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General tips on saving money. Eyewear: If you wear glasses use zennioptical you can get the same glasses you get at the optometrist for like 1/10th the price they charge. You just need your prescription and your PD (pupillary distance). http://www.zennioptical.com/ Cellphone/Homephone: Need a house phone? How does free sound? You can use an OBI-100, a normal phone, and google voice to get a free house phone with free unlimited long distance, caller ID, voice mail, and SMS text messaging. If you have to pay for DSL some carriers offer plans without the phone line or discounted etc. http://www.google.com/voice http://www.amazon.com/OBi100-Telephone-Adapter-Service-Bridge/dp/B004LO098O/ Need a smart phone? How does totally 100% free sound? http://www.freedompop.com/phone They offer 200 minutes, 500 texts, and 500MB for free. Unlimited talk and text, and 500MB is $11/mo Additional date is $0.02 per megabyte. If you talk a lot use republic wireless. You get a nice droid moto x for, $25.00 a month. Unlimited everything. It uses sprint/verizon CDMA network. The catch is when you have open wifi available it will use that instead of cell network to place calls, not really a big deal at all. http://www.republicwireless.com/ Cars: It's cheaper to drive a beater (old crap car), and repair it all the time that it is to have a car payment and full insurance on a new car. I drive a 1996 POS and keep up on maintenance, when it dies beyond repair I have enough cash in the bank to buy a replacement the next day. Things to keep up on, changing: belts, hoses, filters, batteries, fluids, spark plugs, brakes, tires, wipers, etc. Find a good mechanic you trust, they are like gold. You can buy used tires with 65-70% used tread for about 50% the cost of new ones if you hunt around used tire places. It's not good to have 4 odd pairs of tires however. Try to get in sets of 2 at least. TV: Cable SUCKS man! Get a roku 3, and you can use the plex app to stream anything you can download to your TV, it also supports netflix, hulu plus, amazon, gets all the national news, tons of free channels, more than anyone could ever ever watch. Amazon video is free with a prime subscription. Cable is expensive and has 99999999 channels with absolutely nothing on. If you download a lot invest in a good VPN that doesn't log, and is based out of the usa. EarthVPN is based out of Northern Cyprus and it costs $4.00 a month for a 1GBPS connection, no logs. You can use clients like VUZE to bind to that VPN connection in case the vpn disconnects. You can also get an HD antenna and get many free to air tv stations. http://www.roku.com/ http://www.earthvpn.com/‎ Shipped to your door cheaper than you can buy at walmart LOL: Amazon is cheaper for many things than walmart, seriously if you have prime you get free 2nd day shipping too and a free amazon video subscription. If you order a lot from amazon it's worth it. Yes amazon sells grocery items too. They sell just about everything man. http://www.amazon.com Electricity hogging appliances: Your dryer and hot water heater use a lot of electricity. Dry your clothes outside, and tumble air fluff no heat to make them fluffy and not stiff. Install a low flow shower head, and do navy showers with luke warm water to save on energy. Great and cheap low flow shower head: http://www.amazon.com/Niagara-Earth-Massage-1-25GPM-showerhead/dp/B003UQ17O4/ Great drying rack: http://www.amazon.com/Badoogi-BDP-V12-Foldable-Compact-Storage/dp/B008BM3G50/ Cheap Clothes, Dishes, and stuff: You would not believe how many pairs of really nice khakis, nice button up shirts, dress shoes, etc can be found at thrift stores for like a buck each. Blankets, towels, winter jackets! They have everything! Wash them in hot water, and dry them on high heat and you are good to go! Most of these are in like new condition. Dishes too, glasses, steel pots, silverware, cast iron pans, super cheap! Appliances too! Laundry: You do not need brand name detergent LOL. Tide doesn't do a better job. At the very most buy generic bleach alternative (sodium percarbonate same chemical as oxiclean) and generic borax to boost your detergent. 99% of the time this is unnecessary. You do not need the amount they tell you that you need. Use exactly 1/2 what they tell you to, get double the loads. I get a bottle of generic 32 load rain fresh laundry detergent for $1.00 at the dollar store. It does 64 loads. Lot's of people go on and on about how cheap it is to make your own laundry detergent... LOLLLLLLLLLL I spend $4.00 a year max on washing clothes. I am not going to waste time trying to make my own when I spend $4.00 per year. If you live in an apartment without a washer/dryer and don't want to waste money at the laundromat never fear: Cheap manual washer easier and quicker than you would imagine: http://www.amazon.com/Rapid-Washer-Manual-Washing-Machine/dp/B002QUAPSO/ Spin dyer, gets clothes 90% dry: http://www.amazon.com/The-Laundry-Alternative-Nina-Dryer/dp/B00CDWTQKI/ Good drying rack: http://www.amazon.com/Badoogi-BDP-V12-Foldable-Compact-Storage/dp/B008BM3G50/ Portable washer: http://www.amazon.com/Haier-HLP21N-Pulsator-1-Cubic-Foot-Portable/dp/B002UYSHMM/ Razor Blades: You know those 5 blade stupid expensive razor blades? Yeah they don't tell you is you can resharpen those while you shower lol. It won't work forever but I get 4-5 months per blade. Run the blade backwards on your forearm while in the shower 20 times before you shave. If it cuts hair you are doing it wrong, it should be the opposite motion you make when shaving. Here is some creepy old shirtless dude who bears a strange resemblance to Donald Rumsfeld, demonstrating how to do this: PC Gaming/Computers: Do you like pc gaming? Good so do I. Did you know if you have virtually any quad core cpu and 4GB of ram you can upgrade your power supply and get a nice $250.00 video card and still play virtually any game on the market well? Anything near 3GHz quad core even if it is 45nm is still just fine and dandy, and upgrading to a new cpu isn't going to help much at all. All you need is a new video card to play the latest games well. Don't waste your money on a new pc unless you have a dual core. Groceries/Food: Buy a chest freezer, so you can stock up when something cheap is on sale. You can freeze bread and milk and just about everything else too. Lettuce not so much. If you toast frozen bread, you will not ever know it was frozen. Don't buy fresh produce unless you 100% know you will use it all, potatoes and onions are exceptions as they keep well. Buy a crock pot, seriously do it! Get a big one! Soak some dry (not canned) black beans on low for several hours, drain the water and replace it, then chop up an onion, toss in some bullion cubes, add favorite spices, and boom high protein, high antioxidant meal much cheaper than meat. Let it cook while you are work for an easy dinner, or overnight so it's ready for lunch. Just make sure you cook on low with lots of water if not home. Shop at bargain grocery stores with dent and ding cans, usually you can find insane deals in the freezer section and there is nothing at all wrong with the food. Use discount stores like Aldi if the dent and ding place does not have what you were looking for. Aldi is great!!! Seriously it's awesome go there like tomorrow. Bottled Water: Don't buy bottled water get a distillation unit! This will produce distilled water which is fluoride free. You will need to add a pinch of baking soda to remineralize the water so it doesn't taste bad. Dental Care: Brush your teeth with Burt's bees toothpaste and let it soak into your teeth while you shower, it has a compound called novamin which remineralizes your teeth with phosphorus and calcium, no cavities for many years even though I use the fluoride free version. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NovaMin Lawn Care: Manual lawn mower, no gas required, no engine to maintain, etc. http://www.amazon.com/Fiskars-6201-18-Inch-Staysharp-Mower/dp/B0045VL1OO/