[AneroidOcean]

(01-01-2016 12:32 PM)HankMoody Wrote:  

So we had a discussion about money and game, and how not to throw money at women in the hopes of getting laid.

Hank didn't always have money. Frankly, if I had money when I had started out, I don't think my game would have developed as much. Being poor forced me to become more interesting and innovative. You can sweep her off her feet with some really basic ideas instead of lavish trips to Aruba.

Here are a few pointers I picked up that anyone with a job can do.

<SNIP SNIP SNIP>

Get to know your surroundings and go off the beaten path. It takes a bit of effort. But you might actually find you've developed into a well rounded, cultured person. You'll be easily competing with guys who have money, because you're actually interesting and fun to be around.

A lot of solid points. One thing that people miss is that with some research/time investment and some sweat equity you can produce results that other people normally spend a LOT of money on. The good thing is that often when you don't have hardly any money, you DO have time on your hands. As you grow your income/assets you can start trading money for results/time savings, but in the meantime you can get huge value out of your time if you put it to good use.

I can't seem to find some of my favorite forum posts about how to furnish your apartment for cheap or the best ways to save money, but hopefully someone else can find them and post them here.

Here's one that I posted in (and I've quoted my post below because it talks about what I actually did when I wasn't making that much money):

(03-20-2013 01:59 PM)AneroidOcean Wrote:  

(03-16-2013 04:44 AM)Prophylaxis Wrote:  

Being frugal means nothing in the bigger scheme of things. Why deprive yourself in the present? As long as you're living below your means, with the intention of expanding your means, fuck frugal - I want my dessert.

If you're saying that being frugal without expanding your income isn't going to get you that far, sure, that's obvious.

However, this is a thread about minimizing expenses and if you don't think that's a huge part of increasing your overall wealth, you're lost. The maxim that it's way easier to spend money than it is to earn it is true. In our consumer driven society, it's rare for people to understand their expenses and plan them. This is a thread about minimizing expenses, not maximizing income (which is equally a valuable topic).

To that point, I also highly recommend mint.com and staying on top of categorizing expenses. It can be a real eye opener.

There are many ways to save money. If you eat a decent amount of bread, buying a breadmaker can yield you loaves of bread for .25 each and this is just one example of being able to spend a minimal amount of time/money up front for really cheap food. Another way to do this is to buy a big crock pot and make yourself delicious lunches for the whole week. I try to buy in bulk where it makes sense and cook large meals or just straight out cook in bulk (8 sweet potatoes, 8 chicken breasts, big pot of oats) for the week. I love having healthy food ready to go at all times. I save money and time and I eat healthier. This improves my lifestyle significantly.

I live near bars/nightlife so it's very easy to spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars a month just going out a couple times a week for drinks or to meet up/eat with friends. It's cheaper for me to stock my bar with handles of quality liquor and mixers, invite my friends over to pre-party, and THEN go out and have maybe a beer or two than it is for me to have the same (or even less) amount of well liquor drinks out at the bars.

Buying used as others have mentioned is huge. When I moved to where I live currently I had crap furniture and not much of it. I also had no appliances. Scouring Craig's List, Freecycle (recycling network where people give away stuff that they could otherwise get some money for because they know someone is going to use it, not resell it), and a lucky moving out of the country sale (my friend clued me into), I bought a clear shelved refrigerator with ice maker, nice toaster oven, tea kettle, older washer/dryer, nice faux wood kitchen table/chairs, L-shaped couch (super comfortable, albeit older), coffee table, wood dresser w/ huge mirror, pots/pans hanging set, kitchen utensils, bread box, golf club set, etc... all for maybe $500.

I shop at clothing discount stores for jeans/casual shoes and I don't care at all that I'm in there with the poor people. If I can buy a name brand for 30 or 40 cents on the dollar because a stitch isn't perfect, what do I care?

Dates - A little time spend researching/planning fun dates that are cheap is absolutely worthwhile. I've NEVER had a better date because I spent a lot of money. The absolute best dates I've had with the most positive response from women is where I spent minimal amounts of money but I was thoughtful and planned something. I've had a girl state "that was the best first date I've EVER HAD!" after I spent less than $10 dollars, but I found a place that was super cool/fun for a first date.

I've had a multi-millionaire MILF completely doe-eyed and in awe of a date that I pulled out of my ass by using Google Maps Sattelite view and trying to find somewhere cool to look at tidepools (because all women like to do things they enjoyed as little girls) and see the sunset from, yet have a little seclusion from other people too. When parking I got confused but ended up finding another little walkway in between some gorgeous homes that you could walk to and be up on a cliff overlooking the bay, so we did that and then did our walk in a slightly different area. She assumed I was like the master of the coast or something and that I had also planned the moon being directly in the valley between the shoreline on our walk back. Take charge, have a plan, this was completely free.