5 ms·

Generally cutting small things has too small of an impect. At least if you are young, childless, healthy, and making a software dev salary, there are really on

Generally cutting small things has too small of an impect. At least if you are young, childless, healthy, and making a software dev salary, there are really only three flexible items that matter: Rent (huge) Car Food (esp. if you eat out all the time) At least in expensive urban areas (Bay Area, NYC, etc), saving on rent is one of the easiest things for most of the software dev types to do. Dumping a car or getting a cheap used one helps a lot, and eating out can be exceptionally costly everyday. Once you flush those recurring costs down, you'll have plenty left over to save and/or splurge. Getting good deals on $50 electronic products really isn't worth your time; getting your rent lowered by $300 a month is.

lotharbot 15y ago
> "cutting small things has too small of an impect" How small is "small" and how many things of that size are you cutting? What portion of your budget do those things make up? By what percentage could you increase your debt repayment/savings/investment plan by doing those things? Do the math; it might surprise you. Cutting a single meal out, for a single person, might save 5 or 10 bucks; cutting 20 meals out saves hundreds. Buying cheaper shampoo might save 2 bucks a month; buying cheaper household goods across the board saves hundreds. There are a number of ways the average person can save pretty good chunks of change -- thrift stores, coupons, generics, spending 3 minutes comparing prices on Amazon/Tiger Direct/Newegg, and so on. There's plenty room to splurge on the things you really care about if you save elsewhere. Save on the big things, and on the small things that add up, and you'll be way ahead.
- usaar333 15y ago
  Perhaps I'm an anomaly, but such a high percent of my budget (over 70% of spending) is consumed by rent, car, and food that other household goods just don't matter relatively speaking. I can't save hundreds on household goods, because I don't spend that much to begin with. Coupons take a tremendous amount of time and, again if you are a dev who values his time, just aren't worth it. If you want to devote N hours to cost reduction, the biggest bang for the buck is rent. Saving even $200 a month by searching for a few hours more blows away what is even possible to save on the other items. People tend to get in debt from having too expensive of a car or house. Not because they have too nice of a toothbrush or use brand-name cereal.
  - JanezStupar 15y ago
    There are loads of activities, one can do that would otherwise not be worth it - during one's "downtime". You can cut coupons while watching TV. You can also do other menial stuff that "would otherwise not be worthing" while doing such passive activities. That is a trick of old that probably most of our grandmothers used. And such stuff adds up with time.
    - usaar333 15y ago
      I agree that if you do have a lot of downtime, it's probably worth it. I'm assuming the audience here is filled with ambitious entrepreneur types who don't have such a luxury. On my end, I can't think of any passive activity I do where my hands and mind are free (I watch no TV, can't multitask reading news/blogs/books with cutting coupons, etc.). Besides, from my experience cutting coupons with my mother as a child, I know how poor the ROI is. My main original point was simply that all the small things in aggregate are... still small. Looking at my budget (which is probably similar to many on this board), the sum of all expenditures not related to housing, auto, or food are less than rent alone. If I wanted to, I could halve my rent (many of my peers in San Francisco could drop theirs by 70+%) and eliminate the also expensive auto. There is no way I can produce such a bang with the "small things" without significantly sacrificing my lifestyle or consuming tons of time deal hunting. Case in point is this reddit post I saw awhile back: http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/jelt1/dear_anonlulzsec_can_you_destroy_the_entire/c2bh8qp http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/jelt1/dear_anonlu... Cutting coupons or coffee or netflix won't help him. Selling his car and moving to a cheaper (half current price) apartment immediately breaks him out of his financial problems.
      - JanezStupar 15y ago
        The guy you mentioned is hardly frugal. He is whining that he isn't spending anything on luxury - while in truth, EVERYTHING is super luxurious. He treats his whole life as one big luxury experiment. One rents (0% downpayment lease is a rent) non essential resources, especially at the brackets he cites. In such cases 50% expense could be dropped immediately, with hardly any meaningful impact on quality of life. And lifestyle is hardly a quality of life item.
- tstyle 15y ago
  Once you take the opportunity cost of time into account, cutting the small things may not be worth it. Sure if there are two shampoos next to each other we'd grab the cheaper one. But if you need shampoo and happen to come across a store with overpriced shampoos, grab it anyway to save both the time and mental effort.
- dredmorbius 15y ago
  To answer this question: do up a budget. Write it on paper, soap it on a window, do it in a spreadsheet, use RoR. Whatever. Write down your income, your deductions (federal income tax, SSI, healthcare, state, 401k). Then list your expenses. Compute them as a percentage of your income. Rent and food are about 50% of my net expenses (including savings). Even my $100+ mobile bill is barely 1% of my budget. As with the Federal budget -- if you've got 15% of everything else (after entitlements, defense, and interest), then if you have a 30% budget shortfall (about the size of the current US federal deficit), there's simply no way you can cut yourself out of the problem through "discretionary" spending alone. I can look to spend $200 less in rent. Or try to cut that same $200 from each of my cell, food, and incidentals budgets. Odds are I'll have an easier time finding a cheaper place to live (and the discount pays forward as it's a fixed payment each month). Look to the big-ticket items first. It's a more efficient use of your time. I cou

lotharbot 15y ago

> "cutting small things has too small of an impect" How small is "small" and how many things of that size are you cutting? What portion of your budget do those things make up? By what percentage could you increase your debt repayment/savings/investment plan by doing those things? Do the math; it might surprise you. Cutting a single meal out, for a single person, might save 5 or 10 bucks; cutting 20 meals out saves hundreds. Buying cheaper shampoo might save 2 bucks a month; buying cheaper household goods across the board saves hundreds. There are a number of ways the average person can save pretty good chunks of change -- thrift stores, coupons, generics, spending 3 minutes comparing prices on Amazon/Tiger Direct/Newegg, and so on. There's plenty room to splurge on the things you really care about if you save elsewhere. Save on the big things, and on the small things that add up, and you'll be way ahead.

usaar333 15y ago
Perhaps I'm an anomaly, but such a high percent of my budget (over 70% of spending) is consumed by rent, car, and food that other household goods just don't matter relatively speaking. I can't save hundreds on household goods, because I don't spend that much to begin with. Coupons take a tremendous amount of time and, again if you are a dev who values his time, just aren't worth it. If you want to devote N hours to cost reduction, the biggest bang for the buck is rent. Saving even $200 a month by searching for a few hours more blows away what is even possible to save on the other items. People tend to get in debt from having too expensive of a car or house. Not because they have too nice of a toothbrush or use brand-name cereal.
- JanezStupar 15y ago
  There are loads of activities, one can do that would otherwise not be worth it - during one's "downtime". You can cut coupons while watching TV. You can also do other menial stuff that "would otherwise not be worthing" while doing such passive activities. That is a trick of old that probably most of our grandmothers used. And such stuff adds up with time.
  - usaar333 15y ago
    I agree that if you do have a lot of downtime, it's probably worth it. I'm assuming the audience here is filled with ambitious entrepreneur types who don't have such a luxury. On my end, I can't think of any passive activity I do where my hands and mind are free (I watch no TV, can't multitask reading news/blogs/books with cutting coupons, etc.). Besides, from my experience cutting coupons with my mother as a child, I know how poor the ROI is. My main original point was simply that all the small things in aggregate are... still small. Looking at my budget (which is probably similar to many on this board), the sum of all expenditures not related to housing, auto, or food are less than rent alone. If I wanted to, I could halve my rent (many of my peers in San Francisco could drop theirs by 70+%) and eliminate the also expensive auto. There is no way I can produce such a bang with the "small things" without significantly sacrificing my lifestyle or consuming tons of time deal hunting. Case in point is this reddit post I saw awhile back: http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/jelt1/dear_anonlulzsec_can_you_destroy_the_entire/c2bh8qp http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/jelt1/dear_anonlu... Cutting coupons or coffee or netflix won't help him. Selling his car and moving to a cheaper (half current price) apartment immediately breaks him out of his financial problems.
    - JanezStupar 15y ago
      The guy you mentioned is hardly frugal. He is whining that he isn't spending anything on luxury - while in truth, EVERYTHING is super luxurious. He treats his whole life as one big luxury experiment. One rents (0% downpayment lease is a rent) non essential resources, especially at the brackets he cites. In such cases 50% expense could be dropped immediately, with hardly any meaningful impact on quality of life. And lifestyle is hardly a quality of life item.
tstyle 15y ago
Once you take the opportunity cost of time into account, cutting the small things may not be worth it. Sure if there are two shampoos next to each other we'd grab the cheaper one. But if you need shampoo and happen to come across a store with overpriced shampoos, grab it anyway to save both the time and mental effort.
dredmorbius 15y ago
To answer this question: do up a budget. Write it on paper, soap it on a window, do it in a spreadsheet, use RoR. Whatever. Write down your income, your deductions (federal income tax, SSI, healthcare, state, 401k). Then list your expenses. Compute them as a percentage of your income. Rent and food are about 50% of my net expenses (including savings). Even my $100+ mobile bill is barely 1% of my budget. As with the Federal budget -- if you've got 15% of everything else (after entitlements, defense, and interest), then if you have a 30% budget shortfall (about the size of the current US federal deficit), there's simply no way you can cut yourself out of the problem through "discretionary" spending alone. I can look to spend $200 less in rent. Or try to cut that same $200 from each of my cell, food, and incidentals budgets. Odds are I'll have an easier time finding a cheaper place to live (and the discount pays forward as it's a fixed payment each month). Look to the big-ticket items first. It's a more efficient use of your time. I cou