By Dr. Margaret Curtis, WCI Columnist
I recently read with interest the Physician on Fire’s (PoF) column on his family’s thrifty habits, in which he shows how they live on approximately $80,000 per year by, for example, cutting his wife's hair and buying jeans at Goodwill. Naturally, I took this as a personal challenge. I can’t match his spending level—we have spent more on custom hockey helmets than his entire daily budget—but I have a few tricks up my sleeve.
My mother was thrifty her whole life (and an original subscriber to the Tightwad Gazette), and she taught me well. I saw her: leave her first career (teaching), enter a second career (IT, before it was even called IT), save carefully, and establish herself financially so she could retire comfortably. I got the message. I haven’t always gotten it right, but thanks to her, I entered adulthood with a careful spender’s mindset. So, here are some of the ways our family saves money—and each comes with an added non-monetary bonus.
We Save on Goods and Services
I am no longer allowed to cut my husband’s hair (there was an incident, the details aren’t important), but I was our kids' barber for years. I also patch their clothes. When they were under the age of 5, they wore almost 100% hand-me-downs, and now we shop for them at outlets. They are teenagers now and are particular about what they wear, but they still bring me anything that needs mending. Added bonus: keeping our clothes and gear out of the landfill.
Like PoF, we happily buy used items. I get all my office clothes used. Online consignment stores like Thred Up have every brand and every size of clothing. Rental services would work if fashion is important to you. I just want to look professional, so I don’t go that route. If you are worried that the clothing you buy online won’t fit or flatter, you can send your purchases back for a full refund and it will still be less hassle than shopping in person. Added bonus: you won’t care when you spill coffee on your $5 shirt.
Our favorite sofa is the one we found for free on the sidewalk. My youngest spotted it in front of the house of a neighbor who we know to be meticulously tidy (former neurosurgeon) so we weren’t worried about bedbugs or cigarette smoke.
The best money we never spent.
As we were hot-footing it over to bring the sofa home, a man stopped and asked what we were doing. Apparently, where he comes from, people don’t just give away stuff in front of their houses. I was almost too shocked to explain how this local “freecycling” works: clean usable items go on the sidewalk, sometimes with a “free” sign. The front lawn is off limits, but anything on the sidewalk or edge of the road is fair game (be careful where you leave your lawnmower).
Maybe this is just a New England thing but everyone does this where I live, regardless of the neighborhood. We have given away items ranging from ski boots to an upright piano this way. Other things we have gotten for free: a nice rug (spent $100 cleaning it), a free-standing basketball hoop, and a foosball table. Added bonus: each item comes with a story.
Our dogs’ favorite treat is a raw carrot, and their favorite toys are the used tennis balls we get for free from a local court. Added bonus: the vet says they have great teeth (from all those carrots) and they have never needed dental cleaning under anesthesia (at least $2,000).
We barter. This doesn’t really even go under money-saving activities; this is just how communities have always worked. My neighbor fixed the brakes on my bike, and I watched his kids for two hours. Another neighbor is a professional baker and brings us treats, and we shovel her driveway. I couldn’t tell you how much money we all save because we don’t keep track. Added bonus: helping your neighbors.
Speaking of helping your neighbors, here's a fun story: we used to live in a small town in Vermont where everyone looked out for each other. The town was hit hard by Hurricane Irene (all the roads washed out) and people were practically racing to pump out each other's basements. A Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) helicopter landed on the town green to distribute food. No one needed the food, but someone left some zucchini bread on the pilot's seat. In case they needed a snack.
We Save on Activities
We have cheap hobbies. My absolute favorite sport is Nordic skiing, and my favorite place to do it is either the golf course (free) or the snowmobile trails (also free). Added bonus: finding new, beautiful places.
We garden. We used to grow almost all our own vegetables in the summer. Where we live now, we have room for just a small plot, but it’s enough to keep us in tomatoes and basil all summer. Gardening can be expensive if you buy seedlings and fancy planters. We start most of our plants from seed in empty yogurt containers and grow them in the compost we buy in bulk from our municipal composting service (one free bag per week, or $15 for a cubic yard). Added bonus: we eat really well.
A few years ago, pre-COVID, we rented a camper van and spent two weeks in Utah and Arizona. We stayed at a few private campgrounds, but our favorite places by far were on National Forest Service lands. The staff at the local Forest Service centers were incredibly helpful (and less harried than their National Park colleagues) and gave us great advice on off-the-beaten-track places to see and stay. We paid $5 per night to camp in some truly magical places. Added bonus: amazingly, we had each one entirely to ourselves.
When we are home, we hardly ever go out. With streaming services, we can see the best entertainment the world has to offer from the comfort of our (free) sofa. One hundred years ago, royal courts didn’t have this kind of luxury. Added bonus: the kids know where to find us on a Saturday night. Teenagers need parents who are stable and predictable. Mine frequently tell us we are boring, to which I reply, “You’re welcome.”
We Save on Home Expenses
We share a bathroom with our kids. We live on the edge of an expensive neighborhood: our house cost about $400,000, and houses a few streets over are $1 million and up. One of the reasons our house was affordable was that it only had one bathroom. I knew we had done well at brainwashing our kids when one of them asked me to explain a phrase he had read in a book: “What does it mean when it says HER bathroom? That doesn’t make any sense.” We have since added a half-bath, because one toilet for five people was . . . untenable. My problem now is getting to the shower first in the morning before the teenagers. Added bonus: my kids are prepared for college life and sharing a bathroom with everyone on their floor.
We paint and do minor repairs ourselves. Our neighbors probably wish we paid someone to do our landscaping. My husband used his spring 2020 work hiatus to build a retaining wall and patio in our backyard.
Pandemic project.
Regular readers might remember that he also puts in a skating rink every winter. This is not especially frugal when you add up the cost of the boards and his time maintaining it, compared to $5 open skate at the rink down the street. But it keeps my husband happy and out of harm’s way. Added bonus: we know where to find our kids on a Saturday night. They are playing hockey in the backyard.
There you have it: some of our family’s best tricks for saving money and keeping ourselves entertained. Post a comment about yours, and if I can’t beat it, I’ll borrow it.
What are some of the more creative ways you save money? Would you be willing to take any of these suggestions and implement them in your life? Is it normal where you live to take a free couch off the sidewalk? Comment below!
Great article! The humor had me smiling the entire read. Awesome way to start my morning.
Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed it. Frugality without a sense of humor is just…grimness.
Enjoyed reading this. What kind of car do you drive? I think having a modest house and a modest car are the biggest difference makers when it comes to frugality.
Thank you! I drive a Prius C (bought off Craigslist), my husband drives a Chevy Bolt (bought new).
I agree: car and house expenses are killers. Easy for me to say, because I’m not into cars and really don’t care what I drive.
Well done, Dr. Curtis.
Great writing- funny & useful.
I love to hear of frugality among physicians. It is even more impressive in a Doctor-Doctor household.
Encore! Encore!
Thank you! We do have some bigger expenses, but frugal habits have been our saving grace.
One bathroom in a $400,000 house?
The house hadn’t been touched in years and was…odd. Two staircases leading to the same landing. One bathroom in three floors. Odd.
Sounds like Salt Lake these days. The average house here is now over $400K. Houses in my neighborhood have more than doubled since we bought in 2010, and that’s the ones that weren’t renovated.
Love it.
In the first few decades of life, relative frugality is more or less a necessity for most of us. Then, it becomes a path to becoming debt-free and making real progress towards financial independence.
Eventually, it’s an ingrained habit and more sport than anything else. Some of us just like to spend less and enjoy the gamification of getting the best deal. Nice couch, by the way. 🙂
Cheers!
-PoF
Thank you. I’m told it’s very comfortable to sleep on, if you are a teenager.
I don’t know about you two. 🙂 Frugality is great (i.e. don’t waste money) but carried to an extreme can become a vice. Be careful!
For us, it was more a means to an end. Well, we hit the end. We still don’t buy “a lot”, but when we buy something (whether a want or a need) these days it’s usually the top of the line.
There certainly is a difference between saving and hoarding.
And yes…buying whatever less often, but “top of the line” when we do.
We buy almost all goods off Facebook marketplace… even cars! Our first house we bought off Kijiji (Canadian). Wife has cut my hair our entire marriage, I’m sure it has bought us a free vacation by now. Meal prepping helps too, I prep Sunday night for the first 4-5 days of the week at work. I like to think we are not stingy/cheap, just rather spend money on things we value (which for us is travel and good food). On the other hand we were out of 150k of debt by end of residency so I think we are doing something right.
Nice work! I used to struggle with: do we save on big stuff, or on small stuff? Now I think: we save on unimportant stuff (for us cars and bathrooms aren’t important) and spend on important stuff (hockey gear). Our priorities don’t have to make sense to anyone but us. Although I share your belief in travel and good food :).
The good news is that once people stop growing, hockey gear lasts a long time. I have to replace 4 or 5 pieces of gear every year for my son, but I’m still using gear I acquired in high school and every time I buy something new I suspect it is the last time I’ll ever buy that item.
Two high school hockey goalies (on the same team so they can’t share their stuff) = a lot of big, expensive gear.
Oh yea, goalie gear is steep. It gets you out of registration fees in adult leagues though. The goalies never pay.
Since writing this, I have learned that there’s a very busy Instagram account for free stuff on the sidewalk: StoopingNYC. So it’s not just a New England thing.
Uh, I’m still pretty sure it’s just a New England thing, Margaret. Hahaha.
Pipe down and go sit on your expensive furniture, Josh.
If you like bed bugs and lice then free furniture on the sidewalk is great. Just kidding but not really…NYC is notorious for that.
I guess you could fumigate it before bringing it in… 🙂
It’s a Texas thing, too! Biggest days are the weekend before the city’s bulk trash pickup day. Folks cruise the neighborhoods in pickups trucks, and I would guess 50-75% of stuff doesn’t make it to Monday. Littler things pop up all year. It’s great.
New to Huntsville we are constantly shocked to see some possible roadside treasure, then on inspection see a price tag on it! Our local son-in-law can not explain this custom and we are amazed that someone less honest and more in need of some of these finds doesn’t just take it (the price tags are clearly made for the roadside position, not old ones still attached).
Wow, hats off! In all honesty, there’s no way I could do 90% of what you described.
I spend liberally on some things and not on others. It’s all a balance. I don’t regret a cent I’ve spent flying my own plane all over the United States, Canada and the Caribbean, which has given me memories I can treasure my entire life.
Trade-offs are that I have an old car and a cheap old motorcycle for ground transportation.
I have a grand house, but I don’t spend money watching other people play sports or sing to me.
Spending is fun and absolutely fine, as long as it’s done with a sense of balance and a keen vision of the end financial goal
I could just as easily write an essay about all the ways we spend money (starting with that fancy hockey helmet), and you would come away thinking we were fools. Once you have yourself on sound footing, with goals in mind, it’s fine to spend on what makes you happy. Saving on everything possible isn’t the goal; saving strategically is. And gloating, just a little 😄.
My daughter (second year path resident) and her husband picked up a used sofa on the side of the road. It had a stain which she successfully cleaned. I was skeptical when she told me about it, but after visiting and seeing it, I was impressed. Kudos to you for your frugality!
BTW, what does your husband do? He sure is amazing at building retention walls!
You have just made him so, so happy. He is a urologist but would rather build walls, or patios, or garden beds, than do just about anything.
High five to your daughter! Frugal AND resourceful!
You’re kidding…
Saved plenty of $$$ recharging my canon copier cartridges
Margaret dominating job! Unfortunately I went the other way in my life and after being stupidly frugal as a med student and resident I am living it up spending about $26,000 a month in expenses! Kudos to you for keeping lifestyle creep at bay and staying happy. I do have to say though I am spending money on things that really make me happy, but at the compromise of building immense wealth like you are doing!
Thank you for the kind words, Rikki, but I’m not sure I would use the word “massive”. If I ever get around to writing about sending our kids to private school you will see where our disposable income goes 😜. But we have more than most and we enjoy our lifestyle. Thanks for reading!
My wife and I loved this one…you guys are our doppelgängers. Early in marriage we got a weber gas grill off the side of the road while on vacation, used it for 10+ yrs. Recently gave it away after our neighbors put a larger one out on the curb and we claimed it and use regularly. Also, a few weeks ago my wife spotted a kids wooden playground set and sent me out at midnight to pick it up. $25 for water seal and $2 for a couple missing bolts and the kids are having the time of their lives. Also, since it was mostly still together, we saved hours of assembly time. These curb alerts are both entertaining, money-saving, and environmentally friendly.
I will diverge on the bathroom issue though. Sounds like diy husband or a contractor should be commissioned to add another shower.
I somehow got a reputation as a cheapskate, but I’ve got nothing on you guys. It might be interesting to do a post on what we’re actually spending these days.
Assets
and Chickfila
A playground set is AWESOME.
Would hang out with you and your wife any time.
It does seem like we are due for another trip to New England…
We have a sofa you can sleep on!
Came here just to say how much I appreciated the “You’re welcome” retort. I gotta say though, ONE bathroom?!
Love this! Last year my wife found a Facebook group called “Buy Nothing Project”. There are thousands of local chapters all over the world. Typically it’s ppl posting stuff like that old couch in great condition, or simply clearing out one’s closet/garage. One man’s trash truly is another man’s treasure. I’ve even seen items such as refrigerators just given away.
Strict rules that are enforced make it great. Items must be in good condition. Absolutely no exchange of $, exchange of services or even advertising. Literally no others posts besides gift, ask, and gratitude.
Check it out. It’s really an amazing group.
Right on for loving Nordic Skiing, but I knew that.
And a bigger “Right on!” for your liberal use of the colon, I counted 18 of ’em in your essay. Well done! Back to free-heel skiing, if memory serves me, I introduced your husband (with your help) to the joys of the snow-covered backcountry! Peace and strength and joy to you and your family!
Mike C!
Mike! You’re the best, thank you for reading.
Let’s catch up. I’ll message you.