How to and How Not to Save Money

These are just suggestions and I welcome your ideas also.  Think of it as another exchange of top 10 lists.  You don't have to be an economist.  I'm not.

How to save money:

Walk to work (or at least live nearby): My favorite Thoreau quote goes something like, "The cost of something is the amount of life you exchange for it."  If you commute a long way to work, it not only costs you a new car every 3 or 4 years, but the quality of hours spent in the car are poor.

Learn to cook: beef roast, fish, rice, squash, beans - all of these things are dirt cheap compared to what they cost at a restaurant.  You also have control over how much salt and fat you eat, which will reduce your medical costs.

Don't smoke: The future is bright for heavy taxation of cigarettes. Liberals hate the things, and it's one of those taxes conservatives have renamed a "user fee".  This too may help you spend less time outside the hospital.

Start off in a REAL starter home:  If you have to borrow money for your first house, buy a little house and not a castle.  Nothing you borrow money to buy qualifies as an investment.

Buy used clothing: Go to a few yard sales; people wear something once and sell it for a quarter.  I kid you not. It looks fine, and the money you save will be better spent on a house. 

Have your kids pay for their own college: Life is a great teacher. If they have to pay for their own schooling, they'll be learning every waking hour, not just when they have a book open.  Also, if they have to pay for the opportunity, they'll have more interest in getting their money's worth.

Get a part time job that requires manual labor: If you're going to work out, get paid for it.  Pick up that dime.  It's paid exercise.

Retire to a small rural community and buy a little house (or trailer) there.  The rural economy is a mess, and people will be more than happy to cut your wood and clean your home for a modest fee.

Drive nice:  You won't crash.  You won't get tickets.  You won't have to shop around to get cheap insurance.

How NOT to save money:

Skip college: Okay, so you've meet fool after fool waving a college degree, but don't think of it as evidence of wisdom.  It's a membership card, and if you don't have it, you will be excluded from opportunity after opportunity.  It's worth every penny and the club gets more expensive to join every day.

Clip coupons: (see learn to cook, above).  It's more enriching to look through the vegetable bins at the grocery store than it is to clip a coupon and save thirty cents on a designer brand of frozen carrots.

Join a health club: Unless it's really important to you to be seen exercising, there are much cheaper places to do it that don't require you to drive over there, put on your workout outfit, take it off, shower and drive home.   See the Thoreau quote above.  Alas, if you really need all that fancy equipment to stay in shape, ignore this and get the exercise.

Skimp on nutrition: Fresh vegetables are not expensive.

Comparison shop for every little thing: Calculate the hourly wage.  If you wouldn't read ad copy and listen to sales pitches for ten dollars an hour, then don't do it for an hour to save ten dollars.