For me I generally pirate most books I read, although if there is a book I really enjoyed I will buy the physical copy.
I also generally tend to avoid having takeaways because they are just so expensive in this day and age with inflation and tend to opt for cheap meals like pasta or rice etc.
Also I don't pay for any streaming services, but borrow a VPN service from a friend to pirate the movies I watch.
Curious to hear of some ways that you people here save money.
Vac sealer. Bulk.
I understand, for alot of people living in apartments or room sharing situations this is difficult. But, taking advantage of sales and utilizing a vac sealer can go a long way.
If you don't mind pork, it can be extremely budget friendly and is a good source of protein. Here in Canada it can sometimes get to $2 or under a pound for pork chops or shoulder. Same with whole chickens or dark meat cuts.
When this happens. I often buy $30-60+ worth, take it home, portion it to family meal size and vac seal/date/label it.
After doing this for a while, even with beef products. My chest freezer slowly fills up and eventually, we get to the point where we don't buy much meat during our weekly grocery visit, unless of course, I see a really good meat deal.
In addition, learning to process and prepare you're own meat products like sausage, burgers, raviolis, meat balls, jerky can also go a very long way. My family doesn't buy any frozen processed crap meat products. We do everything from scratch, and it's soooo much better. Last year I bought pork shoulders only on sale and kept them in the freezer. I would only buy under $2 a pound. I ended up making around 50 pounds of sausage (Italian and brats) that sausage lasted us almost 10 months.