Money Saving Tips

For those of you who eat out, look up your favorite eating establishments online and sign up for their newsletters. They often send coupons and offer email-only specials. Baskin-Robbins will send a coupon for a free ice cream on your birthday, as well as other discounts throughout the year. Captain D's will also send you a coupon for a free dinner for your birhtday, and I used a Mother's Day coupon today for another free dinner--a $7 value--no strings attached!

Also check online for any other businesses you frequent. Sign up for their emails and get special coupons. Lowes frequently sends me a $10 off coupon on any $25 purchase. I shop there a lot, so I use every one of them. Office Max sends me coupons too and with other sales discounts, I end up getting stuff super cheap. Hobby Lobby runs a 40% off coupon about every other week, but it's an internet-only coupon. You won't find it on their sales ad in the store.

Go grocery shopping on a FULL STOMACH! LOL Go alone if you can, you can focus more and don't have kids or spouses throwing crap in/making you frustrated/ending up buying everything just to get out of there.

Also, no tax online in some cases - for example, drugstore.com is great - for things you have to get anyway, free shipping over $50 plus no tax, many coupons available, and tons of items on sale. If you have a larger family and get a lot the tax savings can be great

PriceProtectr is great too - tracks all your online purchases and notifies you if the price goes down so you can get a refund. I got $50 back in the past 2 months from Target, Amazon etc.

I have a bread maker now, but used to make bread by hand. I have started making bread again. It is fresh and so much better for us since it does not have all the preservatives we don't need. You can make a lot of loaves of bread out of a 5 lb bag of flour. You can save some of the dough and use it for a starter. Check out the internet on how to do this.

I buy my bread at a Bakery Thrift Store and pay just $1.00 to $1.29 for the same bread that is over $3.00 in the super market. They also sell milk there for a considerable discount, but it's only available in gallons and since I live alone, I don't buy gallons.

Response to ^

Milk freezes well as long as there is some room at the top for expansion. Divide the gallon into quarts or whatever size you like and freeze. Thaw for a couple of days in the fridge and shake well before opening the first time.

If you expect that hard lean years are coming, you can prepare. Cut out your waste. Learn how to make and fix things yourself and to swap with your neighbors. Scavenge. Scout out locally produced food. Use your land to grow a garden. Get your neighbors to do it too.

American farming is based on energy intensive mass production, shipped great distances. Pesticides are petroleum, fertilizer is natural gas, and both are expensive. Then food is trucked several thousand miles. That model is now broken.

Curb Side Shopping

Some locales have special trash days where stuff that won't fit into the cans can be hauled to the curb. Where I live its called "Spring Cleaning". Its amazing the stuff people put out. Good stuff. useful stuff. fixable stuff. sellable stuff.

Half of what is put to the curb never makes it to the garbage truck. I know, because I scavenge, looping through the neighborood multiple times looking for a new pile, and watching the earlier piles disappear.

If your town doesn't do this, it should. Its a worthwhile garbage service. It keeps trash from being dumped in the bayou. It reduces landfill. It promotes reuse. It clears away clutter for some, and improves the standard of living for others.

The Kansas City Star ran an article 10 or 15 years ago that said the best way to save money is to live beneath your means. If you can afford a mansion, good for you, but you don't have to live in one. Live beneath that, keep things simple, and always put something in the bank.

The more things you own, the more time and money it will take to maintain them. It can quickly reach the point where the "things" own you, your energy and most of your time. Simplify and enjoy what happens in the process.

My husband has always told our children(all grown now) even when they were young. Get your house paid for and never put a mortgage on your bed again.

Both of us are savers. Our parents lived during the depression and nearly starved to death, so they taught us well. I don't think we did as good a job with teaching our children as our parents did for us.

My advice if you are not in debt, never to get in debt. If you are in debt, don't buy anything that you can exist without until you are out of debt. It is not easy to do this, but

OH!!!!! THE FREEDOM OF DEBT FREE LIVING!!!!!!

By the way, did y'all know that many of the drugs prescribed for your pets are also human drugs and can be bought cheaper at the pharmacy? You are not required to buy them from your vet. You can request a Rx and then go to the pharmacy and buy it for about 1/2 of what some vets charge.

NUMBER 1 way to save, is quit smoking.

I save 350.00 a month. I quit 8/31/07 let's calculate

9 x 350 = 3150.00 for 9 mos. Youser!! The money is now in stocks doing quite well actually.

This is more of a safety tip but could potentially save money by deterring thefts. When I am shopping in a store that has carts, I buckle my purse into the child seat. I don't like to carry it and am able to concentrate more on what I am purchasing if I don't have it swinging or falling from my shoulder.

Make your own disposable cleaning wipes with 2 round pop-up wipes cans (or coffee cans), a roll of paper towels and your cleaner of choice. Cut the paper towel roll in half with a sharp knife. Put one half in each can, pull center tube out, which should also pull the center towel up. Hang onto that, put a little cleaner in, Windex is good, maybe ½ cup? Experiment to get your preferred degree of wet. Poke that center tail through the opening in the can lid from the back and replace the lid. (Cut an x in the center of the coffee can lid to get the opening). Let it sit for a while to give your cleaner time to soak up into the paper. Replentish as needed. Works just like the pop-ups for a lot cheaper.

Make your kids lunches - especially if you have more than one -- you'll save a bundle and they WILL eat healthier and better than they do at school. The schools still offer cookies, poptarts, danishes and such at a HIGH cost for what it is. Check the summary of your child's lunch account activity -- you might be surprised at what's being purchased besides a "healthy lunch"

The roofing company my hubby works for just added what is called aticat....They come a blow insulation into your attic...We had it done and it saved us alot of $1's on our gas bill this year...We could tell a big dif right away..Like keeping the thermostat on 65 and not freezing....We did loose the attic space but it was worth giving up...3 of our neighbors got it also and are so happy with it they are telling thier friends

Think long term when making any larger purchase. Does this chair fit my long term wants for this room? Is this item good enough to last my lifetime & still have my kids wanting it? Avoid trends, fads, & extremes with large purchases: neutral colors & basic functions are always in style. I find I buy less stuff this way & what I do buy is of better quality & meets my long term needs, so the things I do buy might be a little more expensive but I save more by it meeting my needs long term & lasting longer, and I end up buying fewer things overall. Sometimes I end up never buying certain products if I can never find an item of high quality.

Check the "Angel Food Ministries" website for a location near you. This is a food program for everyone, not people in need. You pay $30 for a box of food, which you pick up once a month. There's a lot of meat included, and what you get for $30 is worth about twice that. You can order several boxes if you have a large family.
This is NOT surplus food, either. If you go to their website, you can see the menu for each month, by state.

Don't live on borrowed money, especially credit card balances.

Drive old cars but keep them maintained.

When considering a place to live, make sure the square footage is not too much, the commute to work is short, and you can walk to certain stores for necessities.

You can plant all the gardens you want, but if you are commuting from your McMansion in Sprawlville in an SUV and carrying balances, you will go broke.

I always remember what radio talk show host Bruce Williams once said. He isw a very wealthy man, and often has employees do his shopping for him. When he wants a new appliance or piece of electronics...he tells his employee to go out and get one of the major name brands...and to not get the cheapest one in their line, but the one just above that- as that will usually be of good quality, and have just the right features...yet not be loaded down with too many features to go wrong.

Ya know, over the years, I've seen that to be a pretty good practice! (Only myself...I research stuff a bit...but I'm often surprised how often the item I end up picking is the one that fits Bruce's description!)

Never Buy a "Combo Meal"

it is a calculated Rip-Off.

Order the food items separately and drink WATER

I use a spray bottle with white vinegar and water, and maybe a little bit of lemon juice. All of which are super inexpensive and lasts a long time. Cuts the grime, cleans, leaves a shine, and is not toxic as the store bought stuff. And the vinegar smell goes away when dried.

Also try to make less trash by using reusable/washable things as much possible. Recycle. I don't know about other trash companies, but ours offers a bi-weekly pick up which is a lot less then the every week service.

Here's a tip, use a pushmower for your lawn. Get your exercise and save on gas too!

If you have a real small lawn, you can keep it nice with a weedeater, no need for a mower at all.

If you can get away with it, a goat works great too. Be sure you have enough to keep the goat fed though, or you'll wind up having to feed the goat! One goat can munch down a lot in a day, maybe 2. I personally know this!

Here's one for the gardeners. If you have a greenhouse, you can heat it with a few rabbits for most of the winter. Just have to keep your plants on shelves. and it needs to have a grass or dirt floor for the rabbits. Rabbit poo is about the only poo you can use for fertilizer without letting it age first. Make it a moveable greenhouse, and you have a self-perpetuating garden feeder.

The Target tip: We call it 'walking the perimeter' ---I've gotten so many great deals by doing this!!


My favorite money saver: I cut dryer sheets in half. I've read that they could be cut into 1/4s but I've never tried cutting them that small. The dryer sheets still work perfectly but, be warned, people will make fun of your frugal nature.