My 8 year old is excited to start diving this year with the kids club at the local shop, my 5 year old seems interested as well. I think it is just money well spent. Thankfully overtime discretionary income tends to increase.
Finances and Tec Diving
- Thread starter ccrprospect
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Do not buy an expensive car. It just needs to run. You can save a lot. The same applies to bicycles.
Carpool. Halve the gasoline spending.
Eat and drink less/cheaper. It adds up.
You can halve your spending on soap and shampoo and clothing. Get functional instead of nice. Redefine what "broken" means to you.
Carpool. Halve the gasoline spending.
Eat and drink less/cheaper. It adds up.
You can halve your spending on soap and shampoo and clothing. Get functional instead of nice. Redefine what "broken" means to you.
A friend had a number of sets of doubles when he went CCR. Kept one and sold the rest.
I have long had a dream of writing a book/website called Living Better for Less. It would go through all the ways people throw money away through common and seemingly unimportant lifestyle choices (like daily Starbucks orders).
I once wrote a lesson for a school class. It began with something of a short story in which two people who were college roommates get together after 5 years. As they talk, they learn that almost everything about them is the same--annual pay, etc. They also see differences, though, some of which have been listed in this thread. They look small in terms of cost. At the end, one of them mentions buying a house, and other is amazed, having nowhere near the money needed for that.
The assignment for the students was to calculate the financial difference between the two over those 5 years based on just the handful of differences in their lifestyles mentioned in the story. It amounted to many thousands of dollars, and for the purpose of this thread, it is more than enough to finance technical diving.
I once wrote a lesson for a school class. It began with something of a short story in which two people who were college roommates get together after 5 years. As they talk, they learn that almost everything about them is the same--annual pay, etc. They also see differences, though, some of which have been listed in this thread. They look small in terms of cost. At the end, one of them mentions buying a house, and other is amazed, having nowhere near the money needed for that.
The assignment for the students was to calculate the financial difference between the two over those 5 years based on just the handful of differences in their lifestyles mentioned in the story. It amounted to many thousands of dollars, and for the purpose of this thread, it is more than enough to finance technical diving.
I have a friend who is always looking for ways to save money, even though he really doesn't need to. One way he likes to save money is by buying inexpensive wine ($10 a bottle) for his minor alcohol consumption.
A $10 bottle of wine has 4 glasses, so that's about $2.50 a drink.
Let's say they instead drank very good quality spirits, costing about $30 a liter. That will have about 30 standard drinks in it. so that's about $1.00 per drink.
If they wanted to spend the same amount of money per drink as they are spending on cheap wine, they will have to start by spirits that cost over $70 per bottle, and that is moving up into the luxury brands.
A $10 bottle of wine has 4 glasses, so that's about $2.50 a drink.
Let's say they instead drank very good quality spirits, costing about $30 a liter. That will have about 30 standard drinks in it. so that's about $1.00 per drink.
If they wanted to spend the same amount of money per drink as they are spending on cheap wine, they will have to start by spirits that cost over $70 per bottle, and that is moving up into the luxury brands.
broncobowsher
Contributor
Being cheap doesn't mean giving up every nice thing. There is a local BBQ place I like. I keep my large cup and get refills, others throw the cup away every time. I order up just the sandwich, others fill the plate with sides. Those extra slaw, beans, and pudding add up to more than the sandwich does.
Back when I was in school I was cheap there as well. This was 25+ years ago so pricing has changed a bit, but I would go into the local McD and others were spending $5 a meal, I ordered up a pair of burgers and a water for 83¢. It has at least doubled since then, but the concept is the same. I would still eat with friends, just a lot cheaper.
Avoid the bar. I have co-workers who think nothing of blowing $100+ a night on drinks. That's more of my yearly budget. Doesn't mean you have to suffer. I have frozen pizzas ready for a meal, but I get the nicer ones. About as fast as delivery at half the cost.
Back when I was in school I was cheap there as well. This was 25+ years ago so pricing has changed a bit, but I would go into the local McD and others were spending $5 a meal, I ordered up a pair of burgers and a water for 83¢. It has at least doubled since then, but the concept is the same. I would still eat with friends, just a lot cheaper.
Avoid the bar. I have co-workers who think nothing of blowing $100+ a night on drinks. That's more of my yearly budget. Doesn't mean you have to suffer. I have frozen pizzas ready for a meal, but I get the nicer ones. About as fast as delivery at half the cost.
Also if you have cable TV ditch it.
Lottery tickets are one I see a lot, just a waste of money
Lottery tickets are one I see a lot, just a waste of money
Take breakfast, lunch, and hot tea to work. Rarely eat out. I even figure out how much it costs me to go get tanks filled with how much gas is now (car gas, not breathing gas). If I drive an hour each way they’ll fill my LP tanks to 3000. Important for cave (mine) diving, but not for quarry diving. The quarry (opens next weekend) fills my LP tanks a bit over service pressure, but they know me, so I’ll get fills there when diving there.
I last had cable in 1999. But I went without a TV from 2003 to 2016. I just watch the local news and PBS. My streaming service is PBS Passport. A $5/monthly donation to my local PBS station gets me tons of streaming programs.
And reduce your cell phone bill. I get Verizon service through a reseller (Boom Mobile). I have unlimited everything for $45/month. That’s half the cost of the same service directly with Verizon that I had a few years back. I want good service since I drive a lot in rural areas going to dive sites.
100days-a-year
Contributor
Meh, I just can't be bothered to try that hard to save when it's simpler to adjust my income rather than my spending.
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