Remember a few months ago when I posted about How We are SavingOver $500 from our Budget? Well today I wanted to share with you all the ways we save money in hopes to help you save money to. I think it’s an awesome idea to live frugally. Money doesn’t buy happiness and it sure can add a lot of stress to our lives.
You may want to save money to save up for a new computer, an awesome vacation, to pay off debt, or to save for retirement. Whatever the reason I have lots of ways to do it
The Big Guys
- Budget: One of the most important things we do to save money is following a Budget. We use YNAB to budget and it really helps to see where are money is going every month. Don’t forget to enter to win 1 year free of YNAB at the bottom of the post.
- Automatic Transfer to save for certain things. We have a tax account (since the hubby and I are both self employed) and a Christmas/birthday fund that we automatically transfer money into every month that way we don’t really “see” it, but if we were to need it is still there.
- Emergency fund: This helps save money by not having to use credit cards when something unexpected happens.
- Save up and pay cash for items you want or need.
Life
- Chose to live in a less expensive house. When we applied for a loan they kept asking us if we wanted to keep looking because we could “afford” a much more expensive house. No thank you! Knowing one day I would probably stay home, we wanted something we could live in on just his income.
- Get rid of cable. Haven’t had it since we were married and we have lived.
- Use Hulu, Netflix, or Amazon Prime instead.
- Or just sell your TV and save more.
- Republic Wireless is a great budget phone company! I’ve saved at least $35 amonth on my phone bill and love it. We haven’t switched hubby over yet because he needs a reliable hot spot and we aren’t positive how this will work out forhis job, especially since we live in rural southern Illinios.
- Save on heating/cooling costs by keeping the temperature warmer in the summer and cooler in the winter.
- Switch the lights off. I try to refrain from turning the lights on until we really need them at night.
- We use a Medical Share for healthcare which saved us over $500 a month. This isn’t the right decision for everyone, but we felt it was for our family.
- Do all of your errands at once to help save on gas.
- Slim down bills. What can you live without? Can you call to get a better deal? Call to find out.
- Have fun doing free things like going to the park, hiking, or local free events.
- If you find gas for super cheap fill up even if your not at empty.
- Only use credit cards when you know you can pay them off right away and if they get you a deal. For Christmas we got a percentage back from our card if we purchased things through Amazon, which we were already going to do.
- Try to keep cars, items, etc. in good condition and get them maintained when need be to keep them lasting as long as possible.
- Don’t just buy things to buy things or go shopping just to look.
Laundry Room:
- Wash clothes in cold as much as possible.
- Hang your clothes to dry. I’m working on this one. This is a goal for the summer.
- Repair clothes with holes.
- Take care of your clothes so you have to replace them less.
- Use less detergent if you use the store bought stuff.
- DIY laundry detergent.
- Wool dryer balls (Like these)
– these are reusable and contain no chemicals. Good for your wallet and your health. - My mom always cut the dryer sheets in half so you get twice the amount.
Beauty:
- DIYyour own beauty products, makeup, and hair products.
- Use my simple skincare routine.
- Don’t pay for haircuts. I cut my hubbies hair and my mother cuts my hair. I’ve also bartered this service with a friend.
- Air dry your hair.
- Use no heat hair styles.
Groceries and Other Items:
Check out my post: 30 Ways to Save on Groceries
- Decide if you really need to buy a item or can you borrow it or rent it?
- Purchase more quality items that will last a long time.
- Use re-useable baggies (Like these)instead of plastic ones.
- Filter your own water (we use a Berkey Water Filterand love it) instead of buying water bottles, and use a glass or stainless steel bottle- better for your health and the environment.
- Coupons. These things are great at helping you to save money and there are numerous amounts of places that you could get them. For example, you could check out something like this cashcoup website. But there are plenty of others that you could use.
- Ibotta: This app is great, you get paid for buying certain products and certain stores. They have a lot of things we don’t use but also great deals on things we do use. If you sign up use my referral code:iohomtv
- Putting it all together folks for extra savings…
- The other day Ibottahad $3 for Seventh Generation diapers. I also had a $10 off coupon from Target if you spent $50 in the diaper section, plus the diapers were already on sale for $2 off per box. We use cloth diapers and wipes most of the time, but for overnights, at church, and when we are out of town we use disposable. So I bought a big box for now, one later, and some wipes. Saving $17 on something we would normally buy! Boom!
- Embrace DIY for decor and furniture.
- Utilize the library for books, video, and other entertainment.
- Skip the paper products: we use cloth napkins and washcloths to clean house.
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Kids:
Check out my post on 15 Ways to Save Money Raising Kids
Clothing and shoes…
No joke I’ve barely purchased any clothes or shoes for myself in years.
- Have a clothes swap with friends to exchange clothes y’all no longer wear.
- Shop at thrift stores, garage sales, and Craigslist for inexpensive clothing and other items.
- Coupons. You can get great deals at Kohl’s by combining coupons with store sales.
- Tell your mom (love you mom) or friends to let you know when theircleaning out their closest and want to give you anything. My friends/family know my love for free clothing and are constantly giving me things. The trade off? I take clothes I’m not interested in to Goodwill for them.
There you have it 90+ ways to save money. What can you add to this list? Any other ways you save money?
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