I'm a curious, creative, Southern boy working in Anderson, SC. My corner of the internet is brought to life thanks to friendly cowboys at Eleven2 Hosting. If you're new here, you might be interested in the RSS Feed or Archives. You can say hello via .
1. We shop online. We buy most of our vitamins and home care stuff on Vitacost. Great prices, and $4.99 flat shipping. I really dig AmericanApparel’s Tri-Blend Track Shirts, but they run $22 in the store. Or $10 on Amazon.com. Whatever you want, you can likely find online for cheaper. Stop paying everyone’s overhead for their physical stores.
2. We use Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap. We dig the peppermint. It replaced soap, shampoo, conditioner, body wash, etc. for me (and Mrs. Blankenship.) Huge savings, and less of me knocking 20 bottles of random concoctions off the shelves every time I shower.
3. We have a Sam’s Club membership. Pick your poison (Sam’s, Costco, etc.), but we made back the cost of our membership the first time we bought toilet paper. We don’t buy a lot in bulk, but the warehouse retail places are great for larger kitchen items like olive oil that’ll run big bucks in the grocery store.
4. Speaking of which, we cook at home. Don’t know how to? Neither did we. After two years all our friends think we hung the moon when they eat at our house. It’s simple, go to the library (free!) and checkout some cookbooks. Follow the instructions. Repeat until you dominate all things culinary. Bonus: it’s healthier, too.
5. We dry our razors off after we use them. Razors get dull from use eventually, but most of the time they just get dull because they’re left wet and the blade oxidizes (e.g. rusts). I use Mach3 blades, shave well once or twice a week, and I haven’t bought a new box of blades since I lived in Dallas. In 2007.
I second the Dr. Bronner’s. We use it for body wash, dish soap, and general around-the-house cleaner.
Also, I have a different angle on #5: buy a safety razor. It’s a $30 one-time investment, but the blades are 50 cents apiece and aren’t made to disintegrate after a set period of time like many modern blades (they say) are.
said Cameron
at 7:35pm on Friday
If you guys need any other tips, you can ask us (as you know, we went through this in an _extreme_ fashion), but we some good insider tips.
said Paul
at 8:44pm on Friday
ok, WOW. this was really helpful.
said Danielle
at 7:51am on Saturday
I’ve been hearing about Dr. Bronner’s lately, and I understand that it’s probably a lot better to use than most alternatives for nearly every reason, but it seems to be a lot more expensive. Does it not take much to do the job?
said Kyle
at 1:11am on Sunday
Kyle, it’s concentrated, so no. We buy the gallon for around $50, mix it with water in smaller bottles, and we might need to do that 2–3 times a year.
said Joshua
Great tips man, especially cooking at home. I cook at home often and I encounter the same thing with friends. No one ever comments on how great the food was at Tijuana Flats when we ate there, but I still have people talk about meals I cooked 4 years ago. And I’ve been using the same Mach 3 since I moved to Florida about 4 months ago. It’s good to know they’ll last. I don’t shave much, well, usually ever, but still. I’m glad they last.
said Aaron
at 8:29am on Monday
This may seem like a ridiculous question, but… how do you dry your razors? More specifically, what do you use? Because I don’t see it going well for my bath towel, nor toilet paper, or anything else handy in my bathroom. Just wondering. Thanks!
said Anne Marie
at 9:00am on Monday
Whoa! Had no idea you could buy those AA shirts on Amazon for 10 bucks. Thanks for the tip.
said Keegan Jones
at 9:03am on Monday
Helpful post Joshua, many thanks. I hope others continue to post comments – this could become a valuable thread…
A second comment about Costco/Sam’s/BJ’s:
Certainly you can save on the items you buy, but it goes farther than that. Buy all non-perishables (toilet paper, toothbrushes, soap, trashbags, etc) in bulk and you only have to make one trip vs lots of small trips to the store. Saves time/gas/money, etc.
said ChrisWho
at 1:34pm on Monday
kicking your blow habit has helped too.
said Renaud
at 3:07pm on Tuesday
i third the costco/sam’s/BJ’s thing. we always stock up on TP, paper towels, olive oil, flour, sugar, rice, pasta, frozen veggies, & tomato sauce there. my husband is fabulous at cost-cutting. he makes batches of pizza & spaghetti sauce every couple of weeks. he makes pizza dough & freezes in batches. we have a garden with veggies & herbs.
sam’s also has great deals on appliances & mattresses. we saved over $100 when we bought our serta eurotop mattress when they had a sale. we also bought a deep freezer there for less than $100 which means we can stock up on frozen items (& have room for the aforementioned bulk items like pizza dough & sauce & frozen veggies).
living on a grad school budget + my salary has it’s advantages!
thanks for the tips.
said sharon
at 8:49pm on Tuesday