Some of the things we did:
-we started meal planning AND made our diet as "whole" as possible. Â Turns out whole foods are actually cheaper than anything else :)
-We set a limit on how many times we eat out instead of trying to eliminate it (which was making us "binge" out lol)
-We called the internet provider and asked if we could get the same special as the "new customers" if we signed a contract (SAVED 43 bucks a month!!!)
-We started asking pretty much everyone if they did teacher discounts and turns out our phone company does so we got a big break there.
-We got power strips to plug things into so that we can just flip the switch off and 5-7 things will be off and not sucking any power.
-We stopped constantly driving all over the country side to see people...and turns out they WILL come to us occasionally :)
-We renegotiated our car insurance
-We stopped going to things that have high admission fees. Â We go to the dollar showing of the kids movie on the weekend, we only go to the zoo we have a year pass for, we only go to the museum we have the year pass for.Â
-We filled all of our schedule holes with exercise so we don't really have a lot of free time to just shop cause we feel like shopping.
-We sold a few things in the beginning (okay, A LOT of things) to help pay debts and we are using our tax return to finally pay off our credit card so we won't have ANY credit card payments.
-We learned to just dress for the weather instead of trying to always keep the air on 72. Â We go a few degrees lower for winter and will go a few higher for summer.
-If I want the girls to have something super duper cute I just make it instead of buying it... and then I make one or two extra to sell so all in all we don't actually spend anything.
- We got rid of a ton of toys that used batteries
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I'm sure there are things we did that I am forgetting, but those are the main things that we did it. Â And many many of those ideas came from this board! Â Good luck to everyone else trying to get on top of things. Â I'm just so happy we were able to do it without me having to leave the kids to go to work. Â We are saving for a house downpayment now and we are slowly getting requirements done so we can foster/adopt. Â I'm truly amazed, I didn't think we would be able to get to this point for YEARS, but here we are. Â Oh, I should add that we did get a little unexpected money a few months ago that we also used to pay debt, but I think we would still be making super progress had we not received it.Â
) have helped us go from having -250 at the end of the month to actually having several hundred left over for savings! So I just wanted to say THANK YOU!
