“The 72-Hour Rule”: 40 Surprising Life Hacks To Save Money That People Swear By

Having just spent an absolute fortune on winter clothes for my kid, half of which he bloody refuses to wear for one reason or another, this made me laugh out loud (and want to cry too!)

This makes me sad and angry. :-(

Don't have pets

My friends without kids retired young, travel all over the world on the money they saved.

This. If I had had kids, I wouldn't have my paid off house or paid off car or my career that allowed me to buy those things. I'd be broke and wondering how to pay the rent that the landlord just hiked up 50% because I couldn't afford a house from having kids.

True that! Being hungry makes you want to buy all sorts that will most likely end up in the bin or permanently on your waistline!

I've gone to the store hungry and stoned. The cashier asked if I was having a kid's birthday party. I lied and said yes, lol.

If I don't shop hungry, I'll only buy Tic-Taks and cat treats. I have to shop hungry to make sure food makes it to my apartment.

And always shop in the morning so you don't have decision fatigue

This!

This is really valuable advice and should be higher - especially for products like meat and cheese. You can often buy a greater portion for the same ticket price when you compare per 100g price rather than than the packet price.

But also make sure, if you’re buying stuff like meat, you don’t buy so much most of it goes bad because you couldn’t eat it quick enough. Look for a balance between affordability and usability.

They try to trick you, too. One item will say $x/oz and on the larger size of the same brand item, the tag will say $x/liter or some other different measurement. You don't always pay less per oz on a larger size, which is surprising.

SO helpful especially when packaging can be very deceiving! I almost bought three pounds of meatballs just yesterday for $15 by a brand that's new to me, because it looked slightly bigger than the usual brand I buy that's five pounds for same price! Reducing even incremental waste definitely adds up.

In most stores the cost per X is listed on the shelf price label . . . in very small print. I've shopped using this cost for many years. It's amazing to learn how a "family size" or a "giant size" costs more than a couple of individual sizes, on some food products. Pay attention to the unit cost.

Back when I was a student, after I quit smoking, I kept putting cigarette money aside. Very soon I had enough to take my boyfriend on a romantic trip to another city. Seeing the money accumulate definitely helped me quit!

I used to smoke and always said if they raised the price to $5 a pack I'd quit. Well, they did (and a lot more). My last cig was August of 2010. I'm glad they raised the price, tbh. And I wish they invented vaping sooner. That's how I was able to quit.

I quit smoking and started vaping. Saved *thousands* over the course of five or six years. Quitting vaping now too - haven't had nicotine in my juice for over two years!

My mother smokes between 20 and 30 a day. A pack of 20 costs approximately £11 in the UK, so that's well over £100 a week. She spends more on cigarettes than she does on food or household bills, and then complains that her pension isn't enough to live on and she has to dip into her savings every month. She's never made a serious attempt to stop because she enjoys it. Trouble is, she's getting frail and elderly and has fallen a couple times, and is struggling to cope on her own, but she won't go into sheltered accommodation or a residential group home because she wouldn't be allowed to smoke in one. She'd rather risk falling downstairs and breaking her neck than give up smoking.

its silly that they are so expensive - mostly tax

Your not saving x amount, your spending x amount on something don't need.

I've often seen the store brand go for about a dollar (US) or more less than the national brand with a coupon. IE: National brand napkins $12.00 US, with $2.00 off coupon... $10.00. Store brand $8.50. So I buy the store brand and chuck the coupon. But not all are like this and of course, not all store brands are as good. Also, shop at ALDI! :)

But I desperately need that cauliflower knife!

Also don't buy stuff at a wholesale place in quantities that you could never possibly use. Every year my husband buys a double jar set of horseradish bc it's only a few dollars more and every year I throw out 1.9 jars of horseradish because it's way past expiration. Does that $hit go bad? I can't tell; I think it's always nasty...

It depends if it's replacing what you normally buy.

Thanks to government cuts, 900 libraries in Britain have closed in the past 10 years, and many more have strongly reduced hours to the point where they are inaccessible to anyone who works during the day. It's a tragedy. Cherish your library. Use it if you can. We need to show there is demand for them. I love to take out graphic novels from my local one, as they're so expensive to buy and I read them way too quickly.

Also online library has audiobooks free!!!!!

Had a girlfriend who lived in my apartment complex. Noticed that, over time, she had many different framed prints hung over her couch. Asked her where she was able to store so many big pictures. She told me you could borrow them from the library. I had no idea!

Libraries are the most wonderful invention of all time! You can learn anything, go anywhere, have whatever adventure you want, meet your hero . . . . . Library &/or library location is one of my most important criteria when I move.

At my local library, you can borrow baking and cooking tins, it's brilliant. They stock specific types of baking tin like a madeleine tin, rhum baba, bundt tins, tins for cream horn patisserie, elaborate jelly moulds etc. The sort of baking tray that you need for a specific recipe but wouldn't be worth buying just for an attempt to bake something more exotic.

Force yourself to live within your means.