Here are some ways that I have started to work on saving us money:
- Plan meals out for 2 weeks instead of 1 week. that way I can buy my meat in baulk and get more bang for my buck- Sarah (my SIL) taught me this. She plans for the whole month, but I need to start small.
- Shop at Aldi for some of my groceries. I saved about $40 by doing this last week. If I remember to bring my own bags, cash, and a quarter for the cart, I will have a successful trip. Jeannine told me about this idea
What are your ideas?
For each idea you give me I will put your name in a drawing for a set of 4 monogrammed blank stationary cards with envelopes made by me. Just leave your comment with a list of ideas and a way to contact you. I will mail to US addresses only (Unless you are Ola, than I will mail to you!) The drawing will be held Tuesday Jan 20th at 9PM (central time)so get your comments in before that! Good Luck!
Jeannine and Sarah are already entered in to the drawing once for their ideas posted here... But they can post more ideas... each idea gets another entry! Post early and post often! :)
6 comments:
Ok, here are a couple of my favorites:
1) As much as possible, avoid anything disposable (throwing away = buying more) - for example, wipe up spills with a washcloth instead of paper towels; use plastic containers instead of baggies for snacks or meals on-the-go. Pay attention to how many things you throw away (this is also an earth-friendly idea!)
2) Make your own liquid hand soap - dissolve a bar of soap into about 3-4 cups of water (it's faster to do it on the stove, but you can just let it soak for a couple days). Pour into soap dispensers - seriously, this works! You can also use this recipe for making shower gel! I use Ivory soap with Aloe and Vitamin E because it's mild, natural, and it smells good!
Fawnda,
I commend your efforts to be thrifty! I am very much into saving money for my family.
One of the things I would suggest is starting a blog reader feed that includes some money saving blogs. A few of my favorites are Baby Cheapskate and Money Saving Mom. I have lots more that I read regularly.
I got 90% of Elizabeth's baby food FREE from Target from reading a tip about an online Target coupon for Gerber on Baby Cheapskate. I also got tons of FREE baby wipes with a different coupon for Huggies that Target had put out a while back. There are great coupons that can be found online, and the best part is other ladies do all the research and link them in their blogs!
My general philosophy is stock up when the price is right. This does require you keeping a mental "price to beat" list. I would highly recommend doing this with any great deals you come across on any items you know you have space to store and will use before they expire.
It is amazing how frequently a deal comes up allowing me to get stuff like shampoo and toothpaste for free. Unless I'm splurging on my Aveeda :) - my price to beat for shampoo is free.
I also have a very large supply of diapers in my garage for Rachel. The price I pay for a jumbo pack is anywhere from free to $4. Never more. Sometimes I've even been paid to buy diapers. That is when shopping is fun! I honestly call saving money a hobby of mine. I really enjoy being thrifty.
I would use coupons every once in a while before I was a stay at home mom, but now they are an essential any time I go shopping at Target or Cub.
Thanks for the tips ladies!
I am already looking at the 2 websites that Naomi Suggested! I am already getting lots of coupons and some FREE shampoo!
Jeannine I am going to make the soap this weekend! I am already trying to cut down on my "footprint" so the tips to not waste are great!
Fawnda
Here's a recipe tip. We like pizza, and have it every Friday night for supper. I make a pizza dough recipe(I'll email it to you if you want it) that makes enough for 4 pizzas. I use the one that night, bag up the other three in freezer bags and just take it out of the freezer on Thursday night to defrost for the next day. Then I just have to get it out of the fridge, plop it on the pan, add the fixings and put it in the oven. It makes dinner time MUCH easier for me to have as much prepared ahead of time as possible. It saves money if you're used to ordering pizza. Also, check out coupons.com or couponmom.com or couponbug.com They have a lot of different coupons there. I just saved $1.50 on my laundry detergent from a coupon I got there.
oooh! I want the pizza crust recipe! that's a great idea!
Last winter we had some crazy electric bills! We called our electric company and asked if there was anything we could do. They gave us a free "energy audit." They came to our house for eight hours and... replaced our our lightbulbs with energy-saving ones, tested our energy loss, sealed places where energy was leaking out, gave us a device to check how much energy is used by our appliances, gave us a bunch of energy saving tips--ALL FOR FREE!!! We are spending about $100 less per month this winter on our electic bill.
Well worth it!!
Oh, and there is a "Frugal Friday" blog carnival on biblicalwomanhoodblog.blogspot.com. People post links to their blogs with lots of "frugal ideas". Check it out or add your own ideas!
Hey, I would love that pizza dough recipe from Sarah!
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