In a world where things are just WAY too expensive, every penny saved makes a difference. But how do you save anything when there are fees on fees on fees for seemingly everything? Loopholes, dear readers. Loopholes.
Reddit user Mackedeli asked:
What's a clever way you have avoided paying for something?
Bust out your notepads, folks. These reddit users are about to school you in the grand art of being a cheapskate - in the most clever possible ways.
A Year At The Movies
Parking permits for my university were ridiculously expensive since it was in a downtown area. I'm talking like $700 a year minimum. I only had class three days a week so it didn't make sense to pay for a semester long permit.
Right next to the university is a movie theater with it's own parking structure, parking is validated with the purchase of a movie ticket. This particular movie theater has a deal for university students on weekdays, $3 movie tickets if you show your student ID.
So instead of parking at the university lots, I would park in the theater lots, buy a $3 ticket and then just go to class. I'd get my parking ticket validated and go home. I'd estimate I spent about $250 each year doing this. After a while, I signed up for some sort of point system the theater offered that got me an insane amount of perks since as far as they knew, I was watching three movies a week at their establishment.
Essentially I saved $450 a year and got multiple free movie tickets and merch out of it.
Cancellation Fees
If you try to cancel an appointment during the time in which there's a cancellation fee, ask if you can re-schedule for a later date to avoid the fee. Then once they give you the new appointment date outside of the cancellation fee required period, then ask to cancel said new appointment. Boom roasted.
Book Fair Brilliance
Giphy8th grade school book fair with a buy one get one free sale. I had $20 and wanted four books. Two books cost $11 each, the other two cost $8 each. With these sales they ALWAYS make the two cheaper items free so I would've ended up spending $22 which I knew I couldn't afford. So, I took the two $11 books up and paid for them so one of them was free. Then, I pretended to "discover" the two $8 books I also wanted and paid for those. I ended up with enough left over to buy myself a cool eraser on top of it all.
The Lost Ticket
When my son was about to be born, we had to stay a while at the hospital and the parking time bill racked up really quickly. Been there for 4 to 5 days so that was about 15-20$ per day ... But you only had to pay a 20$ fine to get out if you lost your ticket.
Lets say I played the "I lost my parking ticket I'm so sorry" game.
Salary
I pay my wife a salary from my company to avoid the tax on the earnings, and the higher rate of tax that I would have to pay if the money went to me
It's legal.
Contests
Entering competitions and contests used to be like a serious hobby and little income stream of mine.
Didn't pay to see a film at the cinema in years and went regularly. The phone I'm writing this on? Won it. Trip to Sydney? Thanks MTV. Concerts, DVDs, CDs, magazine subscriptions, books - heaps of random things all for free. Even won an axe once!
- Maccas75
The Internet Provider
I've been with my internet provider for like 15 years, and I have no intention of switching. But now and then their competitor in town knocks on my door and offers me a really good deal if I switch, so I call my ISP and pretend like I'm going to cancel my service and switch. They start throwing all kinds of discounts and upgrades at me, like a bald fat loser begging his GF not to leave. By the end of the call, I'm paying half price for better service.
I don't really feel bad about this scam, though. We're paying $160 a month for service Europeans get for $20. Paying $80 a month for a six-month deal is still a rip off. But oligopoly and all that.
- Thudly
Visa Gift Card Trials
Sometimes I use those visa gift cards, I use up the money and then use the empty card for any free trial you have to use a credit card for. It lasts until payment is due and then it just cancels the account.
- LilEgg0
Chuck E. Cheese
GiphyWhen my kids were young Chuck E. Cheese had a club you could join that offered coupons. The bonus coupon to sign up gave heavy discounts on tokens. It made it affordable to go on a regular basis. Just needed to keep signing up for new memberships. I would make a new throwaway email every week.
No Membership
Buying gift cards at Costco does not require a membership
Using gift cards at Costco allows you to shop there without a membership, even if your gift card is only for 5 $
Step 1: Buy a bunch of gift cards without membership for $5 each
Step 2: Shop at Costco without membership, but with at least 1 gift card
Step 3: Profit
- SEI_Dan
Airplane Snack Hack
You can use a cancelled credit card on airplanes for snacks. As long as the expiration date isn't passed. So say you cancel a card and report it stolen or whatever. Credit Card sends you a new card number. The old one wont work anymore.
However, on a plane, they cannot connect to check if a card is good. It automatically approves in their system. So you use the cancelled one. They give you food and shit. Then after you land and get off, they run the cards and it gets declined. Not worth it to them to go after you. Free food in flight.
JC Penny - Doin' It Right
When you sign up for JCP rewards they will occasionally send you a $10 off $25 or more coupon. Can be used multiple times until it expires. I have used the same coupon once 7x in one day to get my stuff over 50% off. When you add it to whatever sales they have when the coupon is active, you can save a lot of money.
Kid's Cup
Places with Free refills, ask for the smallest cup possible, get a kid's cup of you have to. I'd rather save $2-3 and get up a couple times then spend the price for a Large cup.
- reefgod
Wait It Out
GiphyWhen my wife and I were looking to buy our first home and wanted to look into mortgages, my wife had a car-repo on her credit (from years earlier) that needed to be settled up on, so we went to the bank where the loan was originally from and sat down with an associate to see what we could do.
She pulled up the info, said what the outstanding balance was (something like $4,000) and that we could either set up a payment plan or....(as she looked around to make sure nobody could hear her and leaned toward us)....if we could wait 2-3 more months, it would come off her credit history automatically since enough time passed.
We stood up, shook her hand and thanked her, and went on our merry way.
Failure To Swipe
This isn't my story, but my friend told me this just a few hours ago.
He goes to a really high end university, and they're cafeteria food is super expensive, but the restaurants around are just as expensive. They just use refillable meal cards, and he has a few meals on there, but the magnetic strip on his card doesn't work, and the cashiers that work there are so miserable and careless that they never check it, they just swipe it and send him away. They don't even pay attention to their computer or anything, so he eats for free constantly. Only a few times has one of he cashiers typed in the numbers after trying and failing to swipe.
Completely Non-Enforceable
Private car park company fine.
Turns out, unless it says "civil enforcement" on it, its completely non enforceable by standard law. What you receive is technically an invoice.
You'll get debt letters threatening to make the smallest contribution, and unless you're a repeat offender, very little chance you'll ever see court.
- tifauk
Soup and Sandwich
When I was in hospital after having my son I'd choose one of everything from the menu and then I'd eat the soup and the sandwich and my husband would eat the main meal . He never had to go to the canteen and buy food and I only wanted the soup and sandwich.
Guerrilla Gardening
Instead of buying succulent plants, my friends and I have about twenty varieties of succulents between us that we propagate and give away. We propagated the parent plants from leaves we found on the ground at garden and hardware stores, and from healthy plants growing outside. We all already had containers and soil, too, so the only money spent on the now one hundred succulents produced from the original twenty is money spent on the water bill.
Wi-Fi Cell Phone
I don't pay for cell phone service. I downloaded an app that gives you a phone number. The catch is you have to have wifi so sometimes it can be a little bit of a problem but many places have free wifi these days so I can usually find a Starbucks or a store near by if I'm not at home.
The Hard Drive Hunch
I had an external hard drive stop working/loading, not sure what happened to it, but my whole life was on that drive. I took it to one of those places that can recover your data. They took my drive and said they would call me after testing to see whether they could recover the data on the drive or not. They called me back the next day and said it was an issue with the loading software and it was possible to get my files but I would have to pay $500.
In my mind I was thinking, "Well if they were able to see my files then they must have had to fix the loading software to see them?"
So I just said "Nah that's too much, I will come pick up my drive." and of course the drive worked perfectly when I got home and I paid nothing. To be honest I would've just paid them to fix it if it was reasonable (I used to do photo recovery when I worked in a photo lab and we charged $50 so I was expecting something in the range of $50-100), but $500 for that is just extortion in my opinion. If my hunch was wrong I was just going to take it to another place anyways.
The Donut Vice
GiphyUnlimited free donuts from krispe kreme.
I literally just signed up on the app 1000 times with fake accounts. They don't even require email confirmation.
For each account I make, I get 12+ donuts. One for joining, one for my birthday (which is always conveniently on the day I sign up), 7 for reccomending 'friends' to join the app (Spoiler alert, I used more fake accounts, I don't have friends lol) and 3 more for my 3 precious children, Burp, Vorlock and Stalin.
I don't even eat most of the donuts. I just like getting free stuff. It's actually become a really bad vice I need help lol.
- Apps2000
Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.
Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?
But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.
It would be so great to be sure there is something else.
But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.
Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:
"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"
Sensations
Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."
PeachesnPain
Recovery
"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."
"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."
"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."
good_golly99
Take Me Back
"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."
"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."
rayrayrayray
Free
The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."
TooReDTooHigh
This is why I hate surgery.
You just never know.
Shocked
Giphy"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."
Admirable_Buyer6528
The SOB
"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."
"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”
1-cupcake-at-a-time
Colors
"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"
Hannah_LL7
"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"
huntokarrr
The Fog
"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."
"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."
Fluffy-Hotel-5184
Through the Walls
"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."
"She's quite alive and well today."
Hot-Refrigerator6583
Well let's all be happy to be alive.
It seems to be all we have.
Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.
The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.
Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.
Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:
"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"
Redditors didn't see these coming.
Shiver Me Timbers
"I’m always cold now!"
– Telrom_1
"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."
– r7ndom
"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."
– mr_remy
Drawing Concern
"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."
– dee-fondy
"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"
"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."
– LizardofDeath
Unleashing Insults
"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”
"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."
– alanamablamaspama
Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight
"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."
– KeltarCentauri
"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."
– KatMagic1977
"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."
– Jaew96
These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.
Shopping
"I can buy clothes in any store I want."
– WaySavvyD
"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."
– ganache98012
No More Symptoms
"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."
– colleennicole93
Expanding Capabilities
"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."
– Ramblonius
People Change Their Tune
"How much nicer people are to you."
"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"
– LiZZygsu
"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"
"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"
– awholedamngarden
It's gonna take some getting used to.
Bones Everywhere
"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."
– Princess-Pancake-97
"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."
– bekastrange
Knee Pillow
"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."
– snic2030
"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."
– Strongbad23
More Mobility
"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."
"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."
– dma1965
People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.
But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.
That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.