10 Things We Don't Buy/ Pay

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

The Money Saving Mom and The Frugal Girls recently posted 10 things they don't buy or pay for. I thought it's interesting so I post ours as well. Please don't feel guilty if you chose to buy any of these. We splurge on some other things too.  

Our list of 10 Things We Don't Buy/ Pay:

1. Cable TV, Netflix subscription.  The free basic channels is sufficient for us and once in a while we rent $1 {correction: I heard that it's $1.20 now?} DVD through RedBox.

2. Credit card interest. We use credit card but we always pay it full at the end of the month. Can't wait for the day when pay off our mortgage so we no longer have to pay mortgage interest.

3. Bank monthly fee. Most bank usually have limit of how much we should have in saving/ checking in order to avoid monthly fee.

4. All purpose cleaning spray and cleaning wipes. I made my own all purpose non toxic cleaner and use it with rags instead of using cleaning wipes. 


5. Ice cream. We went out one day and we were at the front of two stand: ice cream and clam chowder stand. We asked Max which one he would like to have. He answered, "Soup. Ice cream bisa di rumah mama yang bikin." {translation = soup, I can eat mama made ice cream at home.}

6. The latest gadgets. I still use my old and faithful Nokia phone. This year we have been saving for an ipad so we were happy to find out they just released ipad 3. That means the price for ipad 2 went down and that's what we got. 
7. Frozen/ packaged meals, soda, chips. Most days we cook from scratch. I learned that it doesn't take a lot of time as long as I planned well {have all the ingredients, know the steps/ familiar with the recipe}. We try to eat healthy so we eat nuts, bread, or fruits as snacks. We made our own coffee instead of buying from coffee shop {except when we're on vacation or on a date}

8. Fabric softener and Dryer sheet. We used to use these until I learned that we don't really need to. In addition, the later one is bad for my asthma and Max' eczema. 

9. Branded bag, shoes, and so on. When I was a teenager, my dad rebuked me when I asked about buying a branded something - I forgot what it was. His message still rings in my head, "Don't care about what people thinks or about the brand, as long as the quality is good." I was 23 when I found out what's LV stands for and I almost passed out when I found out how much does it cost. 

10. New Car. We followed Dave Ramsey's advise here. If 15 years old car is good enough for the Ikea's founder, a 5 years old car is surely good enough for us.

Other things we don't buy/ try to buy less are:
a. Bottled water. We like to bring our own water in Contigo bottles
b. Paper towel. Lately I have been using cloth napkins and it makes me feel like eating in high end restaurant. Should have done it sooner. :)


Again this is just our choice or what works for us at this point. Feel free to comment and share your own list of things you don't buy/ pay for.


10 We Spend Extra Money


 

3 comments:

  1. Interesting Ki, BTW, I love Redbox too.. although around here it's Blockbuster Express and I actually paid $2 for 5 rentals through Groupon!!

    My list of items that I almost never bought FULL Price:
    1. Shoes, I love shoes..a lot! But I usually look for coupons and only buy when they are on sale. The typical shoes and sandals that I own range from $7 - $30/pair including tax. Nike, Naturalizer and Steve Madden brand loh for that prices!

    2. Clothes, my coworker gave me bags of used clothes in excellent condition, some still had tags!!! (she's a crazy and I'm blessed lol!). I like to go to Ross and Macys. With Macys, I usually buy online from the Clearance and usually with coupons. I typically spend at most $20 in a piece of clothing, thanks to coupons and discounts.

    3. Coach handbags, this is my guilty pleasure but I never buy a full-price. I got all my coach bags via outlets & only when they had 30% off coupons LOL. But they actually last long and I think I won't be buying anymore for a while until one or two die lol.

    4. Fruits and Vegetables, I hate canned and frozen food. I love fresh fruits and veggies. I go to Milk Pail market near my house. It's a European style open-air (farmer's market like) market. I usually buy what's on sale that day. A typical grocery trip for a whole week worth of fruits and veggies (usually 3-4 different kind of veggies and 2-3 different fruits) cost me between $5-$10!

    5. HOTEL ROOMS! When I go traveling, I usually use Priceline to bid on the hotel rooms. Typically I spend between $40 - $70/night for a room in a 3+ stars hotel (including tax and fees).

    I spend almost nothing on new cool gadgets! I don't own an Ipad. I was tempted to get one, but then I realized that I don't really need it and can survive without it! I own a free android phone and a 4 years old apple laptop.

    I splurge and extremely guilty with FOOD! I love to venture out eating different cuisine.

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  2. Thanks for sharing, Yun. Never heard of Milk pail market. Will check it out. Do they have one in south SJ?

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  3. Milk Pail is a small business, locally owned Ki. They have a "sister" market in Los Altos I heard but I don't think they currently have one in S SJ. But you know what!! what a great suggestion ahahahah :)

    ReplyDelete

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