Bad Money-Saving Ideas You've Tried

LIVER!!! Our local supermarket often marks beef liver down to $.35 cents/pound. One day I stocked up on $10 worth (30+ pounds). Kids & hubby rejected liver and onions, so I ground some into hamburger helper. Still tasted like liver. Then I tried 1 pound with 2 pounds taco beef. No luck … could still taste it. The magic ratio is 2 oz liver per 1# beef that will be used for something saucy like hamburger helper or tacos. At 2 oz per week, we’ll be using that bargain liver up for months!!! It’s cheap protein, high in iron, and I enjoy using it to skim $.34 cents off supper, but it’s a pain to “hide.”

Last year we found a name-brand bacon sold in a 10-lb box. Turned out to be less than $2.50 per pound. Since we’d bought that brand in the past and were really happy with it, we decided to buy in bulk, take it home and vacuum seal it in smaller quantities. When we opened the box, the smell was Wonderful (good smokey flavor) and the bacon looked really good too – nice and lean. But the first time we cooked it, it basically had no flavor. So we were stuck with 9 more pounds & not sure what to do with it .

“Pay off your credit card debt first.” I tried it several times. Problem is, if you pay off the credit card debt but aren’t making enough money to live on, the credit card debt just comes back. I switched to a strategy of paying off the debts that don’t come back first — medical bills and student loans — and that has worked out much better, because once those debts were gone they have stayed gone, and given me more money on a monthly basis to work with.

Another thing that never works is to buy a cheap car “for cash” and then bank what you’d make in payments. Hah. Any car I can afford for cash breaks down monthly and needs so much in unpredictable maintenance costs that I end up banking nothing and just going deeper in the hole! What a miserable piece of advice THAT is! A newer car with payments — regular, predictable — is actually a better financial bet.

My husband likes the sliced American “cheese.” To save a few dollars, I once bought the cheapest cheese at the store. Well, I found out that when it comes to fake cheese, you really get what you pay for. It was so disgusting that I had to mix it into other foods to hide its flavor and texture. It took over a month to get rid of the stuff. Never again!

I tried the write down all your expenses for a month to be able to budget better.

In the first 12 days I had a unexpected car repair and my cat had to have surgery that cost 60 percent of a month’s take home pay.

For me writing down what I spend seems to attract extra expenses

Jennifer to be frugal your one credit card should be for emergencies only! Use these tips to keep your living expenses down. You can do it. Susan I know you are only joking, you’re not that superstitious.

Carol, you’re simply incorrect about our finances and our spending. I know the finance gurus all push the “just don’t use your plastic” myth, but the financial gurus aren’t trying to feed a family on what we made. We weren’t spendthrifts. Our housing was $600/mo plus utilities, we had no car loans, we didn’t travel, I bought all my clothes at Goodwill except for my winter coat, which I bought new for $8 on clearance at Sears, and all my kids’ clothes at a consignment store, my husband and I wore our clothes until they were rags — there still wasn’t enough money to buy groceries. I remember the day I sat down and wrote down just our monthly committed expenses (things like housing, utilities, and debt service; not including variable stuff like gas and food) against my husband’s take-home pay, and there was about $50 a month left. When there’s just not enough money, it’s *groceries* that go on the credit card, right alongside emergencies like car repair and furnace breakdowns and physician copays. And even if you do pay off the plastic, saving the $50-150/mo that was its minimum payment will only put you back in the black until the first lost filling, the first leaking hose on the car, the first prescription not covered by insurance — the first unusual but necessary expense of any type. And when you’re living close to the bone for an extended period of time, those types of expenses tend to come harder and faster the longer you’re there.

All that rah-rah cheerleading about how it’s possible for anybody to live within their means, without plastic? It’s put out there by people who make a lot more money than the people they’re talking to, is my guess. People who’ve never actually tried to live at that level of income and stay fed without going into debt. And it’s a gross disservice and very unkind to the people trying to live in low-income-land.

My spouse has a PhD, BTW, and was working at that time as a tenure-track, full time college professor — a new job, his first after finishing his degree, and it came on the heels of two years of serious underemployment. And, critically, it came with health insurance, which we had lacked. But it’s also not a matter of someone who failed to get an education and can’t pay the bills, or of someone who was jetsetting around and racked up thousands of dollars in foolish debt. We were just trying to survive.

The solution we found was threefold, and it was what I described in my post: we traded the paid-off car that was costing us anywhere from $150-900/month in repairs for a new car, with a warranty, that cost only $250/mo, which brought that spending category under control and was a great relief, because it also gave us a dependable vehicle, which we hadn’t had. We concentrated our debt repayment efforts on the student loans, which would be gone for good once paid off, and which would reduce our monthly minimum debt service by more than paying off the credit card, freeing up more money for immediate use. And I was able to find new work (I’m an independent contractor, and lost my clients in our interstate move when he took the professor job because it offered regular income and health insurance), which increased our income to actual, livable levels.

We’re doing very well now, working toward being able to live on a single income (his, at a new and much better-paid job) so that we can save the other income. But following the advice you traditionally hear — “pay off your credit cards and then cut them up!” — didn’t work for us, and wouldn’t have, on the income we had then, for the simple reason that people have to eat.

worst money saving thing I’ve tried:
“make your own……” fll in the blank…soap, laundry detergent, etc etc. the quality is not very good, and when you figure your time (at your current hourly wage) in on top of the cost of the “ingredients” plus whatever energy (gas, electric) etc, it usually costs the same or even more to “make your own”….
This from a person who never eats at restaurants, loves to sew etc. but there are some things that you just can’t save money on by making yourself!

LOL I think gardening is actually that way, C.! I wouldn’t bother if I didn’t love doing it!

@Jennifer: I have worked as a financial counselor and you are right – there is more than one way to reduce debt. One of the things I did as a counselor was teach clients how to use debt reduction software that included various options for how to reduce their debt.

For some, paying off family/friends first was the way they needed to go. For others, it was high interest debt which may or may not have been credit cards. Still others benefited most by paying off the debts with the shortest time left on them first.

The most effective way to reduce debt is the way that fits YOUR situation and YOUR needs. There is no ‘one size fits all’ in debt reduction. How wonderful that you were able to find the right fit for your family! Congratulations!

I am a chronically ill single mom who works as a freelance writer. For me, the answer to debt-relief IS to not have plastic. I am a cash and carry gal, but it fits into my lifestyle. I agree with the car assessment. It can be better to have a great new/er car with no shop visits every month. I made the same choice, but I saved up and bought it outright. That is the way that worked for me, but again, it may not be the ‘right’ answer for everyone.

I had to further reduce the stress in my life due to new health issues (yeah, like a chronically ill single mom who is self-employed can NOT have a high-stress life, eh? lol) so I tackled the problem by making major changes in our lifestyle. I ’simplified’ our life by getting rid of about 90% of our ’stuff’, replacing my big house with a much smaller one, and cutting out everything else I could. I now need about 60% less income, and my mortgage is not only about 1/10 of what it was, but it will be paid off in 5 years or less versus the 25 left on my other one. What I did isn’t for everyone, but it was the right fit for us.

That is the key to finance and frugality – finding what works for YOU.

cheap tennis shoes for kids. I don’t know if it is my particular kid but I cannot purchase tennis shoes at target or walmart for him. They are trashed within a week or more. I spend a greater amount to buy either new balance or sketchers and he wears them until nearly the end of school.

The comments by Jennifer and Dani are really inspiring. Thanks for sharing with us how your grit and determination got you to your current position. Our household is ending and I’ll soon be own my own with much less. Messages like yours take some of the sting out of that. Best wishes, Roberta

For me, it was trying to force feed new eating habits. I tried making homemade health food cookies. My husband joked they would make great hockey pucks. I tried too many recipes for frugal fare that used ingredients I didn’t usually buy and they tasted so bad we wouldn’t eat them. It’s not saving money if no one eats them.

I am not laughing AT you, but WITH you! Sometimes it is hard for me to remember the value of my time and effort. Sometimes it is hard to remember to add in the cost of utilities and such. But when you read that others have faced the same challenges, it is a little funny to look at myself. Mine was not liver or fake cheese. It was ground turkey. Ground turkey came out when I was in college. My roommate and I were so poor, ground turkey was a luxury. So, we bought a good-sized package. We fried it up, and to this day it can go in my mouth, but then it has to come out. Mind over matter doesn’t work….my mind is higher than my throat, and it just comes out. I make mistakes and I guess I waste a bit of money, but I share and your knowledge and experiences help me out and lighten my load. Thanks.

I can relate to the one about the junky cars. Several years ago after paying big bucks to get my car out of the shop–AGAIN–I sat down and figured how much I had paid that year for repairs. I didn’t include maintainence or repairs from basic wear and tear, just repairs from the car being old and basically being a piece of you-know-what when I got it. Breaking it down over 12 months (no pun intended), I saw that I could make payments on an inexpensive new or late model used car for what I was paying to keep my old beater going. I wish there was a way to figure in all the the hassle and frustration, which you can’t put a price on, but if you could I probably could have bought a brand-new Mercedes! I can’t afford one of those, but I do stick with newer cars now and I don’t regret it a bit. But I don’t just trade up when I get tired of a car. I don’t care if the car has a few cosmetic issues or some minor problem like the radio doesn’t work. As long as it gets me where I’m going, I’m happy, but if it starts to have major mechanical issues, then it’s time to trade in!

Also, back in the 70s my parents ODed on Carla Emery and Mother Earth News, so they bought some land waaaaaaaaay out in the country and built their own house, as in they built it themselves, not had it built by a contractor. Let’s just say it was a good effort and my folks made a good go of it, but I hated every minute of it (and being a teenager, made sure they knew it, too). The “simple life” can be quite complicated whenever you need to drive 45 minutes down a dirt road, then another 20 minutes into town just to pick up some milk. Eventually, my parents had to let it go because it was just too remote. We couldn’t even get a phone out there. (Imagine being in high school without a phone! Well, at least I had lots of time to study.) They couldn’t sell the property no matter how low they went, so they eventually they just quit paying the property taxes and let it become the county’s problem.

I wonder what the economy would be like if all the “cheap” ingredients were channeled to better quality products (and those products sold at a price lower than normal)? I wonder what would happen if all the “cheap” used cars were junked and the steel recycled what the effect would be on the steel market?

Industry needs to become “frugal” as well and stop offering goods (and services) that are not worth the money.

Cheap clothes!! I don’t buy anything from Wal-Mart, no matter how cheap. Not even socks and underwear and ESPECIALLY not bras! I bought a pair of underwear from Wal-Mart once, and the elastic waistband was sewn underneath cotton that DIDN’T STRETCH! Once I got them on, they were obviously made for a bottom my size, but the waistband certainly was not! I also bought a bra once where the straps somehow got all stretched out and elongated everytime I wore it. After a couple of weeks I couldn’t tighten them enough to even keep it on. And even then I hadn’t learned my lesson yet, I went on to buy a tank top that lost color only in a couple areas of the garment and a pair of shorts that lost the hem in both pockets, both of these cases happend after the very first wash & wear! Never again will I waste my precious cash on this crap!

HI, I know this doesn’t qualify as a “Bad Money Saving Idea”, but I just heard on the news that heating oil, propane, natural gas, etc. is going to cost 25 – 36% MORE this winter. Yikes!!

Cheap shoes. My DH and I live (by choice) car-free, so naturally I walk. A lot. I never walk less than 5 miles a day, and often it’s more like 15+. When we first got rid of the car, I was in the habit of buying whatever cheap shoes I found at walmart or even dollar stores. Within a few weeks of this much walking in such awful shoes, I was having trouble walking. Eek.

My spending has increased since I started writing down everything I buy, too! I think it’s because I see how much I have spent so far for the week, and if I haven’t spent as much as I have allowed for then I think it’s a free ticket to spend more on things I don’t need. Before I started doing this I would have put the extra money towards debt. For some reason, my will power goes out the window when I write it all down. Just another example of what works for some may not work for others.

NOT driving. I know it sounds crazy that NOT driving would cause me to spend more money. I found that by making rules about not driving so often (to work, to school, and grocery store once a week or every two weeks, so on so on) I would spend so much more. If I just got home and forgot to stop at the store, I would wait until I was in the area. When I would get to the store I would try to stock up on things that I MIGHT need just in case. I would stop on my way home from work and find myself buying notebooks for next semester because they were on sale, meat because it was on sale, cat or dog food because I was there, and meds for allergies, gas, whatever you name it, just because I might need it and won’t want to go out and get it later. Now I have notebooks where my nieces and nephews have drawn in or ripped up because they were around, meat that is freezer burnt, cat and dog food that they won’t eat because it is too stale and an entire drawer of unopened meds that are ready to expire any day now.

So instead I decided to make quick errands every day if I need to, and if I am home and NEED something I will try to ride my bike or just get in the car!!

I know gas prices are crazy, but so is the price of my wasted meat and cat food!

At present I have a good mechanic to repair and officially inspect my 1971 Plymouth Satelite S.W. and my 1972 Dodge Dart that I’ve had since it was about 31,000 miles and had the engine rebuilt at 386,000 miles. They are both just good transportation. However, he’s had my S.W since July, it is now September 1, and the Dodge is due for inspection by September 30. He did make a comment about my just paying the towing bill for the Plymouth S.W.and (”kindly”) taking it off of my hands, but I know how it stands mechanically and I need it for transportation because I don’t have family who can provide transportation and my fiance is stuck in China.
I was an LPN most of my life and have witnessed the results of poor diet and lack of sufficient daily exercise in the lives of most of my patients. I left nursing after my parents deteriorated badly and died. So, I work nightshift housekeeping at the local university and as a benefit get free tuition. But I will very old before I graduate and get a better paying job!!! I walk to work and on short errands. My house averages 50 degrees F. in winter.
I quit my last parttime job of three years because I had undiagnosed asthma which is now undercontrol due to eating 9 servings of vitamin C containing fruits and vegetables a day. But I need to get another partime job because 50 degrees F. is 10 degrees too cold for me. I sleep in the basement year round because the temperature doesn’t fluctuate much and is cool in summer.
I have a vegetable garden, rhubarb, fruit trees, hazel nut trees given by a neighbor,black,wine, and red raspberries,strawberries, asparagus,grapes,mulberry trees that the birds planted, dandelion, sassafras leaves and other greens to eat. I don’t eat or buy much meat, chicken or fish, but the students throw away alot of food, so I take it home, fry, boil or peel and eat it. As for clothing, I have gotten some excellant things at Goodwill and only need to wear clean jeans and the company polo shirt. I need good supportive shoes such as Nike air-max because I walk about eight miles a day and I had polio when I was a year and a half old. One expense I wish I could cut is cat food and litter. However, the four are such great company and Mousers. I must be off to change the kitty litter now >^^

This is kind of funny. I’ve been an avid couponer (saving about 70% on groceries and HBA consistantly) and re-user of items (Love those kitty litter containers) for years and I don’t have any disasters to report. Occasionally I’ve purchased manager special items that we actually stale/sour/etc…but I only buy those when they are free or near free so it’s not a major loss. I think if you really think about the ways you are saving money it can all work well all the time. We don’t try to make our own laundry detergent, we only use proven household cleaner replacements that have much documentation on effectiveness (Vinegar for example), I never try anything that I can only find on a few websites, and I totally ignore any “New GREAT THE BEST WAY
TO DO IT” type deals. If it seems to good to be true….is my motto. I just can’t imagine a saving disaster. Maybe it’s just a ‘not yet’ for us.

Leaving your Farmers Market produce at the Farmers Market! This happened to me tonight – or at least I ‘think’ it did.

I went down to the local Farmers Market tonight towards the end of closing and a guy was selling the last heads of his broccoli for $1 a pound and his green peppers for .25 each. I bought AND paid for 2 HUGE heads of broccoli and 4 green peppers – paid a little over $3. Later, I wanted to show my husband the huge heads of broccoli I had bought and I couldn’t find them! I looked everywhere. I had all 5 kids with me and the only thing I can think of is the set the bag down at the Farmers Market and left it there. All I know is I got a good deal on produce – which is rare – and it didn’t make it home. What a waste.