Airbnb. Because we're right down the road to greet guests we can do it this way for a much larger return than a conventional rental while still having regular access to the place to do upgrades and such.
We're semi-rural and have vegetable gardens, fruit trees, and herb gardens (some on either property) which we harvest from and we do some canning. We're going to start some egg hens this spring.
We live in an old elementary school, and the bottom floor is still all original - two classrooms, a small lunchroom, a bathroom with stalls, a big hallway, etc. So we're able to use one classroom as a large workshop and make a lot of our own things, we use the lunchroom as a second kitchen/pantry and freeze and stockpile a lot of food, and we're looking at different options for renting out use of the rest of the space or hosting some sort of community activities there (we can use 30% of the total square footage for commercial use).

lifeonthehill · February 2015

*We live, work, and eat at a boarding school. That means that we are "working" around the clock because we take care of a floor of teenagers and need to be available to them when they need it. We only buy food for our house when one of us is too sick to utilize the dining hall or during the months of March and June-August when the dining hall is closed. It saves us loads of money not having rent, utilities or a grocery bill.

* This one isn't "big" in my mind but it is a huge thing for H. We do not have cable. We get so-so internet through the school but that is better than paying for it.

als1982 · February 2015

Kahlyla said:
I'll share some of what we do:

My husband and I own our own business, and we work from home. We don't work locally - it's all online (we manage the production and editorial of a series of magazines) and international. Because of this, we are able to live literally anywhere we want. For some people that might mean moving to Mexico or something, but we did want to stay in Canada, so we chose a very low cost of living area (it helps that we are also absolutely in love with our city). We only moved out here in 2012, so it was definitely an informed decision after living in many diverse parts of the country, but it was still sudden and kind of random, lol, and driven exclusively by simply wanting to be here.
Also because of this, we only need one car which we share, and only one cell phone, which we share and is a business expense. We also don't need daycare, although before our eldest started school we did actually use some daycare for our own sanity and for the benefit of the kids. Not full-time though.
We own two other homes - one just up the road and one back in Ontario - which we rent out. The Ontario one we rent out in the traditional sense to my brother, and it's basically hands-off but if something does crop up we have family there who help us manage the place. The local one we rent out three different units of (one is a cabin/bunkie) through Airbnb. Because we're right down the road to greet guests we can do it this way for a much larger return than a conventional rental while still having regular access to the place to do upgrades and such.
We're semi-rural and have vegetable gardens, fruit trees, and herb gardens (some on either property) which we harvest from and we do some canning. We're going to start some egg hens this spring.
We live in an old elementary school, and the bottom floor is still all original - two classrooms, a small lunchroom, a bathroom with stalls, a big hallway, etc. So we're able to use one classroom as a large workshop and make a lot of our own things, we use the lunchroom as a second kitchen/pantry and freeze and stockpile a lot of food, and we're looking at different options for renting out use of the rest of the space or hosting some sort of community activities there (we can use 30% of the total square footage for commercial use).

This is amazing! I am so envious of your lifestyle. My dream is to get out of the city someday and run a small farm.

For now, we're just ultra thrifty (no cable, drive 2001 Honda/Toyota cars, have garage sale and old college furniture, always buy on sale and most importantly, try our best to avoid buying stuff we don't need, etc.)

We do choose to live well below our means. We make about the same amount and can pay all our bills on just one salary, which means one of our incomes (about $5,000 a month) is dedicated solely to retirement savings, paying off our student loans and savings for dedicated goals (typically travel or home improvements). In the future that'll also give me the opportunity, if I want, to stay home with our children should we choose that.

strickland8052 · February 2015

We are hosting an international student. We make $750 a month from this.

We also live in a 1100 sq ft 2 br/2ba home. Not only is the mortgage cheaper, but the repairs are also so much cheaper. We just reroofed the entire house for $4,000.

I use my dad's employer's credit union for savings. They have no website, all deposits have to be made through my dad, and the CU consists of 1 part time lady that works like two days a week, but the interest rates are like 3%!

We play credit cards for their points. We probably make about $500 a year from this.

strickland8052 · February 2015

Oh! And in addition to cramming 3 adults into our 1100 sq foot home, we also dog sit through rover. com. It is like uber for dog sitting, and we have made about $400 in the last 3 months.

hoffse · February 2015

Wow! We don't do anything that creative!

We're a pair of newbie lawyers. Our major decision was whether to go to a big, middle, or small market. We chose middle, and it's been great. We have the resources of a city, but the cost of living is much lower. As a result, young lawyers here can have a nice standard of living, even with all of our debt. Also, our local bar is very friendly. People try to help each other. In larger markets it tends to be every man for himself and eat what you kill. There's not much of that here. We do work a lot, but I have never spent the night in my office. Most of my friends in bigger markets have.

Other than that, we're just both very cheap. It's kind of difficult to maintain the "appearances" required by our profession while not spending much money, but we manage to do it ok. H is better at it than I am.

I'm also a persistent planner. I have a spreadsheet that projects out until the end of 2016 for savings, goals, budgets, etc. It helps me see the bigger picture and make tweaks when surprises come up.

Finally, we're not particularly debt adverse, and none of our debt is high-interest. We have a plan, and we've stuck with it pretty well. I mean, I could pay of H's car today if I wanted to, but I don't want to. We've found a balance between debt, saving, and spending that works pretty well for us, and it gives us flexibility when surprises happen.

Sisugal · February 2015

Biggest expenses for most over a lifetime are a home and cars.
We have purchased 2 homes - with large down payments and paid them off early, using the profit of house #1 to purchase house #2. Both homes were well below what we can afford. (paid little interest and now live mortgage free). Purchased only what we need and not all the bells and whistles - in a walkable neighborhood - only 4 blocks from work. We both can walk to work, so drive very little.

We drive cars until they are no longer safe and pay cash. We have purchased both new and used, but mostly slightly used - reliable models.

When added to multiple small savings habits - it adds up !
We have always lived below our means and save.

simplyelise · February 2015

Totally cool things!

We're pretty limited from big things right now, but I love gathering ideas for the future. I would love to have some property for a garden and chickens in the future.

We'll have 55k in student loans paid off by next summer and that will save us 17k in interest if we were to pay it over the 10 years, so that's probably what I'd consider our biggest savings.

Xstatic3333 · February 2015

I'm wracking my brain and I can't think of many big things! I do want chickens soooo badly. Anybody have any good H convincing tricks?

A big thing I used to do was a part time job teaching Sunday School. My position was eliminated last year, but that extra income was huge! It is nice to have Sunday's free to go to church with H now, however.

We also saved big by buying a visually-dated house. It's so well laid out and structurally sound that I can't think of any other reason it was so cheap. We're even learning to love some of the quirks like the pink and black bathroom and crazy Formica countertops.

formerlyGDaisy09 · February 2015

I garden, last year we installed 380sqft of raised garden beds, so we definitely did not save any money on food last year, but I'm hoping to start making up for it this year, hopefully we won't have to buy much, if any produce all summer/fall. I grow:

garlic, onions, lettuce, spinach, arugula, kale, swiss chard, brussels sprouts, cucumbers, zuccini, summer squash, winter squash, corn, green beans, soy beans, artichokes, peas, carrots, fennel, pumpkins, watermelon, strawberries, blueberries, tomatoes, and a bunch of herbs. this year I think I might add potatoes and celery. this year I'm also planning to save as many of my seeds as I can so next year I won't have to buy any.

we also host medical students or traveling nurses on rotation here, they generally pay us about $150 a week to stay at our house. (I'm hoping I can balance the taxes out on this because we donate our guest room to the local non-profit ballet company when they have guest artists or teachers in town)

noffgurl · February 2015

We have several chickens and ducks, I love the eggs we get from our chickens.

noffgurl · February 2015

We also have fruit trees but they aren't mature enough yet. I have tried gardening each year and I can't seem to keep the plants alive.

maple2 · February 2015

The 2 big things that save us money are buying a house below our means and choosing to be a single car family even though we don't live in a city so public transit isn't great. In general, though, we are both savers who aren't all that interested in stuff. It's probably that underlying attitude that saves us the most. One other thing that has helped us is cultivating good relationships with our neighbors. We have been able to borrow lots of tools over the years and have also traded baby-sitting, cooking, door repair help, etc.

We do lots of "back to the land" type things at a pretty small scale like gardening, raising chickens and preserving food, but I'm honestly not sure they save us all that much money. For example, we might save $5/week not buying eggs at the store but we still have to buy food and bedding and we spent a couple hundred building the coop. We are still net negative on the chickens after a couple of years. Obviously that will change at some point, but it's never going to be a big ticket savings. We do it because we enjoy it and like to know where our food comes from.

formerlyGDaisy09 · February 2015

maple2 said:

The 2 big things that save us money are buying a house below our means and choosing to be a single car family even though we don't live in a city so public transit isn't great. In general, though, we are both savers who aren't all that interested in stuff. It's probably that underlying attitude that saves us the most. One other thing that has helped us is cultivating good relationships with our neighbors. We have been able to borrow lots of tools over the years and have also traded baby-sitting, cooking, door repair help, etc.

We do lots of "back to the land" type things at a pretty small scale like gardening, raising chickens and preserving food, but I'm honestly not sure they save us all that much money. For example, we might save $5/week not buying eggs at the store but we still have to buy food and bedding and we spent a couple hundred building the coop. We are still net negative on the chickens after a couple of years. Obviously that will change at some point, but it's never going to be a big ticket savings. We do it because we enjoy it and like to know where our food comes from.

This would be one of my concerns with chickens, we live in an area where the zoning wouldn't let us have chickens anyways, but from most reports from friends who have chickens it isn't something they'd recommend if you're purely in it for the savings.

I think it'll take 4 or 5 years before I'm actually seeing savings from my garden. between the extra spent on water, buying seeds, buying trellises, and materials for canning and preserving there are a lot of start-up costs. I'm hoping my compost from last year looks good in the spring so I won't have to buy a lot to enrich the soil, that's another thing that's going to take a few years before we really have the process working so we're getting back what we've put into it. But you're totally right, not all of that is about the money, it's also about reducing waste and living sustainably. I've also considered putting in more rain gutters on the house so I can use rain barrels for the veggies, we have one 50 gallon barrel for the flowers and I've never run out of water.

simplyelise · February 2015

Tangentially Off-Topic:

My late grandpa started raising chickens in the last five years of his life. He just kept ordering more and adding on to the coop. There were so many eggs. Everyone they knew got free eggs and my aunts were bringing them in to work and to the food banks. He was adorable doting on them. He was a hardscrabble guy with tattoos and an eye patch, but gosh he loved those chickens.

Even if the net cost doesn't mean tons of savings, I think I'd like to have chickens just to feel close to those memories.

noffgurl · February 2015

The start up cost for chickens, can be expensive or cheap depending on how creative you want to be. Eggs themselves don't save a ton of money (but they taste much better in my opinion). The savings is the actual chicken when you butcher it. Plus you have the added benefit of knowing they weren't given hormones to grow and chickens raised on scratch and real plants and worms taste better. You don't want to have to buy more chicks every year, that can cut down on what savings you can get. For your first year get a batch of straight run chicks (5-6 you will have a couple die in the first week or so). Keep them in a tightish area with bedding and a heat lamp until they have all of their feathers. At this point you should be able to tell who is a rooster and who is a hen (rooster will have the extra skin on their forehead/nose). Separate them and keep the roosters separate from each other (they will fight if not). Once the hens and roosters are about 7-10 months old or so, you can butcher all but one rooster, then put that rooster with all the hens or just a couple depending on what you want to do, and let them be together for maybe a couple of days. The eggs resulting from this will need to be incubated (Tractor Supply has a kit for about $40 or you can make one pretty easily), these chicks will be your next batch so you don't have to buy more. All other eggs won't be fertile so you won't have to worry about incubating them. It's all super easy. Chicken wire is about $30 for a 50 foot roll. We use a shed we already had and sectioned it off to have one side as an indoor area for the chickens with a dog door size hole cut out into the fenced area so they have a whole run. Just make sure you keep fresh water and buy a bag of scratch ($8 for a 50 lb bag lasts about 3-4 weeks) and a bag of layer ($12 for a 50 lb bag that lasts about 3-4 weeks mixed with the other bag). I mix the bags and sprinkle some out for them, they also scratch for the bugs/worms and whatnot.

maple2 · February 2015

simplyelise said:

Tangentially Off-Topic:

My late grandpa started raising chickens in the last five years of his life. He just kept ordering more and adding on to the coop. There were so many eggs. Everyone they knew got free eggs and my aunts were bringing them in to work and to the food banks. He was adorable doting on them. He was a hardscrabble guy with tattoos and an eye patch, but gosh he loved those chickens.

Even if the net cost doesn't mean tons of savings, I think I'd like to have chickens just to feel close to those memories.

That is adorable! I have a co-worker who has done something similar. I think she has 5 different flocks (and 5 coops in her yard) at this point because she just loves chickens so much!

One option to make chickens look better from a financial perspective is to go a little bigger and be able to sell some of the eggs. We have a friend who just sells eggs to coworkers, and she makes enough to cover the recurring costs of food and bedding. We typically have 3-4 chickens in our flock, and when they are all laying we have to work to go through all the eggs, so it probably wouldn't take a huge number to be able to sell some eggs.

One thing to think about with chickens, though, is what you want to do when they outlive laying age. I think I read at one point that chickens typically lay for around 3 years, but if they are well cared for they can live for 7. A friend tried to eat some backyard chickens after she had to cull her flock due to disease, and said the meat was basically inedible because it was so hard. We are vegetarian and our chickens are sort of a hybrid between pet and farm animal anyway, so we have resigned ourselves to taking care of chickens whatever their laying status. That will definitely cut into any savings, though, when we have to feed chickens at home and buy eggs from the store!

noffgurl · February 2015

maple2 said:

simplyelise said:

Tangentially Off-Topic:

My late grandpa started raising chickens in the last five years of his life. He just kept ordering more and adding on to the coop. There were so many eggs. Everyone they knew got free eggs and my aunts were bringing them in to work and to the food banks. He was adorable doting on them. He was a hardscrabble guy with tattoos and an eye patch, but gosh he loved those chickens.

Even if the net cost doesn't mean tons of savings, I think I'd like to have chickens just to feel close to those memories.

That is adorable! I have a co-worker who has done something similar. I think she has 5 different flocks (and 5 coops in her yard) at this point because she just loves chickens so much!

One option to make chickens look better from a financial perspective is to go a little bigger and be able to sell some of the eggs. We have a friend who just sells eggs to coworkers, and she makes enough to cover the recurring costs of food and bedding. We typically have 3-4 chickens in our flock, and when they are all laying we have to work to go through all the eggs, so it probably wouldn't take a huge number to be able to sell some eggs.

One thing to think about with chickens, though, is what you want to do when they outlive laying age. I think I read at one point that chickens typically lay for around 3 years, but if they are well cared for they can live for 7. A friend tried to eat some backyard chickens after she had to cull her flock due to disease, and said the meat was basically inedible because it was so hard. We are vegetarian and our chickens are sort of a hybrid between pet and farm animal anyway, so we have resigned ourselves to taking care of chickens whatever their laying status. That will definitely cut into any savings, though, when we have to feed chickens at home and buy eggs from the store!

That happens when they are too old to be eaten. You want to butcher around 2-3 years of age at the oldest (even then they are dryer than when they are younger) to avoid that.

Erikan73 · February 2015

We recycle furniture. Like we took scraps of wood from when our fence was built and built two side tables for the backyard/deck. We got an old door at a salvage place & stripped it down & refinished it and turned it into our headboard. We just redid our bathroom and our cabinet on the wall no longer matches so we invested in spray paint instead of buying a new cabinet. When we kick out our roommate at the end of the year (he was part of the package when I met my husband - we kept him around to help pay for some big repairs on our house like to cover the cost of installing central air & to install a new fence,etc) we plan to hit up the salvage store again and make furniture for what will be our new office and probably look for some items for our man cave/guest room. With a little bit of paint, you can make things that don't match match.

vlagrl29 · February 2015

Nothing too major like you. DH does rent out his studio to 2 photographers which lessens his share of rent. When he opens his new studio this fall he will add a 3rd renter and hopefully we will get a couple musicians to rent out my music studio there the days I won't be teaching.

We also try not to add any un necessary debt - both cars are paid off, our house is paid off. Only debt is my student loan.

We basically live off DH's salary and about $400-500 of my salary - the rest of my profits go to our savings and retirement. we are both self employed and while people think living that lifestyle is risky I find it much better than the corporate world because we can always find work and will never be unemployed.

CuriousKiddosMama · February 2015

Our big thing is we don't have cable.
I also have a knack for finding furniture for cheap or free- we use/keep what we want and I'm starting to refinish some of the stuff we don't so I can sell it. The market in my area is saturated with painters/ re finishers though so I won't be able to make much from these projects but it's still fun and hopefully will make a little money.

One of the other big things for us is coupon ing and keeping the baby costs down. I try not to buy anything unless it is on clearance or super cheap with a coupon. Probably to the point where I am too. Cheap. Dh told me 2 days ago that he wanted a couple new pairs of shorts and my first reaction was, I know I asked you this when they were on clearance in the fall. Fortunately for him we got a jcp coupn and they are on sale this week so he can probably get a nice pair for $10.

strickland8052 · February 2015

AprilH81 said:

@strickland8052

Can you tell me more about hosting an exchange student? We (meaning my parents) hosted an exchange student from Sweden when I was in elementary school and it is something that I am interested in doing, especially if we can "make money" while doing it.

What kinds of things are you responsible for other than room and board? Do you have to have kids to host a student? So many questions, but I think with a decent match it could be a fascinating experience!

April - We host through a local company, but there are several big national companies that also arrange homestays. Pretty much any family (kids, no kids, pets, no pets) can host a student, as long as you have a spare bedroom. The company matches you with a student and serves as the middle man with collecting/distributing payment. You can choose whether you want a college student or high school student, man/woman, or even what nation they come from. You also choose whether or not you want to provide the student with meals, laundry, and transportation. The more you provide, the more money you get.

We have an older female graduate student from Kyrgzstan, who is earning a masters degree in English. She is an English teacher in her home country, so she is very fluent. She has only been with us for a month, but so far it has been a great experience. We provide her with dinner, which is pretty easy because we always had leftovers anyway. She also rides to work with me in the morning, because her school is close to my job. I wish we would have started hosting sooner!

short+sassy · February 2015

My biggest thing to make/save money was buying a duplex when I bought my first home three years ago. I live on one side and rent out the other. Best financial decision I ever made! The rent I am able to charge for my area is double my mortgage payment (which also includes taxes and insurance).

In fact, it's been such a good experience, I am actively on the hunt for my second rental property.

I'm also pretty good at finding extra money opportunities. For example, I made $75 last night participating in a 90 minute focus group. I also do a good bit of mystery shopping. I've been doing that for many years. It's a fairly easy way to make a few extra hundred a month just in fees, plus reimbursements for cool stuff like nice dinners.

So much chicken information, lol! We have a friend whose family raises chickens. They are a family of four and they all love eggs and eat them all the time. The eggs are just for them. I think their initial investment was $150 and the feed is less than $10/month. They calculated out they will be saving themselves hundreds of dollars in eggs over the course of a year or two.

I also have a friend's aunt who raises chickens that lay pretty colored eggs...like light blue, orange, etc. And she regularly sells them to local gourmet restaurants.

Wulfgar · February 2015

We don't do too much to save a lot of money. What we are trying to do is pay down debt and do the needed home repairs to keep our house in liveable condition. Our house was built in the 1920's and was flipped from most likely the child of the original owners (builders) so we have new windows, wood floors, and some other quick fixes done but the roof was around 15 years old when MW bought it in 2007. Nice thing is that our home is well below our current means but was a stretch for MW when she bought it.

We are planning to send our two children to private school since Ohio's schools are not the best especially in the Northeast where I live. That is an additional cost, but since MW and I both went through private schools we figure that this is the best way to have our children ready for life.

HoneyBee973 · February 2015

DH doing maintenance on our cars him self, instead of paying someone to do it.

Don't buy things we don't need, and shop sales whenever possible.

GTKY: What are the 'Big Things' you do to save/make money?

Re: GTKY: What are the 'Big Things' you do to save/make money?

Choose Another Board

Search Boards