My Year of Frugality

[Miss Chicken]

Which will probably only last 6 months.

I over consume. I know it. So I am going to try and curtail my spending.

I am keeping my Audible and Scribd subscriptions but spending no more of books beside those. I already own plenty of Kindle books, Audible , books of my shelves etc that I can read.

Unfortunately my son would complain too much if I got rid of the streaming services though I might talk him into pausing some of them.

No more jigsaw puzzles, no more board games, no more apps, no more clothes or kitchen appliances, no more craft supplies etc

I am going to try and bank at least $200 a month.

I am going to miss getting parcels delivered by the postman though there will still be an occasional parcel as I do buy some essentials online.

Do any of you think I can make this work?

 

[XCV330]

You can do it. Do you have a library near you? I know they are still closed in a lot of places but some libraries offer curb access and book sanitation. Just another way to get something and have something to do.

I know what you mean about Audible. It's definitely one I am loathe to drop, of all my subscriptions.

 

[Miss Chicken]

It is difficult for me to get to the library as I do not drive. Besides I do have at least 300 unread books to get through. Also with Audible and Scribd between them I listen to at least 6 books as part of my subscriptions.

I have to decide if I am going to keep up with eBay Plus but that is paid up to September. I also belong to Catch Club (Catch is an Australian online store). It costs me $6.95 but I get a lot of free postage as a result. I do buy some essentials from them but some of those I could get from the supermarket for not much more. I will have to see if Catch saves me more than the fee I pay.
It is amazing how many of these streaming/subscription service, store clubs etc we (ie my son and I) belong to.

 

[Unicron]

I am keeping my Audible and Scribd subscriptions but spending no more of books beside those. I already own plenty of Kindle books, Audible , books of my shelves etc that I can read.

Some days I honestly wish I had time to just sit around and read my huge nerd library. I'm so behind.

 

[Miss Chicken]

My book buying habit has became a lot worse once I started buying online. Before that it was contained by a limited range of books available at stores in Tasmania.

Back on 25 August I made a list of my unread books (and I am certain I did not list all of them, or even most of them). The list was about 250 books long and I narrowed that down to 80 books to be read by the end of December 2022. I have read 25 off the list - out of the 52 books I have read since that date. At the rate I am going will probably read the full 80 by August 2022. Then I will probably make a 30 book list of books I own to read.

I have dropped two streaming services and my son has agreed to take over the payment of a third one. That is saving me about $28 a month.

 

[Oddish]

Good luck. As someone who's habitually careful with money, I can tell you: it's amazing how far a little frugality will take you.

 

[Starbreaker]

Sounds like a plan. I'm really trying to cut back on how much food I buy this year. Seems like so much of it goes to waste because I just go to Taco Bell.

 

[Miss Chicken]

Just cut $6.50 a month off my Patreon. Patreon will now cost me less than $10 a month. Half of that goes to just one person - she does reactions to many shows including The Witcher, Wheel of Time, The Twilight Zone etc so I usually watch several hours of her videos each month so I get value for my money.

 

[Unicron]

Do you consider Patreon to be worthwhile? I've never really experimented with it because I'm not entirely comfortable paying for subscription tiers, as it were. I get that it's one avenue of income for creators.

 

[Miss Chicken]

Yes, I think it is worthwhile for creators you like especially if the creator has a limited income.
During lockdown I was sending $5 a month to the Mongolian rock band ‘ The Hu’. Because of the pandemic they could not tour and therefore had a big drop in income. When they started to tour again a couple of months ago I stopped my Patreon support.

I send $1 a month to a family in rural Pakistan who make videos of their lives. Receiving money from Patreon has really helped improve their lives. Peer Jan originally appeared on the YouTube channel Reactistan, he was so popular on that that they started making videos just about him.

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[publiusr]

All this services will nickel and dime you to death. Books are yours…being bled to death isn’t frugality.

John Deere and Apple opposed right-to-repair…saying you never really own anything. Folks probably want to kill physical media. I remember a TV program where they were trying to loot-crate hair pieces:

It’s a toupee!

“It’s a system”

Phooey!

I say everything on streaming MUST go to cable after two years.

 

[galleywest]

Ugh this is the thread I need right now. I'm cancelling Acorn and Luminary this year, and probably at least one other streaming service. Definitely. Probably. Probably definitely.

My mom has Libby, which is a library digital borrowing app, and I'm sure there are many others out there for the book lovers among us. As for me, grad school ruined reading for me, but I'm addicted to podcasts. I can't quit any time I want and I know it. I did stop my Wondery subscription, though.

 

[Captain_Nick]

Do you consider Patreon to be worthwhile? I've never really experimented with it because I'm not entirely comfortable paying for subscription tiers, as it were. I get that it's one avenue of income for creators.

Not OP but answering anyway, yes, absolutely

I support two guys on Patreon, they've been producing entertaining content that I've been enjoying for years. One of them I started following back when I first joined TBBS, almost twenty years ago. So I don't mind chucking them $20 or whatever a month, it's my way of saying thanks.

 

[Miss Chicken]

Netflix put their prices up from $AU19.95 a month to $22.95 a month. I looked at their plans and decided to go to a lower plan which is $16.95. Now we can only use Netflix on 2 screes instead of 4 but we have only been using 2 screens since No 2 son moved out.

I am going through all my photos at Dropbox to see if I can delete enough to go back to the free service. It is a good way to get rid of all the crappy photos and only keeping the best.