Tips on How to Be Good with Money When You're Not
Download Apps That Give You Points for Stuff
Since I downloaded the Carrot app, I haven't paid for a movie in, like, a year. I don't see very many movies in theatres but my point remains. All I have to do is walk around a lot everyday while carrying my phone and it logs my steps and gives me points for them. Once I earn 1000 scene points, I can see a movie for free. I currently have 2000 scene points on my Carrots app sitting there lazily, while I walk around earning them every day. The somewhat negative aspect of this is your data and activity log is probably being saved somewhere and used/sold by the government but this is a small price to pay for free movies.
Go to the Library
I mean, duh.
Get Some Sort of Container and Put Money in It
I know compound interest is important but I recently repurposed an old mason jar I kept a plant I killed in by putting money in it. Now at the end of everyday, I put coins in there and occasionally use it for my laundry but mostly they sit there like the scene points. The spare change adds up and makes me feel good in accomplishing a very simple goal of putting away money for later. Like a kid. Like a piggy bank, essentially. This is my suggestion.
Have Bad Taste
While I don’t often go out to eat, when I do, it’s expensive. I don’t like to cheap out on food normally. Where I do excel in cheaping out, is in the purchase of my clothes. I buy men’s shirts from Value Village that I repurpose as sleep shirts/regular shirts. I haven’t bought a new coat since 2013 because I’m not yet entirely ready to give up on my old one even though the lining is shot and keeps getting progressively ripped. I believe in repairing old leather instead of replacing it with new leather EVEN IF the repairs end up costing more than the original cost of the thing I’m repairing. This isn’t exactly a way to save money but the point is I like ugly shit. And ugly shit is cheap. And keeping ugly shit instead of replacing it with new ugly shit is the ultimate way to save money. So there you go.
Save Old Coupons
Okay this helped me recently because I kept getting all these Christmas emails about deals for subscriptions I was signed up for like Headspace and Classpass and shit. I stopped using Classpass because I couldn’t afford it and my one year Headspace subscription was a gift from an old boyfriend who was such a pain that dealing with him was cause for using Headspace. So once it expired, and since we no longer talk (thanks to all the clarity I got from using Headspace), I didn’t delete any of the Christmas emails I got for 25% off “the gift of headspace”. So I gifted it to myself now, for $71 instead of $95. Voila, ici, beaucoup, d’accord.
Use Other People’s Subscriptions
Who anywhere is actually paying for Netflix? It’s just a bunch of people with their lives already together who give their passwords to people who don’t have their lives already together. This is truly what the sharing economy should look like. Wealth distribution on a grassroots level. I was given a gift card for a year long subscription to Netflix like three years ago in my Christmas stocking from my sister-in-law. Have I been tempted to use it when I get kicked off my parent’s account at 9pm on a Thursday night? Yes, obviously, I want to watch How to Get Away with Murder NOW. But do I succumb to this whim, no, I don’t. Because I get free Netflix from my parents who continue to be the most generous people going. Get on someone else’s Netflix if you aren’t already. And share your password if you’re on your own subscription. This is keeping the world safe.
House Sit
In the same vein as using someone’s Netflix, we should all be using rich people’s houses when they’re on vacation. And rich people go on vacation a lot. Because they’re rich. The crucial part is knowing rich people. I have my parents and my friend’s parents who have asked me to house sit for them. Sometimes it involves watering their plants but mostly it’s taking a bath in their huge ass bathroom and enjoying life more because their ceilings are higher.
Go to Free Workout Classes in Your Area
I could name like four different studios that offer free introductory spinning classes in Toronto. Whenever a trendy new workout idea makes its way to a new city, a bunch of places will let you go in free once, if you give them your email or credit card number at the door. You may have to cancel or some shit afterwards, but you got a free class. What more do you need? Giving up your credit card information for something free is marketing 101 and if you think it's a scam, you're right. But you're also getting free stuff for it so maybe don't try to have everything in life. Also speaking of Classpass, there is an invite your friend option where you can go to up to three free classes of your choice, over the course of two weeks, if your friend invites you. I’ve done this twice with two friends so essentially worked out for a month for free. It was amazing and I looked great. I had to use my mom’s credit card for the second subscription but who cares.