Money Saving Tips

We have been hearing all the things about the economy lately, but I definitely didn’t need the news to tell me about inflation. We spent over double of our gas budget in the last 2 months. And let’s not even get started on what groceries and eating out are costing. I know many of you are feeling it as well and so I decided this would be a great time to share some of my favorite money saving tips. I am sure many of you have heard or are even doing many of these, but maybe you aren’t. Or maybe this will just be a good reminder for you.

One day I will share our debt free journey with you. This was about 12 years ago that we became debt free and we have lived most of the time debt free over the past 12 years. There are times I am super vigilant and monitor our spending like a hawk. And sometimes I’ve become a little lax. These past few months have been a wake up call and I am back to watching every penny!

Let’s get started!

1. My first tip is what you would expect to hear from anyone talking about finances. Create a budget. But don’t just create it. Watch it. Follow up and make you are spending what you planned to spend in each category. If you aren’t sure, pull up your bank statements and credit card statements from the past few months and see where your money is really going. This is the biggest way we can keep from going into debt and save money.

2. Now let’s get practical. I want to share a few tips regarding toiletries. These can be quite expensive. First of all, when the bottle appears to be empty, it’s not! Add a little bit of water. Shake it up and you will get at least an extra week out of that shampoo or face wash!
   
   I have used the same deodorant and hairspray for years. And then there are some products such as face wash and shampoo that I have a few favorites. Rather than wait until I’m almost out to replace these, I watch for sales. Target will have the deal where if you buy $20 in beauty products you get a $5 gift card. Or all toiletries will be 20% off. During this time, if there is room in my budget, I buy several of my favorite products. This means I’m not forced to pay full price.
   
   Another way we can save is to use what we have. Do you have multiple shampoos? Use all the open ones before you start on a new one. This will not only clean out your bathroom cabinet, but it will also save you money.
   
   You know those little travel toothpaste tubes they give you at the dentist? Use those too! I used to pop them in my travel basket and then I realized that while we travel a lot, we still had more travel toothpaste than we will ever use on a trip. So we started using these rather than opening a new tube. Once we used them up we went back to our regular tubes.
   
   Using what we have on hand before we buy new is a big way to save money by not having to spend any!
   

3. Let’s talk about the category where a little planning can make the biggest difference in my family budget. Food! Eating out has become incredibly expensive. And now we basically have 3 adults and one child. Fast food is $40 these days. Eating at home is the fastest way for me to save money. Here are my favorite tips for saving money on food.

   1. Shop your pantry and freezer first. When I am meal planning I look for what I have on hand to get my menu plan started. Then I write down the items I need to add.

   2. Leave your grocery list open and shop sales. For example, if I have pork chops in my freezer and want to make a meal of them, but don’t have vegetable on hand, rather than list potatoes and brussel sprouts, instead I will just put 2 veggies. Then when I am in the grocery store I will see what veggies have deals that week and purchase those! I have also found that stores like Aldi are a great place to get good deals on vegetables.

   3. Freeze even small amounts of leftovers. We had steak a few weeks ago and I had one steak left. I put it in the fridge thinking someone would eat it for lunch. 2 days later I knew it had to be eaten or frozen so I tossed it in the freezer. Last week I slicked it thinly and we had delicious steak quesadillas. This made that dinner extremely cheap and we did not waste that delicious steak.

   4. Snacks. This is category that I call a pain point. Look for where you see you are spending more money than you want to and focus on that category. We will leave the house and my kids are immediately starving! A QuickTrip stop can cost us $13!
      So I have started saying, “Ok. We are leaving in 5 minutes. I expect to be gone about 2 hours. If you want a snack, grab it now.” This gives them enough time to put chips or crackers in a bag, to grab an apple or granola bar, or to even make a sandwich. This has saved a lot of money!
      My sister found that she dreaded making lunches. She now has a new baby and the free lunch program has ended in her county. So rather than make lunch for her kids every day, she will make 2 or 3 at a time. Then she only has to do this two times a week. This not only saves her from just putting the money in her kids’ backpack for lunch, but it also saves her a lot of time!
      Find that pain point and figure out how you can reduce your spending there.
      

   5. Speaking of pain points. I’m not saying you have to take all of the fun out of life. We love to go get ice cream as a family. But we are going to drop $20! Maybe it’s because we live in a larger city? I don’t know the reason, but it’s never cheap. And I don’t want gas station ice cream. I want good ice cream or custard. We recently discovered the prime selection at our local Kroger. The most you will pay is $5 for a tub of ice cream. And the flavors are delicious! We will buy 2 of these (I love having more than one flavor in my bowl) for only $10 and have many many (too many) bowls of ice cream for our family. You don’t have to stop doing the things you love. Just figure out how you can make these things work in your budget.
      

4. Another area we have saved since our son was young is by giving our kids cash when we leave to go on vacation. You may say… giving your kids money saves you money? Yes! And it teaches them a valuable lesson. Have you been to an amusement park, especially those that you go to multiple days in a row, and realized the mental stress of figuring out what to say yes to and what to say no to with all the things your kids ask for? I feel like that is mental and financial pressure I want to reduce. You determined the amount and give it to them when you head out. They will be elated! They get to make a decision to spend it all at once or spread it out. When my kids are younger I help with making the decisions by talking it through with them. And you are likely to have a spender and a saver. We have one kid who buys something as soon as they see the first store. The other kid knows what they want, it usually costs almost all of their money, and they hold out for that one thing.
   
   We buy treats throughout the trip, but if they want something extra we weren’t planning to buy, they are welcome to spend their money on it. Our family loves this!
   

5. Never pay late fees! Late fees are totally unnecessary. Unless you don’t have the money to pay them, there is never a reason to pay a late fee. Here are a few options.

   1. Set up a reminder on your calendar. Get notifications for when your bills are due.

   2. Set up autopay. This is one I especially love!

   3. Pay your bills on a specified day of the week. Look at the days you get paid and when the bills line up with that. Be sure you pay your bills on those days and never pay a late fee again!
      

6. One of the last tips I want to share with you is buying your kids clothes via resale. I have found a few brands my daughter enjoys wearing and that stay nice for a long time. I buy these at a resale price and can usually sell them for about what I paid for them. This really helps me with my clothing budget for her. My favorite app right now is Poshmark. HERE is a link if you want to try selling on that app.

There are seasons in life. We have experienced a range of financial situations in our life. But no matter where you are financially, we can always save money in one place to spend it where our priority is. That may range from retirement to vacations. It’s your money! You get to decide where you spend it.

I hope these tips will help you to not feel as much pressure during this period of time that seems to be affecting everyone in some way. I’d love to hear from you! What is your favorite tip to save money?