Saving money

[Yvonne Belisle]

Every household no matter how much they have can always use ideas to save money. I know I am not rich and often have to come up with ways to do things creatively. Lets have your money saving tips and ideas.

[Yvonne Belisle]

Metal clothes hangers

I just got this tip today and I think it is a good one. I know many times my husbands shirts will slide on the metal hangers. One woman had the idea of padding her hangers with the sticky backed felt. She cuts a thin strip off of the sticky felt and places it on each side of the hanger presto no sliding padded hanger! That is a great idea.

[Yvonne Belisle]

Consumer goods

We all have consumer goods that we like and use a lot. There is most likely an 800 number or an email address for them. Did you know if you call and tell them how much you like thier products they will often send you coupons? Sometimes it is even for a free product. Use those numbers it can add up to some great savings over the space of a year. We get coupons for free products a lot. My son just got a free pepsi product coupon because the store near us rejected his buy one get one free cap. It really does work.

[Faery-Wings]

When I was first home with my son and money was really tight, that was what I would do. If I had a question, comment, or complaint, it didn't seem to matter. I would always get coupons just for calling.

I live by clipping coupons. I can save typically $25 to $35 a week just with coupons. My best was $70. It takes time, usually about an hour to prepare for shoppping then and hour to an hour and a half while shopping to calculate all the best deals. But as you can see, worth it!

[MoonRaven]

We save money by making our own baked goods instead of buying them with our groceries. With a large bag of flour and active dry yeast in a jar, you save at least a small amount making bread yourself, and it tastes much better, too. It's well worth the hour or so you spend making it (our recipe makes two big loaves).
We make our own pizza with ingredients from bulk - it's cheaper than ordering out and I know exactly what goes on it.... MUCH better than paying $3 for one slice, and it tastes much better as well.

We also make and freeze our own jam (BF's uncle owns a big farm with a big berry patch) when fruit is in season, or we buy corn on the cob when it's 12 for $2 and cut it off the cob and freeze it.

[callalily]

The public library.

When I got laid off in May, renting at Blockbuster was the first to go. The kids and made weekly trips to the library, finding books, videos, CDs, computer games (to play there), and even crafts. We learned new origami using their books, and I made little knitted things for them using yarn from my stash.

Yes, we also went the homemade pizza route!

[Yvonne Belisle]

We stopped getting cable about 7 years ago. I was tired of spending between $30 and $70 on cable and maybe seeing 3 movies I really want to. I started spending my cable money at half.com and hollywood video and blockbuster to buy movies when they were on sale as previously viewed. I now have a collection of over 1000 movies and they not only benifit us they benifit our friends who borrow them. :) We don't rent because with 4 kids sometimes you miss something and want to watch it later or have to go to the hospital so it actually saves us money.

[Danustouch]

Buying the things that you use all the time, such as papertowels, and toilet paper in bulk quantities, like at a wholesale club, can really do wonders for your wallet. If you know that you use alot of tunafish, alot of canned tomato's, etc, buy them in bulk quantities, it does save you money in the long run.

If you are the gardening type, and you like to cook italian. Grow your own Tomatoe's, Basil, and Garlic in the summer, and cook large quantites of sauce, and then freeze it, so you have it for the winter. Much cheaper than buying ragu or prego.

For Window Cleaner's, and Dish washing liquid, try to buy them at a place which sells supply's to Corporations/restaurants, etc. A supply company. We buy our Dish Washing Liquid, and Window Cleaner at such a place, and a Five Gallon Container of Dish washing liquid is about three or four dollars cheaper, then if you simply bought bottles at the grocery store as needed, until you got the equivalent of Five gallons. We also buy our window cleaner that way, and again, it's probably about four dollars cheaper than an equal amount purchased in separate bottles at your grocery store would cost.

Buy Candles at the dollar store, and at night, burn candles in your kitchen and livingroom (while attended) instead of running the electric lights, unless you are planning to read, or sew.

GIFT WRAP: People who have children or large families will especially benefit from this idea. How many parties does your kid have to go to a year? How many birthdays, anniversaries, showers, etc, do you have to buy a gift for each year? Think of ALL that gift wrap, and all those boxes! My mother always saved the shirt boxes stores gave her at christmas time, jewelery boxes, tie boxes, shoe boxes, etc, so that she didn't have to look around for a box the next time she had to wrap a gift. That's a great money saving tip, if you have the room to store em. If not, there is still a money saving tip you can use. BROWN WRAPPING PAPER or PAPER BAGS. Much cheaper than the decorative stuff you buy in stores. And it leaves far more room for creativity. Buy yourself a roll of brown packing paper, or a bunch of brown paper bags. Then go to a craft store, and buy yourself some cheap stencils, some buttons, beads, rubber stamps and ink, markers, paints, or even glitter. You can save yourself a bundle making your own wrapping paper :) With the supply's you buy, you'll be able to use them again and again throught the year, and probably the next, saving yourself a fortune :)

[Yvonne Belisle]

Don't forget that after Christmas sales they have nonholiday specific wrap at a vast discount. I like to buy rolls of the holigraphic then :)

[Flar's Freyja]

Originally posted by Yvonne Thomas
Don't forget that after Christmas sales they have nonholiday specific wrap at a vast discount. I like to buy rolls of the holigraphic then :)

Last year I found some with stars and spirals and no Christmassy stuff. Once we were really broke and I used aluminum foil! I even made a bow out of it, and the friend that I gave the gift to was very impressed!

[Yvonne Belisle]

I would be too that bow must have been hard to do! :)

[Faery-Wings]

Get to know name brands vs store brands when grocery shopping. I find that much of Shop Rite's store brand is just as good as the names ones.

Walmart jeans are cheap and fit my son, but I just got a pair of Gap jeans for the *same price* and they will last twice as long,
hopefully Cait will be able to wear them too. You have to know your prices when you shop. Many people swear by price books. I usually keep it in my head. (Sometimes the info leaks out though. ;) )

Turn your thermostat down at night- we keep our house under 60* at night during the winter. At usually 62* during the day. But we bundle and use our wood stove a lot too.

Crock pot cooking! I refuse to buy meat (read:can't afford) that is more than $2 to $2.49 a pound. You can get cheaper cuts of meat, throw them in a crock pot, and by the end of the day, the meat is soft and seasoned. One of my favorites is Onion Beef. Get a cheap beef roast, put in crock pot, pour over one can of beer and a packet of onion soup mix. Cook all day, slice and serve over toasted hard rolls, with extra onions and cheese if you like.

Make your husband bring his lunch to work instead of letting him buy fast food!! And if anyone has a way to enforce that, please let me know.

[Danustouch]

LOL..can't give you advice on that one. I tried making my husband lunches from leftovers, or buying sandwhich meat, and making him sandwhiches to bring with him to work for lunch....LOL..he would eat them as a midnight snack, or as breakfast the next morning, then go out and get McDonalds or a Grinder for Lunch.

Can't tell ya the number of fights we had about that! lol.


Ok..instead of buying fresh herbs, for those of you who prefer it to dried (like myself). If your budget is tight, so buying a bunch of cilantro, oregano, and basil isn't practical one week, and you don't grow it yourself, what you can do, is try to bring out the flavor of the dried herbs first. If you have a microwave, take a little glass bowl, and put a couple of table spoons of olive oil in it. (Or even one tablespoon, depending on how much herbs you will be using) add your dried herbs, and put them in the microwave for a few seconds (probably under 30 seconds) to warm up. The olive oil will bringout the flavor of the dried herbs, then you can dump em in your sauce/dish.

Laundry: For those of you who don't have your own washer/dryer, and must go to the laundrymat to do your laundry, you know how incredibly expensive it is! Therefore, you might try to handwash the light things, such as tee shirts, underclothes, baby clothes, sheets, etc. And hang them up outdoors if the weather is nice. If the weather isn't nice, then at least you just have to throw them in the dryer, instead of spending the money on the coin op washers, too. That way, you decrease the amount of money you spend at the laundry mat by quite a bit. But..there is a drawback. Or..a few. Sore hands from ringing and scrubbing, and such :)

[Yvonne Belisle]

If you make them special desserts that are just for thier work and you know they love it can often encourage them to bring it more often.

Also the envelope budgeting method can help. You get a batch of envelopes and write on them electric, gas, pending money ect then when the envelope is empty you are out of money. If you pay your bills by check deposit that money and don't forget to put money in savings each month. If at all possible forget you have any in there and you will be happy to have it if an emergency comes up.

If you are out and see something you want to buy that isn't on your list don't buy it right away find out when the sale ends. Ask yourself what you have to give up to get it. If you know you want to replace something expensive divide it's cost into 12 then put that much aside each month.

[Flar's Freyja]

Originally posted by Yvonne Thomas
I would be too that bow must have been hard to do! :)

Actually, it wasn't and I am not the Martha Stewart type like you! The foil is sturdy enough and kind of works like wired ribbon. It was very easy to shape! And, as to wrapping the package, no scotch tape is necessary so there's another savings there :lol:

I always have said that poverty breeds creativity! There was a salad dressing that I made from scratch when we were on welfare and I was in school. When I graduated and could afford bottled stuff, I started buying that. A while back, my sons started asking for it. I've started making it again. Flar loves it and we're trying to figure out how to market it ;)

[Yvonne Belisle]

Get the recipe copyrighted then bring it to restraunts and see if they would like to use it for a fee that is one way another is to search the net.

[Flar's Freyja]

:) Thanks! I also brought a big bottle to Women's Circle once and everyone loved it. Great advice, I appreciate it.

[Flar's Freyja]

Originally posted by callalily
The public library.

When I got laid off in May, renting at Blockbuster was the first to go. The kids and made weekly trips to the library, finding books, videos, CDs, computer games (to play there), and even crafts. We learned new origami using their books, and I made little knitted things for them using yarn from my stash.

Yes, we also went the homemade pizza route!

Also, see if your library has a used book sale room. I have gotten fantastic books for as little as a quarter and the most recent was in brand new condition.

:lol: We tried the homemade pizza route. Frozen, canned, dry, dough and I couldn't ever get one to turn out right. The one I made from Bisquick ended up tasting like a big biscuit with cheese. However, I was pretty successful with little English Muffin pizzas!

[Danustouch]

Flea Markets, Tag Sales, and Thrift shops are also great places to find books for really cheap, and sometimes even used video's.

[MoonRaven]

Ha ha, you should try the pizza dough recipe I've got - better than pizzerias.. it's real important to make sure it's thin on the pan too :)

Anyway, another thing that just occurred to me that has helped us save a lot of money... I don't know how many other places do this, but on each of those price signs, our grocery store has put a little thing that tells you how much it would cost for 100 grams of the product. It's on everything except meat and produce. It's really useful for trying to figure out whether to get the big bottle or the little bottle of soy sauce, and whatnot. Given the opportunity, we buy the bigger containers, because they're cheaper and they'd last us just as long.
We also buy baking supplies at the bulk store, as well as our dried herbs (sometimes), dried beans for chili (convinced the BF to stop using canned beans) and soup, rice, oats, and occasionally pasta. Even their herbal supplements are cheaper there. I also learned that there's nothing convenient about convenience foods. The extra time it takes to make a real meal is worth what you save and especially worth the better nutritional value.

[Semele]

Originally posted by chryssi1
Turn your thermostat down at night- we keep our house under 60* at night during the winter. At usually 62* during the day.

This is a big one for us! We just got our new electric bill and it is $290!!!!!!!!!!!! Mol finally agreed that maybe we do need to bump the thermostat up a little. I have also been turning the computer off at night too instead of leaving it on all the time. This was our first really big summer bill and it was a wake up call.

[Flar's Freyja]

Your house is huge, Semele and that kind of bill is probably pretty typical for a house that size. We keep the thermostat at 80 in summer most of the time and will turn it down briefly if it gets too hot just long enough to cool off, then it goes back up. 80 is really pretty comfortable if you're not moving around too much. In winter it stays at 68.

I've also been told that you should not turn your air conditioner or heat down too low or off when you go out, because it will just use more energy to kick back on when you come home and end up not saving you a penny, or even costing a little more. It's recommended that you just set it and leave it alone as much as possible.

[Witchy Cowgirl]

This reply goes back to the gift wrapping thing.
The way I see it is, the only thing that's really easy to save is bows, so I do save them.
But when it come to the wrapping paper; no matter how pretty it is it usually gets thrown away, so I don't even but the brown paper stuff.....I use newspaper, usually the comic section. Dressed up with those pretty bows the treasure that's inside still has a bright colorful look on the outside.



And Freyja, good luck with dressing thing!

[Tammy Sullivan]

Originally posted by Yvonne Thomas
Consumer goods

We all have consumer goods that we like and use a lot. There is most likely an 800 number or an email address for them. Did you know if you call and tell them how much you like thier products they will often send you coupons? Sometimes it is even for a free product. Use those numbers it can add up to some great savings over the space of a year. We get coupons for free products a lot. My son just got a free pepsi product coupon because the store near us rejected his buy one get one free cap. It really does work.

I can vouch for this as well, I was able to save enough money to stay home with my daughter for the first 2 years by using coupons, consumer feedback, and rebates. By the time I doubled the coupon, the sale products were free or close to it so I tried to get several instead of one.
I had a six pack of coke explode from the heat in my car, called the local bottling company and they brought me out 2 cases because of the mess!
also there are trading boards online where you can trade the coupons you do not want for ones that you do. They always give you the hot tips on sale items free after doubling too.

[Tammy Sullivan]

Originally posted by Semele


This is a big one for us! We just got our new electric bill and it is $290!!!!!!!!!!!! Mol finally agreed that maybe we do need to bump the thermostat up a little. I have also been turning the computer off at night too instead of leaving it on all the time. This was our first really big summer bill and it was a wake up call.
Semele,
Your electric company will come out and do an energy audit if you request it. They can help you save quite a bit, sometimes something as simple as replacing a filter can lower your bill substantially. They will identify your house's "hot spots" and tell you where the electricity is being used the most. Like if your washing machine uses alot of wattage, etc.

[Scarlettvixen]

Make your husband bring his lunch to work instead of letting him buy fast food!! And if anyone has a way to enforce that, please let me know.

Lol i enforce it with my husband - but i dont know how much sucess you will have with this route with yours!
My husband has a spending problem - even he admits that he has it - if there is money in his wallet he will spend it lol

so our solution was that he has no money - train ticket was paid for and he had $10 for emergencies - if at the end of the week the $10 was intact it went to buying him a DVD or CD which he wanted - we evolved this over 4 months of fights about his spending. Money isnt so tight right at the moment but he still sticks to this

[Faery-Wings]

Scarlettvixen, that is a good method- I wonder if it would work with him... sadly he likes ATM machines, and many mornings I find a stub waiting for me to enter into the checkbook. *sigh*

Now that my son is going to be bringing lunches every day to school, I might as well make one for him each day too.