So over the past few years I've bought $200 laptops and they will typically last me about 2 years before dying. I do graduate school online and use my laptop often for work so it's extremely frustrating when one dies unexpectedly as happened just now. I don't play video games or anything like that. Basically the only thing I need it for is having a few dozen MS office and chrome tabs open at a time as well as light streaming. It seems like the $200 laptops on the low end can't even manage that per reviews but then the next jump up in price is around $500-800. Do I really need to spend that much just for a basic laptop that works?

Homeless, inherited 230k. What should I do?

Hi all. My mother is on ssi and has received 205k she doesn’t own a home and has two dogs, She wanted to start a business but she had multiple personality disorder and has a million different ideas. What should her first course of action be for this money? Housing or where to invest her money as well?

CSAs?

Those who have memberships with CSAs(Community Supported Agriculture), would joining one be a possible alternative to support the local community while also saving some money on the grocery bills?

I shop at Aldi, but sometimes BJs to get some items in bulk. I'm trying to make sure I'm getting enough protein, fruit, and veggies. I've been buying canned tuna and chicken, canned beans and rice. I try to also get store brands. It seems like no matter how much I try to save money, I'm spending a lot on groceries. Any advice?,

My humidity level is always hovering around 30+-3%. i have very dry skin and want to find ways to increase humidity since im suspecting the dry air is worsening body itching. i have 2 personal heaters and a floor heater from the apartment, and i maintain 21-22 degrees celsius in my room, which means turning on the floor heater to ~21 degrees, turn one heater on low heat and use the second for air circulation. any tips? after i shower and open the bathroom door the humidity may increase by a meagre 5% or so and drop a few hours after.

i'm in the PNW where it (somehow) had been a very dry season but is still very cold.

Basically the title lol

Looking for a car after 4 years of not driving, not sure where to look or even begin. I’m just looking for something reliable, my budget would probably max out at $2.5k right now, not sure if that’s even reasonable. Any suggestions?

Curious if anyone has tips on preventing big spending immediately following a no spend month. For example, I have a couple home items I'm thinking of purchasing at the end of my month but don't want to get to the end of the month with a lengthy list of items I want to buy. Thanks!

I feel like very expensive fancy insulated water bottles are only a money pit. And after heavy use of six months. The straw, or mouthpiece is completely dirty and most people don’t adequately clean it. This(black) is just a screw off top. I have no worry about surprise mold. what really makes the difference in price besides Brand-name

Time to brag. I wanna hear what’s the best thing you’ve gotten for $10 or less. Your favorite dollar store finds, thrift hauls, estate sales, grocery shopping deal, etc. Personally, I love fashion and my friend gave me free boots they ordered off of Temu that were too big on them. They are almost exact dupes of the Prada Monolith boots.

So I was thinking, there are business that are known to be open to negotiation and some that you can’t. For example, you can negogiate at car dealerships or for a home but not at your local convenience store (in general).

What are some businesses where there is wiggle room but very few people take advantage? Furniture stores? What made me think about this is that I recently worked for a furniture distributor that sold things to Bob’s, Ashley, Raymor & Flannigan and I would see the 200-300% markup. Is it possible to negotiate at these businesses? Where else?

I have saved a considerable amount over 5 years by using a microfibre makeup removing cloth. Endlessly repurchasing micellar / removing products AND cotton pads or whatever is completely unnecessary when one permanent re washable cloth does the job perfectly.

Where I spent maybe $40 a year, since using one microfibre cloth over 5 years, I’ve saved about $200.

It’s a small thing, but a great frugal swap I wanted to share. Little by little, a little becomes a lot!

Edit: goes without saying, I use cleanser after wiping with the cloth. If you have sensitive skin then this isn’t for you maybe. Reservations against microfibre are reasonable but unfortunately that’s what makes the cloth able to remove makeup using only water. You can choose to use oil of some kind to breakdown makeup with the cloth but it can usually remove it with only water.

Since printed, mailed, coupons are no longer favorable for many, I’ve found that directly reaching out to parent companies of my favorite brands, gives me a more likely chance to get my hands on coupons.

Emailing and calling brands to offer praise, your opinion on a product, and then following up to ask for coupons, is often successful. I have been pleasently surprised at what’s been mailed to me due to offering my opinion.

Don’t be surprised if they send you future promotional products to try and comment on!

Thanks for reading. I am wishing you well!

Video games have gone up in price and I feel like I can only buy 2 video games per year for the ones I'm really looking forward to (GTA 6 and BF6 mainly) and I just end up building a backlog that I can never seem to finish. So I've started watching gameplay walkthroughs with no commentary on youtube and it really feels no different than playing the game, except I'm not actually playing it. But at least I get to experience the full games story without shelling out any money and at the cost of my internet and electricity bill. I might just start doing this from now on even if the games I want are on sale for $20 or less. Has anyone else done the same?

I want to have and 11x14 16x20 canvas print of my soul/heart dog fabricated from an uploaded photo. I'd done this years ago very affordably through Walgreens as they seemed to always have sales on these speciality prints. Now I find that they charge $50 - $90, respectively.

This might just be the going rate, but if anyone knows of a less expensive option and/or sites that frequently have specials, I'd appreciate the info.

Hi everyone, 23 F here. I've just recently moved to the DMV area for work and am extremely lonely (and even more broke). I have always been used to having large friend groups and going out a lot. Also, I don't have any family in the area. So this is really taking a toll on me even though it's been just a couple of days. It's at least 3-4 weeks until I'm a bit comfortable financially. Any suggestions to get out there and make/hang out with friends on an extremely low budget?

Looking to heat my one year old son's small room at night. Do you think an infrared heater or an oil filled radiator style heater would do that more efficiently? Unfortunately it gets colder in his room than the main room where to heat pumps thermometer is, so this is necessary for us.

Given the current American political climate, I expect... bad things in the future. Probably war, shortages, etc. I want to buy things to cover our needs. I have a basement where I can store supplies. I am thinking about buying a membership at Costco/Sam's Club/BJ's to get this stuff. I was also considering Aldi's because I hear they're very cheap. Does anyone have recommendations what they best place would be for this kind of purchase? I don't know how good the deals are at these warehouses.

Here's some of the stuff I am looking to get: Canned food, flour, yeast, powdered milk, oil, toilet paper, matches.

Similarly, what are some things that I should get if I am anticipating shortages? I can't store fire hazards (gasoline, propane, etc)

I've been watching this show today and I remember when extreme couponing was a thing. It was always too overwhelming for me. But it's not really a thing anymore as far as I know, is it? If not, and you were an Extreme Couponer™️, what are you doing now to scratch that itch?

My wife and I are doing some spring cleaning/purging of 'junk' we don't use in our house. Stuff we have duplicates of or don't use - it's gone. It feels really good to clean out all the cabinets in the kitchen, the closets, the office, etc. We're doing a mixture of donating, giving away on 'buy nothing' Facebook pages, and selling. I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW MUCH STUFF PEOPLE HAVE BOUGHT. Old sunglasses I haven't worn in YEARS - $20. 10 old neck ties I haven't worn since high school dances - $10. Old safe for under the bed at college - $20. Old scale - $15. Nice hat I never wore. $10. Lots of sports equipment. All sorts of other stuff. I have some things posted on eBay and even sold some stuff on Reddit.

We had like 5 sets of bowls (matching but different sets) + some individuals. We're keeping 3 sets and donating the rest. Mugs.....so many mugs. Keeping the nice matching sets and a few individual favorites and purging the extras.

I've made $370 selling random stuff we didn't need/use in the past 2 weeks. I dedicated a box in a basement closet to for sale stuff. It's organized and keeps everything nice in one spot. It might take a few months to move everything but that's OK. I had to take pictures and sit down and just dedicate time to posting everything but once it was all up I just let it ride. We tackled 1 room at a time (ex on Saturday was the bathroom and kitchen. Another day was the bedroom and closets).

It's a double win. Cleaning out the house and a couple extra bucks in our pocket.

Hi all. I’m wondering about power usage. We have a four seasons room in a home we just bought that was added on after the home was built. We use it as our daughter’s playroom. There are two ways to condition the air: through an inline blower hooked to our AC and a mini split.

My main question is if it makes more sense to always keep it conditioned, or to not. Our daughter is in school 4 days a week so I only have it set to come on when she gets home, and it‘s set to come on for when she’s awake F/Sa/Su. At night and on school days it cools down pretty significantly, maybe to the low 40s F. We aren’t sure what the summer looks like yet.

I can only automate the inline fan to run with our AC, the mini split is manual, but I could keep it mostly conditioned if that’s more economical? Just not sure. Thanks!

In your personal opinion, at what point does frugal become cheap? I am very careful in the frugal area so as not to go cheap and wasting money. I have purchased certain items for bottom dollar price, and I definitely paid for it by it breaking very quickly. Another example is hotels. We don't travel a ton, but if we need to go far distances, I cannot go overly cheap on hotel cost. It has to include breakfast, it has to be clean, and it has to be in a safe area.

Important to consider- always try on shoes. And-many things can affect how a shoe fits (weight gain, growth spurts, style of shoe, need for thick socks, etc.) so make sure you don't have to waste time returning the shoe.

& Some chain stores do BOGO or even better discounts on shoes, so if you're buying them for work, take advantage of that.

The entire reason I am posting this is I have had a lifetime of being one specific shoe size and due to aging I have more shoe options in terms of what sizes fit. Which is nice.

Obviously I am in the cycle of feeling there’s no new clothes to wear .. but I have so many clothes then I don’t wore often. My most successful year is my pregnant year ! Only wearing the same 3 dress almost every week cos they are too comfortable and nice styling !

I need some hive-mind help.

For a variety of reasons, I've decided to cancel my Amazon Prime membership by the end of this month. The price of the subscription is the main reason, but also the ease of ordering tons of crap I don't need, mainly for the free delivery. I'm giving myself a few weeks to do this because I want to watch the upcoming new episodes of Jack Reacher. Also, having taken this membership for granted for over 5 years, I'm worried about things going away unexpectedly when I cancel Prime. The tentacles are long, as we all know, and often easy to miss.

I'll lose Prime Video for sure, but have lots of other streaming options. Music? I've never taken the bait for Music Unlimited or Kindle Unlimited, but what about the basic versions?

What I need is a list of things to look out for. Who here has canceled Prime and been caught unaware by benefits going away that they hadn't thought of?

Thank you in advance.

My local meat market also has package deals. Here's an example of one for $ 33.99

• 1 lb      Ground Beef​
• 1 lb      Sirloin Round Steak
• 1 lb      Beef Soup Ribs
• 1 lb      Assorted Pork Chops
• 1 lb      Boneless Pork Roast
• 1 lb      Boneless Pork Loin
• 4 lb     Chicken Leg 1/4's
• 2 lb     Bnls Chicken Breast

Hey I am transitioning from living in dorms to living alone. Previously I had a meal plan and now that I am living alone the whole aspect of making a grocery list and planning out what I am going to be eating on a daily basis is stressing me out. Being an international student, my budget for food is also very tight, especially in the current economy. So I would really appreciate any advice or pointers that you can give me.

Does anyone sell their aluminum cans? I'm wondering if it is worth it considering the hassle and gas to a site. Obviously it depends on how close you are to a place and it looks like one is 5-7miles from me.

With the current state of the economy, im considering most things. There is a fine line between "frugal" and "cheap" where the cheap way doesn't actually math out.

What's a cheap place to buy bedding? I've been using the same bedsheets I've had for over 20 years. Need some new ones. That's really it. Don't know what else to say here.

I live in the U.S. Not really looking to buy anything online. I prefer shopping in store.

My parents are moving from MI to VA to be closer to me, and I’m trying to help them figure out if hiring movers is worth it or if they should DIY to save money.

They have a two-bedroom home and won’t need full packing services—just help loading, driving, and unloading. No stairs involved, but they do have some heavy furniture and a few sentimental antiques.

If you’ve hired movers for an interstate move, how much did it cost?

Any tips on keeping costs down?

Thank you!