an anti-consumerist and diy-based guide on how to save money

disclaimer:

• many of these sacrifice more of your time to save money
• it may not be applicable in every country/town/area; it is based off of my own personal experience
• i encourage you to exercise free will, i don’t expect you to follow all of these, especially all at once

general:

• consider repairing things more often (repair>replace)
• consider the structure of an item you want/need. it could be an item you can make with the materials you already own if you break it down to its form and function.

posters/personalization:

• save cool brochures, flyers, packaging, small items, graphics
• print/tile anything from the library for free/cheap (use https://rasterbator.net/ for tiling)
• consider custom personalization over buying new versions of the same thing
• ex: do you want to buy an official hello kitty notebook? is it because you want to have pictures of hello kitty on your notebook? if this is the only reason why, consider using stickers/washi tape/pasted images of hello kitty instead.

eating outside:

• get free treats through lying about your birthday
• research large food chains that have a location near your home or place of work/study (baskin robbins, mcdonald’s, panera bread, literally any corporation like this that serves food)
• find out if they have a loyalty/rewards program and check if they give a free food item (no purchase necessary) on birthdays or on sign up
• if they do, put in a different birthday for each one in a timely manner, often you get about a week at least to use the reward
• ex: if you work monday through friday, don’t put your birthday for the mcdonald’s near your work on a saturday. if you put it towards the beginning of the week, you can have more time to use the reward and it will also future proof your setup (to a degree) as weekdays shift forward as the years go by
• put the birthdays at least one calendar month in advance from when you are currently setting them up or you may have to wait until next year to start getting the rewards
• i recommend spacing them out so you aren’t in a free birthday treat drought for too long and also so it isn’t too big of a deal if you are too busy to get the treat
• if you are consistently buying the same coffee/meal/treat, try to make it at home just once. it could take too long or taste too different but you have to try to know for sure. consider looking for “copycat” recipes, i.e. write “crumbl cookie recipe” into a search engine. (likely, the first time you make it is the longest you will ever take making it).
• for the lunch you eat at work/school everyday, meal prep specifically is a better consideration over making your lunch every morning.

grocery:

• reference the volume/unit count of the item you’re buying. is it worth changing brands? (how do you know how it tastes? reference online reviews)
• compare prices across different stores
• consider food pantries
• https://www.findhelp.org ← good for finding food pantries and other resources as well; I recommend referencing the direct websites of organizations after finding them here for specific information though as it could be inaccurate on hours, eligibility, etc.
• “help yourself” counters/napkin dispensers:
• take more things from fast food corporations and the like. i’ve never been asked to prove i’m a paying customer (ex: dunkin, chipotle, mcdonald’s, your university’s cafeteria, anywhere with a napkin dispenser that doesn’t need your money). i’m not a lawyer but i genuinely don’t think they could do anything more than just ask you to leave.
• please don’t take every single ketchup packet left, if you need more go somewhere else
• in general if you end up doing this consistently/replacing buying an entire condiment at the store from doing this i recommend diversifying the places you go
• examples of things i have been able to take:
• napkins
• ketchup packets
• mustard packets
• mayo packets
• honey packets
• salt packets
• pepper packets
• plastic utensils
• big con: pretty much all of these things are individually packaged

media:

• for youtube with no ads on a computer use a browser with an extension marketplace (firefox, opera, chrome, etc.) then use whichever highly rated adblock you like (ex: ublock origin), there are some built specifically for youtube as they can be more strict
• for youtube on mobile with no ads use youtube.com on the brave mobile browser (it has built in adblock)

• consider piracy, see below: (use vpn + adblock) (try “🐐” links first)
• (consider your local library first) books/textbooks: https://www.reddit.com/r/Piracy/s/qBkdJAVHEf
• more frequently updated guide for libgen: https://librarygenesis.net/