The Thrifty Thread

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Phil Edwards status
Sep 17, 2012
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That Thrifty's is missing the single square of toilet paper they'd wrap around the bottom of the cone.
The forum is still missing the good emojis.
 

92122

Michael Peterson status
Jul 29, 2015
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Ting wireless or piggyback onto someone else's plan.

Buy a flip phone for cheap on ebay - no need for a smartphone unless piggybacking onto someone else's plan gets you a free phone.

Unless you drive for work, never drive a new car, and drive whatever you drive until it drops. Only drive manual transmission - they cost less and auto transmission is costly to fix.

In all aspects of life, generally avoid convenience luxuries like electric car windows in favor of crank windows. Always consider what an item will cost to get fixed if you have to get it fixed.
Really dude!? I've always had new trucks. Reliable, with little to no additional costs. Also, IMO, way more enjoyable on the day to day and taking trips with friends spending all that time in a nice space. I drive them for 5-7 years, pay them off, coast with no car payment for a bit, and then invest the resale you get into the next one, repeat. I've been doing this since I was 18 and it's worked out well, but again, I'm a truck guy, and would never buy something like a 5-series BMW. My first like new one was $13,500, my last and most expensive was $38k.

You have to factor in the hassles and other soft costs associated with a cheap car. I'll bet it you analyzed everything over the long term, the cost wouldn't be as disparate as you think. For instance, a Tesla Model 3 is barely more expensive than a Honda Civic over 5-years of ownership (look it up) but I can tell you that the additional cost for a better experience is worth it to me, for sure, and it's that way with many things in life.

As for your comment on avoiding electric car windows. LOL I used to think the same way in my teens / early 20's... then I got power windows and have never ever had one fail. Plus what is the repair cost, a few hundred bucks, vs. still quite a bit for a crank window that has you schlepping it up and down every day of your life. Please. Life is too short.


If the things you cited here were really getting you ahead, like buying a home, saving for retirement type getting ahead, I could see the value, but you don't really build much by penny pinching, believe that.

I know plenty of people who are just naturally frugle who have a lot of money, but they didn't get there because of cutting out every little thing, they got there by making money in the first place.

I consider myself pretty frugle as I don't come from any type of real money, but there is a balance here.
 
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Will there be snacks

Miki Dora status
Mar 18, 2011
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Hotel Coral Essex
I'm still stocked on a erbb member mentioning tmobile $3/month prepaid plan a few years back. I have a work phone that I can use freely, but I had been keeping a 40$/month verizon flip phone just to keep my personal number. Swithched that number over to tmobile and bought a $35 flip phone from best buy. Thought I had the cheepest plan with verizon, never would have thought to check prepaid rates. Thought prepaid was just for folks who never put more than $5 in their gas tank at a time. Tmobile and the erbb saving me over 4 hundo a year. Yewww!:shaka: