Babies: 0 - 3 Months
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Please share your money saving tips
Let's face it, times are tough. . I'm working to try and save and cut-back where I can and I'd love some suggestions.
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Re: Please share your money saving tips
We have a newspaper subscription and I've recently started clipping coupons. There are so many good coupons out there!
I also take advantage of the CVS Rewards Bucks. I like going in and getting an entire order free after saving them up for a few weeks
I've also been trying harder to make sure all the groceries we buy actually get used. Every week when we get groceries I feel bad throwing things out that we never ate.
When I go places like Target where I can get carried away... I scope out the clearance sections first. That way I can satisfy the urge to buy new things without splurging. It's funny because my mom never even looked at price tags while I was growing up!
We got rid of land line phone, wash and reuse playtex drop ins, use cloth diapers, no more starbucks, (I make my own and take it to work), clip coupons, buy clearance items for the next season, and borrow everything possible.
Us too! (Not that we actually went to movies recently anyway...) We do this instead of renting from stores. It's WAY cheaper. And easier too
Or if you have RedBox or something similar at your grocery store, those are cheap too.
Our goal this year is to pay off one and a half credit cards, so I know alllll about pinching pennies right now. Here's some of the less obvious things we did/do:
-- reevaluate your car insurance and shop around. You could save several hundred by changing some of your coverage or your provider. Or even by paying all upfront. For us, we didn't have the cash, so we put it on a low interest cc (the savings by paying up front was more then the interest that will be accrued).
-- we are making it work with just one car, but we live in an urban area with a lightrail station basically at our front door at goes right to the arena where DH works. This may not be an option for all.
-- switched from pricey diapers to Luvs, and just potty trained DD#1 (it was time. we didn't do it with money in mind... but man, it is nice to only have one in diapers).
-- I run the dishwasher/washing machine after 9pm when it is off peak hours.
-- coupons coupons coupons!
-- I got a more simple haircut that can go longer between trims.
-- When I go grocery shopping, I ONLY will go with a list of planned meals. Then, when I get home, I leave a list on the fridge of all the meals that we have all the ingredients for. This way, when it seems like I have nothing to make, I have a list to refer to and am not tempted to pick up Bostom Market. It has REALLY come in handy.
-- we don't have a home phone, only our cell phones. We also reevaluted our cell plan.
--we have basic cable. No DVR or premium channels here.
So far, we are doing great and have put and extra $600 towards one cc just this month! Woohoo for getting out of debt!
First of all, congratulations! I'm impressed
Pretty much all of this and I have DH on a tight leash which has made a huge difference. ?I would send him to the grocery store for 2 things and he somehow would spend 80 bucks. ?He almost always checks with me before spending money now, even just getting money out of the ATM. Fortunately, his mom has always done the same with his dad so it seems "normal" to him. Sssshhhhhhhh! ?
I didn't know about this either. That is so interesting!!!
Second, check out the website for your electric provider and your water supply. Both will have a list of times that are considered low usage/off peak times. For us, it is after 9pm, so that is when i run those two biggest offenders of water/electricity usage.
We called our credit card companies (We have 3 cards between us) and lowered interest rates on two of them. This works if you ask nicely and have paid on time and been a good customer.
Try to eat vegetarian when you can (beans and canned or frozen veggies) as meat is expensive. This is also healthier.
Can you do a swap with family and friends for stuff? Its too bad its winter or I'd suggest a yard sale. You can always sell unused items on craigslist.
Speaking of laundry, don't wash til you have full loads and try to do all laundry at once rather than a load here and there b/c it uses less energy. You can also wash pretty much anything in cold water which saves.
We use a programmable thermostat, which fluctuates temp throughout the day. When we aren't there, it is set at 67. The highest it goes is 70 and thats only so the baby is warm!
We've "pretended" that DH didn't work for the last two years in preparation for him staying at home, so we were able to build our savings...pretending we didn't have the money helped us find more ways to cut back and realize how much spending we were doing unnecessarially.
We don't have any cable at all, we use net-flix instead.
No home phone, cell-phones only and we utilize the discount I get from being a member of the PSEA (if you are a member of any organizations, or even just AAA call and find out where discounts are available).
We go to the library instead of purchasing books.
We make sure to only put on our credit card what we can pay off each month- if we don't have the cash available we don't get it (unless it's an emergency, but then we tap into our savings)
We pack our lunches, and make our dinners.
Instead of nights out, we have friends over for board game or movie nights. We also found a bowling alley nearby that does $1 per string after 9, so we do that sometimes.
We go (well, went) to matinees for movies instead of nights...sometimes we even do lunch instead of dinner for dates.
As far as baby things go:
We use cloth diapers, we use mostly prefolds so that should save us money in the long run.
I breastfeed and plan to as long as possible (though that's not an option for all)...if you need to formula feed stock up on free samples at the doctors' office if they offer them.
We plan on making our own baby food when the time comes.
We go to thrift stores for clothing.
I can't think of anything else...but good luck!