How do you stretch your income?

camperdan said:

Well, that is a stroke of genius. If you are a reader, you might find Michael Pollen's book entertaining.....
In Defense Of Food. A short book , but packed with insight. There is another book I recently digested, written by an English MD "Ultra Processed People". Quite an eye-opener.

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I will second the recommendation on "In Defense of Food" book.
You can also get the Joosr version on Amazon Kindle for just $2.99.

Something I meant to post earlier that is inexpensive but can yield big savings.



These can be purchased for a dollar or two just depending on where you shop.
It can help you to save big depending on how much you drive by keeping your tire pressure where it should be. Low pressure in tires can eat gas mileage and prematurely wear out your tires. Big expenses.

Some of these have readings from 0 to 50 psi while others will read higher like 0 to 100 psi. You can Google for the recommended tire pressure for your equipment.

There are different styles of these and some have dial gauges where other more expensive types are digital. The time to check and adjust your tires is earlier in the morning when it is cool before you drive. And check them twice a week if you are on the road a lot. Once a week otherwise. If you don't have the means to put air in your tires in camp, add a little extra air the next time you air up at a service center. Then the next morning early check the tire pressures. If they are a bit over you can let some of the air out to get the reading your rig is supposed to have. Some people will run a pound or two of extra air pressure which will give a little better gas mileage and longer tire wear. But expect a little rougher ride if you do that.

Being aware of your tire pressure when on the road should be a primary concern for economy and safety.

eDJ_ said:

Something I meant to post earlier that is inexpensive but can yield big savings.

These can be purchased for a dollar or two just depending on where you shop.
It can help you to save big depending on how much you drive by keeping your tire pressure where it should be. Low pressure in tires can eat gas mileage and prematurely wear out your tires. Big expenses.

Some of these have readings from 0 to 50 psi while others will read higher like 0 to 100 psi. You can Google for the recommended tire pressure for your equipment.

There are different styles of these and some have dial gauges where other more expensive types are digital. The time to check and adjust your tires is earlier in the morning when it is cool before you drive. And check them twice a week if you are on the road a lot. Once a week otherwise. If you don't have the means to put air in your tires in camp, add a little extra air the next time you air up at a service center. Then the next morning early check the tire pressures. If they are a bit over you can let some of the air out to get the reading your rig is supposed to have. Some people will run a pound or two of extra air pressure which will give a little better gas mileage and longer tire wear. But expect a little rougher ride if you do that.

Being aware of your tire pressure when on the road should be a primary concern for economy and safety.

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One of these if u have dual rear wheels.
And one of these

Or one of these that will do both.

In situations like I’m in right now receiving medical care I have to stay put and just enjoy what I have here… traveling is to hard anyways right now. I wanted to go west a few hours but I just irritate things and suffer for it. So sit I will!!! The money saved will help immensely!
Also sticking with good proven staples for food. Being organized and making sure I reduce spoilage to a minimum.
And stay away from shopping on Amazon except for needed things!
Never let the credit card go unpaid each month in full.
I can and will do better at saving and such. But living within means no matter what it takes.
Sometimes we get snowballed with expenses. It just takes a bit more time to work through. That’s when you do not upgrade or spend anything unnecessarily.
The cheaper I live the freer I feel!!!

Black Friday deals for streaming services... $1 to $2 a month for the year
Any "must have" item from Amazon, but don't need immediately - I put in my cart or on a list and watch for it to go down in price.
I get a lot of free books through Amazon that I read on my phone using the kindle app. Not the best authors, but usually pretty entertaining.
I do grocery pick ups most of the time (no impulse buys, but also can't take advantage of meat markdowns).

I have subscribed to the free BookBub site for several years, which is an excellent resource for free and very inexpensive ebooks for my Nook and Kindle apps.

https://www.bookbub.com/

I only let them send me a list of books once a week, but generally read only ebooks I have gotten from this site.

You can list preferred authors and types of books you like, then choose from the offerings or pass them up entirely.

I found this page of "Family Shopper" I mentioned earlier. It shows each month and what the deals are to be found that month. Much of this is about clearing out warehouse room to be ready to receive new stock for the upcoming season. This is how stores lead the market.

Many businesses use July 1 as the beginning of their fiscal year and after the July 4 weekend summer to them is officially over. Notice below what is available in the month of July. Summer is a big marketing season and August finds a lot of summer items being liquidated too. After July 4 marketers tend to focus on back to school items and upcoming fall season goods at the same time. By September winter goods and Holiday goods are coming to the warehouses so any left over summer goods will be liquidated with big sales.
Some sales are at give away prices and aren't advertised. The idea is to save on advertising and let customers word of mouth to other customers bring them in as shoppers. This is where you can learn to visit stores in those times and do a quick walk thru to see if there are give away sales going on.

A lot of thrift stores like Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, Dollar General, and variety store Pharmacies like Walgreens, CVS, and RiteAid often have such sales. Sometimes the large chain grocery stores do this too.

This may work for you if you can resist spending on things you don't really need. I've found some things at crazy low prices and bought a parcel of them
and later traded those with my friends for other things they may be willing to trade. Don't forget "barter". There's no tax on it. =)

WanderingRose said:

I have subscribed to the free BookBub site for several years, which is an excellent resource for free and very inexpensive ebooks for my Nook and Kindle apps.

https://www.bookbub.com/

I only let them send me a list of books once a week, but generally read only ebooks I have gotten from this site.

You can list preferred authors and types of books you like, then choose from the offerings or pass them up entirely.

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I do the same. Not only is it fairly inexpensive, but an ebook/kindle takes up much less space than a paper book.

I order from Amazon most every week. Reg delv day is weds so I order on sat or sun & get from $1.50 to $3.50 for movies & e-books free. I have about $30 credit now & way over 2500 free e-books.

INTJohn said:

Most the money I’ve made in life I spent on boats, booze & broads and the rest of it I wasted.

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Sounds like you need to cut back on your wasteful spending!

I've been a numbers man all of my life. We use Quick books and maintain a budget. When there is something we want, we add it to our Amazon wish list and then compare the cost with retail stores. We also shop around on sites like face book or craiglist for used items. Garage sales and flea markets are also a good source of things. Good Will also have nice things for low prices.

I try to keep "the 3 R's" in mind as much as I can - especially #1 "Reduce". I am finding I don't need much at all to live quite nicely while travelling.

Another "Old Timer Trick" I've found to be helpful is "Rely on the kindness of strangers".

And, as the years melt into decades I have finally learned that a good nap can be just as satisfying as trying to satisfy my curiosity about what is in that museum/store/movie/restaurant/must-see place.

Hubby is a real painful numbers guy. He is a budget nut case.

We shop sales and thrift stores. I cook mostly from scratch, and we drive older cars. We got a reverse mortgage. and we live in an area where our equity is still growing faster than our mortgage is. We are drowning in doc bills but slowly getting out of those.

We don't eat out much. Our hobbies are not expensive. We spend waaaaay to much on cable and such, but it is our 1 real expensive thing. We live on an island so it's easy to not be to be tempted by as much. But at the same time, I except that some things cost more here. I rent book to travel with from thrift stores and use the library a lot. (renting means I just give them back). I don't really like to go to movies or shows or anything. I am an introvert so would rather not hang out to much in crowds. Though there is a music festival in the Gorg this summer that is very tempting..... And the island is hosting a Ren fair for the first time this year.

My big expense right now is my gym membership. But it is my quiet space.

I would rather walk the beach as walk in a mall. YUK! Not many things on a beach to tempt me. I wear cheap jeans and t-shirts, never was much of a fashion lady and my job doesn't care if I wear those as long as they are clean.

I love my part time job. I can work as much or as little as I want. I went back to work part time for 2 reasons. 1- is 24/7 is hard on a marriage. 2- I want to travel some so it is what we use to help us travel. The pay is tiny but again I like my job.

Recently I found this book in the Public Library and it's the work of a young woman who has really lived a hard life of misfortune in pursuit of the American Dream. She recounts doing everything right only to wind up with disappointments beyond her control and a train load of debt, thus her story with solutions serves to show what drives so many to consider becoming a Nomad. A fantastic read I would highly recommend to those enduring hard times, trying to retire student loan debt, or recover from adversity.

The book is short and to the point and packed with quality info. There is even a Video Review of the book on the page.

Living on Almost Nothing

Safeway have a 50% discounted section in the back close to there back staff entryway. From toiletries to beer. That's huge. Buying beer is killing my on my budget. Buying beer at the local pub is also a killer.

I bought pringles chips on that rack which was discounted at 50% off. I shouldve bought the case of beer also 50%. But i was fully stocked. The lady looked at the pringles chips and just didn't even ring it up, put it straight into my bag.

When I got out of school for the last time I lucked into this job at a beer carryout & party store. I was sending out resumes while applying to out of town jobs. I was told that by the end of summer when the hot weather was over I'd be laid off. OK with me. The pay wasn't great but I figured some ways around that to all but double what I was making by hustling 12-pac's of beer to the night shift guys at the fast food places at twice the store price. Not a problem as it was ice cold. Next day at work I would ring up the sales of those units that I boosted.

Across the bridge was Ohio and it was "Dry" there. (no alcohol sales there) Up the road was a large University and there were plenty of night spots/clubs near the party store. Girls were coming across the bridge and stopping in for cigarettes, chewing gum, etc on their way to the clubs. And often stopped back in on their way home wondering what I was doing after work. (dead night at the clubs) With another $120 bucks of side money each week I could enjoy some good times in my rig with some of the girls. Beer was no problem and neither were the dates.

This place was an old closed gas station converted to a party place and a dump when I first got there. But within a couple of weeks I cleaned it up and increased sales a lot. People thought I owned the place. It's just a matter of being creative and putting out some effort. At summer's end I was laid off but had dozens of places around the mid west to go interview and talk to about career level jobs. There was no internet/computers back then so I couldn't work remotely and extend my travels to have a blast like today's young nomads.

I had planned to buy a pickup with a topper and a small bumper pull trailer. I had worked as a mechanic and tow truck driver while going to high school nights and weekends. I figured I could travel from town to town and work/live at small gas stations and garages til I found one I liked. The fact the government was drafting people and my birthday won the draft lottery changed all that til after I got settled in the military. After that a tent was plenty! Lol!!!