How to save money?

Some tips to save money?

Great advice

Wonderful advice

Simplistically, to save money, you need to bring in more money than you spend.

There are two basic approaches to this: you can either increase the amount of money you bring in or decrease the amount of money you spend. Ideally, you'd do both of these.

Ways to increase your income include receiving a pay raise, getting additional jobs, developing a passive income stream, and monetizing a product or idea.

Ways to decrease your spending include decreasing the number of needs you have, prioritizing and limiting the number of wants you spend on, eliminating consumer debt (hat tip to @David K.), and avoiding fees.

Once you're able to build savings, the next step is to invest those savings so that your money starts working for you.

Some tips to save money?

Never tip in a restaurant. Just pay and walk out

Some tips to save money?

Never tip in a restaurant. Just pay and walk out

Better yet, if you can't afford to tip in a restaurant, you should understand that you can't afford to eat in a restaurant. Then, you can save even more money by staying at home.

If you can afford to tip, but choose not to do so, then maybe you're just a terrible human being.

Why can't the restaurant owner pay his own staff? To put another way, why should I pay a subsidy to the restaurant owner? Tradition? haha

Agree, @David K., that restaurants should pay their employees a living wage, and some restaurants have begun to do so. But until we break the societal norm of tipping, you're not helping waitstaff by withholding your tip. You'd be better off avoiding those establishments for the places that simply charge a service fee or don't accept tips. Vote with your dollars, and don't penalize the waiter or waitress who relies on tips to make ends meet.

Thanks for the moral lesson. Your approach is perfect for maintaining the status quo.

Some tips to save money?

Never tip in a restaurant. Just pay and walk out

Better yet, if you can't afford to tip in a restaurant, you should understand that you can't afford to eat in a restaurant. Then, you can save even more money by staying at home.

If you can afford to tip, but choose not to do so, then maybe you're just a terrible human being.

Actually it is the restaurant owner who is a terrible human being for not paying their staff a living wage. I am just a guy eating a club sandwich.

Thanks for the moral lesson. Your approach is perfect for maintaining the status quo.

We're seeing positive change in the restaurant industry. You're just happy to exploit restaurant workers for your own benefit and call it a crusade.

We are not seeing positive change in the restaurant industry. Many restaurant owners have started to impose an additional 3% "health and wellness" fee on restaurant checks. This "health and wellness" fee is a move to shift the cost of employee health insurance to the customer. It is another subsidy for the owner, benefitting from the reaction you had above.

Sorry you've not experienced any positive change in your area. It's true that a lot of restaurant owners take advantage of the current system as a subsidy. You can choose not to support those restaurants. Instead, you choose to stick it to the employee. In fact, you also support the current system as it affords you the option to take advantage of restaurant owners maintaining lower prices at the expense of their employees and the added "savings" of not tipping. That is your right.

I want restaurant employees to have steady income. I do not want restaurant employees to have to live off of unpredictable tip income. I support the elimination of the lower "tipped wage", and the establishment of a living wage for restaurant workers. I disagree with your statement that restaurant owners offer lower meal prices at the expenses of their employees. Rather many offer a market rate for their meals, keep the profit, and shift the cost of service to the customer. I will not pay into this faulty system.

I guess we'll need to agree to disagree on the state of restaurant margins. The longstanding "tradition" of tipping as a subsidy to restaurant owners has artificially lowered the market rate for meals. What I fail to see is how your advocating that restaurant patrons refuse to leave tips is supposed to solve the issue for anyone other than the patron himself.

The only way to change the situation is if enough people stop tipping. Tipping keeps workers in poverty, it doesn't bring them out.

That isn't the only way. You can support those establishments that have committed to providing front and back of house staff with a living wage. If you're so against tipping, stop supporting those businesses that perpetuate the practice. Make yourself a club sandwich at home once in a while. And if you're not willing to do that, at least inform your server that you won't be tipping before your meal because you're looking out for their best interests.

I actually eat in restaurants rarely, perhaps due most to the fact that there is too much salt in prepared food. I am resolute in my belief that tipping keeps workers in poverty, and contributes to inequality and server harassment. Many who have realized this have joined the no-tip-movement. Not tipping is the only way to bring about change.

I guess we agree that the practice of tipping needs to go away. We just differ on how to get there. But I'd say that there's a distinct difference between supporting a restaurant that has adopted no-tipping policy versus stiffing someone expecting a tip.

This thread is about how to save money, hurriedly written by someone who was looking for points for a silly online scratch card. I gave an answer. I also don't support the Saverlife scratch card model, but whatever.

I do believe tipping an employee based on service. And I try my best to leave something for a tip, I know too many waiters who’ve made lifelong changes while having a service industry job.

Simplistically, to save money, you need to bring in more money than you spend.

There are two basic approaches to this: you can either increase the amount of money you bring in or decrease the amount of money you spend. Ideally, you'd do both of these.

Ways to increase your income include receiving a pay raise, getting additional jobs, developing a passive income stream, and monetizing a product or idea.

Ways to decrease your spending include decreasing the number of needs you have, prioritizing and limiting the number of wants you spend on, eliminating debt, and avoiding fees.

Once you're able to build savings, the next step is to invest those savings so that your money starts working for you.

This is just incorrect advice, and I couldn't disagree with you more. Debt is the perhaps the greatest wealth building tool which most people have at their disposal. Debt provides quick access to capital which can then be used to take action on ideas which can develop assets and thus create new income streams. Advocating for people to eliminate all debt is just nonsense.

Simplistically, to save money, you need to bring in more money than you spend.

There are two basic approaches to this: you can either increase the amount of money you bring in or decrease the amount of money you spend. Ideally, you'd do both of these.

Ways to increase your income include receiving a pay raise, getting additional jobs, developing a passive income stream, and monetizing a product or idea.

Ways to decrease your spending include decreasing the number of needs you have, prioritizing and limiting the number of wants you spend on, eliminating debt, and avoiding fees.

Once you're able to build savings, the next step is to invest those savings so that your money starts working for you.

This is just incorrect advice, and I couldn't disagree with you more. Debt is the perhaps the greatest wealth building tool which most people have at their disposal. Debt provides quick access to capital which can then be used to take action on ideas which can develop assets and thus create new income streams. Advocating for people to eliminate all debt is just nonsense.

Very true, @David K. I should have been more specific in talking about eliminating high-interest debt. The fact of the matter is that too many people don't understand how to use debt. Point taken. Thanks for the correction.

It is consumer debt that needs to be eliminated. On investor debt, the interest rate can be less relevant if the idea is good, or if the asset to be developed is sufficient.