Warbird Information Exchange

With times being tough and everyone trying to save a dollar. What are some things we could do to save money?

I have a few:

-Instead of buying 20 oz. soda bottles all the time. Buy 2 liter bottles and refill your saved 20 oz. bottles before you go to work or school. In my area 20 oz. soda is up $1.40-1.59.

-Change your oil/filter, air cleaner, transmission fluid, and make sure your tires are full to their recommended pressure. All this should help gain a few percentage in milage.

Onward!

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Don't buy soda... drink water. Its cheaper and healthier

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real airplanes have round engines

I drink lots of water!

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Shop the Airplane Bunker At
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save your coin change, save your coin change, save your coin change!!! stop the gas pump at 20.50 & pocket the 1/2 buck. going to the convience store?? the transaction comes to $11.02 insist on on the change, not the penny cup on the counter!! by the end of the day i take home four to 5 bucks a day in coin change. throw it in a jar, it adds up.

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

Take your lunch to work....reduce eating out. Stop buying snacks at the local stop-n-rob...convert to CFLs or LED bulbs as appropriate.... either get rid of every wallwart you can or at least put them on power strips you can shut off. Put exterior lights on photosensors...Reduce using microwave meals when you can...Get rid of the credit cards....stop using delayed payment programs- if you can't pay cash, then save up for it.....When you do buy durable goods, by the best you can so that you don't have to replace it as often.... Buy in bulk when it make sense...we buy dry goods and paper goods that we use lots of, in as big a quantity as we can.

We used to have pretty sorry water taste at the other house. I would buy water in 3 and 5 gallon refillable jugs and refill our drinking and cooking water dispensers instead of buying it in gallon jugs. I paid about half the price of the gallon jugs, and took the jugs into town with me when I went grocery shopping. Fixing the taste with a new filtration and softener system would have bought more than 5000 gallons in town. Even combining what we bought in town and what we got via the meter, we still wouldn't have met the minimums each month for the billing.

When it's more cost effective, we try and buy via mail order. I get my t-shirts from a catalog place and pay a little more than the local place, but I get 2-3 times the life out of them and don't have to drive an extra 20 miles on the way home to get them. We do the hand-down on clothes for the boys when it make sense....Play clothes don't have to be name brand when they are outgrown before they are worn out. When both boys have outgrown them, we pass usable ones onto a friend's boys or a shelter.

I don't cheap out on tools or durable shop items. It's way cheaper for me to pony up the cash upfront for high quality stuff and rarely wear it out, than it is to buy a couple of the cheap products. If it's something that is most likely going to be destroyed or lost or left behind, then dirt cheap is fine.

Val bought her only new car back in 1994, and I bought my last in 1986. We seem to end up with the family vehicles that were going to be traded in rather than buying new. I need to replace the truck that I'm driving, sometime this year, but at over $50K for one to handle my needs, it won't be a new one.

Don't overbuy on homes or vehicles....Do you really need a home that is going to drive you close to the limits financially? We bought a home that is admittedly going to be a little tight in a few years, but we will have enough space in our budget to add on if necessary at that point. Do you really need that $300-600 a month car payment for a commuter vehicle? Why not drive a cheap beater and save on insurance? Unless your company is paying for it, stay away from leasing a vehicle....you are just renting it, and the residual and mileage charges can shaft you.


Best thing you can do overall is be an informed consumer and don't let sales people or ads sucker you into buying something that you don't really need or is not what you want.

"Act your wage" advises Dave Ramsey.

Nathan,

If you REALLY get tired of just water, try buying a larger bottle of a good 100% grape juice. Then mix half or less with the water. It comes out cheaper that way, tastes good, and is pretty good for you, too!
When I was working with some guys on line cutting jobs for a surveyor (that can be quite hot and taxing in this part of Texas on a summer afternoon) and we eventually ditched the Gatorade and Powerade stuff for the grape juice / water mix.

The stuff CV said is all good advise, as is most anything Dave Ramsey says. I'm happy to say that my WHOLE family (parents, siblings, etc.) is debt free including all of my flight training to this point past the middle of my CFI training. It CAN be done and is waaay more satisfying in the end.

Ryan

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Aerial Photographer with Red Wing Aerial Photography currently based at KRBD and tailwheel CFI.
Websites: Texas Tailwheel Flight Training, DoolittleRaid.com and Lbirds.com.

The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD. - Prov. 21:31 - Train, Practice, Trust.

To add to the soda substitute ideas, I like to mix carbonated water with fruit juice. The carbonation really perks up the juice. Just a little juice goes a long way for me, especially when I'm thinking of blood sugar chemistry.

I'm also on the email list of my favorite clothing stores of because I can find really nice stuff at 40-75% off at the change of each season. If you can get to a Nordstrom's, they have real nice shoe sales twice a year.

Unless it's salsa, I seldom buy food made by someone other than God. I've found that it just doesn't take that much time to get some protein browning in the pan while I'm chopping up some veggies, then cook everything for a few minutes. It's a whole lot cheaper and healthier than buying prepared foods.

And while everything's cooking, I just might uncork a bottle bought at a weekly sale at a supermarket or liquor store. Also, around here, if you buy six bottles of wine, even if on sale, you get an extra 10% off.

The weekly ads from the supermarkets sometimes have good discounts on produce and protein, like wild salmon, that are in season. Look there also for loss leaders on staples like milk that you enjoy.

Craigslist is a great place to find bargains on things I need, especially if I can wait for a good deal.

Car pool.

1) Don't make impulse buys. If you want something, wait a week to buy it. It may not seem as important then.
2) Don't buy anything unless it is on sale.
3) Don't buy things just because they are on sale if you don't have an IMMEDIATE use for them. Retailers try to sucker you in that way. Look around, all that stuff will be on sale again- if not at that store then at another.
4) Don't overbuy at big box stores. If you don't use it up quickly it will go stale or need to get thrown away. My wife overbuys fruit all the time and we end up throwing about 25% of it away.
5) Don't assume that big box stores or buying in big quantity is any cheaper. Compare prices! You can probably find the same thing on sale at the local market for less.
6) Don't buy a new car. Depreciation is highest right off the lot. If you can maintain your car for 2/3 of the annual payment of a new car, keep fixing it! Bank the savings for when you really need a new car.
7) Don't take out a loan for ANYTHING except a home. A car is a depreciating asset. In the 5 years it takes to pay off that car, why don't you save up for 5 years ahead of time and get out of the borrowing (interest payment) cycle?
8 ) Buy a home in the next year. Prices and interest probably won't be this favorable for another 15 years or more. The tax writeoff is huge on a newly purchased house. Over the long-term, real estate appreciates. Renting is for chumps!

Get out of aviation.

Gary

So let me get this right. Take a packed lunch with your self filled bottle water wearing your hand me down clothes in your $500 beater. Only half fill your Spitfire on go for a fly.

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