Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
There are a number of things that just seem to gobble up funds. Most of us know the bigger ticket items, but what about the smaller ones?
Years ago, I started refilling the small water and soda bottles, so I'm not spending a $1 when I want a cold drink.
We just had our local fair, and was shocked at the prices they were charging for food. Again, for a number of years, we've been bring sandwiches for our lunch.
In light of the fair, I had to look at the "membership" fee, verses the gate fee. I used to do all membership when I had a bunch of children, because that was (99% of the time) cheaper than gate fees. Now that it's the 2 of us, I had to rethink that.
What are some of your money gobblers, and how have you over come them?
There are a number of things that just seem to gobble up funds. Most of us know the bigger ticket items, but what about the smaller ones?
Years ago, I started refilling the small water and soda bottles, so I'm not spending a $1 when I want a cold drink.
We just had our local fair, and was shocked at the prices they were charging for food. Again, for a number of years, we've been bring sandwiches for our lunch.
In light of the fair, I had to look at the "membership" fee, verses the gate fee. I used to do all membership when I had a bunch of children, because that was (99% of the time) cheaper than gate fees. Now that it's the 2 of us, I had to rethink that.
What are some of your money gobblers, and how have you over come them?
I just paid $4.75 for a soda at a convention center.
Property tax, sales taxes, income taxes, energy taxes, required insurance, etc eats up 50% or more of your income. Government is your #1 money gobbler and it only gives you back aggravation and a tiny measure of value.
Gotta agree with tallrick. We have a 10% sales tax on food, which I find outrageously regressive as a tax. We tend to dismiss that gasoline is taxed, and that just about everything that can be taxed now is. It didn't use to be that way. I remember when sales taxes were first being introduced "to prevent increases in income and property tax." A lot of people were suckered back then, and a lot of people are becoming increasingly angry and upset over the tax burden.
Until recently, taxes and insurance were our biggest expenses. I dropped and cut back on insurance, and moved to a state and area with more reasonable property tax. I knew my income would be dropping and there was no way we could continue to live in south Florida and make ends meet.
We save in a lot of small ways, and always have, but struggling to patch tiny leaks in our pool of money was becoming ridiculous when the tax and insurance holes in the pool drain kept getting larger. For every dime we saved by deprivation, a new dollar was disappearing into the pockets of insurance companies and wasteful local spending projects.
I have to agree with the 10% sales tax on food. The sales tax on restaurant food here is 8.25%, so what is the incentive to eat healthfully? We save more money eating out than we do eating in half the time.
My money gobblers are misc. fees from school. Required software memberships, special edition textbooks, student activity fees for activities I'll never use. The lack of competition for internet service, meaning to actually do my schoolwork I have to pay $45 a month for internet service I'm very much not satisfied with.
Also all the people that eat over at my house. They mostly gobble leftovers, so I suppose it's a step away from money gobbling, but it counts.
Location: where the moss is taking over the villages
2,184 posts, read 5,550,483 times
Reputation: 1270
Quote:
Originally Posted by RHB
There are a number of things that just seem to gobble up funds. Most of us know the bigger ticket items, but what about the smaller ones?
Years ago, I started refilling the small water and soda bottles, so I'm not spending a $1 when I want a cold drink.
We just had our local fair, and was shocked at the prices they were charging for food. Again, for a number of years, we've been bring sandwiches for our lunch.
In light of the fair, I had to look at the "membership" fee, verses the gate fee. I used to do all membership when I had a bunch of children, because that was (99% of the time) cheaper than gate fees. Now that it's the 2 of us, I had to rethink that.
What are some of your money gobblers, and how have you over come them?
For us: the dishwasher & the clothes dryer.
I prefer washing the dishes by hand & saving $$.
It's nice when I have the energy to hang the towels to dry. Then when they are dry, I can put them in the dryer with wet things. That gets them soft. And my theory is it helps the clothes dry faster as it helps absorb some of the dissipating moisture.
The dw in our house was using about $20 a month, at least.
For those who plan on naming taxes as their #1 money gobbler, how about we mention the ways we can cut back on allowing ourselves to be taxed:
1. In my previous home state of Ohio, we had a 6.75% sales tax on food if you ate it inside the restaurant. So, we would instead take our food home when we ate it.
2. Here in California where I live now, it seems they tax regardless if you get the food 'for here or to go.' Thus, I cut back how much I eat at fast food joints.
That's all I'll talk about tax-based ones, however, because it's infantile to argue against taxes. If taxes is your beef and you're not aware that in the United States, the middle class actually pays very little in taxes compared to Western Europe, find a state like North Dakota which offers little-to-no education resources, little-to-no social funding or healthcare and live your life. I guess I shouldn't expect more - our ancestors are the one's that fought the British over a 1-2% stamp tax despite the fact that we survived for decades on sole-British funding.
Getting back on point, however...
3. Food is my family's biggest investment. I took to concocting an 1,100 calorie milkshake that's quite cheap to make - utilizing powdered milk, milk, peanut butter, oatmeal, ice cream, nesquick, etc. I use it as a cheap alternative to buying expensive sports drinks while I work out.
4. For ice cream, because I go through a ton of it, I purchase in bulk in this big, cheap-looking buckets.
5. The hardest part is my wife and I agreeing on what cheaper foods to eat to avoid fast food/diners. I am free and easy and can eat mac n cheese but she needs a lot of variation, so although it's difficult a lot of the time, it is our key to saving money every day.
6. My favorite money saver is biking to the grocery. I have a rack, a pannier, and a milkcrate on the back of one of my bikes and love biking around town to complete tasks - saves a lot of money on gas.
I guess I shouldn't expect more - our ancestors are the one's that fought the British over a 1-2% stamp tax despite the fact that we survived for decades on sole-British funding.
That wasn't so much to do with the actual stamp tax, or tea tax, in the case of the Boston Tea party, as it was about TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION in the British parliament. It was right then, and it is right now, because quite frankly, I do not feel that I am represented in Washington DC, and I believe that there are millions of Americans who feel exactly the same way.
My own money gobbler is coffee (twice a day at $2.21 each comes to $132.60 in a 30 day month). I quit smoking 2 years ago, and stopped ordering out for lunch at work, and instead pack a lunch, so I know I'm ahead, but I need to cut back on those coffees - #$%! Dunkin Donuts!
"That's all I'll talk about tax-based ones, however, because it's infantile to argue against taxes. If taxes is your beef and you're not aware that in the United States, the middle class actually pays very little in taxes compared to Western Europe, find a state like North Dakota which offers little-to-no education resources, little-to-no social funding or healthcare and live your life. I guess I shouldn't expect more - our ancestors are the one's that fought the British over a 1-2% stamp tax despite the fact that we survived for decades on sole-British funding."
Take a look at the letters from England (and their links) that come into Jerry Pournelle's blog to get an eyeful of your beloved Western European system. Education and healthcare, huh? I guess I need to remind you that I left south Florida for Alabama. In south Florida, when I was working in management, I couldn't find kids who could even fill out employment application forms properly. Decatur Alabama has nationally recognized high scoring schools. The relationships between money spent in schools and the resulting education have been repeatedly proven to have little correlation, and in Florida, where that money goes to unions, I found that the correlation was appearing negative. Healthcare? Dade county has a world class hospital, but UAB is where cardiologists get trained.
Infantile to rail against taxes? I guess since you are an adult, you see the justification of a city in south Florida taxing a satellite signal for Directv, just because the receiver is in the town? Just what benefit is being paid for with such a tax, or is the only thing it accomplishes is leech money from residents? Infantile to rail against taxes? When I would watch perfectly good landscaping in median strips be completely ripped out about every three years, to be replaced with similar landscaping at taxpayer expense? Just how infantile is that? As for that "British funding," I suggest that you read your history a little closer and note that the major company doing the "funding" did so to establish a place where the British government couldn't be micromanaging and a place where punitive taxations and laws would be limited. I have seen some poor arguments presented on the internet, and that has to be one of the sorriest and least educated ones that I have ever read. I'm glad that you don't intend to talk about it more, because I don't want you to hurt yourself sticking another foot in your mouth. You might need that great free medical care we all get with our taxes.
While you are brushing up on history, you might also research how empires tended to collapse once certain levels of taxation were reached. Rome was able to stave it off for a few years with bread (for the men) and circuses, but eventually even it fell.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
