February 2013 Moms
pnwlover
member
Money...ugh
pnwlover
member
No I am not complaining about my child costing money... But the fact that hubby's company was over paying him in COLA since we moved to CA and is now taking it back from us is hurting! Ouch! 5000... Gone over 4 months . As a new SAHM I have been scrambling to make extra money . Thankfully we already never eat out, I already sell things on eBay , and I am trying to learn how to coupon...
Does anyone have any more tips on how to stretch my dollar?!?
Does anyone have any more tips on how to stretch my dollar?!?
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Re: Money...ugh
This is me everyday! In the past 6 months, we've spent nearly 12k on our credit cards. Alot of that were things we have been needing to do and baby prepping but still- 12k!!
Grocery couponing doesn't work for me because the coupons are typically for things I don't buy but I do keep an eye out for coupons that I would use. I try and shop for other things (clothes, etc.) at stores where I DO use coupons (Kohls, Old Navy) and get stuff in clearance racks.
I had a good friend tell me to get DD's clothes from sales and consignment stores now while she doesn't care what the brands are!
We're starting a new plan this week of trying to make meals on Sundays so we have stuff to put together quickly during the week to avoid eating out or ordering in.
Other than that- I have no idea! Good luck!
We use cloth diapers and wipes and I make my own wipe solution. I also make my own laundry detergent and cleaners. I'd also be happy to post my recipes. The ingredients for the detergent I make cost about $15 and it lasts 8-9 months. No joke.
I love DC's meal planning ideas. I need to get better about that.
Do you have a good thrift store nearby? No need to spend a lot of money of LO's clothes since they grow out of them so quickly!
Good luck. This is a crappy situation.
I don't know if you're a Target shopper at all, but I go to their website and print coupons there. A lot of times they're for items already on sale that week. They also have coupons for their store brand items which are cheap to begin with! In general, I buy a lot of generic brand things because they're so much cheaper! I also buy things in bulk too as DC suggested. We also don't have a cable bill, but watch everything on Netflix - a service much less expensive than cable. We only have cell phones too - no land line.
Do you have anyone that can teach you how to can foods? You can get cheap produce at the store or farmers markets and do canning for the winter.
Buy whole chickens at the store and cut them up yourself and freeze. It's kind of hard, and I always tore up the meat but my husband watched a video on YouTube on how to cut up a whole chicken and he was really got at it. It saved us a lot of money. And then I would make chicken sausage out of the scraps of leftover meat and make chicken stock from the carcasses. I even contemplated making utensils out of the bones. Only kidding.
Turn off the AC when you can. We don't have one and our power bill is 50 p/m whereas friends with AC are in the hundreds.
Shop in bulk. Dry goods like rice, lentils, quinoa, etc. you can get for like, 80 cents p/lb.
I'll try to think of more. My excitement in life is saving money.
Because of cloth diapering an breastfeeding, we typically spend less than 200 a month on baby stuff, and it would be less but that's been including bills rolling in from DD's birth after insurance processed the claims! We really just pay for doctor copays, wipes and the occasional replacement pump part.
We haven't had satellite tv since last fall, we pay for Netflix and HuluPlus subscriptions, 7.99 each per month, and it's pretty much all we need to stay entertained.
And DH has gone totally vegetarian and I'm pretty close to it. We eat really well, but most months we spend significantly less than the 379 or whatever it is that the USDA calls the "thrifty" budget for a household with two adults, and that includes my extra 500 calories a day for BFing! [Though seriously, I can't imagine what people eat that costs two adults more than 100 a week in groceries and I live in NJ where the cost of living is comparatively high!]
Anyway, I hope the advice everyone is giving helps, that's a really, really crappy situation to be stuck in.
Love this! I buy whole chickens too, roast them with some potatoes, carrots, whatever I happen to have, and that's dinner one night. Then I shred what's left and use it for other meals. Then I made chicken stock from the bones (you can't buy stock as good as making it yourself!) and use it for various soups. Super budget friendly. We also cloth diaper. We started with prefolds and covers and it was only $200. We have since added pockets, but order from Alva and Kawaii, which have great prices. We also use cheap baby washcloths for wipes. So we pretty much pay nothing for diapering DD now. It's been a huge savings. I've also been selling things on Craigslist. We have accumulated a lot of things we don't really use, so I've been killing two birds with one stone; decluttering and making some money.
"Sometimes,' said Pooh, 'the smallest things take up the most room in your heart."
Lucy Kate 2/9/13
m/c 12/30/11 - our Christmas baby