your tips on being frugal

[memory maker]

I need help on how to be frugal. I always just buy stuff and dont really pay attention to what things cost. Now that our third baby has come we really need to watch what we are spending, especially since I was doing in home daycare for 2 kids and now only one. What are your best tips that you can give me? my dh is very frugal, but I am not, so any help is appreciated.

[DoubleOven]

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[dziejen]

You might want to check out a book on it from your library for some ideas too. One popular one around here is The Complete Tightwad Gazette.

[rabbithorns]

Being frugal means choosing what to spend on and where to find ways to spend less.

The first thing any good money management program will advise you to do is track your spending. If you don't know where your money is going, you can't make choices.

What is your income? Where's the money going? How much are your housing costs? Utilities? Phone and internet? Car repairs average per month? Insurance? Car payments? Car registration and inspection? Medical costs? Over-the-counter medicines? Kid allowances? Eating out? Groceries? Cable TV? Do you go to the movies, the zoo, museums, use public transportation? Do you regularly take library books back late and pay fines?

When you see what you spend during one month (carry a small notebook and write down EVERY transaction so matter how small), you can choose how you really want to spend your money. If going out to museums and eating out are a big part of how you expose your kids to the world and enjoy yourselves as a family, that's great, but maybe you don't really need a second car to do that and can use public transport. Maybe you'd rather trade a $40 cable bill for a $10 Netflix membership.

As you pare down what you spend, you can apply that money to decreasing debt, or split that money between debt and savings. Are you planning to purchase a new fridge? A new mattress? Save the money and you'll spend 30% to 40% by not paying for it over time on credit.

Frugality is about choice, not being cheap. If you have small children and your husband makes $50,000 a year, wouldn't it be great if he could work at 3/4 time, spend more time at home, if you could figure out how to live on $35,000?

[flapjack]

Save all your receipts in the bottom of your purse for one week. At the end of the week, go through them all and add them up. Be horrified and remember that number for the next week, and do it all again. There's satisfaction in not spending money, there really is.

[ekblad9]

Probably you already do these things but:

-combine all errands to save on gas money

-bring a thermos of coffee (or your drink of choice) out with you so you aren't tempted to buy.

-I keep a small two drawer "chest" thing in the back of our van (we have a huge van) and in the drawers I keep bottled water, graham crackers, fruit leathers, things like that. I also make sure to keep extra clothes/socks/etc so don't get stuck buying those items if there is a need while I'm out.

-my issue is shopping. I love buying clothes/books for my kids. I try to remember how much we are blessed with already and I ask myself how will this "thing" benefit our lives?

-we never eat out and I make breads/pizza crusts/soup/cookies/basically everything from scratch.

-I never pay full price for anything. Most chlidren's items can be purchased at resale shops or garage sales or clearance sales at the stores. Less is more and our wardrobes are sparce.