Frugal = Freedom

A penny saved is a penny earned

In truth that's a pretty dumb saying at face value. You see it costs more to make a penny than the penny is worth, and saving it only further erodes the value with inflation. But the concept isn't actually about saving a penny as much as it means being frugal. Why intentionally throw away money when you can save on the cost of the same item in a different place or packaging?

Now don't get me wrong, this isn't dumpster diving 101. I've already said that's not a winning strategy (at least get the items before they get to the dumpster, lol) but not intentionally overspending is a great strategy. Yesterday my wife had to go get a bunch of these little sprayable hand sanitizers for a preschool activity and so we went over to the dollar tree. While walking around with her I happened to notice two items I was out of and curiosity got the best of me. I had to see what these items were at other places.

So I got out my phone and looked. Now I didn't really bargain shop and dig in because I know I could find comparable prices if I really searched, but just off the top of my search I got Walmart for the body wash and this one kind of shocked me. I assumed it would be lower, but it was $9.70 vs $1.25 at dollar tree for the EXACT SAME PRODUCT, slightly different label shown but price is the same across labels. (excuse the squished pic on mobile)

Almost the same thing with the ibuprofen, but this one im positive I can find for the same or lower prices, because i've seen walmart carry them for like a $1.00, but just googling I had mayo clinic come up (i know weird, huh ) as a store and it had this price. It was slightly different being the PM version. But the point is that ibuprofen in its many forms is still just an otc medicine, why would you intentionally pay almost 9 times the price for essentially the same thing?

I don't go out of my way to clip coupons and bargain shop because at some point it's a negative return for the time put in. To me time is more valuable than $, I can always come up with new ways to make money, but I can't get time back and I learned that WAY TOO LATE in life. Therefore, being frugal is really just having some self control and keeping your eyes open for good deals when they're around.

There's two sides of incrementally getting rich. One side is to maximize income through cash flow and keep it flowing. I find that to be much more satisfying than saving. But the side that can't be ignored (except by congress apparently) is to cut unnecessary spending. Look money is meant to be spent, it doesn't do any good even in huge sums just to exist. It needs a purpose, but the point of getting free is that someday you'll have almost limitless reach. You'll be able to eat whatever you want and never glance at the price, you'll be able to choose things because you want them and not because you can only afford them. But for now it's exactly the opposite. You want to mind your own business and laser focus on doing the things that will build you passive income. You get enough streams and that river becomes an ocean inlet. So focus on the income streams.

Ok, so how is my little experiment going anyway? Well I've said in the past that you need to keep money flowing and that's true to the extent you can control it. But it does occasionally stall, or life just comes up. Both of those kind of happened to me this last two weeks, but an update is still needed. When I last left you I had mentioned that I had $4.20 from turning in recycled cans. And that I could turn that into $40 because I had found a nearly mint condition pair of lady converse from the college exodus. I took like $2.75 of that $4.20 and bought new laces which really made them pop. However, the timing was really bad. You see I live in South Eastern AZ and it gets just stupid hot here. Couple that with the college exodus and what is the real local market for shoes right at summer break, where everyone wears sandals all summer? Yeah I didn't time that too great. Even then I got some interest just nothing serious.

But here's what we have to understand. I am selling these local. I might be able to actually sell them quicker online, maybe even at a higher price (although I doubt it), but any online method has some associated fee with it as well as the time to do the listing. And because these shoes were practically free im in no super rush. It will happen and in the meantime Im doing other things with other money. For example. I also spoke of an apple watch and a castle colored pencil set which both brought the price I was seeking. Now very important. I am not mixing those funds with the shoes because I want that to exist in a complete vaccum so that it's just like someone who has never done this before and doesn't have any other resources.

Now that being said, I have taken a little side step with that other cash to keep it moving and I think it's worth noting even if it's not directly a part of the funds from the shoes. It will all tie together in the end (no pun intended).

I try lots of different things to make cash mostly to see what really provides the best bang for the least input (taking a moral stance into consideration). I mean all kinds of crazy things. Worm sales (yes believe it or not that's a decent business), wate bottle irrigators, middleman sales for animals of all kinds, glass cleaner / protectors, survival kits, ebooks, every stupid affiliate marketing scheme, etc. Bottom line I don't think it's ridiculous to try something new if you've got cash you can afford to lose. But most of the time what happens is that I try something that indeed did work, but isn't worth the ongoing effort for the small margins. However it is a very good means to flip from point A to point B. And occasionally in doing this you find something that turns out better than you thought.

That will be the focus of my next post, because I tried something that worked better than I thought it would. And although I got a huge response, im still treating it as a one off, well maybe a few off, but probably limited runs on a local level. But it has really big online potential, if the market doesn't get too saturated. Its the story of me falling ass backwards into making Tallow Balm. It might be a short story, but it's fairly profitable and so I can't ignore the potential to use it as a stepping stone to bigger things.

Now to wrap up today I want to reiterate. Be frugal when you can, it doesn't mean live like a pauper, it means be intelligent with your purchases and knowing what your money is doing. Secondly, the shoes will sell but it's in limbo until I decide that time on the shelf isn't worth the online fee I would have to pay to sell it. But this is the main storyline I will be telling as we move on. Third, the upcoming tale of Tallow Balm is an unexpected surprise and I will be pursuing that as a really good short term flip strategy.

The goal is to get from quick cash flips to consistent monthly passive income. Even if it's only $10. That $10 can feed more streams all the way up into the thousands of dollars per month. For now we want to go from literally 0 dollars prior to recycling cans, to the $200 mark where we can split into simulatneous flips that will hopefully get us to $1000 by the 4th of July. But if we don't make that it's ok, if you're not earning your learning and both are valuable. After our $1000 mark it's time to switch strategies to either get considerably bigger flips or consistent micro passive income. My experience is that big flips are easier time wise but also riskier. Either way it all came from nothing and you can replicate that over and over. Finally that $1000 will become $10k and that is when we choose a truely passive business to either build or buy that will provide lifetime income, and we want to target a solid $500 a month profit from that 10k. That's a true passive income stream and building those will quickly move you towards freedom.

May 22nd, 2025