One of my favorite quotes from my hubby is "saving money is making money" (especially since he likes to spend money lol). Such a simple statement, but it is so true. We could both have huge salaries and drive really nice cars with large car payments but at the end of the month if all we do is break even...then are we ever making money?! As a stay at home mom, I feel that it is important for me to "make" money by saving money for our family. And I really have felt like I've failed in being as resourceful as I need to be to keep us in a good place financially. So lately I've been starting to get into couponing, and I never knew it could be so much fun! It is so funny to me that once you get into the mindset that you are going to save money how savings just seem to start coming to you. I even found coupons in my bushes this past week! Shaun put all of our spending last month into an excel spreadsheet and the amount of money we were still paying in eating out was unbelievable! We are literally spending all of our free money in eating out. Shaun was still going out to lunch every day which was a habit we started when we were both working so now I'm making him a lunch every morning. And the huge bonus for me is that means that sometimes he will get off a hour earlier since he was working through lunch! I'm now going to work toward providing most if not all of our meals at home every week. I was cooking before just not as much on the weekend! In order to save the most money, I have to plan in advance what we are eating to get the most out of my grocery budget. I really look forward to the challenge of seeing how much money I can save and how little I can spend to feed us!
If you are thinking about going down to one income or saving money: (not that I'm an expert as I'm just starting to really focus my energy on this)
Most of my coupon/saving ideas I get from moneysavingmom.com (just go to the top and click stores and there you can find the stores in your area and the deal ideas for this week)
Used reliable vehicles (hondas)-no car payment=we can afford for me to stay at home
Remember the tax savings--You will most likely move down a bracket and so you aren't losing as much money as you think you are!
Cooking at home and bringing lunch to work!
I love the walm.art brand boneless skinless chicken breasts in a freezer bag. One bag=7 bucks=6 cups of cooked and diced chicken. I just pull out whatever I need like 2 or 3 breasts and auto-defrost in the microwave instead of trying to remember to set it out long before dinner. And I've also boiled the whole bag and diced the chicken and froze the chicken in freezer ziplocs with 2 cups each...perfect for a quick casserole or soup!
Baby clothes--amazing what consignment and yard sales have for super cheap and really high quality/hardly worn clothes! Also, you might be able to find a friend that you can just borrow clothes from if your baby was born in the same season the following year.
What are your money saving tips?? Anything cheap and easy that you like to make for dinner? Pass them along!
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8 comments:
I love your tips! I am always looking for ways to save money. I want to get into coupon clipping but in our small town we only have a walmart and IGA, I guess it might be worth my while to start clipping and shopping outside of our little town. Thanks for all the tips!s
I love hip2save.com. She's great about weekly deals and also lots of freebies!
Don't you love not having a car payment!?!?!?!
Oh girl, you are speaking my language. We are living off my part-time job and help from a couple supporters while David stays home with Caroline and is in school full time! So, thinking through these things pretty much occupies a lot of my mind :-)
One way I save a lot is by cooking whole chickens. I don't buy a whole chicken unless it is less than 89 cents a pound. I can usually get three meals out of one chicken, plus the chicken stock and broth that I can make with them helps make even more meals!
Another grocery saver is we eat vegetarian dinners at least once a week, sometimes more. Money saving mom has some good bean recipes :-)
Good conversation starter!
Right there with you and learning too. All I know is when I started seeing that I used to pay full price for something that I could get for free I was hooked. I can't believe I have lived this long and never "got" the simple grocery principle of couponing!
My tip: Roasting any kind of meat - shred up the leftovers and do what you are doing. Makes great tacos, soup, BBQ, egg rolls (see my recipe Lagniappe post). Cheap meat is great as long as one has a freezer. :)
Hi,
I a/ always up for saving! I usually budget about $100-150 per week for me and my husband.....and it just seemed too much! I have started to shop once every two weeks and plan ahead, which has helped.....but what really helped me most was using the calculator on my phone to add up EVERYTHING I put into the cart. Wow! I only spent $46 for 2 WEEKS!!! It is amazing how you just throw things into the cart and it adds up fast!
I definitely agree that making lunches at home makes a huge difference. I buy most of my sons clothes in bundles off ebay which has saved us loads, especially as they are in them such a short time. We use washable nappies, big initial outlay, but so much cheaper long term especially if you go on to use them for more children. Plus you can get them in such funky designs now.
Getting a weekly veg delivery has saved us money. Even though we now get organic veg it actually costs less over all as we get it delivered so we don't end up buying loads of extra stuff. Plus it means we are eating healthier as I make loads of veg soup etc. I guess the same can be said for most shopping, if you do it online and get it delivered then you end up buying less stuff you don't need.
Get a bread maker and make your own bread. We use ours loads, the bread is so much nicer, it works out cheaper, and we also use it to make homemade pizza dough, as homemade pizza can be cheaper and nicer too.
When there are weekly coupons from the paper that I like I order more of them on ebay. You can normally get 20 coupons for $1. A lot of the stores in my area triple coupons from time to time and sometimes you can google the store and the week and find cheat sheets of the sales and coupon match ups online. As for diapers, CVS normally has some great deals. You can combine regular coupons with extra care bucks and get some great deals. I also look for meat really cheap...cook it in the crock pot and it gets really tender, shred it and use it for tons of meals.
I have always wanted to start couponing. I find moms who are really good at this so inspiring. These are all great tips! I am not so good at this yet, but I am all about thrift stores and yard sales. I love how much money I can save. One tip I can offer is from my sister who has 3 kids, which means LOTS of birthday parties. She will buy extra gifts whenever she sees something at a really good price or when Toys 'r us has a buy one, get one free offer, and then keeps a gift closet so she saves money and is then not rushing around at the last minute to find a gift for a birthday party.
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