131 thoughts on “8 Things You Can Do To Live A Good Life For Cheap”

1. my anticipation is that many readers of ROK would also enjoy the blog that parallel’s a lot of what Tony has written here… Mr. Money Mustache.

   1. Cool ass site. I am gonna make it part of my daily manosphere routine now.

2. A key thing is to live somewhere where you can do amazing things on the cheap. I live in a city but thirty minutes from some of the most beautiful places in Europe. Going up to the hills, walking and taking in the amazing surroundings costs nothing. Plus there’s rocks to climb and lakes to swim in. Some locations are better if you have loads of dough. Some are just as good without.
   My life plan in fact is to move to Spain or Portugal, where many areas are both cheap and beautiful. With more than the average amounts of money in those areas (Which is sometimes very little) you can live a good life for very little.

3. Good article. Living well doesn’t mean living expensive. I keep looking at some of those places that masses of westerners haven’t really discovered and don’t throng to yet.

4. I can’t emphasize #3 enough. I am disgusted at the number of people I know who say they can’t afford something and then turn around to buy fast food. Even the cheapest fast food is inflated in price and you’ll pay later in life too from the medical problems you will incur.
   I also started juicing recently, and after the initial cost of buying a good juicer, the amount of satiation I’m getting for the price is pretty good when I’m juicing mostly collard greens with a bit of carrot, apple, citrus, and ginger.

   1. Too lazy to cook…. lard asses…..also the number of western women that think beans on toast is an achievement is staggering…..

      1. beans on toast is a thing?

         1. A UK thing. Haute cuisine in some towns.

         2. canned beans at that.

   2. A pack of collard or kale seeds is like $2 and will grow like crazy with little work.

      1. My dad and I keep a garden in the summer and that’s in the works. Are you suggesting that’s possible even for people without land to grow on?

         1. Unfortunately, due to our screwed up priorities in this country, lawn is considered more desirable than garden, which is fucking stupid. If we had our act straight, front yards should be hoed up and victory gardens planted. Apartments would have plots in the limited space around them. For people without land, most cities have community gardens where you can get a plot. But that would require like 20 minutes of investigation which most people are too lazy to do, much less plant and care for a plot.

         2. Aquaponics. Check it out

5. The good life for cheap?
   get on welfare. look at porno, drink Pabst blue ribbon all day, and gloat about how all the working stiffs are supporting your ass while arrogantly chomping down on a fine Cuban cigar. (just kidding)
   

   1. Homer good…..

6. One word: EBAY. I buy everything on eBay including brand new high end italian clothes at 25% of market price, all of which can be returned if u don’t like it. I don’t wear anything but italian anymore, ie Brioni, canali, etc. I could never in my wildest dreams buy these clothes without eBay. Check out sellers like topshelfapparel, or frieschskys as examples. My dad just bought a brand new high end Benz on eBay. Anything u can think of is for sale at a price that’s impossible to find anywhere else. eBay is the shiiiiit

   1. Will take a look thanks for the tip.

   2. And if you’re into vintage clothes like me, check out eBay seller fogtownmining.

   3. In fabrics American for working wool (unless you can find vintage English in good condition), Italian for fine wool and silk, Irish for linen and Indian for cotton.
      For conservative clothing I’d still go with English, but who knows for how long (the formerly mighty have fallen hard), but for style, yes, Italian all the way, in any category, not just clothing; with the caveat that they will sacrifice function for style.

   4. Another word: Goodwill. When I left my toxic relationship and moved into a studio I had no furniture.
      So I spend 30 bucks at Goodwill, got entire desk for 5 bucks, table for 5 bucks.
      And when my lease is up it can all go back.
      Funny thing too, I have more money in my account now without her in my life.

      1. ‘i have more money without her in my life.’ i was JUST telling a couple of my married friends this last night (both women!). thanks to the ex moving out two years back, i have more disposable income than any time previous!

   5. No problem with fakes?

7. Norstrom Rack isn’t cheap. $400 pair of Magnanis discounted to $225. Women will actually start conversations complimenting you are your shoes, which is totally weird. But women are freaks that way.

8. The number one reason why people have no disposable income:
   RENT
   People are now having to spend somewhere between 50-70% of their income on the basic neccesities of life, such as having a roof over your head and food. At the current rate, people are now living to work, rather than working to live. Seriously, whats the point?
   You go to a job you absolutely hate, to work with people you don’t like, only to make more money for an asshole of a boss. You then go home, only to end up living in a slum part of a city, where you are forced to share with 4-5 dodgy roommates, who are the worst people you have met in your life, where they are going to steal your personal belongings.
   And to make things even worse, 50-70% of your income is gone, thanks to the government, along with your slumlord who will financially rape you up the ass for everything that you got.
   The current economic situation is a disaster. Where there are jobs, the cost of living is not affordable. And where the cost of living is affordable, there are no jobs. So essentially, you are trapped between a rock and a hard place.

   1. Landlord doubles the rent. But has your income doubled?

      1. Wages and salaries for the vast majority, have apparently stagnated and fallen. If the central banks keep printing all that worthless money, along with everything being bought and taken over by foreign entities, then the economy is inevitably, going to collapse.
         Start preparing to protect yourself.

         1. We’re in a bubble, you’d have to be blind to miss it. Stock market values doubling in 7 years. Have company profits doubled?

         2. Any economic recovery is for the corporations only. While the corporations have made record profits, we are witnessing a record number of jobs and professions being outsourced or replaced by technology.
            And with AI being more advanced than ever before, we are approaching a situation where professional white collar jobs, are now going to be replaced.

         3. Do you have the exact sources, I’d like to show them to a friend of mine? Ta.

         4. You actually aren’t capable of pulling up NYSE graph on google? Ta.

         5. wages for the average schmo peaked in 1972; its gotten so bad in the past few yrs, I believe that the avg person, adjusted for inflation, is making what someone would make in 1968.

         6. Poor comparison because the standard of living has skyrocketed since 1968. Cars, food, housing, electronics, etc, are much higher quality than in the 70s. So a direct wage comparison, even in real dollars, doesn’t tell the whole story.

         7. youre kidding right?
            no one had credit cards 45 yrs ago. this is the only thing that has allowed the consumption ball to keep rollin’.

         8. How much did an iPhone cost in 1970? How many cars & houses had ac? What did the produce selection in the local grocery look like? What was the real cost of a calorie? Disregarding real standard of life improvements (and attributing them to credit cards is a non sequitur) means that you’re effectively disregarding progress itself. Taken to its extreme, you’d be agreeing with the proposition that you’d be better off living in, say, 16th century england as long as your adjusted real income was higher than it is today.

         9. its not a non sequitur.
            long story short- no credit card over the past 35 yrs, no you, no me. shit woulda unravelled in the 80s. debt(easy credit) at every level, personal, govt, corp, is the only thing that has kept us afloat.
            the “real cost of a calorie” was cheaper in 1970 bc oil was cheaper.
            riddle me this: corp profits have increased sevenfold since the early 80s- you wanna take a stab at how much personal debt has increased over the same time period?
            Youre outta yer element donnie….

   2. Agree 100%, very well said.

      1. Thank you.

   3. “The current economic situation is a disaster. Where there are jobs, the cost of living is not affordable. And where the cost of living is affordable, there are no jobs. So essentially, you are trapped between a rock and a hard place.”
      America is a “company town”. Want to make a decent paycheck? You gotta work in the company town where you get charged and taxed and nickle-and-dimed every 2 seconds by “social systems”, unions, government, and the “parasite class” that votes for all of it.
      Oh, you want freedom? Well… have fun making 8 bucks an hour. Have fun living where you can buy land for 500 bucks an acre but good luck finding a way to come up with 500 bucks.
      They do this on purpose.
      Watch the fun that will happen when “they” achieve their “everything tracked and traced” goals meaning that getting around this bullshit by renting a room somewhere for a few hundred a month becomes a no-no.
      I wonder how many urban trendies who vote for all this tyranny will flap when they are getting forced to go into a 1 year lease at 1200 a month for a studio apartment? It’ll cut into their foody and latte habits big time. They might create a hashtag.

      1. I’ve heard stories where people are now living in their cars, just to be able to save money.

         1. If I had a car big enough..

      2. This wouldn’t be so bad if there were a decent number of fuckable women in the type of place where you can buy land for $500 an acre… but alas, young women being the delusional, wide-eyed career strivers that they are these days, you better move where the action is if you hope to have any kind of decent sex life.

         1. Soon these “career minded” women won’t have any careers to run to, once their management jobs are outsourced or replaced by artificial intelligence.
            And yet, they have no care in the world, whether its about men being deprived the right to work because of feminism, or whether its about spending like today never ended and the future will be fine.
            I guess there really is a reason as to why they say karma is a bitch.

         2. Once that happens it’s going to be every man for himself.
            I wont be surprised if its going to be the greatest day of every white-knight’s life either. The day where putting himself in extreme danger to protect some ex-career bitch makes her stick around at least for a little while longer.
            The white-knight gangs and the war-tribe gangs are what make me the most edgy to think about in terms of economic collapse.

         3. “Once that happens its going to be every man for himself.”
            -Its already happening. Marriage is being boycotted at an all time high, sperm clinics are running out of donations and men are now even leaving the country all together.
            I believe the eventual collapse will definately accelerate the “every man for himself” process, but I believe that it already is happening, where men are finding ways to protect themselves from women and the system designed to destroy men.

         4. “and men are now even leaving the country all together.”
            Honestly, I think if you can save enough to prepare a fuck-you fund so you can leave before things get really bad that might be the best bet. I’m not arrogant enough to think that I’m going to become the new tribe leader when shit falls apart and everyone is fighting for the top of the hill.
            Things can get a lot worse. Economic crash is already happening in other parts of the world (e.g., Venezuela, Europe) and it is not impossible to see austerity here. The idea that North America is invincible is a fallacy.

         5. That’s part of “the system”. Keep the tang in the company town.
            MGTOWs tend to be immune to this though. No man ever rolled over and died for lack of sex and frankly, while the SJWs like to say that gender is some kind of imposed “social construct”, the reality is that the “need to get laid” is the real invented construct that has even alphas putting just as much blood and treasure into the endeavor as any beta (only in different directions).
            I would also note that in the company town is where you find the organic food stores, but out “in the country” it’s nothing by GMO crap. Meaning that hey, you want to be a nice nicey gunless city libtard? Here’s organic food for you and oh look it’s hip and trendy.
            But..
            Oh you want to have your own land, a gun, and a wood stove? Well… here’s nothing but shit for you to eat. Have fun getting diabetes by 50 and cancer by 60 while your “counterpart” (read: the opposite voter) lives to 90.
            And as a cherry (maraschino with the cancer-causing red dye) on the top, trying to have your own farm while alone is very very difficult. So the Cathedral has ensured that the kind of woman capable of being a farmers wife (without weighing 400 lbs) no longer exists.

         6. I have been wanting to write an article that calls out the stupidity of most preppers AND dispel this “prepper white knight” fantasy that way too many of them appear to have.
            The White Knight Preppers are going to get their shit charmed right out from under them. One second the girl of his dreams is interested in him and wants to live with him the next her alpha cohort is knocking Mr White Knights teeth out and taking everything he has and leaving him for dead in his own ransacked cabin.

         7. The societal collapse is also already happening. We got mislead by the “Mad Max” thing. We were expecting mad bikers, mutant punks, and such.
            But what do we have really? Worse.
            We have roid-raging PTSD control freak cops backed up by a court and prison system (and laws that make resisting unlawful arrest unlawful by itself). I’d rather have bikers killing for gasoline.
            Ever other person is an aspietard who sperges every two seconds over extremely dumb crap (SJWs, for example)
            The rest are completely brain dead but they still vote. NFL, NASCAR, etc.
            In a Mad Max scenario there would be no more TV pumping idiotic trash into peoples’ heads, no more flouride water making them braindead, no more GMO, etc.

         8. over 700 bucks now for a pack of rubbers in Venezuela….

         9. Holy shit. Just read about it.

         10. its a death spiral, they need oil up north of 115/barrel just to balance the books…

         11. The end came not with a bang, but a #whimper

         12. And ten years ago their society was basically functioning right? Enough health-care and supplies for all their citizens right? Same shit with Greece.
             We shouldn’t take our current level of comfort for granted.
             Don’t become that crazy guy with aluminum hat… but… become that guy with the aluminum hat…

         13. Yeah I’m with you on that.
             The collapse isn’t going to be full-out MadMax but rather a huge growth in government control. Don’t forget, the totalitarian regime will be “protecting” us. Most people will lap it up, even though their freedoms are being squandered.
             My fear is that the regime will target intellectuals and freedom-lovers.
             I doubt anyone here pays much attention to Canadian politics, but why the hell is Harper hard-pushing anti-terrorism all the sudden? We simply do not have the resources to wage any kind of war against global terrorism. My big worry is that they are trying to stir shit up between the large local Muslim population and the rest of Canadian society. Keep us busy pointing fingers at each other and angry at “terrorism”.

         14. Exactly.
             There will be the odd case of loyal woman here and there, but the majority will be hypnotized by the alpha gangs with their big long scary guns.

         15. That’s funny. I always pictured the ROK comments section the first place I’d go to find tribe leaders when the shit hits.

         16. Haha yeah I know what you mean…
             doktorjeep comes to mind…

         17. Gotta turn it inside out and use it again. hehehe.
             Socialism… bringing all the plebs down to the lowest level equally.

         18. This is DEFINITELY going to happen.

         19. North America is thought to be the strongest, mightiest, self-determining place on earth.
             Something tells me that when enough people, men mostly, wake up and realize the messed up dream they were fed, the scammers of this North American continent of hours, will quickly close up their makeshift shop, and disappear into the dust of chaos. Once they realize they cannot play the hungry, roughed up masses, they’ll not want anything to do with this worthless wreck anymore.

         20. I have had a sense of unease since last year. It had to do with the information every damn media was pumping out, about how We could be a target, it’s gonna happen, you just wait and see. This, while there were nothing, really, to base it on.
             My sense is that this is how it always starts, out of the blue, there is a sudden surge of news, as if to just prepare the crowds, make them talk and fear. Then, just to tell the crowds “I told you so”, there’s a few “incidents” like the one in Ottawa etc.
             I was telling my friends my fears, that whoever is in charge of these cinematics, will do something random, somewhere random, that has some impact and makes crowds react.
             Harper/Canada is a joke.
             Freaking foreign minister Baird, the fuck, just resigned, just as things seem to be all heated up with Russia and them other bad guys. What a bad script.

         21. In today’s reality, if you’re successful and own shit, you attract golddiggers, or any of the various goverment departments who are very interested to strip you off the clothes on your back.
             Same idea would apply in your scenario, only that you’re attracting the bigger, stronger guy ( and there’s always one bigger and stronger than you), to just walk up, slap you aside, take/use your provisions including that cockwhore princess of yours.
             Unless you have a family/daughters etc, best stay light, mobile adaptive.
             Various skills would help, too.

         22. becoming the guy with the aluminum bat will be more useful in the not so distant future

         23. yeah but can they all fit on the caymans? the islands would sink 🙂

         24. Don’t worry, they have done this before. They are wanderers and I’m sure we’ll hear how they have been spotted in China or something, pulling the same shit they did here, hehe

         25. I’ve thought the same thing doktorjeep. I’ve also told all who would listen that if the collapse goes down really hard, having gold won’t do anything but get you killed…& the one who killed you for it , & so on.

      3. LOLOL! doktorjeep, LOVE that last paragraph. i have the unfortunate ‘pleasure’ of working with a couple of urban-trendies who love their obama, their NSA and their climate-change… watching them suffer would be ever so sweet for me (and we have the same job btw). anyhow, they’re so unprepared for anything other than their posh lifestyle they currently lead (unsustainable)… it would be glorious.

      4. You’re killin’ it doktorjeep, keep it up!

   4. Not only are the working class citizens being screwed out of their pay cheques but the government funds these parasites oops I mean welfare mommies and daddies so they can mooch off big daddy who mooches off us working citizens.
      http://www.thepoliticalinsider.com/bad-news-welfare-queen-cant-live-39000-per-year-government/
      Look at this cunt, 8 kids gets 39,000 a year for doing nothing and now she’s bitching because Cameron is cutting her welfare cheques and god forbid she may have to get a job.
      The whole system is rigged and fucked.

      1. The United Kingdom is a socialist’s wet dream. In all my life, I have never seen a Western industrialised nation that doles out so much free things to the people- from government housing, government healthcare to welfare, and not even understanding the consequences that will follow.
         Is it no wonder why the UK has a mass immigration problem where migrants from all over the world come over for more “free” handouts, thanks to the government taxing the living death out of the working man.

         1. When it pops, it’s going to be amazing to watch.
            No skin in this game.

         2. Same here. I had some guilt issues over long-term expatriation but no longer do thanks to this idea;
            “Let the state clean up the state.”
            I used to feel quite badly about the fact that I never served in the military or never was on a swat team or some such job putting me in harm’s way but let the state clean up the state. The state created ghettoes, the state can fund and train swat teams to clean up their own mess. The state took away accountability in the lower class, the state can clean up the meth crimes. The state manipulated its way into foreign entanglements (unconstitutional) let the state clean up that mistake. I am in the private sector overseas. State issues in the USA are no more my business than some issue in some random country somewhere. “No skin in this game. Let the state clean up the state.”

   5. Live in a motor home and join a 24 hour gym (my local one is £12.99 a month) and use that for showers, toilets etc….

   6. If you use 50% of your income for rent with 4 roommates, you should either switch jobs or move.

      1. So true

      2. Firstly, I am luckily not in the position I mentioned in my original post. That was just an example of what most people have to suffer from.
         Secondly, the idea of switching jobs for a higher paying position, is not realistic in most cases. Please read my other responses.
         Salaries and wages have been stagnating and falling. Furthermore, more jobs have been replaced by automation or outsourced on a record level. Also, factor in AI, and you will see that even the advanced paying jobs will soon be replaced.
         Also, as I mentioned in my original post, moving to a place where it is affordable, and what you will find is that there are no jobs. And where there are jobs, it is not affordable.
         Hence, you are trapped between a rock and a hard place.

         1. Stop whining. There are plenty of higher paid jobs out there. Can’t do them? Learn and try. It doesn’t even have to be a corporate job, you can bootstrap something of your own. You can even keep your job and start on the side, there are countless opportunities for the motivated.
            “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t–you’re right.” External factors aren’t the problem, your mindset is.

         2. You are delusional. How many jobs are there versus the number of people in society? Stop talking like a clown and grow up. I suppose in your mind the economy is all wonderful and that the Federal Reserve should continue printing more worthless money? You probably also think that AI is not a threat either.
            And before you respond, I suggest you read my posts again. I am successful, but that does not mean I am going to sit around and live in denial about how the world around us is crumbling.

         3. “How many jobs are there versus the number of people in society?”
            If you (or “those you’re talking about”) have the average joe for competitor, you’ve already lost.
            And being an employee isn’t the only way. How can people not see anything wrong with complaining about the lack of jobs while being too scared/lazy to start anything of their own.

         4. Starting a business on your own, is the one of the toughest ventures to succeed in. Which is why over 80% of small businesses fail and shut down.
            Do you have any idea how much red tape, regulations and bureaucracy the small man has to go through in order to start a business? Nevermind the government rules, brick and mortar businesses are almost dead because of the internet.
            There is an article in the ROK archive on starting a business, where many commentators including myself have discussed the problems associated with trying to start a business.
            Have a read of it if you can find it. This will also be my final response to your comments as I do not want to go into a pissing contest.

         5. Of course nothing’s easy. Still, it’s worth a try (or a few), especially for those you described and who don’t have a good job to give up.

   7. You basically have to minimize the shit out of everything in your life, apartment size, things you buy, activities you like to do etc, in order to break even.
      Gone is the era when Joe Regular had the most basic job and could afford not only a single lifestyle, but wife, kids, car, mistress and so on.
      While personally I have really come to actually like my minimal lifestyle, I wonder, if it came to it, wtf else does one minimize.

      1. I agree. Minimalism is the key towards success. I have been living a minimalistic lifestyle my entire life, to the point where I now have money and assets. Living BELOW your means is the way to save money.
         Which is why I advocate for people, not to buy a home, be mobile and ready on a moment’s notice to move to wherever the work is. Unfortunately, more jobs and opportunities are disappearing, which is why people need to start saving and investing before its too late.

   8. Sell everything you have and go get a trucking job, you can save 25 grand a year easy and you can take that and double and triple it in some stock account, also you can take longer vacations, your job ain’t going anywhere.

      1. Thanks for the response. I am luckily in a good position. I have money and assets. The original post was just an example of what most people have to live through on a daily basis.
         But from what I have read, even trucking will be replaced via automation. The Google self driving system will eventually replace the trucking industry.

         1. You’re welcome man, also it will be about another 15-20 years before seeing self-driving trucks and cars, also all roads will be toll roads.

   9. There is an excellent book out there called, ” The Creature from Jekyll Island “. It thoroughly explains what is happening, why, and our possible future.

9. not a fan of yelp. they deliberately write poor reviews of businesses, then have a salesman call up the business, saying they will guarantee no more of these reviews, if you pay them. how that isnt extortion is beyond me…

10. “free range ” and “organic” are labels that mean nothing in regards to your health.
    Organic means no usage of certain chemical pesticides and herbicides which aren’t used In great amounts to begin with, or not in usage at all anymore.
    You just pay more for nothing.
    “free range” can mean more disease , not less. And Organically grown is where all the ecoli outbreaks originate .
    Stop believing the girlish non-sense from the food fear mongering crowd..
    Also , salt is not unhealthy. It’s necessary for proper function and does not cause high blood pressure, and certainly not heart disease. IF you have heart disease or a salt sensitivity , then reducing your salt is part of the treatment. IN most people low salt intake is harmful to your health.
    Consuming animal fats do not cause cancer or obesity . BEING a fat animal yourself increases the chance you will get cancer. Mostly because there is more of you physically to get cancer. For instance, bigger tis means more change of breast cancer
    Eating large amounts of fruits is NOT healthy, especially drinking fruit juices, no matter how “organic” they are.
    Eat the whole fruit and no more than one a day.
    Do not eat any modern wheat. It is a high glucose ,diabetes producing weight gainer.

    1. Wrong. Look at store brand grocery store chicken breasts and then look at the organic ones. Tell me which ones look more healthy and like what a normal bird should look like.

       1. There is a major difference I see .
          One is 5 dollars ,the other is 17 dollars. Other differences are in breed. and age , not health.

          1. Also, one are the size of small turkeys and looks like unnaturally white/pink. Have you ever eaten a wild bird? Their meat does not look like factory farmed chicken. The organic comes close at least. But hey, it’s your life, keep pumping your body full of artificial hormones while polluting the fuck out of river systems from Tyson farms chicken shit run-off.

          2. I like feral pigeon myself, but it takes a lot of pigeons to make up one Frankenchicken.
             On the other hand, it turns out there are a shit ton of feral pigeons that need to be got rid of somehow, might as well eat the fuckers.

          3. I’ve read that’s becoming really popular hunting in the mid-west as there are tons of feral pigeons raised on clean grain from farms and there are no bag limits.
             This site has awesome wild game recipes: http://honest-food.net/

          4. ” . . . there are no bag limits.”
             As an invasive pest, there are basically no limits on methods either. Wringing their little necks and hitting them on the head with a hammer are on the prefered list of ways to dispose of them.
             Same goes for starlings. They’re good eating as well, but it takes a lot of starlings to make up one pigeon. That’s one of the reasons they were traditionally baked in a pie. Nasty little fuckers too. Every American child over the age of 5 ought to be issued a Crosman 760 Pumpmaster and instructed on the civic duty of using it to pop off every starling they see.
             Same goes for English (really Middle Eastern) sparrows, but those cheeky buggers are flying rats and should be handled the same way. Don’t even touch ’em, never mind eat ’em.

          5. My brother was the master starling killer of our neighborhood. I’m assuming those days are long gone. Can you imagine the outcry from these liberal helicopter parents if kids were running around and shooting birds? They’d be sent to juve for gun possession and animal cruelty!

          6. I live in NYS. When I was primary school age I could walk into a store alone and walk out with an air gun. I could open carry inside city limits and so long as I didn’t put out an eye (or window) with it, nobody paid it no never mind.
             Now, as an adult, I don’t dare walk out onto my own back porch holding a Red Ryder for fear of being SWATed.
             The sparrows and starlings now kill my chickadees while thumbing their beaks at me. I can only do pest control on the outlying farms.

    2. “Consuming animal fats do not cause cancer or obesity .”
       Or heart disease.
       “BEING a fat animal yourself increases the chance you will get cancer.”
       Fat people eating spinach to avoid saturated animal fat, when they’re frickin’ made of the stuff. Boggles my mind.
       ” . . . fruit juices . . .”
       Sugar water is sugar water. That goes for low fat milk as well, which hasn’t simply had the fat removed, but has had even more sugar added. Even whole milk (of which there is actually none in the stores, all commercial milk is reconstituted these days) is fatted sugar. Treasure the cream, use the sugar water to make pig slop.

11. Don’t forget the most important part of saving on food – grow your own! Seeds and topsoil are cheap. Hoeing is a great back workout too. $80 for a pressure canner and you’re eating all winter.
    I’ve been into making my own grooming products recently. It’s amazing what a little beeswax and some oil will make – chapstick, hand cream, beard balm, etc. Thinking about trying to start up a little side business.

    1. “Seeds and topsoil . . .”
       Are what food eats. Green leafys make great rabbit bait.
       “It’s amazing what a little beeswax and some oil will make . . .”
       I recently ran across some women discussing skin care products and wondering how people managed to live before the invention of moisturizer. I assume they’ve never read the ingredients on their products, or if they have have no idea what the words mean.
       I’m sure they’d be pretty grossed out if they did.

       1. Sorry, Ron Burgandy, but to properly cook a hare, you need vegetables…. and juniper berries… and wine… mmmm hasenpfeffer.
          Admittedly, I am a chapstick junkie, but it’s pretty amazing how women have been fooled into all sorts of chemical factory products as essential. Although, if your diet is the modern American woman of sugary lattes and sweets, chances are you are dehydrated and malnourished and have the skin to match (plus all the fucking meds every broad is on these days). So dump more chemicals on – brilliant!

          1. The specific chemicals I had in mind were stearic acid and stearate. These words are ways of avoiding saying beef fat.
             Then there’s lanolin, which is sheep fat.
             These are the actual moisturizing agents in most commercial products, although there may be some waxes as well. The genus Homo has been using skin moisturizers since long before it became sapiens.
             Modern “civilized” women have no idea what things are or where they come from and thus have no idea that they’re smearing themselves with highly saturated animal grease, which they mostly need because they scrub themselves with caustic lye every day . . . to get rid of the highly saturated animal grease their skin produces for free.
             Stearate, by the way, makes the finest candles, and a pound of the stuff will keep a man alive for a day. Think about that when laying in emergency supplies.

          2. Nice. You know your chemistry, man. What’s your thought on Dr. Bronners? That has been my only bath product for years now.

          3. “You know your chemistry, man.”
             Naaah, just raised by old Yankees who not only got through the Great Depression on a chicken farm, but lost everything to The Great ’38 and built it all up again from scratch.
             “What’s your thought on Dr. Bronners?”
             The Unscented Baby Liquid is as good as you can get commercially, but the Johnson’s Natural Baby Shampoo really isn’t that far behind.
             And here I’ll segue into pointing out that wool is just hair and Woolite is thus just baby shampoo without the yellow dye, but at several times the price. Professional costumers all just use baby shampoo.
             Ignore the shampoo part, baby shampoo (otherwise known as liquid Castile soap) of some variety is your go to soap product and there’s really no reason not to use the dollar store stuff on your floors.

12. 1. Get sufficient rest – Costs time but not money
    2. Take 2 minutes and be thankful for your life. – Free
    3. Reflect on great life experiences you have had – Free
    4. Prioritize your own happiness over others – Free, but people will think you are a dick.

    1. 4. But if you don’t, people will think you’re a putz, so as long as people are going to think ill of you anyway, might as well take the path that works out for you.

       1. Exactly

13. Nowadays, to fully control your life, you need to control every single aspect of your life including your body, mind, finance, car, health, clothes, food, people you interact with. After laying all of them down, and seeing which of them do you harm, you start to mark them out one by one and add improvements in those different areas. But at one point you realize that an extraordinary improvement would be to have more money which is fucking difficult to get in your company so you start to learn new trades, skills, languages to be a slave to a more respectful slave-owner that will give you twice the pay but that’s only if you go abroad. So here you are, XXI-st century man, shape this world if you can !

14. Don’t skip on the gym to ‘save money’. Best investment you’ll make. Less than a $800 per year. You’d spend that on alcohol, why not your body?

    1. You need to find a better, which is to say crappier looking, gym. It’ll probably cater to serious powerlifters who don’t give a crap about decor, suanas, rust or elliptical machines and won’t pay lawyer rates for them.
       Best gym in my area is $189 bucks a year. They’re perfectly willing to take cash in advance and never look at your credit card. They’ll also do what they reasonably can to encourage you to show up at least a few times a week, instead of trying to figure out how to get you to forget you even belong while the charges continue to accrue.
       “You’d spend that on alcohol . . .”
       The hell I would. Even at today’s prices I could get a fair collection of race tires for that, with enough left over for a chain and a few cogs.

       1. Most would spend that on alcohol a year here in Australia aha.

          1. Ahhhhh, Australian dollars. That’s different.
             Send more beef, leather, Driza-Bone, Akubra and Luhrmann.
             In my youth I’d send back gold dollars fixed at 35 an ounce, but now you’ll have to take this “petro” crap, but at least it’s something.

    2. If the weather is good, working out outdoors is healthier than the gym

       1. As long as you are still using heavy enough weights to create actual resistance

15. Honestly, if you have to work out in playgrounds, write reviews to get free food and hope for more alcohol samples, your income is too low.
    I like minimalism, but this isn’t even minimalism anymore. With the effort you do to save pocket change, you could increase your income and stop worrying about small things.

    1. That’s a good point. An extra four hour shift somewhere can cover a lot of minimalist hustling. One thing is that cooking/eating in can be deceptively expensive if you’re not careful.

16. I can’t drink alcohol and I am over 18 and that doesn’t mean that I am beta.

17. Buy a TRX you say?! I made one out of a small tree and sailing rope.
    Someone later gave me a store one for my birthday, its the same just adjustable and made in China.
    Good article. I’d also recommend foraging for nuts and growing mint.

18. Libraries are paradise 🙂

19. You lost me at “laughter yoga”

    1. Just imagining it (based on that wikipedia entry) makes me feel very uncomfortable!
       I think I’d have to get the hell out of there.

20. Such a great, positive message. I love articles like this. There is no social space left in America for positive male bonding and discussion. So glad we have ROK on the internet.

    1. I agree

21. What a good effort here. I can’t say I agree with it all but I like this kind of thinking.
    I only want to add this one;
    —-Don’t give a dime to Hollywood. Read instead.

22. I highly recommend buying your clothes from thrift stores. You can get brand names for dirt cheap.

23. Finally a tangible well written article, well done.

24. people when they are young just need to find a place where the rats run and the rent is cheap. Save enough and get a good down payment on a inexpensive house …after that- you can pretty much do what you need to do.

25. People waste so much of their hard earned money on unnecessary junk and excess crap. Look around you. Look in the rooms of your house at all the shit you don’t even use. Your closets and garage are likely packed with stuff that other people wouldn’t even use.
    WHAT YOU NEED is a magical power. The power to point your finger like a pistol AT ANYTHING, and then firing at it making it disappear and turn into the ORIGINAL MONEY that was squandered on the items.
    CAN YOU IMAGINE pointing your finger at a stack of newspapers and magazines on your floor AND POOF!! A cloud of smoke dissapates and suddenly a $50 bill is laying where the papers were cluttering the area.
    I think I’d go on a wild house cleaning rampage. A stray blown out nike air jordan shoe behind the couch BOOM – another crisp $50. And hell, that fart cushion of a couch KABAAM – WOW it’s a cool $500. And the pillows BAPP BAP a couple of $20’s there, EZ-monaay! Shit, better save the pillowcases to stuff all this cash into. Then there’s the bathroom sink – KABLOOEY. The toilet . . EVERYTHING GOES. How much greater can it get.
    At the end of the afternoon you have three sacks full of large bills, enough cash to make that move to Switzerland, and you’re staring at a bare concrete slab with pipes sticking out of it and a few bewildered naked neighbors wandering around saying ”What the fuck?”.
    As much a stretch of the imagination as this scenario may seem, it is ACTUALLY POSSIBLE to recoup the money you’ve wasted away.
    THE SECRET IS:
    DON’T BUY ANYTHING in the first place. Keep your money. NEWSPAPERS AND MAGS? Just read YESTERDAY’S paper. It’s FREE. It’s the same fishwrap bullshit regardless of the day you read it anyway. And clothes? I’ve FOUND all the clothes I’ve ever needed. FOOD? Go to YOUR FRIEND’S HOUSE and eat.
    Money is only good to be actually spent on one thing. RAW LAND. Undeveloped unrestricted survivalist paradise retreat. Or tillable farmland, whichever you fancy.

26. For #4, Burlington Coat Factory and Savers are also great places to shop (Savers is second hand although you’ll get new items every once in a blue).

27. Meet-ups suck for men trying to find a date. once most women and their beta obiters’ know your status they will treat you at best with indifference and at worse ban you from the group. I have had a few bad experiences already with 2 meet-ups while asking women there to dance and talk. Go for a group with a common interest like language, cars, but avoid dance instruction groups, groups that do Fun things together. believe or not all the ones I have attended are cliques and many discourage men from asking the women on dates. Single focus meet-ups suck too unless you go to a large venue because most of the women are 50+ make sure it’s a 25-40 age limit. Speed dating type meet-ups those I am trying those next.

28. I’d add starting your own business to the list. Even if it’s just a side gig you’re running out of your house in your spare time, it’s still an extra income stream. You’d be surprised how many companies got started this way.

Comments are closed.