How to Save Money in Santa Barbara

You must be one of the 30% who actually work, Pay market value rent / Mortgage, car insurance, medical insurance and buy food with your own hard earned money...

(1) Drink water. Don't buy drugs or alcohol. (2) Rent a room in someone's home or share an apartment. (3) Walk, ride bike and bus, don't have car, too expensive. (4) Go to free clinic for medical/dental care. Don't pay for expensive insurance. (5) Be vegetarian, buy from local Farmer's Market. (6) Free entertainment: Volleyball on beach, swim in ocean, join Sierra Club hikes and get a ride from someone to start point, window shopping/browsing, view night sky-enjoy telescopes when available, read at library, volunteer to help others.

All good suggestions, to add: Buy anything you need at the local thrift shops and explore the extensive ones in Ventura/Oxnard. If you need shopping therapy, do it at a thrift shop. Fully fund your IRA and put as much as you can in a Roth IRA. Don't touch it - invest long and slow. The years move by anyway, and retirement when you need this nest egg is closer than you can possibly think. right now. Never run a balance on your credit card. Learn to cook. Understand basics of good nutrition using basic ingredients; not prepared anything. . Buy only nutrient dense food. Stay away from the Farmer's market. Look at the bargain food items at Tri-Counties instead. Buy an air- corn popper (at the thrift shop) if you want a snack. Don't drink alcohol - either alone or when going out to eat. Track your monthly expenses on a spread sheet. Where does your money actually go? Treat yourself to a pre-paid 2 week vacation every year. Don't come back to bills you then have to later pay off. Keep a 6 month "emergency" account. NEVER be one paycheck from "homelessness". If you can't make it here, look elsewhere where you can. There are plenty of other very nice places to live for a lot less. Return to Santa Barbara much later and get on the waiting list for low-income senior housing ( hundreds of units) after you start drawing social security, but make your own way and your nest egg somewhere else if you feel presently stretched.

get a job and don’t quit, grow to the top of that job so you can get payed good money and there you go, start saving! There’s always a way as long as you’re working!

Only 30% actually work? Where did that come from? FACTOUM gave excellent advice, pretty much the way we live and it works. Thrift stores and yard sales are the best for shopping, saves tons of money. My motto is, "I don't buy new except food." For vacations we go to a BLM campground in the Eastern Sierra. There are so many ways to save, like make coffee at home, don't go to Starbucks. Take a thermos to work and pack a bagged lunch.

Our only "splurge" is on organic foods. We don't drink alcohol, we don't smoke dope. We don't drive fancy cars. We enjoy tasty food, so that's our biggest expense.

Save for a down payment on a house, condo, double-wide, whatever you can afford to stabilize your housing costs and not live at the mercy of the local rental market.. Stop throwing rent money down the drain. Join the military and get vet benefits after a few years. Work for the government - pays very well. Allocate your life into decades with different goals instead of asking to live in this area right now if it prevents you from building your own equity. Become an investor in the American economy, support programs, policies and candidates that don't take from you, and then give it to someone else. Find a religious community that is compatible with you spiritually and become a regular member - it pays off in a net-working community, free social activities and a built-in support system when you might need one. Plus it feels good to get a few words of wisdom and sing a few good old hymns once a week - meditative time to rebalance your life and priorities. You don't have to be a "believer" to enjoy being part of a religious community. You can form attachments to it at many different levels. Many to explore in this town - try a few on to see what might click. Humanist Society, Unitarians, Society of Friends (Quakers), Theosophists, Vedanta, Temple, and every form of traditional mainline Christianity as you would like to sample -some more charismatic, some more traditional, but all have solid social values to explore. Go simply as an observer, before feeling you might want to be a joiner.

When shopping, ask yourself..... Do I need it, or do I want it... If you need it, then buy it, BUT if you want it, put it back on the shelf and walk away.

Take your recycling to Marborg, and make some money. Also, be on the lookout for money on the ground.... Even finding a penny , can eventually add up to a dollar...

The biggest expense is going out and doing what everyone else is doing. Learn to cook and make healthy meals in large batches you can freeze for later use. What it costs to eat out for one meal can be made into 5 meals at home. Better yet invite some friends over, enjoy good conversations, play games and probably have a better time too. Then when they invite you in return it's just money in the bank. Join a book club instead of going to the movies. Take up activities that don't cost you anything like hiking and gardening. It's easy to save money so long as you don't follow the herd and do what everyone else is doing.

We saved the most money by leaving Santa Barbara - housing costs went from an $1800 a month rental to a $1400 a month mortgage. Utilities dropped by a third. Cut our dining expenses by 75% by learning how to cook the food we missed eating and now we can cook up a better meal than half the restaurants we used to eat at before.

Be VERY careful and selective on who you marry. A druggie, a spendoholic, even just a lazy bum will cost you more than you'll ever be able to recover.

Buy a bread maker on amazon for $70 then buy flour and yeast from smart and final. Now you are ready to make the most delicious fresh bread and pizza dough you will ever have and at the same time save a ton o money!

We just don't keep up with the jonses. We saved die a decade to put a large down payment at the bottom of the market. We drive 10 year old cars, eat wholesome home cooked meals and don't buy faddish nonsense. We buy quality products a s fix them rather than replacing with Chinese junk. Simple living can make you happy wherever you want to live

The most cost effective strategy is to share a modest living space with another wage earner, preferably someone you love. And don't have children.

Don’t go out to eat. Grow your own veggies and fruit. It doesn’t take much space, and you can get a plot (or share) at a community garden.

Thank a rich person, because they continue to support activities that you can also find ways to enjoy - volunteer to usher for concerts and plays that they sponsor. Enjoy early bird specials at local restaurants, before their prices go up later for the carriage trade. They pay the bulk of the property taxes that support your city services. Say thank you to both the wealthy who can afford to live here and the generous local philanthropists, rather than resenting them for what their own lives have achieved, including being merely a trust funder. The wealthy in this town do invest their own resources making it special, which is why so many want to hang on here whether they can afford to live here or not. Stop kicking them in the teeth. You may never reach their same financial level, but once you figure how to make it work for yourself you do get to enjoy much of what wealthy Santa Barbarans have long provided - an enriched environment where everyone still shares the same sunshine and participates the same rain. The wealthy, who so many on this forum claim to hate, make Santa Barbara a better place to live than Oxnard. You can get the same weather in Oxnard; but it does not have the X-factor that decades of wealthy philanthropy and aesthetics has bestowed on this particular town.

Santa Barbara has free summer concerts " Concerts in the Park" Thursday nights starting July 11th; and
Goleta has "Music at the Ranch" on Tuesday nights starting July 16th.
Great entertainment and price is right.

Read books, get DVDs, free online magazines, etc. from the libary instead of going to the movies and buying their popcorn, paying Netflix, etc.

I participate. I smile at people and help brighten their day. I am thankful for all Santa Barbara has, including wealthy people. I especially appreciate Roger the Scanner Guy!

Don't eat out, but if you do, don't buy beverages (even soft drinks). Use the Public Library for its many resources: internet, books & DVDs, concerts, lectures. Groceries can add up. Always check the "day old" or "reduced" sale tables in Ralph's and Smart & Final for super deals. Shop at the thrift stores (great ones in the area). Don't keep pets--it can be expensive to properly care for them, especially as they age. If you can ride a bike rather than drive, that helps. For treats: eat out once a month at an inexpensive place; take a walk on the Wharf and buy an ice cream cone (pricey $5.00, but a treat) . If you have a credit card, only charge what you can pay off in full each month. And mostly, what D8VANILLA said: be aware of the difference between "want" and "need".

The old wise Rabbi said....you should eat below your means.....dress according to your means....and live in a house above your means. I abide by the rabbis saying. Except I shop at Ross for sale items and thrift shops. So I dress below my means to afford the house that is above my means.

....and you cell phone is not free, or the electricity to charge it. Other people are supporting you. It’s time to get on the Give and get off the Take, Jake. Wake up up and smell yourself, not some ones else’s roses.

Keep a good internet package but cut your TV package from COX. There are many streaming services available that can still end up costing much less each month than cable TV. If you need help in deciding, there is a ton of information on the internet about cutting cable.