Looking for ideas to save money

JessHeppell · May 2015

figured this was something we could all discuss.
as a human living on the planet earth, with prices of everything going up, i thought we could share ways to save money!
groceries? hydro bill? meal preparation?
or
have any ways to make extra money here and there?

Lets talk about it!

ETA: i just realized this description makes me think on one of those scam things, im honestly just curious and looking for some ways to save money

klkonwi · May 2015

I try to do little things like buy the fuel saver items only from hyvee adds to get money off of gas. I really need to cut back on little gas station stops for cookies etc.... Things like that. It helps now that I don't work that I don't leave my house much. Love this thread idea. Everyone can use tips to save money.

aliciac2008 · May 2015

We pull out all of our money for groceries, gas, and a little bit for miscellaneous items as cash. We then put it in envelopes and can only use that cash for the month to buy those things. I really like it because you can physically see how much money you have left, so you really think twice about buying that extra coffee or wasting gas by not combining trips.

rrcameron21 · May 2015

I found the best way for me to save money is to slowly cut out things you don't need. I started with coffee, then moved to things like soda, fast food, and expensive makeup (that was a hard one). I've noticed such a huge difference! I've been able to save so much money since I've been pregnant just by cutting out those simple things.

virginiaunicorn11 · May 2015

aliciac2008 said:
We pull out all of our money for groceries, gas, and a little bit for miscellaneous items as cash. We then put it in envelopes and can only use that cash for the month to buy those things. I really like it because you can physically see how much money you have left, so you really think twice about buying that extra coffee or wasting gas by not combining trips.

This is a method supported by my financial guru Ramit Sethi. His book I Will Teach You To Be Rich (stupid title) has fantastic advice. He recommends looking for "big wins" like canceling subscriptions, calling to get your credit card interest rate or cable rate reduced, using a credit card with points you actually use, etc. He has a blog I like, too.

obryana6219 · May 2015

I do the "extreme couponing". Mostly on household items. I haven't done it for a few months because my stock pile is still so huge but it's really nice to just go in the basement and pick up some shampoo. My husband didn't like the idea but now that he sees it as a convenience he loves it. And I only spent about 2 hours a week doing it. I would clip coupons while I watched TV and then matched them up to ads (I mostly do CVS) and then spent about an hour in store making my purchase. I sometimes have to split up my transactions and that can be annoying so it's really important that you are prepared and have somewhat of a plan in place before you walk in. 2 hours a week well spent.

mlindzz · May 2015

Today I saved myself some cash by switching my vehicle insurance from multi-purpose to pleasure (now being on sick/maternity leave for the next year).

My husband and I are also both David Ramsey fans, he has lots of free resources that people can use to help with budgeting. His website is https://www.daveramsey.com

veroc26 · May 2015

I've been couponing for diapers,got a pretty good stockpile

kbbtah · May 2015

We are going to use cloth diapers. Its about $400 upfront, but my friends around here say they spend $100 a month on disposable diapers. Much cheaper in the long run! (And I know every time I would go to the store and shell out money for diapers, id think "my kid's just gonna shit in this and then ill toss it out." Im frugal at heart, and that will just make me mad every time.)

iheartpancake · May 2015

I sit down and make a menu of what we're going to eat for the week and make a list from that. I don't buy anything that's not on the list and I buy no junk food. It's hard being pregnant and not having crap food sitting around so my husband definitely makes a run for me once in awhile, but the list has saved us soooo much money. We were going to the store almost daily before and spending between 30-40 bucks. I now spend around a hundred a week. And I always make sure we go to Giant Eagle for gas points.

There's also a website called mint.com that can look at your bank account and tell you where all your money is going every month if it's hard for you to visualize like me. When my husband and I first combined finances this helped us a lot. Well, it helped me a lot seeing he was spending almost $1800 a month between eating out and happy hour lol. Nixed haha.

karaelaine1991 · May 2015

DH and I have a huge spreadsheet on Google Drive that we use to keep track of everything. It makes us hyper aware of what we're spending on. One page of it has a pie chart showing the different things we spend on and that's been really helpful in visualizing what our big expenses are. We really need to work on not eating out - we like going out for dinner a few weekends a month - but I imagine that that category will drop significantly in June!

mrs1374a · May 2015

I make a meal plan (used to do it for 2 weeks but now I do it weekly because I can't put a cart with 2 weeks of food in it plus my toddler right now) but then I make a list and buy exactly what's on that list. I don't go a lot of places because I'm a sahm so I don't spend too much on gas. I try to find free things for my daughter and I to do when my husband is working, like library, pack our lunch and go to the park, or play dates with friends. I feel like the winter coats me more because we have to pay to play indoors somewhere. So we are enjoying spring

Sammy K · May 2015

We budget for literally everything. There is no a penny that isn't tracked. With having 2 in daycare this year (at about 13k each, yikes!) we've cut back. We ditched cable and have an Amazon Firestick. I use Huggies points for my magazine subscriptions. We take our lunches to work. We recently started using emeals.com for meal planning since we didn't have time. We already waste less and eat less garbage. For FTM, remember half the stuff that is a "baby necessity" isn't necessary at all. Garage sales and used clothing are your friends.

47923ang · May 2015

I have a savings account set up with automatic transfers. Every time we get a paycheck, a portion automatically goes into savings. I started small, and as I realized we weren't missing the money I gradually increased it.

Unknown · May 2015

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rodriyessi94 · May 2015

Coupons. Coupons. Coupons!

bowloforanges1327 · May 2015

We love mint.com for tracking our expenses. It keeps all our accounts in one place as well as bills and even our credit score and the value of our home. It keeps a very clear comprehensive picture of your whole finacial situation and makes it hard to hide things from yourself.

mlindzz · May 2015

iheartpancake said:
I sit down and make a menu of what we're going to eat for the week and make a list from that. I don't buy anything that's not on the list and I buy no junk food. It's hard being pregnant and not having crap food sitting around so my husband definitely makes a run for me once in awhile, but the list has saved us soooo much money. We were going to the store almost daily before and spending between 30-40 bucks. I now spend around a hundred a week. And I always make sure we go to Giant Eagle for gas points.

There's also a website called mint.com that can look at your bank account and tell you where all your money is going every month if it's hard for you to visualize like me. When my husband and I first combined finances this helped us a lot. Well, it helped me a lot seeing he was spending almost $1800 a month between eating out and happy hour lol. Nixed haha.

Great suggestion... We love Mint too! We use that program all the time!! It automatically organized your finances into categories and you can access it for updates from your phone.

obryana6219 · May 2015

I guess I should mention that as far as diapers go I started stock piling those before I was pregnant. I only did size 1,2,3 because we plan on using cloth diapers after the baby grows out of those sizes. We decided that since I was able to pick them up so cheap ($2.00 a pack) that it made more sense to do it that way than to shell out for a ton of cloth diapers. The nursery closet is filled from floor to ceiling with diapers and when I counted them last week there's over 50 packs.

btm013 · May 2015

My husband is a crazy saver - almost to the extreme. I have to convince him to purchase a lot of things and he does the shopping because he knows I will just grab what we need. It can drive me nuts but in the end it's for the best. I don't know of another 30 something year old more concerned of his retirement than my husband!

Some of the ways we save:
- We live within our means.We have a small/affordable house. I never wanted a big home - mainly b/c I don't want to clean it haha
- We pay off our credit card bills each month to avoid interest charges. I wish we can do the cash in envelopes thing. I never carry cash and I wonder how much more we could save if we did it that way! We try to accumulate credit card points for miles.
- Set up your savings to be directly deposited into your account. Out of sight, out of mind. Start slow and work your way up.
- Anytime one of us gets a raise or bonus, we immediately put half into savings and the other in our 401(k). This tax season (I'm an accountant) I did additional work on the side to help save. We also did a huge sweep through our house and sold what we could on ebay and donated the rest.
- I love lattes/cappuccinos. We splurged on a maker for $140 but I use it EVERY SINGLE DAY. I like my concoctions more than starbucks!
- We refinanced to 15 year from 30 year. It's amazing to think we can pay off our home soon.
- Coupons are our best friend. We rarely pay full price for anything! I'll hold off on purchasing things until it's on sale. Unless it's food haha. Then mama needs to eat!
- We plan our meals every Sunday and buy for the week. It keeps me from wanting to just pick something up quick during the week.

sschwege · May 2015

We canceled cable after DD was born, we don't miss it and it saves us $780 (we had a pretty good package before).

I called to talk our car insurance company down, they offered us a low mileage discount saving us something like $200 a year.

Keeping our thermostat lower in the winter. We lowered it from 70 to 68 during the day and 64 at night. Not sure what that saved us, but I just walk around in a sweater now and kids wear undershirts.

For kids' birthday gifts I make the gift tag that I put on the gift. I save old cards and cut out the picture, feed a ribbon through and I have a cute gift tag. I used to pay $1 per gift tag, not a huge savings here, probably $20 a year, but still

Cloth diaper and wipes. Probably saving $1,000 per kid from birth to potty. We have the most economical diapers, prefolds.

Make my own laundry detergent, bathroom soap, have a cloth kitchen now (no more paper towels or napkins), I've noticed I only have to go to Target every other month as opposed to every month and am spending about the same.

We buy as much kids' stuff second hand. There are a few church rummage sales in our neighborhood that have gently used children's items. There are some great finds, we were able to get a Strider Balance Bike for DD for only $15 (well over $100 new) a Disney Princess helmet for $1 and a Razor scooter for $5. I also get most of their clothes from there. Again some really nice stuff, Ralph Lauren/Janie and Jack for $1-2. The only things I won't consider second hand are things like car seats. I also always buy them good shoes and those are always new.

Ebates is another good money saver if you shop a lot online. It's super easy to use, takes maybe 30 seconds and you get a percentage back on qualifying online stores. In 2 1/2 years I've earned back $145 in cash, not a ton but when you figure it's so easy it's well worth it.

We do use credit cards, but always pay it off in the grace period so we don't pay interest and we have a card that gives us cash back. I think we get back like $350 a year.

I use the library for a lot of things. Kids go to story-time there and other free activities. I also check out books for myself and the kids. I've done movies and TV series from there as well...Downton Abby

Our library also has museum passes you can check out which will get you into museums for free.

Our city museums also do free days so I try to keep on top of that. Concerts/movies in the park that are a lot of fun in the summer.

As far as ways to make money. I am a SAHM, but have always watched another LO in our home FT. It's so nice for my kids to have a playmate and it's a way to supplement DH's income. I make $390 a week and can write off certain things as a business expense because I'm running a business out of our home.

Ways that I waste money...Starbucks I am the worst about it! I could cry when I think of how much I spend. But I try to tell myself that we all need our little luxuries. Plus I only regularly drink water, no soda, juice or alcohol (even when I'm not pregnant, I might have a glass once every two months). So I guess that's my splurge

Zeuskay01 · May 2015

I'm so glad this thread was started ! I've never heard of mint.com, I'm going to have yo check it out ! I've been trying to take my breakfast and lunch, because I'll admit most of my money goes to food lol
I was taking a financial class a bit ago and we watched different episodes of Dave Ramsey . He talked about the envelope method like PP said...I really want to do that one day but I just don't know how to start. Maybe after the baby is here!

NotISaidtheCat · May 2015

Shop at ethnic markets whenever you can! We live in SoCal and buy all our fresh produce, dairy products, meat, and pasta/rice at the local Persian market and can feed our family of three for about $100/mo. It's fantastic. Also, we basically only eat fresh produce, never frozen and only canned very rarely, because it's just that affordable where we shop. Only fresh meat as well, never frozen or anything else.

HoosOnFirst · May 2015

I like Mint.com but it doesn't work as well when your significant other doesn't get on board with logging in and updating accounts! Half information is not useful. I do in in Excel and try to keep up but my day job is accounting and I secretly hate doing it at home too.

We will probably cut cable, but NOT until after my maternity leave!

JRH2012 · May 2015

klkonwi said:
I try to do little things like buy the fuel saver items only from hyvee adds to get money off of gas. I really need to cut back on little gas station stops for cookies etc.... Things like that. It helps now that I don't work that I don't leave my house much. Love this thread idea. Everyone can use tips to save money.

BrightFirefly · May 2015

Meal plan for the week. Every Sunday..I make a list and shop only for the items we need. Buying only in season fruit is a big saver as well.

CateOfChicago · May 2015

We aren't great at saving money and need to do better. However, 2 things I do do are couponing and mint.com. I spend less time than the previous poster bc I follow a coupon blogger in my area that tells me what to buy. She matches up the sales with the coupons and I just pick what I want. Takes about 15 mins to cut the coupons and 1/2 hour at the store. I don't go too crazy. I'm sure you have a blogger in your area. Mint is awesome. In addition to what was said above, it allows you to set budgets on all your categories and will notify you if you go over.

For those stockpiling diapers, you may want to wait to see what works for your lo. I did the same and huggies gave her a rash. I ended up giving them all away.

Serenamarr · May 2015

We live very basically. Our only bills each month are rent, student loans, car insurance, electric, Internet, Netflix, and 2 credit cards. Last month I started writing/having FI write down everything he spent in a list even just a coffee, and at the end of the month I add it up, separate it into categories, and we see what we can cut back on. Last month it was groceries- we were spending 200$ a week for 2 people!!! So certain things had to go, like Nutella

I have a feeling this month it will be eating out- like wawa, Chinese, pizza, etc.

47923ang · May 2015

CateOfChicago said:
We aren't great at saving money and need to do better. However, 2 things I do do are couponing and mint.com. I spend less time than the previous poster bc I follow a coupon blogger in my area that tells me what to buy. She matches up the sales with the coupons and I just pick what I want. Takes about 15 mins to cut the coupons and 1/2 hour at the store. I don't go too crazy. I'm sure you have a blogger in your area. Mint is awesome. In addition to what was said above, it allows you to set budgets on all your categories and will notify you if you go over.

For those stockpiling diapers, you may want to wait to see what works for your lo. I did the same and huggies gave her a rash. I ended up giving them all away.

I am stockpiling diapers, but I've taped every receipt I have to the boxes. Also, Wal-Mart will exchange them for a different size or brand without a receipt. The CVS near me said they'd exchange without a receipt too.

The only thing is I need to make sure the packages I exchange are sold in that quantity at that store (e.g., Wal-Mart might sell the 186 pack, not the 208 pack).

I'm sure this plan won't work out perfectly, but I don't think I'll be needing to give away 1000 diapers.

btm013 · May 2015

We canceled cable too and I don't miss it one bit!! Saved so much money.

kaitlynmaureen · May 2015

I called any company that we use (cable, home security, Internet, etc) and just said we had been getting ads from their competitors and were wondering if they could lower their rate at all. Every single company lowered our bill by $10-$15 per month! They also thanked me for contacting them, rather than just switching to a new company. I saw this idea on facebook one day and never thought it would work, but it definitely did. (For the most part, we actually have gotten ads from competitors, but you could still call and ask even if you don't)

karaelaine1991 · May 2015

hoodoll82 said:
I like Mint.com but it doesn't work as well when your significant other doesn't get on board with logging in and updating accounts! Half information is not useful. I do in in Excel and try to keep up but my day job is accounting and I secretly hate doing it at home too.

We will probably cut cable, but NOT until after my maternity leave!

This is why, even though DH is an accountant, I keep track of our money, haha - he (obviously) does so much of it at work that it's the last thing that he wants to do when he gets home, especially since he's also studying for the CPA exam! We don't have cable - just the basic channels that come with our internet package - and I honestly really love not having it. It does help that we have Netflix. But yeah, the only time of year when I miss cable is during Christmas because I love watching ABC Family's 25 Days of Christmas and that's no longer available to us. DH misses it year-round because he's such a huge sports fan. You'd think that in a city with 3 sports teams, they'd show the games on the local channels, but nope, just football.

bosleyb · May 2015

I stalk www.hip2save.com (a savings website) and get a lot of my toiletry, dishwasher soap, etc. for half the price I can get in the store by using subscribe and save and clipping Amazon coupons. I got a 90 pack of name brand dishwasher tabs for $7.20 last night! They sell in the store for around $14. So if you haven't tried out Amazon subscribe and save, I highly recommend. I recently got two 18 count boxes of Playtex tampons, one I paid $1.50 for and the second I paid $2.22 for. The stores sell the 36 packs for $8! I also just got venus razor refills for like $1.36 each. Plus I get the stuff shipped to my door. I also buy my diapers and wipes from Amazon. With 3 (4 next monday) children, I no longer have time to coupon shop the pharmacies like I used to. Amazon Subscribe and Save saves me almost as much money! You just have to watch the above website and she finds the deals for you!

lindsladle15 · May 2015

obryana6219 said:
I guess I should mention that as far as diapers go I started stock piling those before I was pregnant. I only did size 1,2,3 because we plan on using cloth diapers after the baby grows out of those sizes. We decided that since I was able to pick them up so cheap ($2.00 a pack) that it made more sense to do it that way than to shell out for a ton of cloth diapers. The nursery closet is filled from floor to ceiling with diapers and when I counted them last week there's over 50 packs.

What's also nice is when baby grows out of a size, you can take packs back to whatever store you got them at and trade for a different size!

klkonwi · May 2015

What if people don't give you the receipt for packs of diapers? Can I still take them to walmart and trade in?

lindsladle15 · May 2015

klkonwi said:
What if people don't give you the receipt for packs of diapers? Can I still take them to walmart and trade in?

Yep! And I've been known to take packs of diapers to a couple different places to see if that's where they were from (if they don't scan as being from that store).

heatheremanderson · May 2015

We adjusted our cable/phone/internet bill to save ourselves $50 a month, use coupons when possible, sign up for freebies through different restaurants (for the rarer chance we go out for dinner), I am part of a mother's swap group so I have been able to save a lot of preparations for the baby that way, weekend activities are usually hikes with the dogs to save money (and great cheap exercise). For when we do hit the movies - we use our scene points to get at least one free ticket. The other catch - never buy anything full price.

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