Posts Tagged ‘Saving Money’

By Quirky Momma, Guest Writer, (@QuirkyMommaSite)

Every New Year I take a look at this list I created years ago… 50 Ways to save money.   Including general tips, ways to save money in your household, with your kids, and when feeding your family.  So many of them I slip away from as the year goes on!  Want to join me in pinching some pennies?  Do you have a frugal tip?  I’d love to hear about it!

General:

1. Make a goal chart and as you save the amount of money or pay off debts, mark them off and reward yourself.  (Ex:  we can’t get that camera until our car is paid off).  The expense of the camera is minor compared to the interest I’ll save by paying off debts early.
2. We do the “packets” budgeting system.  All spending money we take out at the beginning of each month.  We then pay for everything with that cash, when it is gone there is no more till the next month.  This budgeting method works for us, find one that works for you!
3. Wait for a minimum of 24 hours before purchasing any pricey item.  Oh, and see if you can find something comparable used first!
4. If something breaks try to fix it or do without before going out and purchasing a replacement.  Try not to hire someone to fix things, rather swap services (see craig’s list).
5. To curb impulse buys, create a 30-day list. When you want to buy something, other than a true necessity (medicine or food, for example), put it on this list, with the date you added it to the list. And make it a rule that you can’t buy anything for at least 30 days after you put it on the list. And stick to it. You’ll find that you buy a lot less with this system.
6. Surround yourself with “frugal-minded” folk.  If you don’t have any friends who are willing to make a frugal journey with you try looking online, Frugal Village is a great network, and One Income Dollar and the Prudent Housewife are both great inspirational blogs.  We found it is easier to save when you are not surrounded by spend-happy folks.

Grocery:

7. Use a price sheet so that you can know if a “sale” is really a bargain or if you can find it cheaper elsewhere.
8. Buy meat that is on Manager Special (expiring that day or shortly after).  Cook that day and eat/freeze.
9. Mix ground beef with an egg and several handfuls of quick oats (makes the meat go farther).  Use in meatballs, meat loaf, etc.
10. Bake your own bread – let the yeast sit in sugar water till it smells fermented and use half the yeast (the most expensive ingredient in bread).
11. If you are big milk drinkers, buy whole milk and a box of dry milk and make your own mock-2% milk by mixing half whole, half non-fat dry reconstituted milk.  You have two gallons for a fraction of the cost.
12. Go meatless 1-2 nights a week.  You can substitute dry beans.  They are VERY cheap and filling.
13. Meal plan and coordinate so that leftovers can be utilized fully, yet keeping variety.  (Ex: Tacos day one, use left over taco meat day 2 for stuffed peppers)
14. Try to stretch as much time between shopping trips.  The fewer times you go shopping, the fewer chances you have to “impulse buy”.
15. ONLY shop from a list.  If it is not on the list DO NOT BUY IT.  It is best to make a check off inventory list of all things you could need and highlight what you’re out or low on.
16. Eat something small before you go.  It is harder to resist the temptation to over buy when you have an empty tummy.
17. Keep your change (dollar bills and coins) use this as your “fun fund”
18. Buy generic – many times this is considerably less than the alternative even if you have coupons.
19. Use coupons if you prefer something name brand and only if you buy that item regularly.  Also, ask if your grocery shop has “double days”.
20. Rather than buy a newspaper for the coupons, go to your library, usually they do not mind allowing you to clip the coupons you need… and your kids can attend story time at the same time!  OR you can go to this site for free grocery coupons and print the coupons you need online!

Household:

21. Wash your dishes by hand… I have a hard time with this one, I know it saves water/energy, but I love the convenience of my dishwasher!
22. Wash clothes in warm water and only if you have a full load to do.  Dry your clothes on the line and if you don’t like the “crunchy” feel, stick them in the dryer for 5 min with a wet rag after they’ve hung out.
23. Wash your clothes inside out so they will look nicer longer… and only wash if something is truly dirty.
24. If you like fabric softener, put some on a towel and throw it in with the dryer.  A quarter size “spill” on the towel can do about 3 loads – a great way to save softener!  Also, to make your detergent go farther, add a tablespoon of baking soda to the load and use half the detergent.  Baking soda is a soap booster and is cheaper than Arm&Hammer.
25. In the winter, use your dryer and stove during the early evening to help heat your home.  In the summer, use them in the very early morning (or not at all) to help keep your home cool.
26. Cook all your meals for a 2-week period (esp. in the summer) so that your oven only has to do the work one time for multiple meals.  Keep meals in the freezer and re-heat with the microwave – uses less energy, and you save time.  Also, having home-cooked freezer meals cut down on the tendency to order take-out when you’re having an exceptionally busy day.   It is possible to do this with a refrigerator’s freezer.
27. In the summer take a cold bath/wash rag to help you feel cool before bed, and keep the thermostat as high as possible or the A/C off if possible (we live in TX – its not possible).  Each degree change can save up to 3% on your energy costs!
28. In a room that has a tendency to be dark, put a mirror near the light to refract the light around the room.  One light bulb has the power of two with this trick!
29. Unplug items (toaster, shaver, cell phone charger, TV) when not in use.  Small amounts of electricity are still being used even if they are off, but plugged in.
30. Use Craig’s List to purchase used items (furniture, etc.) or freecycle or go to garage sales.  We’ve even gotten a number of items from the curb on trash day!
31. Buy paint from the “oops” counter at Home Depot or Lowes.  Also, if the color of your walls allows, add a faux finish over the existing color.  This uses a lot less paint and allows you to spruce up more rooms at a fraction of the cost.
32. Cut your cell-phone or house phone, you don’t need both.  If possible, become a single-phone family.  For long distance, calling cards are great!  You can usually find cards with under 2 cents a min!  Pay-as-you-go cell phone plans are great if you are not a big phone user.
33. Make your own household cleaners.  Vinegar, baking soda, Hydrogen peroxide, borax & bleach are all really cheap and you can make any and every household cleaner from laundry detergent to the equivalents of Windex and Comet from mixtures of those ingredients.
34. Check your insurance.  We were able to save $600 a year when we switched companies, combined our house and auto onto the same plan, and added $500 to our deductible.
35. Get a programmable thermostat for your household heat and water heater.  You can turn the temps down an hour or two after you go to bed, or during the warmer times of the day, or the times when you typically don’t use your hot water.  No reason to heat what is not being used!

Personal:

36. Get a buzzer and cut your hubby’s hair… if possible, have a friend cut your’s… Also, longer hairstyles do not need to be maintained as frequently as shorter ones.
37. Buy clothes for your kids used – they grow out of them so fast new is not worth it!  And used usually look just as good!
38. Limit the number of toys your children are able to have in the house.  This will lower the clutter, increase the value of the toys you currently own, increase your children’s creativity as they learn to play with less, and also will decrease spending on toys.
39. Try home remedies before Doctor visits.  Those co-pays can add up and its amazing how a humidifier, Vitamin C & some good ole’ rest will make the bugs go away!
40. Make gifts for holidays and birthdays, often these mean more than ones purchased at the store as they show you put time and effort into the recipient.
41. Make your own personal hygiene products (or do without).  Kimberly has a great blog documenting her withdrawl from her addiction to shampooing.
42. Cloth diaper your kiddos.  If you use this cloth diapering method your whole stash can cost less than a hundred dollars and can potentially be handed down to future kiddos.  Cloth diapering also encourages early potty-training!
43. Make your own baby food by pureeing what the rest of the family is eating, or you can use dehydrated and powdered veggies – if you like the convenience of those pricey jars.

Entertainment:

44. Eat out rarely if ever!  If you do eat out, only drink water.  Also, check your newspapers for discounts and grand openings; you can usually get more for your buck then.
45. Invite people over to your home rather than meeting them at a restaurant.  You’ll have more time to chat and if you plan your meal well, will save a bundle too!
46. Get movies for your Friday night from the library rather than Blockbuster or netflix.  They are usually free!  Also check out Hulu.  They have a number of TV shows online for free!
47. Either eliminate or see if you can combine any of the following: Internet, Television, Long-Distance, Cell Phones – We found that a calling card saves us tons on what would have been a long distance phone bill, and we get the TV shows we want through online streaming for free.
48. Set-up a baby-sitting swap with a friend who has children.  You’ll save money and know that someone “experienced” is watching your kids.
49. Find dates that are more events than just “going out to eat”.  These can sometimes save your budget and are usually more memorable.
50. See if you are near a Bass Pro shop or Cabella’s.  We take our kids there instead of the zoo.  It’s free to walk around and the stuffed animals don’t move so you actually get to see them!  Call ahead of time and be there for the fish feeding.

By Megan

April 15^th has come and gone.

I’ve caught my breath, and caught up on a stack of other stuff. Hopefully, you have too.

Now, let’s talk money.

We are a society immersed in instant gratification. We don’t typically do well planning for our futures. Truth be told, many women don’t involve themselves in that process at all, assuming that their partner is taking care of it. Perhaps they are, but you need to know what steps they are taking, so that if you have to step in at some point, you aren’t overwhelmed.

Ladies and Gents, it’s time to take control – if not of the finances themselves, we’re going to take control of our level of involvement, and awareness. And if you are married, this is a team event.

I think it’s imperative that we have a solid understanding of where we are, and where we want to go in our financial lives. I don’t know about you, but I want to GO places! I want my kids to go to college. I want to get to go comfortably into retirement. I have goals for myself professionally that include business ownership. And if I don’t set goals for myself, I don’t know how to go about trying to reach them.

Before I can go anywhere, I need to know where I am starting from. What do I have to work with? What are my current expenditures, and can I reduce or eliminate any of them to help me reach my goals? Do I have a retirement base? An emergency fund?

Over the next few posts, let’s visit such things as smart banking, debt management, building a safety net, insurance, and planning for tomorrow. In the meantime, start thinking about your goals and dreams, so we know what we’re shooting for.

What financial dreams do you hold? What steps do you have in place to reach them?

Megan shares snippets of her life and random, well caffeinated thoughts as a working mom of three on her blog, All A Bunch of Momsense. Family, food, and fun at your fingertips!

By Samantha

This is the second in a monthly series on couponing.

I’ve watched Hoarders. I’ve seen pictures of people’s basements, full of more canned goods and toilet paper than ten people could use in a life time. I know that when people hear the phrase, “I’m stocking up.” they refer back to that crazy coupon lady who they saw walk out of the grocery store with two grocery carts full of paper towels and salad dressing. Well, today my friends, I would like to change your outlook on “stocking up“. Stocking up on groceries and household goods, can actually save you a lot of money in the long run. I am not going to tell you to buy a bunch of things that you don’t use or will not need. I am going to tell you to stock up on things that you use on a daily basis. For me, these things include laundry detergent, butter, peanut butter, toilet paper, and cereal.

Photo Courtesy: Baltimore Sun

Would you believe me if I told you that I have four containers of laundry detergent in my laundry room right now, and I didn’t pay more than ten dollars for all of them combined? What about the fact that I have five jars of peanut butter (I have a 2 year old who loves PB&J) in my pantry right now, and I paid less than five dollars for them combined? There’s four tubs of butter in my refrigerator that I paid less than four dollars for combined, and six boxes of cereal in my pantry that I paid less than ten dollars for combined. It’s all true! If it weren’t for coupons, and good sales…none of this would be possible! Today, I want you to learn how to get stocked up on your basic household items, without spending a lot of money. Today, I want you to form a whole new meaning to the phrase, “Stocked up”.

How do I get stocked up?

First you need to decide what items you would like to have more of, so that running out of that item never happens. For me, that would be things like toothpaste, deodorant, laundry detergent, cereal, peanut butter, etc. Then, look for these items in the sales ad of your grocery store. Most of the time, you’ll find at least one (if not more) of the things that you would like to have more of, in the sales ads. Make sure you have coupons for the items you are interested in. If you don’t have a coupon for some of these things, sometimes it does you well to go ahead and get the items anyway. For instance, I will generally pick up a bottle of laundry detergent if it’s on sale for “buy one get one” because I’ll get it half off, generally not paying anymore than a couple of dollars for it. That’s pretty good considering that laundry detergent can run your grocery bill up when not on sale.

How much is too much?

If you are going to stock up big, I recommend doing it on different days. For instance, don’t walk into a grocery store and walk out with 50 gallons of bleach if they were having an awesome sale on it. I know someone who got 12 gallons of bleach that they paid hardly nothing for. What’s the point? Do you seriously need that much bleach? Going over board on stocking up, does make it unfair on the rest of us. We can’t get the good deals, if you’re buying the store out. Be reasonable. While I was stocking up on toothpaste, I would only buy a couple of tubes a week, and two tubes a week added up quickly. I actually stopped buying the stuff, because I was running out of room. There is absolutely no need to wipe out the grocery store in one setting.

Buy toilet paper when it’s on sale and you have a coupon. Buy butter when it’s on sale and you have a coupon. Buy laundry detergent when it’s on sale and you have a coupon. Even if you don’t need it at the moment, you will need it soon and by then it may not be on sale. Instead of paying 2 dollars for laundry detergent when it’s on sale, you will end up paying the full price of 6 or 7 dollars for it. Instead of paying 50 cent on a tube of toothpaste when it’s on sale, you’ll have to pay 3 dollars for it when it’s not on sale.

Why should I buy something when I don’t need it?

Don’t worry, Hubby had this same question to, and the answer is simple. Have you ever turned on the washing machine to make way for a giant load of laundry that you had been ignoring for a couple of days, only to find that you were out of laundry detergent? Now you have to load the kids up in the car, and head to the grocery story to fork out 12 bucks on bottle (or box) of detergent. Had you bought the detergent when it was on sale, you would not only be stocked up on it, but you also would not have paid so much for it. Now, I don’t have a laundry room full of laundry detergent, but I do generally try to stay a bottle ahead…that way I never run out.

Bottom line, stocking up is good if you do it smart. Make sure you are not stocking up on things that are full price. They need to be on sale, and having coupons for them is a plus. Wouldn’t you like to never have to worry about buying toothpaste again, or maybe toilet paper, or laundry detergent, or cereal! How nice would it be to be able to just open up another bottle of detergent when the other runs out, or pull out another deodorant when the other runs dry? You don’t have to worry about remembering to put certain items on the grocery list, because you already have them! There’s no more worry, and no more stress!

If you have any questions on how to get stocked up, or how to use coupons, please feel free to drop me an email. I want to help anyone I can save money.

What are your tips to save money at the grocery store?

Samantha is a stay at home mom of one crazy little girl. She writes out her antics almost daily on her personal blog, Apple Juice and Milk,in an attempt to help others feel better about their lives… when compared to hers.

By Megan @ Life As We Know It

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My mom once told me, “You can learn a lot about a person by looking at their checkbook.”

Think about it. The way we spend money reflects our values, desires, and our current stage in life. If you glanced in my checkbook here’s what you’d learn:

As I examine how we spend our money, I am more and more aware of the person I am…. and the person I long to be. It’s a process, but I want to share with you a few changes that I’ve made. Here goes:

So, dear friends, if I could glance into your checkbook, what would it tell me about you?

Are you ready for some change? Start an envelope… let’s go on this journey together!

What are some ways you save money?

Megan is mom who wants kids to come with a user’s manual. You can read about her journey in life and motherhood on her personal blog, Life As We Know It.

By Samantha

This is the first in what will be a monthly series on couponing.

I know you have seen them. Those crazy looking ladies in the grocery story, with a Zip-Loc bag full of coupons, desperately flipping through them and piling groceries on top of groceries into the cart. I know you’ve thought to yourself, “Why would anyone want to subject themselves to this apparent humiliation of being labeled a crazy-coupon-lady?” You have probably rolled your eyes at these crazy-coupon-people, and continued to the register where you paid full price for a bottle of laundry detergent.

Well, let me enlighten you.

Using coupons, and saving lots of money doesn’t mean that you have to turn into that crazy-coupon-lady you see in the grocery  tore every week. There is a better and easier way to go about couponing, and I am going to teach you how. But first… let me give you a little background on why I started using coupons for my weekly grocery trips.

My mom used coupons when I was younger. She had one of those accordion style organizers, but she didn’t really succeed much with coupons. Just a few things here and there. About a year or so ago, she started using coupons again except this time she was taught how to use them properly. Her first week grocery shopping with coupons, she saved nearly 100 dollars. A few weeks later, hubby received a pay cut at work (excuse was the bad economy), and I had to find a way to save money. Considering that we had no debt, and the only bills we paid were rent, and utilities… I decided that tackling our groceries every week would be the place to start. Since hubby and I had gotten married, we did our grocery shopping at Wal-Mart– mainly because they were so much cheaper than the regular grocery stores. Even still, we were spending about 60 dollars a week on groceries (not counting the weeks that we had to buy diapers & formula), and hardly bringing anything home to show for it. Just enough food for supper for the rest of the week. So, my mom sat me down one Sunday afternoon and taught me the art of using coupons.

Excited to buy groceries with my coupons, I quickly saved $10 the first week. That may not sound like a lot, but to a couple of broke people, it was a fortune! Those $10 soon turned into $20, and $20 turned into $30, and before too long I was saving more than I was spending. On average, our weekly grocery bill is around $30 and we are coming home with a lot more than we used to when we were shopping at Wal-Mart.

So, are you ready to save your family some money? I mean, lots and lots of money? How does free groceries sound? What about paying twenty five cents for a box of cereal… name brand cereal at that? Well, then…take notes, because I am going to teach you how to work the coupons!

Where do I get coupons?

You can generally find coupons in the Sunday Newspaper. You know, mixed in with all of the different ads. If you’re not looking for them, you’ll swear they’ve never been there. But they have been. There are generally two to three different magazines of coupons in the Sunday Paper. There is Smart Source, P&G (Proctor and Gamble), and RedPlum. All three come in a magazine type booklet, generally with an advertisement on the front and the name of the company. When you open these books, you’ll find tons of great coupons for different products like shampoo, deli meat, snacks, laundry detergent, deoderant, etc.

What do I do with the coupons once I cut them out?

Go out and buy yourself a 3-ring binder, dividers, and baseball card holders. Organize your 3 ring binder in the order in which a grocery store is generally laid out, and then slip in your coupons for each divider into the baseball card holders. Here is a wonderful website that will help you get your notebook organized!

How do I find out what is on sale?

Grocery stores and pharmacies (like CVS, Rite Aid, & Walgreens) generally put an ad in the Wednesday newspaper and Sunday newspaper with a list of their sales; but I tend to go the grocery store’s website and look at their ads from there. I write down what sales I am most interested in. You can go to Southern Savers website; she actually already has the grocery ads listed with what coupons to use (and even coupons you can print out) and how much an item would cost using the sales & coupons.

When it’s time to go grocery shopping, I take an envelope and write my grocery list on the front. I then slip the coupons that I am going to use inside the envelope. It’s important that your coupons are also organized inside the envelope. Depending on how many coupons you have, it can be hard to find the one you want to use quickly. If I am going to more than one grocery store that day, I put my coupons in order of how they are listed on my list, and in order of which grocery story I am visiting first, second, etc. It is also a good idea to take your 3-ring binder shopping with you, because there are also a lot of sales that aren’t listed in the ads and you could miss out on some more really great deals!

Working The Sales

Just because something is on sale, doesn’t mean it’s a great deal. Make sure that you are getting the most out of the sale and your coupon. For instance: Kelloggs Mini Wheats were on sale, buy one get one free (B1G1) and I had a coupon for $1 off of 3. After calculating how much the actual price would be with my coupon, I came up with it costing 5 dollars to get 3. That’s when I found another coupon for a 1.50 off 2. So I ended up paying 2.50 for two HUGE boxes of Frosted Mini Wheats.

When an item is Buy One Get One Free (B1G1), you do not have to buy both items to get the sale price. You can buy just one of the items, and get it half off! For instance: A box of spaghetti is on sale B1G1, for a total cost of 1.20 for 2 boxes, but you only need one box. By getting one box instead of two, you will pay only .60. – Some grocery stores will let you use a manufacturer coupon AND their store coupon together on one item. Use those two together and you’ll get an even better deal! For Instance: You have a Mini Wheats coupon for a 1.00 off of a box of Mini Wheats, and you also have your grocery store’s store coupon for 1.00 dollar off of a box of Mini Wheats, if you put the two coupons together, you’ll get 2.00 off of that one box of Mini Wheats (can you tell how much I love Mini Wheats?)! – Some grocery stores will double your coupons up to .60! For Instance: You have a coupon for .50 off of a bag of shredded cheese, the grocery store will double that coupon, giving you 1.00 off of that bag of cheese.

Doubling and tripling coupons can really, really add up. This is how you can get a lot of things for free, or just a few cents. For more grocery store savings tips click here. There are also websites you can go to, to print out coupons. Yes, grocery stores do take printed out coupons. You don’t have to have any special paper, and you won’t be arrested for trying to forge a coupon. I know, I was a skeptic myself the first time I used my printed out coupon. I still get a little nervous when I hand the cashier my computer coupon, but they take them without a second thought. Some of my best deals, I have gotten with a printed out coupon! Coupon Mom [DOT] Com provides several different websites that you can print out coupons with. There are even restaurant coupons too! If you think that you lack the time or the dedication to use coupons, make it fun! For instance, treat yourself to something with the money you save on groceries in a week.

If you save $50, take that money and buy yourself some new shoes or a new dress. Maybe you’d like to put the money you save back into a savings account to save for family vacation or another big event you have coming up. Whatever it may be, you are saving money by using coupons and that means you can put that money toward other things that you may want or need to save money for! Leave a comment with any questions you may have about couponing. I want to make sure I can help everyone I can save the money that they deserve to be saving!

What are your tips to save money at the grocery store?

Samantha is a stay at home mom of one crazy little girl. She writes out her antics almost daily on her personal blog, Apple Juice and Milk,in an attempt to help others feel better about their lives… when compared to hers.