If a Kohl’s near you is closing, it’s 100% worth a stop -- especially in the final days. I popped into mine on the last day just to see what was left and ended up scoring insane deals. Think 80-90% off everything. Clothes, home goods, shoes, accessories -- I walked out with multiple bags for less than the price of one full-priced hoodie. Name-brand activewear for under $10, cookware for $12, and even seasonal decor marked down to $1.

It was a bit of a mess (sizes were all over, and the checkout line was wild), but if you’re patient and willing to dig, you can seriously clean up. Pro tip: the deepest discounts hit in the last 24–48 hours, so timing your visit is key.

I'm waiting for car oil change and this couple next to me is just enjoying this time together. They appear to be a married couple talking about life, enjoying each other. Almost feels like a date.
Ever run an errand and have the best time with your partner, better than a deliberate/purposeful date night. Just taking time together, maybe grab a coffee, split a donut, and savor that little pocket of time together.

I am trying a low spend 2025 and as part of that, I decided to be more intentional about my grocery shopping. I’ve always wanted to try to completely use up all of my food before shopping for more and I am proud to say I am almost there. It’s amazing how creative you can get with your dishes when you are forced to work with what you have. It’s surprisingly gratifying to do this challenge! An added bonus is that I have come up with new and very tasty recipes that I can now repeat. I will say I live alone and cook for one so that makes this much easier Im sure.

Has anyone else tried this successfully?

I did everything right. I researched, read reviews, even laid on this Sealy mattress in a showroom for 15 minutes while the salesperson awkwardly hovered. It felt amazing... until it didn't. After spending the last THREE YEARS on a mattress that cost me $850 and developed a body-shaped crater within 8 months, I'm super skeptical and literally trust no one.

The first 90 days were great, then it started freaking sinking in the middle. By the time I tried to use the warranty, they hit me with "normal wear and tear isn't covered" and "body impressions under ‘x’ inches aren't considered defects." EXCUSE ME?

Anyway. I'm now mattress shopping again, but THIS time, I want a simple, well-made mattress under $1000 that won't become a hammock within a year.

I'm looking at some online brands, but also considering going back to basics with something more traditional.

Has anyone found a good mattress under $1000 that's actually held up over time? What's your experience with hybrid vs all-foam designs? Any brands to absolutely avoid? (I’ve read that a lot of those trial periods often have ridiculous return processes and that most mattress reviews online are paid.)

I’ve started to think about some pantry items like canned foods. I am vegan and my local store has a sale on almond milk, but I’m not sure if it’s practical to stock up on that for example. Beyond food - I am also wondering if there are other things to look out for if they come on sale. Are there other items on your radar to purchase as we brace ourselves for some likely price hikes?

Been unemployed for a while and I don't want to get that Groundhog Day feel just from staying indoors in my apartment most days. I have no routine. Local coffee shops (usually Dunkin) are some of the most common place I choose to chill out but the costs of drinks add up.

Just want to break unemployed boredom from indoors things to sit somewhere else without having to constantly break out my wallet. Best third place I can think of is a public library. Are there other places to suggest?

I’ve been donating to Goodwill for years but honestly never stopped long enough to look at the racks! Now that I’m embracing a low-spend lifestyle for 2025, I’m looking for some pointers as someone new to thrifting and focused on high quality pieces.

I live in an affluent neighborhood and I noticed the nicer the neighborhood, the better the donations. It makes so much sense but honestly, I never really stopped to connect the dots. Lots of quality pieces, even some brand new with tags. Now, instead of just donating, I am starting to browse the racks as well.

One thing I’m still figuring out is their 50% off color tag system. The stuff I actually want never seems to be on sale. Any tips on how to time it right or make the most of the discounts?

Given my location, I feel like my nearby Goodwill has just as good of items as some more higher end secondhand where I feel like most of their stuff is overpriced.

I am getting serious about saving time, and money when it comes to cooking, preparing, storing, and freezing.

I have found I’d rather do up a lot of onions at once so I can make quick use of them on demand. I bought a countertop dicer chopper from that big online place that begins with an A, and the blade part is the size of a yellow Post-It. 3”x3”. I’d have to ¼ an onion to put it onto the dicer to have it fit so I could press down. Don’t get me started on dicing potatoes.

I’m looking to take advantage of sales and do a bag when I can and store the diced in the freezer. I already do it with bell peppers and green onions. It makes it worthwhile when it goes on sale or I find some good quality fresh at a farmer’s market.

Anyone have a suggestion for a brand of dicer that isn’t the size of two Triscuits? Links can’t hurt the helping if it is in your good nature.

I also don’t mind if it has other added features. I’m likely to see if one has a mandolin option. The brand I picked up was Fullstar and it really seems well-made. It just didn’t have a big enough blade for my purposes.

A wise man doubles his money by folding it over and putting it back in his pocket.

So I usually buy managers special meat (mostly steak). Sometimes, however, the meat is discolored in that is more brown than red. Either it's being sold at a discount on the "best by" date or his has a few more days.

What are your thoughts on buying brown red meat within on on the "best by" date? Safe or not worth it?

I'm concerned about getting sick, but I also understand that it doesn't have to be pristine to eat.

Down here in California the hot weather comes early. The forecast expects a high of 90 F/32 C next week. We've been taking advantage of the last days of cool weather to do plenty of baking.

Many baked goods stay good when they're frozen for as long as 3 months.

Our list of DIY this week for the freezer has included:

• Homemade pizza
• Croutes (the toasted bread that goes into French onion soup)
• Carrot bread
• Banana muffins
• Oatmeal cookies
• Lemon cookies
• Chocolate chip cookies
• Ginger snaps
• Pumpkin pie
• Soft pretzels
• Garlic knots
• Mini chicken pot pies

Also, although this isn't quite baking, we've batch cooked buckwheat pancakes for savory crêpes and frozen a stack. A minute in the microwave, a few minutes of cooking a filling on the stove, and those become quick inexpensive meals.

A lot of this is batch baking more than one recipe at a time. We prep several pie crusts at once, we make several cookie doughs and refrigerate them--taking them out and baking assembly line style. With the way the economy is looking, we don't want to overspend on groceries we could make at home--so we're putting out deep freezer to good use.

So does anyone else do this? We've been looking at the weather report and thinking we'd better get ready while the mild weather is still with us.

For my wife and I, we spend more time together through the production of our own food. We make our own taco seasoning which is better tasting/cheaper/less environmentally impactful than the packaged stuff, we make our own bread (i don't need to explain why that's better) with homemade garlic butter, and we are soon going to start learning how to make jam and start canning.

We've grown closer through being frugal, which we started doing because we were poor, but it's become something that we genuinely enjoy.

Edit:

Taco seasoning

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 ½ teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

½ teaspoon ground paprika

¼ teaspoon garlic powder

¼ teaspoon onion powder

¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

¼ teaspoon dried oregano

What meals do you prep that have saved the most money while maintaining some sort of nutritional value? Is there anything that made it easier to do or helped maintain consistency?

I have recently been buying premade rice, frozen veggies mixed, fresh peppers/onions, and meat= cost probably around 20$ which spans over 5-6 meals. This has helped me over the last two weeks be more consistent but I would like other ideas so I don’t become bored! (I know pre made rice costs more but saving some time out of the kitchen helps my constancy personally)

My local supermarket had 4 of these yesterday. I was intrigued and 70% off certainly caught my why. Today I googled what to do with Creme Fraiche. Why did I only buy one? 🤦🏼‍♀️

Ten minutes of whipping with a hand mixer and I have such yummy cultured butter and an even half cup of buttermilk. I'm going to run out this afternoon and see if they're still there. Wish me luck!

Ever since I heard the phrase “going outside costs minimum $100” I can’t unhear it and it factors into many of my everyday decisions. Personally, I’ve cut out a lot of socializing for the sake of saving money. I hate that I assign value to invitations to hang out. Last year for example I only attended a handful of birthday parties, one retirement party (which was covered by the company may I add). On the weekends I rarely go out for fun, I feel that every outing has to have a purpose.

I'm a sophomore in college. I'm at a tough spot in my life. But I need to find a way to budget $48 until early May when I get start working at my internship. Is there anyway of budgeting the $48 for the next 4 weeks for food? Anything I should buy in bulk? I don't mind skipping a meal every other day if that works since my body can use some fat instead..

I've also looked at the food banks near me and I got 500 grams of pasta and small snacks. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Grocery budgets family of 5

To start, I love grocery shopping and looking for deals. It’s kinda like a game to me of how low can I get the total. Between growing up watching extreme couponers and dealing with food scarcity as an adolescent and being a borderline food hoarder now it’s kinda a given why I’m like this. However, I’ve recently became a SAHM and we have a family of 5. With a toddler on the spectrum and a baby. I have to really buckle down and tune up my budget. I’m hopeing we can get by with a monthly budget of 240 for grocery’s, 150ish for household/pet/personal needs and around 180-200 for the toddler/baby needs. So roughly 590 at most in which is half of what we used to spend. Anyone with a family this size have a similar or even smaller budget? What’s your tips? We already started to forgoe certain food items to either make from scratch or buy off brand and I coupon like crazy that way we can still enjoy a few “luxury” items like some soda or my occasional redbulls.

Here’s this week groceries/household haul. (Minus taxes) Price chopper: 59.92 (two soda cases not pictured) Walmart: 50.29 Walgreens (not pictured): 16.80 - which was two packs of TP, two packs of paper towels, two toothpaste and 3 boxes of ziploc baggies.

Roughly breaks down to Grocery- 70.25 Household-36.61 Pet- 7.97 Baby- 16.71

Amana drier stopped heating, but everything else works. I already replaced the thermal fuses and heating coil (which fixed it last time it broke). Should I drop the $75 to replace the timer too, or put that towards a new/used drier? I hate to NOT keep it going since they are relatively easy to fix, but I’m tired of not being to dry laundry. How much luck have ya’ll had with things like this?

Hi, I don’t really cook a lot so my monthly food bill is rather high. I’m just one person and I typically spend about 300-400€ a month of food. To make up for this, I cut back on any “miscellaneous” expenses like new clothing and accessories.

This seems like too high a monthly expense for me to spend on food. A lot of internet forums seem to suggest people in 2+ person households typically spend as much as I do.

So, to any single person household folks out there, what is your grocery budget per month (including groceries, eating out, drinks, everything)??

And do you have any suggestions on how I can manage my expenses better without cooking at home (number one, my living situation doesn’t really make cooking all that easy and number two, I’m a shite cook)?

Thank you!

There is a store nearby that sells Amazon and other big box returns. We always find great deals there. I got a mystery box the last time we went. Inside the box was a package of 9-volt connectors, about 100 of them. And some other parts that would work for putting together small electronics. I will be recovering from surgery later this month, so I would have time to tinker about.

Any projects I could work on? Bonus if it is Halloween-related.

If you are feeling like you can't possibly grow anything, I'm here to assure you that you can.

Grow bags are a simple, economical way to get started. You want to add potting mix to grow bags. Some plants, like tomatoes and peppers, need a fairly large grow bag, like 10 gallons. Others, like lettuces, can happily grow in a 1 gallon bag.

You can get fancy and add specialty potting mixes if you want, like outdoor potting mix or mix that already has fertilizer in it (e.g. Miracle Gro). You can also make your own potting mix with a 1:1:1 mix of vermiculite or perlite, peat moss or coco coir, and compost. Aim for 5 different kinds of compost if possible. There is no shame in buying premixed soil! Don't make this difficult!

Fertilizer. Unless you buy the pre-fertilized bags, you will need fertilizer. Plants really don't care where their nutrients come from, so you don't have to use organic, but that's an option you can choose. Follow label directions. Some plants, like tomatoes, need a little bit more help, like bone meal.

You can buy seeds or plants from a nursery. The frugal way, of course, is seeds. But if you're starting out with one or two grow bags, a plant start from the nursery is perfectly acceptable.

It's smart to know what pests want to eat your plants. There are lots of simple things that work, like neem oil. Insect netting is great for plants that don't need to be pollinated, like kale.

Soil, food, sunshine, and water. People have been growing food for thousands of years. You can too.

A month or so ago, I went to urgent care and was diagnosed with Covid. They tested me and literally told me to go home and take tylenol until I felt better. They only charged me $20 at the door instead of $40, which I thought was strange.

This morning, I woke up to a $420 bill. My EOB says that in-network urgent care visits are only $40 copay. My employer (well former employer) was supposed to cover the rest, but my medical benefits end at the end of this month. I can’t afford to pay this amount, especially at this time.

Update: insurance has confirmed this bill is the right amount, since my deductible hasn’t been met . I’ve been affected by the federal layoffs, so I don’t know how I can afford to pay this bill. Thank you all for your help. :(

Not a financial pro, just someone who kept feeling overwhelmed by how many subscriptions I had. Budgeting tools were helpful for showing the total cost, but they didn’t help me figure out what’s actually worth keeping.

So I tried a little experiment. I listed out all my subs—Spotify, Netflix, iCloud, Duolingo, Calm, etc.—and sorted them into groups like:

-Love it – can’t imagine life without it -Like it – makes life easier or more fun -Worth it – maybe not exciting, but solid value -Unsure/Curious – new trial or something I’m not using enough yet

It actually helped me think about my spending in a way that felt less like guilt and more like clarity. I did end up canceling a few, but more importantly, I stopped second-guessing the stuff I really enjoy.

Has anyone else tried organizing their subs like this? Would love to hear how you think about emotional vs. financial value when you review yours.

I’ve been on a trial of Walmart+, which I like as tipping the driver is cheaper than Ubering to the store. However, my last 2 orders have been damaged…frozen/ refrigerated food was barely cold and a Panera soup had a puncture in the bottom of the package, so soup was all over the bag (fortunately, the soup was the only item in the bag). Again, on the recent delivery, cold items weren’t delivered as cold as I would like but I don’t want my account to get flagged with returns.

I live only a couple of miles from Walmart, so I’m trying to understand the process: do the cold items stay refrigerated until they are picked up, or are they sitting out for a while at the store, awaiting pickup? I know my driver has more than my stop, but with my proximity to the store, it seems the items wouldn’t be damaged.

Does time of day help? I order at night for an afternoon delivery; should I start selecting the first delivery of the day?

Just wondering if anyone has any advice for getting the most out of the delivery process…Thanks!

please be kind!! sometimes it just seems to jump out at me-a wedding comes up, mortgage gets raised, taxes need to be paid—i’m so depressed all the time that anything else ends up going towards trying to find any semblance of joy (beach day, dinner w friends, shopping—which ends up being like $200-600 each month all together) how do i stop!! any tips and tricks would be helpful!! i NEED to save but it always gets away from me edit: a major problem for me is I get paid daily instead of weekly/biweekly—so where i would normally just put x in savings and then pay the bills i don’t get the money all in lump to do that

I’m eating my freezer/pantry/fridge in a month long no-buy challenge!

Day 4:

Meal 1:

Zucchini oatmeal! It’s a great way to use up last summers zucchini. I only have a few 1/2cup frozen portions left. I also added some vanilla protein powder, diced apple, and cinnamon.

Meal 2:

A can of mediocre soup from the pantry, I added a serving of lentils to see if that would improve it! (Note: it did! It gave the soup some more bulk and protein

Meal 3:

I thawed a “cube” of a veg-heavy turkey pasta sauce, they’re starting to get a bit freezer burned so I need to finish these up. The noodle is a cauliflower based pasta. It’s not the best, but it is high in protein and I have boxes of it in my pantry.

Day 3:

Protein French toast (hoarded freezer bread, egg and whites, half an apple). 2 cheese quesadillas, I had all the fixings in the fridge!
Not pictured- I made 2lbs of breakfast sausage with ground pork from the freezer! I had all the spices in the pantry. I snacked on a few