I would love to hear what things you and your family do to save money. We all have great ideas! And I think it is important to share them with each other. Someone else’s tip might be just what you need to help your meet your financial goals!
One thing that I do to save money is wash out my empty Juice containers, fill them with water and add 4 drops of Bleach. I add it to my stockpile of drinkable water in case of any emergencies that may come up. Especially when it isn’t the season for good stock up prices on water bottles, this keeps us stocked no matter what!
What are your Frugal Living Tips??
Kirsten
To save money I make my own Laundry Det. It cost me 1.98 for 10 gallons of detergent. We also reuse plastic bags my husband gets from work(they are really big) for trash bags.
marjorie
would love to know how you make your laundry detergent.
Rachel
I am interested in your recipe for detergent too. I haven’t like the one I did in the past.
Jaclyn
I always pay myself first from our paychecks (at least 10%) and it goes straight into savings. It has helped our little family in financially trying times. I also have a habit to buy something that is a really good deal with out thinking. If it is a want and not a need I will wait 24 hours before deciding to buy. If it’s not really needed, I usually don’t buy it or it’s already gone 🙂
Emily
When we want to watch movies, we get them from the Library! We don’t have to pay anything for them and we get to keep the movie for several weeks! And if there is a movie that we want to watch that is always checked out, we just put them on hold and then eventually get them!
Nicole
We buy used! I am very particular about what items I buy and who I by from, but I have saved a lot of money buying some things used. My favorite is Books. Lots of people keep their books in really good condition, and toddler books are easy to clean! If your in Utah, KSL classifieds are great!
Leanne
The biggest help for my family has been making a weekly menu. My husband and I are both students and he has a full time job and I’m a full time mom. Sometimes eating out is easier than deciding what to cook for dinner. With a menu we save tons of money by avoiding eating out. (And since my husband knows what’s for dinner, he even starts dinner occasionally!!) Plus since I make my menu weekly, I make it with my shopping list. I try to base the menu off of sales and have a few meals without meat to cut the cost. Going to the store only once a week also helps cut my expenses since we are big impulse buyers and LOVE our snack foods! Since we are big impulse shoppers we bring cash into the store and leave all cards in the car. This took a little getting used to, but it helps us stick to our budget and avoid impulse shopping. I do put a $$ amount on the list for snack food items and it varies based on what non food items we have to buy that week. Being able to buy a bag of chips and some cookies makes it easier to avoid buying EVERYTHING we think looks good at the time.
Darci
i participate in my local freecycle.org
It is AMAZING what people are willing to give away as long as you go pick it up from them. Just this weekend I got 4 oak bar stools for our kitchen! FREE! Of course they are used, but they look pretty good and are functional. I have seen all kinds of things from working washers/dryers to baby high chairs to treadmills. It is also a great way to get rid of stuff you no longer need and you don’t have to worry about dropping it off at the thrift store.
jen p
I love freecycle! I had an old jogging stroller taking up space in my garage and made someones day by answering their request for one and leaving it on my front porch.
Amy
I have two small kids who love to have cartoon character shirts, but these can be expensive. So, I go to the consignment stores and Goodwill, buy plain t-shirts and then I use the 50% off coupons at our local fabric and craft stores to buy iron-ons of those characters. Our consignment store has a 25 cent sale once a month. It’s a GREAT way to find them clothes, especially the t-shirts. Then instead of paying $7.00 at a store for a disney character t-shirt, I can make them one for less than $2.00. Some iron-ons come with two or three of the characters so I can add a sweatshirt or another t-shirt for very little cost.
Our consignment store is really well stocked, I rarely buy kids clothes at retail shops.
When my kids go to birthay parties or Halloween events and come back with candy, I sort out the hard candy and put it in a jar or baggie. I save the hard candy for Christmas and instead of running out to buy candy to decorate a ginger bread house, I have my secret stash.
Brittnee
We are very thrifty, all our furniture with the exception of the bed set my husband inherited, are used and second hand, most from DI. I have a very hard time buying new things, especially furniture. I make a monthly menu for all our meals. And the biggest of all, we stay out of debt, pay cash/debit for everything, save up for what we want, we do not own credit cards.
Cami
I would like to get the laundry detergent recipe from anyone who makes their own. Thanks!
Traci
When we were in college we had a professor tell us a wonderful secret!! If you get paid every other week – you need to figure your budget to include only two paychecks a month, that way you will have two extra paychecks a year!! So with our budget I just figure that we get paid on the 1st and 15th – instead of every other friday. Does that make sense?
We have been doing this for years and have been able to pay off our school loans & cars – it also helps with trips and christmas. It takes a little more planning, but it is totally worth it in the long run.
Jamie
We do this same thing with my husband’s checks twice a year. This is how we have paid for Christmas for the past 7 years and it works out so well!
Bonnie T
If I can get to the grocery store (with 3 kids in tow) early enough in the morning, they have discount bins for the dented cans, squished cereal boxes, day old bread, etc. Sometimes bottles of water for $.10, and no CRV! Stores also have their markdowns butcher meats (usually hamburger) early morning too. Buy in bulk, take home, divide into 1lb portions (or proportions for your family meals/recipes) and freeze. I’m not afraid to shop at my “Mexican Market” for produce since they have the best deals. My dad taught me about shopping the seasons: corned beef & potatoes around st Patrick’s, eggs near Easter (.89 this weekend at my local store for XL), flour/sugar/butter around Thanksgiving (baking season), etc.
I’be been using this site to learn about coupon bargain hunting. Not all store mentioned are in SoCal, but I’ve got Wal-Mart & Target!
Sandy
One of the biggest expenses monthly can be the cable or satellite bill. We’ve eliminated this expense and have saved a small fortune by doing so. As long as you have a reletively fast internet speed, it’s just as easy to watch movies and most TV shows on the computer using the network sites and Hulu. We pay $8 a month for Netflix and this has expanded our movie and TV selection tremendously. The TV antenna I purchased was less than $10 and we get about 15 watchable channels on the TV for absolutely no cost! If you are looking for a fast and very effective way to save money, this will definitely show fast results.
Angela
We make our own dishwashing soap for our dishwasher. . It is a great money saver and very easy to do. Also, we go to our local farmers market to get our produce. The vegetables are fresher and locally grown, not to mention cheaper.
Angie
We round up all our bills each month, like if we anticipate our Gas bill being $69 (give or take) we set aside $80 for safe adjustment. If the bill is less then $69 or is $69 you take that extra $11 or so dollars and stash it into savings. We use this savings for spending money on vacations or if the bills that month go over what we anticipate! That way we have a little bill/vacation savings fund!
We also do Bountiful baskets and that has helped tremendously with produce and bread costs. bountifulbaskets.org.
jen p
I love the utah co op(look for them on facebook) I bought an adorabley decorated bday cake for my daughter for only $3 and I buy all my cheese there! The yahoo group for freecycle.org and ksl classifieds are great too. I also have macys and kohls charge cards(I pay them off at the register EVERY time I use them) and shop their super clearance sales w my coupons I get for being a card holder. A few weeks ago I bought my kids shirts for under $2 each, one was Disney characters and the other an NFL team.
Amy Trauntvein
I do my main grocery shopping once a month! It’s amazing how much you can save when you’re not constantly heading to the store to buy “just a few things” and walk out having spent $100. I do have to go buy more milk and some produce after 2 weeks, but I keep to my list and not stray. I have what my kids call “our grocery store” in the basment, full of the nonperishables (besides my food storage) I buy for the month and beyond.
I also do lots of thrift store shopping and garage sales. It’s amazing what people don’t want anymore. Name brand clothing, books, you name it, I have found it in great condition for pennies!
Anne
We take the money we earn from the points on our credit cards and put it in savings accounts. It isn’t huge, but it adds up to several hundred every year. Credit cards really aren’t for everyone. We like them but we always pay them off at the end of every month and then we can earn back the 1% to 3%. This is a lot when the bank is only giving around 0.2% right now for a saving account. We have tried to switch as many of our utility bills and any other bills that come regularly over to our credit cards as well This way we get back as many points as possible. Every penny counts. Just know how you spend, will this help or hurt you to use a credit card.
Nikki V
I also make my own laundry soap. I’ve been doing it for a couple of years now, it’s an easy way to save money and I may be strange but I think it’s fun. Here’s the “recipe” I use
1 quart Water (boiling)
2 cups Bar soap (grated)
2 cups Borax
2 cups Washing Soda
* Add finely grated bar soap to the boiling water and stir until soap is melted. You can keep on low heat until soap is melted.
* Pour the soap water into a large, clean pail and add the Borax and Washing Soda. Stir well until all is dissolved.
* Add 2 gallons of water, stir until well mixed.
* Cover pail and use 1/4 cup for each load of laundry. Stir the soap each time you use it (will gel).
I have a couple of friends that use different bar soap but I find that the Fels-Naptha has a lemonie kind of smell and is fine for us. Also I have a 1/2 gal size container that I put some of the soap in and it makes it easy to shake up before pouring, it will kind of congeal a bit but a quick shake takes care of that.
Shelley
Shop clearance sales! I buy most of my kids clothes a year ahead on clearance. For instance, the last month or so, winter clothes have been on clearance. I buy clothes for next winter right now, paying on average $2 – $3 per item. I bought some nice coats for my kids for about $7 each (regular price, $60 – $70). This is cheaper than thrift store prices, and they are new. Kohls is my favorite place for clearance clothes shopping. You can get some amazing deals if you take the time to look and shop ahead.
Sarah MM
My husband and I are both in college and I’m expecting—talk about strained finances! But we recently heard about and bought this software called YNAB (You Need a Budget). It’s super easy to use, and the way it’s set up encourages you to (A) live on the paychecks you received in the previous month so you’re always a paycheck ahead and (B) “give every dollar a job” so that you know exactly what every dollar you make will be spent on. It’s a realistic, practical way that was 100% worth the $59.95 we paid for it.
There’s a free 7-day trial as well so you can give it a spin before dropping any money on it. You’ll love it!
https://www.youneedabudget.com/download/
Mandee
I make out a monthly menu and then make a grocery list from the menu. We then look at the sales ads and figure out which store has the best sales for what we need for the month. We have to go back during the month for milk and some produce but it has cut our food budget almost in half. It’s amazing at all the little junk items we were picking up here and there on frequent trips to the grocery. We also shop at Sam’s Club and of course use coupons as often as we can. We shop Kroger, buy their name brand and they send AMAZING coupons (free items that you actually normally buy!) every so often.
Debora Boyd
Wear it Out, Use it Up, Make it Work, or Do Without (some of you may recognize this quote from a wise historically frugal man. ) (( Yeah Yeah, I know this is my website, but I don’t make money from my site, I just pass on ideas!))
I’ve been living this mantra for years and only recently did a neighbor send this quote to me!
A great tip is to learn to sew…at least so you can do your own mending. I do so much better at consignment store since I know how to turn a shirt into a skirt or I can mend pants into shorts.
susan
We put all checks into the savings account, paychecks, rebates, etc. We have divided the bills into 1st and 15th bills. We make a withdrawal to cover those bills plus 10%, and place it into the checking. When I say bills I mean everything like car, house, utilities, credit card payments, grocery expense. It is amazing how much money you will save when you put it into savings first, because, it is hard to put into into savings after you get it and pay bills. But….once it is in savings, it is amazing how unwilling you are to pull it out for unnecessary items, and therefore you save much more than you would ever imagine. We have ended up saving on average 23% and have not lost out on anything that we wanted to do, but we have the savings. It has been great.
Also to add what everyone else has stated on grocery items. I shop at Smiths. If you look on the tags it states the date that the item goes back to regular price. Sometimes it is 20-45 days. So if it is something that I use all the time, I make note and make sure that I load up before the end date. I also buy milk and cream products and freeze them. They are just fine, if you let them defrost naturally and shake them well. Thanks for this idea it was great to read all the comments.
Ben
I shop the grocery sales when ever there is a good deal. Some stores have a Saturday only sale or a Wednesday only sale. They mark groceries down much more on those days.
I get the sales ads together and make my menus out based on what’s on sale. I know which stores mark down meat and fresh vegetables and shop the discounted items first. I change my menus to accommodate the discounted meats, vegetables, and dented cans I find. When I find a real good sale on one of the items I use on a regular basis I buy lots of it. I found pasta on sale for 4 lbs/$.99 a couple of months ago. I bought 50 lbs. I went to a grocery store with an instore bakery and they gave me (free) the empty buckets they get icing in. I washed out the buckets and put the pasta in it. At thanksgiving one of the store had potatoes 10 lb for $.69 bag. I bought 40 lbs. I put the potatoes in a cool dark place. I only lost two potatoes and I didn’t have to buy potatoes later for $2.99 for a 10 lb bag.
I buy holiday foods during the holiday to save lots of money. The cheapest time to buy corned beef is the week or two before St Patrick’s day. The cheapest time to buy turkey is the two weeks before Thanksgiving. If I have freezer room, I buy enough to last me the year. I’ve seen turkey half the price of chicken. I never buy boneless chicken breasts unless they are cheaper than bone-in and skin-on chicken. I never buy stew meat. Instead I buy roasts, cut them up into stew sized pieces which I place in baggies and put in the freezer.
I don’t believe in expiration dates. Its nothing but over regulation by government. According to the USDA, the wheat they found in King Tut’s tomb was CENTURIES out of date. Scientists took the wheat, grew it and cross polinated it to add disease resistance to modern varieties. I have pulled meat and cheese to make tacos out of my freezer and found it to be 4 or more years out of date. It worked and ate just fine! When I was in the military I ate C-Rations (canned food) that were 25 years out of date (and so did the rest of my unit).
I found that some stores put items on sale and place coupon dispensers next to them. Then another store will put the same items on sale with out the coupons, but have a larger discount. So I take the coupons from the first store and take them to the second store a couple of weeks later and get a double discount. Thats how I bought hotdogs for $.04 per pound instead of the regular price of $2.50 lb.
Teach your kids to bargain shop. It will be as valuable for them later in life as teaching them to read and write. My mom taught me. (She could pinch a penny until Lincoln begged for mercy.) I taught my kids. Some of them chose to learn and some did not, but at least they know how.
I don’t have any money in bank cd’s. I have my money in stocks that pay a safe dividend. Why loan money to a bank for .2% when you could loan it to Verizon for 6% or McDonalds for 3.5% or Qwest for 4.5%? I have my money in NLY at 14%. Remember the rule of 72!
Jeannie Schroeder
Have cut down on car trips if I need anything from the store I get it on way home from work I try to keep all small appliances unplugged when not in use and am planting a vegetable garden this summer I try to only get the real necessities at the store and am keeping my thermostat on 65 & shut off extra rooms
Diana
Thanks for the tip on the Bountiful basket website…I looked them up and I think this is something I can use. Any savings is great.
I also make menus for the week and I purchase many items at the Dollar Tree.
When I lived in Tennessee I went to a butcher for my meat. It was alot at one time, but spread over time it was well worth it. I wish I could find another one where I live now.