Dear people who can't manage their money.....

I've been thinking about making a post about this for sometime now. I see people mismanaging their money all the time and I've been directly affected by someone who can't manage their finances. Also my roommate and I were ranting about it just the other day. This is something that annoys the crap out of both of us. So I thought I'd share a few things I know about saving money.

Food
-Aim to spend about 1$ or less on each meal. This actually isn't very hard. A box of Kraft Dinner is about a dollar and for a lot of people half a box is one meal. There are a lot of other meals for under a dollar too. Toast is a cheap breakfast. Also don't buy too much pre-made stuff like lasagna or pizza. This will cost you a lot more than just making it yourself. I make a homemade chili that costs about 60 cents a serving.
-Pick up the flyers for the grocery stores and make a list according to what's on special. When you go grocery shopping, stick to the list you made.
-Buy the generic brand instead of the name brand. This will save you money and most of the time you aren't sacrificing taste.
-Don't waste food. When deciding what you should eat, look at what's going to spoil first and then plan you meal around those items.
-Avoid going to restaurants. It is way cheaper to eat at home (especially if you are sticking to the dollar a meal rule). When you do go to restaurants, order only water to drink and tip no more than 15%. -Don't pay for water. If you don't like the taste of the tap water buy a Brita water filter.
-Buy some things in bulk. For instance Kraft Dinner is cheaper at Costco (0.84$ per box). But don't assume everything in bulk is a deal because a lot of things aren't. Be sure to work out the unit prices.
-If you are overcharged speak up. The law in Quebec (and maybe Ontario now) is that if you are charged the wrong price at store that scans in the price, you get the item for free if it's under 10$ or if it's more than 10$ you get 10% off (the only exceptions to this rule are alcohol and cigarettes, these items have a minimum price allowed by law).
-Return cans and bottles for deposit. Throwing these in the garbage is like throwing your money away and if you are going to do that, can you throw it in my direction? The money, not the cans.

Transportation
-If public transportation is available, don't buy a car. I worked out the math and not having a car is a HUGE savings. If I have a bus pass every month for the next 10 years, it will only cost me 7 800$ (in Gatineau the bus passes are 65$ a month for adults) which is way less than a car. And if I continued to buy a bus pass and my monthly bus ticket to Sherbrooke (88$ round trip) to visit Tom for the next 10 years that would cost me 18 360$. If you bought a car for 15 000$ and after 10 years you sold it for 2000$, that's 13 000$ you spent to own the car. So far the bus pass and the bus ticket costs 5 360$ more than the car. But if you divide that number by 10 years and then divide that by 12 months, you get 44.67$. Meaning for a car to be as inexpensive as my bus ticket and bus pass you must, on average, spend less than 44.67$ a month on a car. So you can't spend more than 44.67$ on gas, insurance, registration, and repairs/maintenance. I've never owned a car before but that sounds mighty impossible. I didn't take into account the regular increase in the bus pass and bus ticket price but I also didn't take into account the increase of gas prices over time and the increase in the cost of repairs. I'm making the assumption that these things will cancel each other out which I think is a fair assumption to make.
-If you have to own a car, make as few trips as possible. This will save you gas and wear and tear on your car. Plan you trips so that you don't get lost and try to do several errands during one trip with the car.
-Do preventative maintenance on your car to avoid bigger (and more expensive) problems later.

Entertainment
-Don't go to movies in the theater. Rent them, it's cheaper.
-Gamble responsibly. Only gamble with money you can afford to lose.
-Avoid expensive hobbies.
-Drink before going to the bar and buy one or zero drinks there. It saves a lot of money. Also beer is cheapest. But if you don't like beer drinking before going to the bar is good enough.
-Eat before going to sporting events, concerts and movies. The prices at these venues are outrageous.
-You don't need to spend money to have fun.

Education
-If you are financing your education with loans, spend as little money as you can. Anything you manage to save, can be used later to pay off your loan.
-Don't buy a computer. You can use the computers at school. I have never owned a computer and I wouldn't have one now if Tom hadn't lent me one of his.
-Buy used books or buy books online. The on campus bookstore is a huge rip off.
-Shop around for the cheapest school supplies in August. This is when the best deals are.
-Finish your schooling on time. Avoid failing classes. This will save you a significant amount of money. And if you are on Quebec Loans and Bursaries and you finish on time (and get a bursary every year of your post secondary education) you can apply for loan remission and they will take 15% off of your loan. I qualified for this for CEGEP, my bachelors and my masters and they've taken off about 5 000$ off my loan.

Housing and Household stuff
-If you can, have a roommate. This reduces the amount you pay for an apartment by a lot.
-Don't get renters insurance if you don't have anything valuable.
-If you are paying for heat and hydro, don't waste electricity. Turn things off when you aren't using them and don't take excessively long showers.
-Buy used furniture.
-Buy reusable things. Don't buy things like paper plates.
-Recycle because then you end up using less garbage bags.
-Don't be constantly changing your cloths. This makes extra laundry which you have to pay for.
-Don't use the dryer to dry laundry (except maybe towels and comforters). Instead invest in a drying rack. Mine cost about 10$ and paid for itself in no time.
-Only have basic phone service (and maybe a good long distance plan).
-Don't have cellphone and a land line. I think if you are going to talk a substantial amount and make long distance calls regularly, a land line is cheapest (I could be wrong, I've never looked into getting a cellphone).

General
-Small things add up. For instance, if you buy a 2$ coffee (I don't buy coffee but I don't think I overestimating the cost) everyday of your undergrad, you will end up spending 1040$. If you have a student loan this is money you could use towards that and instead make you own coffee at home.
-People these days say too many things are necessities when they are actually luxuries. Evaluate these things a little more realistically.
-To steal a phrase from Dr Phil, set yourself up for success. For instance, don't go to school and not pack a lunch or bring some kind of snack to tie you over until you get home. Because you'll end up buying something overpriced at school. When I lived off campus, I always made sure that I had granola bars in my school bag. Every so often I would toss a handful in and I had something to eat at school that didn't cost me that much. Also set yourself up for success by not going shopping when you don't need anything. By just looking, you risk buying.
-Avoid service charges and avoid late fees. These are just a waste of money. Also pay off credit cards and loans as fast as you can. The interest on these things is also a waste of money.
-Question every purchase and determine if you really need it.
-Have price limit in mind for certain items and stick to it.
-Always shop around. Know your prices.
-Research major purchases over 50$ to make sure you know what you're buying and are getting the best thing for you and your budget.
-Make a budget and stick to it.
-Write down every purchase.
-Put off purchases when you can. Sometimes you realize you don't need those things when you put them off.
-Be careful about lending money to people. And when you do, get in writing how much you lent them and a payment schedule
-Have money saved up in case you lose your job or if the bank or government decides to not give you a loan. You never know when these things might not be around to help you out.

These all might sound like common sense but I see tons of people not following any of them.