7 Ways to be a Frugal Freelancer
You’ve heard it before: “live within your means,” “a penny saved is a penny earned,” “don’t break the bank.” But do you actually put those ideas into practice? Or do you just pull out your plastic, figuring you can write it off at the end of the year anyway?
I used to roll my eyes when my parents lectured about money. But now that I’m writing full time, I consider my Yankee upbringing to be a blessing. With a recession looming in the United States, it’s time to get serious about saving money in your personal and professional life.
Heres’s how to get started…
- Cut unnecessary costs. Do you really need a cell phone and a landline if you’re spending most of the day at Starbucks? Or an all-inclusive membership to a gym you only see once a year? (Hint: some gyms will give you a discount if you agree to work out during the day when others are at work.) If you’re paying your web hosting service for twice as much storage as you’re actually using, then you might be able to negotiate for a cheaper plan that still meets your needs. You won’t miss what you don’t use.
- Say no to pricey software, unless it’s essential. Nowadays you don’t even need to buy Microsoft Office, because you can create PowerPoint presentations, Excel spreadsheets, and Word documents using Google documents. You can also export the files as PDFs. For free (and unlimited) document online storage, check out Scribd. The website also allows you to embed your documents in a blog or Facebook profile or keep your documents private if you prefer. For simple photo edits, PhotoShop Express gives you a free alternative to paying for the full edition.
- Pay ahead. Whether you’re renewing a membership or registering for a conference, you can often get a discount for paying in advance. Media Bistro gives a discount to Avant Guild members who pay for two years at once (by the way, Avant Guild rates go up on June 1), and many conferences offer a special rate for early registrants. Now, this only makes sense if you know that you’ll be happy with the membership or definitely want to attend the conference. But if you’ve been a member in the past or attended the conference the year before, you probably have a good idea of whether it’s a tradition you want to continue.
- Volunteer at events you want to attend. Many organizations will let you attend networking events for free if you volunteer to help out before, after, or sometimes during the event. If you get to interact with lots of people by checking them off the guest list or taking photos and writing down names for captions, even better. You’ll be able to put names with faces and have a reason to talk to a lot of different people. The event planners will appreciate your help and the next time someone asks them “know any good designers?” you’ll be at the top of their list.
- Swap your books and magazines. Obviously you want to stay current in your industry, but all those books and magazines add up. Quick. Some magazines offer free gift subscriptions to boost their numbers, so you and a friend could both subscribe and split the cost. Or you could swap books and magazines that you’ve already read. I swap my books on BookMooch and someone agreed to give me their used copy of The Chicago Manual of Style. Score!
- Barter instead. Say the restaurant around the corner needs a website, but they can’t afford your design fee. You just earned free Pad Thai for the next year. Maybe you can teach a course in copywriting and pick up a new hobby by taking another class for free. I even know a writer who swapped her editing services for a clean apartment. Having someone else scrub her floors was priceless, as she told me afterwards.
- Search for savings online. Before you complete your transaction, do a quick Google search and see if there are any coupon codes for that retailer. I once found a coupon code for Illinois AAA members that gave me a discount on transportation to the DC airport. I’m not a AAA member (at least not in Illinois), but the coupon code still worked! There are hundreds of coupon websites available, including CurrentCodes and RetailMeNot.
Any money-saving tips I’ve forgotten? Penny for your thoughts (figuratively speaking, of course).
Susan Johnston is a full time freelance writer who covers lifestyle and career articles for a number of print and online publications. She is a regular contributor to Brazen Careerist, and she enjoys being able to blast showtunes and eat Gold Fish crackers as she writes from her apartment in Cambridge, Mass. Susan’s blog can be found at http://www.UrbanMuseWriter.com.
I *like* that Bookmooch – gonna have to check it out. Thanks!
I randomely found out on google about this nice software you can use to get people find you and be attracted to your headlines in search engines. I think it was called glyphius…
I think I’ll try it to advertise my coming up business.
You pretty much type a headline and it gives you a score. You keep editing it and changing few words until the score gets higher and higher and i guess next thing you know, you have a catchy headline
I get my books used on abebooks.com, huge discounts!
When I bought my latest computer, I decided not to buy Microsoft Office and to use Google Documents instead – and I haven’t regretted it. Google Docs does everything I need, lets you easily share documents and has a great import feature.
Ditto on BookMooch–I just scored the AP Stylebook and Fowler’s Modern English Usage. But I’ve been *waiting* for Chicago, curses!!
You can handle quite a number of software requirements with the number of free softwares online:
- Documents handling – open office, google docs ( I use a combination of both in some cases where the formatting get screwed up.
- For project management, I use a combination of basecamp (using the free services for a self-tracking and google docs (for sharing with otheres). Usually would create a excel document of sort tracking time spent work-to-be-done and share with the approriate party:)
So the only pricey software I’m using is photoshop which I use for all sorts of creative work, although some jobs I would not be able to handle due to photoshop limitation but it covers quite a lot of my works:)
If you’re having a hard time making ends meet, move the ends. I admit this is tough to do, especially when your scanner starts crapping out, and a wacom tablet would greatly improve your worlkflows.
I think one thing that wasn’t mentioned here is budgeting. Make a detailed budget and stick to it. If you run out of “budget”, wait till next month. All the big companies do it, why not us little guys?
Cheers,
http://evanmade.com
With a “recession looming in the United States” as you said, shouldn’t penny pinching be the -last- thing you want to do?
I’m by no means an economist, but not spending money certainly seems like it would compound the problem.
I just launched a Coupon Site recently that you might enjoy. http://www.CouponNinja.com
I agree strongly with creating a budget. It’s no different than goal setting for other endeavors, if you don’t know where you’d going you won’t know when you get there. A good budget allows you to set financial goals and give you a means to see that you’ve met them. If you didn’t meet them, you can revise and adapt as needed to get where you need to be.
datter
http://finaldog.com/
Well if you in the States are facing a recession, here in Spain we’re about to meet The Mother of All Recessions… hope I’m wrong, but I’m afraid the next 2-3 years are going to be really really difficult for everybody, so your suggestions (just common sense) are very wellcome – number 1 being the most important, by far.
Be careful about barter. Here in the good old US of A, the Internal Revenue Service treats barter just like cash income. Which means that you’ll have to pay taxes on it.
So much for that money-saving strategy…
My US $.02 worth on Suggestion #4:
I just finished reading Larry Winget’s book, It’s Called WORK for a Reason! In it, he shares the following thoughts about networking groups:
“I would steer clear of networking groups and their meetings. I know that will get some of you riled up. About half of all salespeople live and die by their networking group. Networking groups are usually just salespeople trying to sell their stuff to other salespeople.”
Okay, okay. I understand that we’re not grubby salespeople. We’re much better than that because we are (dramatic pause) creatives.
But, even if we are such creative people, we’re still in sales. There’s no getting away from that fact.
And Winget goes on to say, “Unfair to networking groups? Ask everyone in their networking group where they rank among professional salespeople in their industry. My bet is that very few, if any of them, will rank in the top 25 percent of their industry in terms of results.”
But we still need to get out of our caves and interact with the rest of the world. Winget suggests that we “Get involved. Get known. Go to charity events, civic events, wine tastings, art fairs, church, whatever. Be around people. Not with a handful of business cards to pass out. Don’t even go with the idea of getting more business. Instead go there and get involved in the event. Be the kind of person others admire, can count on, trust, and enjoy spending time with. After you have developed that reputation, people will start to ask you what you do and you will be amazed at how many people will want to work with you.”
And isn’t that a lot more fun than running all over hell’s half acre, going to networking meetings?
Living frugally isn’t to hard for me. I found it funny that you listed Pad Thai. Stuck in the middle of Thailand, Pad Thai is something I eat nearly every other day. It’s quite a deal, too! $1 a plate.
I actually live on quite the extravagant side, spending around 1000 dollars a month. Some people here are amazed by that amount of money, and find that making 30 – 100 dollars an hour is astonishing. Clashing cultures are interesting, I tell you.
Justin
http://www.justindupre.com
@Evan: you’re absolutely right that budgeting is important, but that’s a bit outside of the scope of this blog post. Here’s another FSw post on budgeting that I found useful: http://freelanceswitch.com/working/everything-you-need-to-manage-your-money-online.
@elperroverde: best of luck weathering the recession in Spain. I know that many other countries have been having similar issues, so I think we’ll all have to find creative ways to make ends meet.
@Martha: There are plenty of freelancers who despise networking events, but others (like me) find them useful. Perhaps you should try a different organization if you’ve found that you don’t care for the networking styles of the people you meet. Not every group appeals to everyone, but there’s plenty out there!
I totally agree with the cut back on costs idea. I recently switched hosting providers and cut my hosting costs in half. The suprise was that the new company was actually better at reliability and answering my questions too. A good suprise to have. Anyway I thought I would mention them here if anyone was looking for a change: http://www.teamits.com/internet/hosting/plans/ I have the smallest plan, with the private domain locking and I like that I get to talk to a real person when I call them.
Re: #2 — most expensive software has an open-source equivalent that’s also free as in no-cost, so you can usually get all the functionality you need without paying a dime — OpenOffice instead of Microsoft Office (as was already mentioned), GIMP instead of Photoshop, Inkscape instead of Illustrator, etc… if you’re considering shelling out for a new piece of software it’s probably worth it to do some Googling to see if the open-source version will meet your needs.
Martha here. I’ve tried, tried, tried, and TRIED networking groups until I turned blue in the face. And I have very little to show for my efforts. Since insanity is doing the same thing, but expecting different results, no more networking groups for Yours Truly.
Instead, I’m following Larry Winget’s advice to get involved in other things. Much, much, MUCH more enjoyable than the networking circuit.
Good tips. Kinda think I use most of them already but thats because I’m a college student in addition to freelancer.
how about… only shower once a week. eat vegitarian cos beans are cheaper than meat. move into a squat.
Even though my wife and I are not Freelancers, we started doing tip #7 alot lately when it comes to purchasing things online. It’s amazing how often we find current promotional codes that drop anywhere from 10 to 30 percent off of the price to free shipping. Another thing I been doing lately is I used to buy a ton of computer/design books from places like Borders. I signed up for their member rewards club and get emails for coupons that drop anywhere from 20 to 40 percent off of the price of the book. So I wait till I get a 40% off coupon and then go out and buy that $50~$60 book for almost half the cost.
Pad Thai for a year? Fuck yeah! Any restaurants in So Cal need a website?
BANK FEES!!!!
Two people, Two banks = $20-$50/month! Switch over to a free banking service. $50 saved a month is $600 / year and $6k over a decade. Adds up!
A good concept to read up on is the “Latte Factor”
@Corby: I agree with you! I haven’t paid bank fees in years, because it’s such a silly waste of money.
Great article!
Here are some other ways I know I’ve saved money:
Magazine subscriptions: try eBay.com for subscriptions, you can get them DIRT cheap most of the time (tip: do the search for the name of the mag + “subscription” otherwise you get people selling their old mags). Also try http://www.discountmagazines.com where most mags are $5.95.
Newspapers — you can read many online for free now. Cuts down on recycling…..
Redbox for movies: I think the website is http://www.redbox.com? But you can rent movies for $1 a night. Great inexpensive entertainment.
Other places to get free books: http://www.bookcrossing.com, http://www.paperbackswap.com
I’ve also heard good things about Freecycle but I’ve never tried it.
To get great money saving tips on every area of your life — consider reading The Dollar Stretcher. It is written by lots of people who come up with great ways to save money — all different great tips. Something for everyone.
Oh and VistaPrint.com for business cards and stuff like that http://www.vistaprint.com. They have great deals. Once you buy, they’ll send you great promotions all the time.
Nice Article !!! It helps me lot !!
@Abby: I’ve used freecycle and now I’m kicking myself for not including it! But I can void for it being a pretty good service.
Hi, Susan!
I’ve been saving this for when I made time to read it.
I haven’t used BookMooch – I’ll have to check it out! I usually get my books used from Amazon. Sometimes I buy them new, if I can’t find them used but I’m a pretty frugal gal so I always look for the best price.
I haven’t tried freecycle, either. Guess I’ll have to check that out, too.
Great tips. And, yeah, it’s funny how our parents’ money advice comes in handy, eh?
*smiles*
Michele
Coupons are one of those money saving tools you can search in the Web. If you’re looking for savings online, you can visit http://www.couponsaver.org to find thousands of coupons and deals updated daily.
That’s a really good tip about bartering. Mmmm, Pad Thai…