| I wasn't suggesting those are all the solutions to your woes. There are many creative ways to live and the solutions that are right for you aren't going to be the solutions that are right for everyone. Perhaps you're living the cheapest way you can in the environment you have to be in for the moment, perhaps the only creative thing you can do to live the life you want is to re-prioritize. Perhaps that is not feasible for the moment either. Only you know the answer to that. Costco does have a membership fee which (I think you're right) is $75 a year, but you get an annual dividend out of that membership depending on how much you spend there. Over the course of your annual membership, it's easy to save way more than the $75 you spend between the dividend and because the cost per unit of goods are much cheaper for many things. Solar panels can be expensive, it's a good idea to keep your eye on sales, flyers and auction sites to get great deals and only buy when you find a good deal. I have no idea how much installation would be where you live. Me and my father-in-law are both pretty handy and Google pretty much tells us everything we need to do to install them. All you need is an inspector. With Google you can pretty much do anything you can imagine with a bit of ingenuity. Having an apartment is limiting, for sure. But even growing some produce in the window will save some money. Making bread and pasta is easy: Flour, salt, eggs, water, yeast will see you through both. Having some basic ingredients in the house will take you a long way to being able to make whatever you want without having to pay retail for it, and it's thoroughly satisfying. Again, Google is your friend. Congrats being debt free. That is a tough thing for many/most people to be able to say in today's economy. |