tips to save money

[utopia760]

i thought we could start a thread where people list ways they save money even simple things like hang dry laundry, or family cloth

i espically am intrested we are trying to save money every way possible (trying to buy our first house)

we have removed our cable! took the plan off our phone now we have 8 hours for $20, cut internet to low speed, hand wash and dry laundry instead of laundromat, family cloth, cloth wipes, homemade bread, homemade soaps....

[Paxjourney]

Split bulk store buys. I've done this a few times with a friend of mine.

[TICKLEDPINK]

One way that I have found is with leftovers. Our house consists of 3 people, dd, dh, and myself. When I cook there is always enough food leftover for another entire meal. With this meal I will give half of it to a dear friend and her family of 3 and then she will do the same with her leftovers. Not only does this save us money but it gives us each a night off from cooking. Granted we don't do this every night because we do eat out but enough to notice a huge differnece in our budget. So if you could get together with someone you should defiantly try it, plus you might get a chance to experience new foods. I hope this helps.

[jennlyn]

Stay home. Anytime you are out, you are putting wear and tear on your vehicle and burning gas. You don't need to feel guilty if your child isn't in a slew of activities. If your child asks you daily where you are going that day, you are going out too frequently. I've noticed that when children are used to going somewhere every day they find it hard to be content staying at home. Plan to do your errands on one day. Make a menu beforehand so you know just how much food to buy and don't wind up making extra trips to the store. If you see a book or DVD you think you might want to buy, don't do it. Borrow it from the library and then if it turns out to be fantastic, you can check half.com. We have a cell phone with prepaid minutes. This makes the phone only for emergencies, not for chatting. The best way to save is to stick to your budget. Dave Ramsey's books are good for planning a budget. If you haven't read them, the premise is that you budget your money down to the last dollar that comes in. List all your expenses for the month, then plan for the bills and expenses that aren't monthly so when the bill comes, you will have the money saved up. Use an envelope system. Pay cash for things, not plastic. When the cash is gone, no more till payday. Try to live simply and don't get caught up with what others are doing. When my second child was born, my friends were moms with one child each and they were always doing fun things. I felt bad that I didn't do more , but when they had more children their activity level slowed down too.

[organicmommy]

I have to say I agree on the staying home. It has really helped me with moving to a new place that I actually enjoy being at. I hated our other rental and didn't ever want to be there, now you have to pry me out of the new place. DD loves it too, she has a farm to play on, loves her play room and gets mad when we have to leave. The only thing we have done lately is go to my moms. Now it hasn't saved me any money as we don't have any to save with some personal issues that have came up, but it has been nice all the same. Tho I will say that it would be nice to ahve the money to take dd and go to the park once in a while ehre, but I am sure that it will get there soon.

Hugs
Jessica

[brogansmomma]

I haven't done much but I do feel better about it anyway -

• I use cloth for myself for el pipi (as another poster put it )
• I part-time CD'd my son and now when he's in trainers, they're mama-made cloth too
• I use homemade laundry detergent for my whites/lights
• I'm planning to clean with vinegar, baking soda, and other natural stuff (I feel too guilty tossing half-full bottles of windex etc though so once those are gone...)
• cloth grocery bags (not necessarily impacting my money but it's still a change I've made
• sewing some of my son's wardrobe as well as his trainers and underwear
• cable only for internet (cancelled the cable tv a couple years ago) - knocked quite a bit off the bill
• going equal billing with hydro (power), water, and gas - will put any refund/credit into my house savings account (for repairs, upgrades, etc) so it's a forced savings and easier to budget (IMO) knowing what will come out each month
• I don't go out at all - shiftworker and haven't found a casual babysitter so very little spent on restaurants/take-out, movies, bars, events, etc

[BugMacGee]

:

[mamamac2489]

Let's see
-I use coupons
-I only cut coupons for things we need, not things I want or want to try
-I buy paper goods in bulk from Costco, but now we make the attempt to use our dishtowels and cloth napkins more often
-I only use half of the detergent for laundry than it says
-During the day, I keep the blinds closed and only have lights on that I need.
-I try to re-sell as much as I can
-Love going to Garage Sales
-Try to find deals online rather than drive around to stores
-I go to the library for books and movies
-Buy lots of no name brands.

[meandk0610]

need constant reminders...: :

[mommyddeville]

My friends and I have started swapping maternity and baby clothes. I was the first to have many baby clothes, so lots of my friends are borrowing those. But my maternity wardrobe was pathetic, so I'm going to borrow from friends when I have my next baby.

Most of our kids' clothes are from secondhand stores. This is getting more difficult as my son gets older. Size 3 and 4 kids tend to be tough on clothes, I'm noticing. So I'm waiting for good sales and clearance from places like Gymboree and then saving or selling the clothes. I know it's more expensive than Walmart or something like that, but the clothes also last 3 times as long.

I make a lot of the gifts that I give, which saves money and people really appreciate the gifts.

For me, a lot of being frugal is knowing what I'm looking for and watching for a good deal on it. For example, we've been watching for a certain style of IKEA dressers. They're $199 each and I didn't want to pay that much. Well, they went on clearance at IKEA for $69 a few weeks ago, so we bought two so we have matching dressers. We're also watching for a mattress and a couch. Both could be considered needs, but we have ones that kind of work, so we're waiting for a deal we can't pass up.

[imnotsupernanny]

When I leave the house I try and remember to bring my own drink with me and sometimes a snack That way I don't need to buy anything overpriced!

I find that some specialty fruit and veggie stores are much cheaper then at the grocery stores.


I hardly ever buy clothes and when I do it's at a 2nd hand shop.

[Rainbowbird]

Here's one I thought of today: my son needed new pjs. I shopped around for cotton summer pjs--not many left, and what was left was predictably expensive. Also a lot of dumb character stuff that I really kinda want to get away from. So it occurred to me to buy him a 3-pack of Fruit of the Loom cotton boxer shorts for $4 at Walmart. Paired with a white undershirt, which we already have plenty of, it makes a cute and cool pj outfit!

The boxers are really soft and have gentle elastic, and cute prints--not garish or cartoonish. I bought him the ones with a camping/animal motif and he loves them!

The last pair of pjs I bought him on sale were 9.99 for a shortie set. These were a buck and change for each pair of boxers!

I figure for fall I will have to shop around for long johns or maybe flannel pants if I can find 'em. For now these are working great, though! I'll prob. go back and get another pack so that we don't run out before I do his laundry.

Happy me!

[utopia760]

great ideas keep the coming! anything that saves even a few penniey is helpful!

[reducereuserecycle]

~no cable tv
~no landline phone
~reduce electricity many ways
~catch water from the AC (instead of draining it into the sump pump hole, it goes in to a bucket) to water plants with
~use cloth instead of paper
~EC as much as possible so i have to wash less diapers
~take a bath with dd so we use the same tub of water (and i don't feel as guilty about filling the tub up nice and full since we are both using it)
~If it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown, flush it down!
~coupons combined w/ store sales Yesterday I got appx. $75 of stuff at Whole foods for $.97 yep $.97!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[KariM]

Gosh, let's see if I can remember...

1. Eliminated cable tv
2. Reduced our land line phone to 20 calls per month
3. Use cloth diapers
4. Use family cloth
5. Use cloth menstrual pads
6. Make our own cleaning products (using vinegar, etc.) including laundry detergent
7. Grow a garden
8. Barter with neighbors for garden produce we don't grow (use our excess to get items we didn't plant - plan to do more of this next year)
9. Cook from scratch
10. Reduced the amount of meat in our diets
11. Eliminated most of our entertainment budget to transfer funds to other budget lines - we now choose free or very low cost activities
12. Can and dehydrate in season foods and garden produce
13. Buy our clothing at garage sales & thrift stores or sew it ourselves
14. Re-use soap slivers to make our own homemade soft soap (eventually I want to learn to make my own soap)
15. Stopped shopping for entertainment
16. Make toys for DD or buy them second-hand
17. Drive less - walk when we can and use the bus more
18. Eliminated long distance trips - we have family come visit us instead
19. Use the library to check out books & DVDs instead of buying them or renting them
20. Have begun to replace windows in the house and upgrade appliances to reduce energy costs
21. Eliminated gas lawn mower and replaced it with manual rotary mower (great exercise and lighter footprint)

[my2girlz]

~I'm trying to stay home more
~only buy what's on sale
~stock up on sale items if a great deal
~use coupons. SuperTarget has great coupons on their site and that print out with your receipt. I saved over $10 yesterday on a $45 purchase.
~turn the air off when it's not too hot
~make a menu
~make a grocery list and stick to it
~try not to take kids (or dh) to store with me
~shop a season ahead for basics
~use hand me downs
~watch the sales flyers
~try to trade for something I need
~used cloth when kids were in diapers
~unplug things that we don't use on a regular basis (like the toaster)
~sell things I don't use
~buy things in bulk if it's a better deal

[mightymoo]

Use cloth rags instead of paper towels.

I buy concentrated dishwashing soap and then cut it with twice as much water - I use significantly less this way and its just the right amount of soap.

Track my expenses.

Keep lists of things I want or need, rather than running out and buying them, I wait for birthday's to ask for them or look for used ones on craigslist and yard sales. I find that I'm much more satisfied with purchases made this way - I get the thrill of the hunt and the thrill of knowing I paid significantly less. And since I took so long to find it, I had time to consider if it was really needed so I don't buy as many unnecessary items.

[1happymom]

make more meals from this thread: http://www.mothering.com/discussions...d.php?t=520224

shop at home first

use your mind (to either improvise or prioritize) instead of your $$$

[MamaPam]

:

[jlazx2]

Clothing
I do laundry frequently to save on stains with clothes and to allow us to have fewer clothes and thus better quality. I also use a combination of thrift, sales, and gift cards & gifts from birthdays\holidays. I hang everything up when weather permits, hang most of my kids clothes on an indoor drying rack.