Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire The Secret to Saving Money

I think a better approach to #10 is to rent before you buy. I've done it with a lot of power equipment, from gas powered hand equipment (pressure washers, hedge trimmers, etc, to bulldozers and excavator). First it gives me an inkling of whether the job I want to do is capable of being done by a certain piece of equipment. Second, it gives me a good idea of the type of things to look for, or avoid, if I decide to buy a piece of equipment. I never borrow, or loan tools or equipment. I will, however, use my equipment to help someone - but I always operate it.

Where I live, almost everyone is a rich liberal, but only half have grandkids.

There is painful grandkid envy around here.

I think a lot of daughters could get a $2M contract to have a baby.

What kind of stud fee for having to slum a rich liberal.

Uhh....the secret to saving money is to not spend so much money,

Another good idea is to have your customers pay part of your workers' wages.

OrangeOkie: Heres how I became wealthy!
#1: Made good decisions.
#2: Worked more.
#3: Spent less.
#4: Enjoy the out of doors (Hunt/fish/hike/camp) its way less expensive than many other pastimes/hobbies/vacations.
Easy peasy.
Personally I can't stand to listen to dave ramsey on the radio - my decisions and status were made long before dave ramsey came along.
I am happy for him that he became wealthy but again a little of dave ramsey goes a long way in boring me.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Spot on.

Lmao. Not materialistic? Lmfao..

I know people putting as much money away as they can to help their adult kids. I might by them a dinner or two or couple tires for their car but I didn't bust my ass to give it away. My kids had a great childhood, better than mine and wanted for nothing. I'm getting to where some things are getting harder for me to do physically so I'm glad I blew a bunch of money hunting, camping, dirt bike racing and showing my kids a lot of neat things in this world. My kids know there won't be a lot of money coming their way when I croak but I like to think they got more out of me than money. My wife will be well taken care of so I got no worries or regrets. In a perfect world I would run out of heartbeats and money at the same time.

The best way is, don’t spend any!

Dave Ramsey is not for everyone, for sure. But he sure helped me become debt-free. When the student is ready, the teacher will come.

My depression era raised grandparents got me on the right track before I ever heard of Dave Ramsey. Gram & Pops your advice and example have served me well in this life so thank you.

Got a copy of richest Man in Babylon at around age 21

Also married a very good woman. When we first met (she was my first hire ) I convinced her to save 30% of her paycheck

Told her we were in the salt mine biz, not the gold mine biz. We’d have to salt some away if we were gonna have a decent economic future

So far so good. I’ve been extremely lucky to have the folks I have in my life

I've learned a few things about personal finance through mostly trial and error. The successful people I am acquainted with share several similarities.


1) Good health. (Sometimes you have control of this; sometimes not.)

2) Ethical, honest living. (No extra marital affairs, illegitimate children, lawsuits, drug abuse, etc.)

3) Strong work ethic.

4) A good spouse who shares their values.

5) A giving spirit.

6) They don't give a crap about what others think about what they wear, drive, live in, etc.

It took me awhile to fully embrace being smart with my money. Having a child is what forced the issue. Scraping by with big time credit debts and two car payments isn't sustainable, so I was just treading water then had to find room for day care bills. I sold enough and got on budget to handle that first $700/month bill, now comes number two, but guess what? Paying off my debts has freed up an additional $1300/month now, so there's probably even room in the budget for a third kid. Yes the $6,000 it will cost to have the kid will hurt and it will take time to rebuild those savings but if we hadn't gotten out of debt, I might never have been able to own either of these kids and I certainly wouldn't have been able to pay the hospital bills and monthly day care.
Having a kid forced me to grow up with my money. We don't make a lot in comparison to some, but being smart with it and getting on the same page has allowed us to take control of our finances. It does mean delaying some pleasures like expensive vacations and bigger toys like boats, campers and newer trucks. At the end of each month, we'd ask where our money went before learning to budget and using an app that we were both willing to put our inputs into (EveryDollar). We also had separate bank accounts, and forcing the sharing of our finances also forces us to talk about expenditures, planned or otherwise. It also forced us to talk about saving and investing.
Dave Ramsey's plan works, but only if you are willing to do your part. There is no refinancing or consolidating your way out of debt. Being unintentional with your money is an easy way to rack up debts that will take you forever to pay off. At one point my parents espoused the "use a credit card to build credit" idea. We all know better now. I have not cut up my credit card yet, but it's paid for, which I never thought would be possible through a long stretch of my life. The relief and freedom that smart budgeting and debt freedom has brought to us is hard to put into words, but there was a crushing weight and dread and embarrassment that it contributed to our household. Good riddance!

Very good advice. I did all that, except I feel you have to modify #6 if you interact with customers (sales) or when you're applying for a job. As for #1, there are no guarantees you can do this but you can sure bias it in your favor.

There is a difference between looking presentable and buying just for the name brand and latest fashion. I've yet to buy anything from a guy because he wore a Rolex watch for example.

Don't spend it!!

hunt in your socks... quieter..

If your outgo exceeds your income, then your upkeep will be your downfall.

An old saying from my grandfather.^^^^^


All one has to do to save money is to spend less than he makes. It ain't hard.

Just about every broke person I know would still be broke if they saw a sudden 500% increase in their income. They'd just have more garbage and crap scattered about their yard and house.

Good one Gregintenn. Many here are saying dont spend , or save more. True but you need to know how to invest . There is no building of wealth having it in the bank unless you make an awful lot of money.