Meet Nate and Natalie, your top source for money-saving tips

Let’s call it the nip-and-tuck economy, or N.A.T.E for short.

Last week, I confessed the odd pleasure I get from chopping a few bucks out of my regular routines – namely, hair care and alcohol consumption – which, combined, are saving me about $1,000 a year.

With this money, I’m free to indulge elsewhere.

Surprise, surprise, I’m not alone here. I asked you for tips on how you save money. And, wow, you came through with dozens of sharp ideas.

To deliver this collective wisdom back to you, I’ve channelled the best tips through a hypothetical super-saver couple, named – what else? – Nate and Natalie.

They know a thing or two about trimming costs without imposing any hardship on themselves. These cuts bring joys that go well beyond the dollars saved.

Nate is active in the kitchen.

Sure, you can buy a tub of yogurt each week. But Nate has discovered that it is surprisingly easy to make his own with milk and a small amount of existing yogurt.

“Super cheap and much better,” Nate assures us.

Keeping with the food theme, Nate grows his own herbs and even dries them for winter storage. He makes his own broths, with leftover fish and chicken. And he’s become proficient at making his own pizza dough, saving on boxes of takeout pizzas.

To cut back on meat consumption, Nate has begun paying himself a little money as a reward for making regular – and cheaper – vegetarian meals.

Natalie is a gardener.

She grows asparagus when the weather is right: “The plant is pretty enough to put in a flower bed. Seeds are not expensive and any food you grow is tax-free.”

Rather than let flowers and plants wither and die in the winter, Natalie rescues geraniums and various other plants from winter’s clutches.

She saves money by buying fewer new recruits in the spring, the plants appreciate the attention, and the house looks like a botanical garden in the winter.

Nate butts out and quits pop.

Nate used to smoke and buy fizzy drinks. No more. And while the health benefits far outweigh the savings, who’s going to complain about the financial upside?

Nate says that he’s saving $150 a week by going smoke-free. And a lifetime of saying “No” to pop has helped the couple buy a Ford Explorer. We’ll take your word for that one.

Natalie grooms.

She touches up her grey roots at home. That has reduced her in-person appointments to three or four a year, down from 12, and easily saves her $1,000 a year.

But there’s more to grooming here: She trims her dog’s nails and has started to shear her terrier when he gets a bit woolly. Really, it’s not that difficult and you get to spend quality time with your pooch.

Nate parks the car.

Cars are expensive to own and operate. And a hassle.

Nate knows this. So, he is saving a bundle by finding cheaper places to park on the days he commutes to work, even if it means a short walk to the office. He now washes the car himself, rather than paying someone.

For shorter distances, he’s invested in an electric bike, which is fun to ride, easy to park and takes next-to-no money to recharge overnight. “I calculated; the bike paid for itself in 18 months,” he said.

When the couple travels by plane, they sometimes take the bus to and from the airport if they’ve packed light, often saving hundreds of dollars a year on cabs and Ubers. Those savings can go toward treating family and friends – and surely former colleagues – to steak dinners.

Okay, I can see now that loading these myriad money-saving tips on the shoulders of one couple makes them look a little obsessive.

So I’ll stop there before venturing into homemade cleaning products based on vinegar (respect), reusable shopping bags (absolutely), water bottles (a must), thrifting (fun) and low-cost investing (of course).

But let’s not end this conversation just yet.

For a future article, let’s take a closer look at the money that we take out of our wallets and light on fire. Those regular expenses that, even if they are relatively minor, are a corkscrew to the heart.

How do you burn money?

I’ll start: Our dinners ordered to the house easily add up to more than $5,000 a year for a family of three – and I am underestimating because the real number is just too scary.

Confess your financial sins (discretion assured!) to dberman@globeandmail.com.

Chart of the day

Today’s financial tool

If you want to get a better handle on personal-finance essentials, you can enroll in a free online course through McGill University. It’s open to everyone, and the material is taught by professors from McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Management.