15 Things I Stopped Buying on a Fixed Income (Americans Still Buy Them Monthly)

#fixedincome #stoppedbuying #oldmexicanway 📖 Get The Old Mexican Way, every old way written down: https://oldmexicanway.com On the third of every month a check comes to my house, and it is the same number it was last year. So last winter I spread one month of receipts across the kitchen table with a pencil, the way my mother did with a cigar box, and added up the small things. Two hundred and thirty-eight dollars in one month on things my mother never bought in her life. Here are the fifteen, what each one cost me a month, what she had instead, and the total, out loud. THE FIFTEEN 1️⃣ Bottled water, $28. The jarro and the faucet. Find out about YOUR water first; the filter only if the water is good. 2️⃣ Coffee pods and creamer, $24. The olla de peltre, café de olla with canela. 3️⃣ Soda and bottled juice, $16. Agua de jamaica, agua de limón. Honest: you control the spoon. 4️⃣ Tortillas in the plastic bag, $20. Masa harina, the press, the comal. The tortillería by the kilo counts too. 5️⃣ Instant and boxed rice, $9. The bag of rice and the olla, fried first. 6️⃣ Pre-shredded cheese, $8. The block and the grater. 7️⃣ Bagged salad, $12. A head of lettuce, a knife, and a damp trapo. 8️⃣ Frozen dinners, $20. The olla de frijoles on Sunday feeds the week. 9️⃣ Snacks in the little bags, $14. The big bag, a clip, and a bowl. 🔟 Scented candles, $12. Open the window. Canela and orange peel on the comal. 1️⃣1️⃣ The paper aisle (towels, napkins, plates), $18. The trapo, cloth servilletas, real plates. I keep one roll for the horrors. 1️⃣2️⃣ The box of hair color, $10. My mother had canas with her head up. So do I now. 1️⃣3️⃣ The magazine and the second streaming service, $20. The library card. One service at a time. 1️⃣4️⃣ The brand-name medicine box, $15. The store box next to it, same medicine, same dose. Ask your pharmacist, every time. 1️⃣5️⃣ Salsa in the jar, $12. The molcajete: three tomatoes, one chile, salt. THE TOTAL: $238 a month. $2,856 a year. From a check that does not grow. The honest word: these are my numbers, yours will be different. If you work two jobs the bagged salad is dinner, not a sin. Some months I still buy the roll. The point was never zero. The point is knowing the number. The first fifty goes in the coffee can, el guardadito. The big questions, retirement and investing, go to people qualified to answer them, and I am not one. Who profits: the pod, the bag, the jar, the box. Every one is built to run out, so you refill it every month, forever. That is not a failure of the business. That is the business. Tonight, do one: not fifteen. Pick one thing and replace it the old way, completely. Then next month, sit down with the receipts and the pencil and see your own number. Which one are you doing already, and which one did I miss? Tell me, and your county. I read every one. CHAPTERS 0:00 The check that does not grow 1:48 1. Bottled water 2:51 2. Coffee pods and creamer 4:10 3. Soda and bottled juice 4:55 4. Tortillas in the bag 5:51 5. Instant and boxed rice 6:23 6. Pre-shredded cheese 7:00 7. Bagged salad 7:27 8. Frozen dinners 8:15 9. Snacks in little bags 8:46 10. Scented candles 9:18 11. The paper aisle 10:13 12. The box of hair color 10:51 13. The magazine and the second screen 11:25 14. The brand-name medicine box 12:09 15. Salsa in the jar 12:44 Adding it up, out loud 13:26 The honest word, and the coffee can 14:26 Who profits, and tonight do one ⚠️ Chapter times are ESTIMATED at 150 words a minute from the script (about 19 min). Re-time them against the final render. #frugalliving #savemoney #over50