Video Transcript: How to Save Money part 2

I'm glad that you could join me. Once again, we're talking about how we can  save money. Good, but it should be good because it was one of these coffee  things that come in a little cup, and it's got a little plastic thing, and you can buy  them, I don't know, comes to, like, $1 each one very convenient, because you  can have whatever kind of coffee you want, and you put it in the little machine,  you close the lid, and it gives you what you want. But regular coffee, if you just,  you know, make it cost like 15 cents $1 versus 15. Now, I know it doesn't sound  like very much, but if you saved $1 every single day, it'd be $365 in a year. It'd  be $3,650 in 10 years, and it'd be $30,000 in 100 years. Not that you're gonna  last 100 years, but I'm just saying how to save money. I want to talk about  different ways that you can save money. I want to talk about 25 of them. Number one, negotiate every purchase. In the United States, we have stores and they  put, you know what something cost. They put the label right on there. You go to  the store, that's what it is. And that's the way I grew up. I grew up thinking things had a cost, and that was the end of it. Whatever the price was, whatever  someone said that was the price. Then I remember one day I was with my  father. I was maybe 12 years old, and we went into gas station and he needed, I forget what he needed. He needed a wiper blade or he needed something. But  before we walk in to the office, he said, Now watch this. He said, always ask for  a discount. So he walked in and he said, You know, I needed blade. And the guy said, $10 or whatever it was. And then my dad said, Well, what is the fireman  price? Because my dad was a fireman in the Grand Rapids City Fire  Department. And the guy said, Oh, the farmer price is $7 so then we walked out  and he got it for $7 and he said, See, the guy didn't even know what I said. He  didn't even know whether I'm a fireman or a farmer. It didn't matter. I asked, and  they gave me something. And that's true. Almost anything that you buy, there is  one price. But if you negotiate, if you ask, even a department store, it doesn't  matter where you are, sometimes they'll have television outside. It's got a little  chip on it. You go to the counter, you go to the register. You talk to the manager.  You say, hey, this has got a little chip on it. Can you take anything off it? People  will often do that. Health insurance. Health insurance costs skyrocketing in our  country, they'll just send a bill. You look over that bill, and if it doesn't seem right  to you, or if it seems excessive, you call on the phone, nine times out of 10 you  can reduce the bill. People have credit card debt. They owe all kinds of money,  but if they call the credit card and ask them to reduce it, if possible, generally,  they'll find a way to do it, negotiate everything. Now, many of you live in other  parts of the world, this is just, you know I'm talking and you don't even  understand what I'm saying, because this is what you do already. So then the  thing is, you have to actually know what values are. It's hard to negotiate a price  when you have no idea what things are worth. So for myself, at least in the  United States, I go on websites to find out what is the average price for  something, so I even know how to negotiate. That's number one. Number two. 

Cut up credit cards. Credit cards are probably the most convenient thing out  there. But if you're struggling in your personal finances, if you're behind, if you're trying to save and you can't save, you have all kinds of debt, all these things,  you need to absolutely cut the credit card up, because the credit card, it's almost like cocaine. It's so good, and you become addicted to it, and you use it, and it's  too easy and it's too unaccountable, and next thing you know, you have this  credit card debt hanging over your head. You try to escape it, and it follows you  and it hounds you for years. Cut the card up, use cash only. I know. I know right  now you're thinking that's impossible. I cannot get by with a credit without a  credit card. Some things I can't even do without a credit card. Fine, don't do  them. This is like triage. If you're struggling financially. This struggle financially is keeping you from all the ministry goals that you that God is trying to, you know,  get you excited about but your finances are crushing you down in the United  States, someone did a study, the number one cause of divorce is fighting over  money. So this money thing just gets in the way. And if it's getting in the way for  you, cut the credit card up number three, no packaged foods. If you go to the  store and you buy the little slices of cheese, it's going to cost twice as much. If  you go into the store and you buy the little slices of meat, it's going to cost you  twice as much anything that comes in a package. Someone had to do it. Half the cost is the packaging itself. You can cut your grocery bill in half if you just get rid  of all this packaging and convenient things it now it's nice. It's nice to buy the  bag of little carrots that are already sliced and and the skin is off from them, and  it's wonderful, but you're paying twice as much for that little piece of  convenience number four, ask for fees waived. People will charge you things,  and they will just do it. As long as they can get away with it, they'll keep charging you. But if you ask them to waive it, I mean, no matter what the situation I  mentioned healthcare a minute ago, that's especially true there. The fees are so  high because half the people don't pay. So the people pay have to make up for  those not paying. But you don't have to be one of them. ask for fees waived. You buy something, a car, and then they want to charge you for this, and they charge you for that. I always ask, well, you know, I won't do it unless you throw that in.  When I bought a house, they wanted to charge me for this. That the next thing.  And I said, Well, I will not buy the house if these things are not thrown in. And  they said, You mean you're willing to lose this whole deal over a few you know,  there's an outside table and some other things. I said, Yes, I am. Either throw it  in or I'm walking away. Ask to waive fees. Number five, give up bad habits. Give  up bad habit. What's a bad habit? Smoking is a bad habit. People that smoke  sometimes. You know a pack a day. I don't know what a pack is, five, six, $10 I  don't know what a pack is, but if it's 10, if you're spending $10 a day on  smoking, $10 times three, that's $3,600 every year times 10, $36,000 in 10  years. And if you took that money and invested in something, it'd be $45,000 in  10 years. In your in a 50 year lifetime, would be $250,000 so get rid of things 

like smoking. Get rid of things like excessive drinking. Get rid of the habits that  cost a lot of my things that you don't need to do. A habit can be just buying, you  know, an expensive cup of coffee every single morning. It's a habit. You go to  this place, you order the same thing, they smile, they talk at you. You have this  little routine going. But in the end, it costs you a fortune. Number six, buy major  stuff only when on sale. Major stuff, things like computers, things like cars,  clothes, anything that you're going to spend more than 10, 20, 30, $40  appliances, all those things like I know how much a gas oven cost, because I've  been looking for two years. I have a certain one that I want and but it's too high,  I'm not going to pay that. So I will wait two years to buy something. I will look. I'll  keep looking. I look on the in the paper for a used one. I don't have to do it, so  I'm thinking of my future looking ahead. I just bought a vehicle on eBay. It was a  vehicle that was totaled, and then someone put it back together. And I checked  their history and how well they did, I knew the exact brand I've been looking for  two years, and I didn't pull the trigger until I found the, you know, a price that that I was looking for. So you have to be purposeful and thinking ahead and and I'm  not buying this thing just because I want it right now. I don't need anything right  now. I can wash my. Clothes by hand. We did that for a year in the Philippines.  It's not a problem. I don't need anything. I can ride my bike. I don't need this new car. Most of my married life, we had one car. We dealt with it, and I rode my bike when I could. So you can get by with very little. So don't get caught into I've got  to do something. Look for those sales on those big items. Number seven, shop  after holidays. I've been trying to convince my relatives and family. Hey, why  don't we have Christmas on January two? January two, will you know we'll start  buying our presents right after Christmas, when everyone's bringing everything  back, and, you know, we'll buy presents that are open box, half price. What?  Why? Why do we have to go with the whole crowd, and when everyone's  spending the high dollar on everything? No, let's, let's wait. You know, you buy  your Christmas tree the day after Christmas, my wife and I, we got married on  December 29 so four days after Christmas, we got married in between  semesters of the university we were attending and and we spent for all the  flowers, you know, We decorated the whole church and so on. We spent $1 on  every poinsettia. So we had red. Was our theme, and we went with red because  it's Christmas. Everything was cheap. So we got all of our flowers for $1 each,  because it was right after Christmas. Well, why not think that way? Why do we  have to go with the flow? Why do we have to pay the high price on everything?  You know, here in the United States, Thanksgiving is the end of November. Just  have you know, if you bought your turkey the next day, be half price. Okay?  Number eight shop with cash only. I talked about this before. If you have a  problem saving money, dealing with money, just use cash. Try it for like, a  month. Just for one month, buy nothing on credit, no checks, no credit cards,  everything you do pay cash, and I guarantee you, at the end of that month, you'll

have a different appreciation for money and the value of money. Number nine,  price compare these days is so easy if you're connected to the internet in any  way, you can see what the average price of anything is. Easily never. Just when  I'm in a store and I see something and I kind of want it, I always check I get my  phone out and I look to see what the average price is, and most times it's a lot  cheaper somewhere else. Number tell 10 sell stuff you don't use or need. Maybe you won't get the value that you think it's worth. You're saving it because one  day you might use it, but you're just getting all this clutter. The way to look at  things is, if I owned, you know, this pair of glasses, for example, if I own these  pair of glasses, and let's say they were really, really nice, you know, sunglasses  that originally were $100 very cool, very expensive glasses. And then I think,  Well, I haven't used these things in a year, so maybe I'll sell them, but someone  will only give me $25 well, they were $100 I'm not gonna sell these for $25 but  the way to look at it is this, way would you buy these glasses that you don't need for $25 if someone was selling them for $25 and you didn't have them. Would  you go out of your way and spend $25 to get these glasses? Probably not, but  that's what you're doing when you're holding onto it. If you could sell it for $25  it's costing you $25 to hold on to these things that you don't need. So better to  get rid of it. Sell it for whatever you can get for it. These days, there's so many  different ways of selling things. It's easy to do number 11, rent out space you  don't use. A year ago, I found out about Airbnb. Maybe you've heard of that. It's  all over the world. It's people renting out space. You can rent out your living  room couch to someone. They come by and they rent your couch for whatever  price you agree on. You have this room that you're not using. Rent it out, use it.  You have space you're not using. Have someone use it. Why not? You're  actually paying for that space. You might as well get something out of it. Okay?  Rent space you don't number 12. Buy second hand used. You see me today?  Am dressed reasonably nice. I think all that came from the thrift store. My shoes, if you can see my shoes thrift store, my socks, well, they did not come from the  thrift store. And I generally, as a general rule, I don't buy underwear from the  thrift store, but my pants, thrift store, shirt, thrift store, tie, thrift store, glasses,  thrift store, why not I pay 1/4 or 1/5 the price of anything that I have, and it's fine. Why not used, buy used number 13, take public transportation. The cost of  owning a car, lot of people feel they need a car, or they feel that they need two  cars. A car costs 50 to 60 cents a mile to drive, no matter what you do, no matter how you think about it, a lot of people think, well, I paid for the car. It's already  done. No. You add the total cost of owning a car, paying for a car, the interest  lost on owning and paying for a car, everything, if you put the real cost of owning a car comes 50, 60 cents. That's just what it is. So if you can take a bus, if you  can take a taxi, if you can ride your bike, you'll be saving a lot of money. Okay,  turn down thermostat. Now this only makes sense in places that are cold. Here,  where I live in Michigan, it gets cold half the year instead of keeping it warm 

enough for myself to walk around in a T shirt, why don't I just put a sweater on  and turn it down. Or those of you that live in places where you have the air  conditioning on all the time, the reality is, if you just get used to the weather,  you'll be fine. I was in Japan once, and it was freezing, and this house didn't  have insulation, it didn't have heat. It was like 45 degrees. And I asked the  people I was staying with, I said, How come you don't insulate? How come you  don't heat? And the Japanese guy looked at me and he said, Well, it's supposed to be cold in the winter. That's what it is. That's what winter is. It's supposed to  be cold. And ever since he said that, I thought, you know, when someone  complains and said, Well, it's supposed to be cold or it's not supposed to be hot. I lived for a year in the Philippines, and it was 90 degrees Fahrenheit and 95%  humidity. When we first got there, sweat just poured from me. All the  missionaries that I knew had air conditioning in their houses, in their cars, in the  office at church or at the school the place we stayed, didn't have air conditioning so we just got used to it. And after a half a year, it was fine turn down the  thermostat number 15, take lunch to work. That we have a few of us here  filming. We have two and then I'm doing the filming. So the three of us, because  we didn't take our lunch, we went out to eat just about an hour ago, and it cost  us $30 we could, we could have fed ourselves for free All right. Number 16, buy  in bulk. Instead of buying individually wrapped things. Again, you buy in bulk.  You divide it up. We just had a turkey for Thanksgiving. I cut the turkey all there  what was remaining. I put in little bags and I have a lunch for the next 10  lunches. Number 17 re evaluate TV, cable, internet, phone plan. By the way, all  these things didn't exist 60 years ago when I, when I grew up, that there was no  cable TV, there was no Internet, there was no phone plan, and I didn't have to  pay for any of these things. And all of a sudden, these new things have come,  and we got to pay for them all, and they're a monthly fee. You know, the monthly fee, you got to remember, you got to times whatever the monthly fee is, by 12.  And that's what it is for a whole year. Rethink your plan. Do you need that much  phone? You know, check out plans, comparison shop, cable. I don't have cable.  I don't have cable. And one of the reasons I don't have cable is because that  monthly fee thing just drives me crazy. You want me to pay $50 for this? No, I'm  not. I'm not going to get stuck in that. That's $600 a year. So re evaluate if you're struggling financially. Live without it. The Internet. You can't live without with the  Internet. There's places where you can get the free internet. You can figure it out number 18, have a garden instead of buying everything from the store. Grow  some of the things that you might otherwise buy. Dollars by number 19, pay  extra on your loans. Again, most of what you pay when you pay off a loan is  going towards interest. People give you a lot of money, but then they want some money for that, and you're paying interest, and very little is coming down on the  loan. So when you make a monthly payment, if you just pay a little bit more,  100% of the little bit more that you pay actually brings your loan down. Pay extra

on your loans number 20, make saving automatic, if possible, talk to your bank.  Your check comes in a certain percent goes right into your savings account. You never see it. Number 21 buy generic. You don't have to have name brand  everything. Who cares? You don't need name brand clothes. People could care  less what clothes that you're wearing. So forget the names, forget the you know  the brand that is advertised, go with the generic. 22 drink more water. Drink  more water. Oh, yeah, this is coffee. Water is actually better for you, and studies have shown that if you drink more water, you eat less too. It's healthier for you,  and certainly is cheaper. Number 24 waiting period before buying, before you  buy anything of any substance. Give it a couple days. Gonna buy a car. You're  gonna buy a house, you're gonna spend some money on some furniture, you  know, you had this eye on this couch, or you want to buy a boat, whatever it is.  Give it a waiting period. Maybe it's a great deal. The reason people don't wait is,  if I don't do it now, maybe it'll be gone. You know what? There's always another  boat, there's always another couch, there's always another house, there's  another car. Believe me, everyone thinks, no, if I let go this particular deal go, it'll be gone forever. No, there's a deal everywhere. So wait on it. And chances are,  if you wait on it, half the time, you decide you don't even want it, you know  what? I get seasick. Maybe I don't want to a boat. I, you know, the car I have is  fine. So give a give a waiting period, at least 48 hours. Number five or 25 don't  order drink in restaurant. This is a big one. This is one that I grew up with. My  father. He did not let us buy pop or any milk or whatever, whatever was offered.  He did not let us do it. And his reasoning was this, look, the meal costs $4 and  then they want to charge you $3 for just the drink. It's like, we, you know, we,  we, you know, look at the menu. Well, this is four, this is five, this is six. I think I'll pick the five. And we sort of scrutinize with the price of the meal, and then we  throw out whatever we save on just the drink. And so my dad always made us  get water if you want to drink something that costs more at a restaurant, just  drink it at home. Can you not go, you know, three hours without having the drink  of your choice? The restaurant is all about the food, not the drink. The drink, you can get anytime. So these are one to 25 in the next video, we're looking at  another 25