Best Money Saving Advice
callie25
11 years ago
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sushipup1
11 years agolast modified: 9 years agograinlady_ks
11 years agolast modified: 9 years agoRelated Discussions
Where to save money on a build
Comments (18)Reno8, I was born smack-dab in the middle of Vietnam, but I was raised in a small town in a way that "felt like" a generation earlier. Most of my family memories include meals: - Many, many outdoor potlucks at my great-great aunt's house. This was when I was very, very small and we still had ALLLLL the older generation. No one had a house big enough to feed everyone indoors, so we ate outside. The men'd set up tables with wood and saw horses, and the women'd load them with delicious food. Everyone brought his or her own lawn chairs. It wasn't a fancy type of celebration, but I remember loving it. - By the time I was in upper elementary school we'd lost many of that oldest generation, yet we still stayed outside to eat most family meals. My father LOVED to grill. - I do have memories of smaller gatherings in my grandmother's and my great-great aunt's dining rooms: My grandmother had a big Craftsman with a massive dining room, but my favorite eating spot was the tiny booth in the kitchen. My great-great aunt's house was built of heart pine and none of the walls were ever painted . . . but she had a lovely window seat (overlooking a grove of pecan trees) at the end of the dining room, and after I was finished eating I was allowed to go sit in the window seat with my book, and I'd halfway listen to the adults /halfway read my books. The other thing I adored about that dining room was that the dish cabinets opened on both sides -- you could wash dishes in the kitchen and put them away . . . then remove them from the other side. I agree that these memories have more to do with the people than the surroundings. Vaulted ceilings, French doors, chandaliers . . . they aren't as important as the family. However, before you begin deciding how you want your eating areas to look, you should be honest with yourself about how you entertain. Do you cook for everyone? Do you host pot lucks? Do you go out to a restaurant? Build what you're actually going to use!...See Morenew job/money saving tips?
Comments (13)Earning money around the neighborhood is way less difficult than you'd think...my neighbor boys put out a little flyer advertising sweeping driveways (they're 8 and 6) and lo and behold, they've got regular gigs! Their mom even asked my DD to join in, because they didn't want to do it, they just wanted to send the flyer around LOL -- but they've got to live with the results of their actions, and their mom figured my DD would keep them on task :) So seriously, older folks *love* to have younger folks help around. I know I'd love to give the money to an "enterprising young man" over a service. And who knows where it will lead, whom he'll meet, etc. Cutting back on activities is difficult *if* you focus only on what you can't do. If you can go about finding things you *can* do instead, you'll find your time is completely full and maybe he can tell friends about it and take them to the things *he's* going to! We went to the coast on Saturday and attended a great free talk on fossils that entranced my daughter and all the kids in attendance, for two long hours--a *great* educator, IMO. I found out about it from the paper. The same presenter also gives expensive admission talks sometimes, but this one was sponsored by the state and was free. I consider it money saved :), and great education/exposure, and our friends are really interested to find out when he'll be speaking again. I found out from a friend that Apple computers has been doing free one-day media classes this summer. FREE. They do it every summer. Classes on podcasting, moviemaking, music, etc. I would bet where you are there are loads of great free opportunities; look in the paper with an eagle eye. They aren't promoted as obviously as the profit-making events, which makes it extra rewarding when you discover them :) Maybe your son will become the new source of cool unknown things to do. We just decided not to buy mochas out of the house and we figure it will save enough to pay for a medically necessary gym membership for me. That's how much we were subsidizing the Starbucks shareholders. I also drink a lot of protein drinks instead of breakfast, honestly, and sometimes (like today, when it's hot), instead of a dinner. I use protein and milk and ovaltine, or sometimes just make a smoothie with yogurt, fresh fruit, and protein powder (if you are interested, I'll tell you the names of the protein powders my daughter doesn't snub :)). Serving for serving, it's not expensive and it's *wonderful* nutrition. There are also products now that can do a passable job of drycleaning at home...you can have things *really* drycleaned much less often. I feel odd mentioning all these ideas like the above because I don't know what you're doing already in this regard. And re stocking up when foods are on sale: OH yeah. I buy organic ground beef *only* when it's on sale, then put it in the freezer. Same with frozen organic fruit/vegs. Bread freezes/defrosts very well too, so when the good bagged bread (not the fresh baked paper bags, the plastic bags, but there are some that are organic) is on sale, stock up and freeze it. Saves a significant amount of money. If you don't have a real freezer (non defrosting), you can probably get one for pretty inexpensive or possibly free off craigslist or freecycle. You could even post a wanted post and see what happens... and btw, this is probably a great thread for lots of people; I know I've learned from it already :)...See MoreBest way to save money on blinds.
Comments (4)We aren't in your area but instead of going with a name brand like Hunter we are going with a company that sells more cost effective options. Check out the budget type listings in your area. I've also heard Costco and Home Depot are decent....See MoreDid you save money buying your own plumbing fixtures?
Comments (54)Lauren, there could be a million scenarios to your situation and most will not do you any good. It all comes down to the person you dealing with and the practices how they run their business. You buying a home from a builder, you have a contract which probably includes listed items that come with the house. Any deviation from these items the builder can charge you anything he wants...and nobody can do anything about it... It's pretty much comes down to "take it or leave it". Most custom home builders that I know don't do that, it is all about the person you're dealing with and their reputation and in your case if they try to jack-up the price that much, this is not a very good practice. I will give you one example of a similar situation. A few months ago I was doing 3 basement designs and layouts for homeowners who purchased new homes in the same development of 13 homes...most homes still under construction, they the 1st-3 to move in. All 3 homeowners were telling me the same thing that its impossible to get anything from their builder. Anything they want to upgrade is quadrupled in price, i.e you want oak stairs $6k extra, you want crown molding 3k per room, etc Its beautiful close to 1m homes, and when I came to one of them the 2nd time, they had a contractor there building coffered ceilings, doing crown, trimming out a few openings, etc. Back to drop cloths, back to dust, back to painting, when everything could have been done long ago before the closing and the builder reputation wouldn't be diminished. Most of the homeowners who purchased this homes know each other, 8 of them out of 13 homes are friends and work in the same field, and the first 3 who moved in warned everyone else that builder is impossible to deal with and he won't budge on anything. That said, there is always a mark up on upgrades because it involves extra work and you endure extra expenses, but the mark-up is not to bankroll a homeowner, its reasonable and its priced in the way to be worth while for the homeowner and so they keep on smiling while they job moves along. We not living in the stone ages, today you give a price for something within a minute you can pull up the phone and look up the price online, and everyone knows that and every industry is trying to stay compatible with pricing or nobody would be buying anything from them... and I'm sure nobody wants to look like an idiot for giving unreasonable price. Now put all that all mambo jumbo aside, I wish you best of luck with your new home and I hope everything will go smooth and you end up with a well built home!...See Moreemma
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