A non-exhaustive list of possible solutions include: Do you have a yard or patio space? Start growing your own produce. Seeds are cheap and with a bit of time and love will pay you back forever more. Tomatoes, peppers and herbs will all grow well on a window sill. Potatoes, onions and garlic will all grow in a bag in the back of the pantry if you let them. You can multiply potatoes, onions and garlic quite easily.
A big bag of flour can be found cheap (Costco for instance), make your own bread/pasta. That way you can supplement your Ramen with nutritious meals without breaking the bank.
If you're in California (or somewhere else with a high amount of sunlight, which many HN readers appear to be) perhaps think about the option of solar panels on your roof to reduce your power bill (flyers and auctions are great places to find these cheap, Google will help you with installation and then you just need to find an inspector).
Actually look at everything you spend money on in a month and ask yourself if there's a cheaper way to get those things without costing you so much money... and really look for solutions, you'd be surprised what you can find with a bit of ingenuity/creativity.
I don't have a yard to grow vegetables. We live in an apartment. When we lived in Portland, we had a yard to grow vegetables but our monthly water bill was prohibitively expensive (we're talking hundreds of dollars every 3 months).
Costco has a yearly membership fee, which I think at a minimum, is up to $75/year.
I work full time and my wife is in school full time in another city. We have 2 children (I have 4 altogether) who are school age. How the fuck am I supposed to make bread and pasta? Our rent is just shy of $1400/month.
Buying solar panels? What do solar panels cost nowadays and how much is installation? I can't install solar panels in my apartment.
I don't have a car payment because our only car is paid off. Except for student loans, we are debt free.
Edited to add: The other huge expense for us now is healthcare. The cost of healthcare for a family of 4 is astronomical.
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.
Have you taken a look at how expensive simply moving is? There's the rental truck or pod, there's first, last and security deposit for the new place. Sometimes there's a doubling up of rent. If you're moving to different cities, there's the price of gas or diesel for your moving truck. Not to mention the time and energy it takes to pack up and move.
Relocating isn't as easy as some people make it out to be....
Moving cheaply requires good timing, a handy amount of free labour (i.e. friends that own trucks and owe you favours or like you enough to help just out of the goodness of their own hearts), a little good luck, a keen eye on available real estate and good negotiation skills. Without all of these lining up, it's likely to cost a bit.
A couple of years ago, I got divorced, so I wiped the slate clean. Everything I couldn't fit into my beat-up 4-door sedan got thrown/given/donated away. I then drove 2500 miles to start building a new life in a different region of the country (US) where I had a job waiting for me. Maybe $500 in reimbursable expenses for gas and a night's lodging, then staying at a by-the-week motel until I scouted the area made the transition relatively inexpensive.
For many people, the cost of moving is directly proportionate to the quantity of stuff they own. I cut costs on moving by ridding myself of 95% of my stuff, and have been purchasing what I need in my new location.
Sure, not having a wife, 2.5 kids, and a dog makes these kinds of life changes much easier. But the point of having less stuff is still valid.
It's counter-intuitive, but often living frugally requires a higher up-front cost (such as buying quality, higher-priced goods that will cost less in replacement and maintenance in the long-run).
Also, never cut corners on a job, it'll save you time and effort in the longer term. Do it right, do it once.
Do your research up front, it may seem like a lot of time, but it'll pay dividends in the long run.
Yes. It consists of a tent, eating ramen and the occasional squirrel.