Give Me Five tips and tricks to save money
or cut corners to stretch your budget.
or cut corners to stretch your budget.
- When I menu plan, I plan meals back to back that require the same items. For instance, if a meal calls for a half a box of mushrooms, you can bet that the next night’s meal will call for the other half of the box. I don’t use a lot of prepared veggies or box mixes. Due to health issues I was forced to prepare everything fresh many years ago. And while it does take a little longer, we no longer have a ton of leftovers because we only prepare enough for us to consume and ultimately this save us money and our health! I also use a mortar and pestle for dried herbs which revives their aromas instead of buying pricey fresh herbs. Ultimately I will build a greenhouse and grow my own on many items!
- Plan your trips to town. I no longer run to Walmart on one day and the doctor on the next. I plan 1 day around ALL the errands once every 10 days or every 2 weeks. I work from home so I also use the USPS stamps.com and Fedex pick-ups. Try shopping overstock.com too. They have super reasonable shipping ($2.95) and can eliminate all the running around to find everything from books, sheets, electronics to furniture & more! And all for $2.95 shipping an entire order, less than a gallon of gas.
- I clip coupons. Okay, that sounds a bit mundane, but if you also watch the ads you can save a bundle. Hubby didn’t really believe me in the beginning so 1 week, I saved the receipt where it shows at the bottom how much you saved. I put it and the amount I saved on his dresser with a note tell him to go have fun with the boys. When he asked if that was for real (the part where he got to go play with the money), I said sure. He asked if we could do it all the time and Guess who started helping me watch for sales and clip coupons?
- Buy in bulk or when they have dollar days sales ALL the items that won’t expire or go bad. Things like paper towels, toilet paper, soaps, shampoos, etc…
- Turn off lights!! Have you seen the price of electricity? We also don’t leave on the computers or unnecessary electronics! It adds up really fast!
Oh, and thanks for the suggestion about overstock. com. I’ll look into it!
I loved your list. You were very creative with your coupon savings; sounds like you have lots of fun in your home!
Great ideas! I love the way you plan menus. I also like to do all my running at the same time, even though it’s not a long drive. It just saves time and money in the long run.
We are so lucky to live right in town. I’m a mile from work and two miles from Wal-mart. When we head to “the City” – St Louis for us – an hour drive, we do make it count. We do shopping everywhere we can’t here and eat somewhere we don’t have here. We have a big old truck, so trips north are few and far between.
Great tips. We also do #2. Fresh foods and no boxes has also saved us a lot of money. We found that when we eat organic, we eat portions which are a lot smaller, therefore actually spending less money rather than more. We are guessing it is because there is better nutrition in the organics.
Great tips! I buy in bulk for non-perishables as well, and usually have hubby swing by the grocery store on his way home twice a week (right on his way), so we can buy as fresh as possible without throwing anything away.
Excellent advice. It really isn’t that difficult if we just look at what we are spending and how we can spend less. Have a great GM5. 🙂
I only wish I could save all of my running for one day a week! That really would save me some dough. One thing I’ve done is, I have a friend I like to visit who lives about 20 minutes away, right by my church! So…when I go to church, I also plan a visit to their house, thus saving some gas money 🙂 I *almost* added ‘buy in bulk’ on my list too because it really is the best bet when you find those great deals. Besides, that, it also saves the number of trips to the store using up gas money there as well. Besides, if you only buy what you need, your needed items may not be on sale when you run out, so watch the sales and get what you need then and it will be there for you already! Your #5 is great too, some people would even go as far as to say not only turn off unnecessary electronics, but unplug them as well! Even if it’s turned off, it is still drawing juice, believe it or not. Great list, I hope you get your green house sooner rather than later!!!