Saving some money!

I read a great post over at Money Saving Mom today. Who is money saving mom you might ask? Only one of the best money saving resources ever!

Money Saving Mom is written by a mom named Crystal who is constant giving money saving tips and ideas. As a matter of fact Crystal and her husband are so committed to being debt free that they saved up 100% of a mortgage. That's right folks! They saved up for a house and God provided them a way to be mortgage free :)

I came across an article here about the things that this family does in order to stay debt free. After reading her article it made me stop and think about all the things that my family and I currently do in order to save money.

So in no particular order.....

1. Make our own soap

2. No Paper towels

3. Cloth diapering (this one will be started up again as soon as we find some new ones we like)

4. Keep our air set around 85 in the summer

5. Keep our heat set on 65 in the winter

6. Use the cash systems for our groceries

7. Use a weekly menu plan

8. Grocery shop using a list

9. Shop consignment sales

10. Replaced our dryer sheets with tennis balls

11. Wash clothes in cold water (except for the cloth diapers)

12. There are also some more things that I do to save money but they border on the crazy side so I'm not going to list them for now :)

I realize that we do alot of things to save money, but there are some more things we could be doing

1. No more candy bars and soft drink snacks

2. Eat out less

3. Eat less meat

4. Fans only instead of AC

5. No cable

6. Line dry clothes

All in all we do pretty well, but could always do better :)

Tackling the grocery store

I love grocery shopping. It's one of the most relaxing things I can do. Even when I am on an extremely tight budget wondering how the money is going to make it, I love grocery shopping.

Under one arm I have my grocery list, coupons, and reusable bags. Under the other arm I have my one year old, a diaper bag, and a pocket book. Really, the grocery cart looks kinda full before I make it into the store :) When I get like this I feel like a woman on a mission! It makes me feel good knowing that I am providing for my family while being a good steward of the resources God has given me (I feel like I've wrote that in a blog before).

One thing that tends to come up is getting everything in the buggy with child in tow. My little girl tends to want to hold things as they are being put in the buggy or after 15 minutes she is extremely tired and wants to be held. So what's a mom to do? Have a snack!

That's my money saving tip for today: Always have a snack for the little ones on hand before you go into the store.

By doing this I am able to spend a little more time in the grocery store. I can make sure I am getting the best bang for my buck and not having to grab the first thing I see on a speed race out the door.

This also helps from getting my little one a snack at the store spending and ending up spend more money convenient items. I can pack some cheerios that I got for $1.00 a box or I can pack some apple slices bought on clearance right before they went bad.

By doing this I am able to make sure and get the things that I need while still being able to keep my little one happy :)

For more money saving tips visit Lifeasmom.

Swagbucks

I signed up for swagbucks yesterday. I'm not really sure how they work, but apparently there all the rage amongst frugal moms. Hopefully I'll figure it out soon and be on my way to making some money :)

Oh my!!!

It sure has been a long week! You know.... one of those weeks where you can't wait for it to end. Trial after trial at work....those weeks :) Sorry about not posting in a week, hopefully that will change now!

This week I put into practice the things that I learned from the coupon class that Allison from Fabulously Frugal Moms and I went to. The class was wonderful. It was held at a church about 25 minutes from where we live and provided free childcare. All we had to do was to bring a snack. So with my $2 box of crackers I headed into what was one of the most productive 3 hours I have had.

Through the class we learned about how to add coupons to current sales and get the most bang for your bucks. We learned about Buy 1 Get 1 Free. We learned about Extra Care Bucks.

Putting into practice the ideas we learned I headed to a local grocery store before work one day this week and got $38.33 worth of groceries for $12.26!!! That's right folks I saved 66% on my groceries for the week!!!!

For $12.26 I got:

2 boxes of Ritz crackers

6 cans of tomato sauce

1 box of oatmeal

2 boxes of Honey Bunches of Oats

3 lbs. of potatoes

2 cans of Organic Spray Pam

1 package of cheese

I had not originally planned on getting cheese, but threw it in the buggy at the last minute. When I got to the register, I completely was having one of my savings highs! It was wonderful :)

After work I ran back to the same store to pick up some milk I didn't get that morning so I wouldn't have to put it in the refrigerator at work. I completely fell into the trap of buying things I don't need. Right after I had such a money saving morning I went back to the same store and spent $15.

For $15 I got:

I gallon of milk

1 pack of cheese sticks

1 soft drink

1 candy bar

Oh my!!!!!!

Two shopping trips to the same place in the same day with much different results!!!! This showed me the importance of making sure that I stick to my list and only my list the next time I go grocery shopping.

Super Excited

Tomorrow Allison from Fabulously Frugal Moms and I are going to a money saving class. The class is designed to teach you all about how to save money while grocery shopping. I can't wait to find out what new tricks and techniques I can learn to use to save some more money. This way we can continue to lower the amount of money we want to spend on groceries and put towards something else.

This leads me to my next big money saving technique. To give you a little background about myself I come from an extremely frugal (cheap) family. Seriously you would be amazed at just how tight my family is. While I have always been trying to save money in various ways this money saved would simply sit in the bank and then be spent on some trival, usually useless things. When we started Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University he really focused on budgeting and paying for everything in cash. Once we started this we have really been able to use this to assign a place for all the money saved.

Now I'm learning to lower my grocery budget and the money that we are saving on groceries will be put towards building up our savings account. We now how a goal to put our pennies toward and having a goal and seeing it happen is a great place to be.

Saving money on meat

When my husband and I first got married, we had hamburger helper every night. Seriously I mean EVERY night. When I went to the store I would buy 7 boxes of the stuff and some hamburger meat for the week.

During this time I would buy one package of bulk hamburger meat a week and buy the time the weekend rolled around we had eaten everything. While this was great for a person like me who can't cook, eating that much hamburger meat was not good for our health, pocketbooks, or the environment.

To help lower our carbon footprint and make our newly made grocery budget last a little bit longer, we are now eating considerable less hamburger meat. While this has been going wonderful, I still wanted to find a way to buy the meat that we do eat in bulk to save some money.

Here's what I do: Once a month now (instead of once a week) I buy a bulk size container of hamburger meat. When I come home from the grocery store I immediately brown all the meat. Once it is drained I separate the meat into sandwich size plastic baggies. Each plastic baggie holds about a pound of meat. These then go into the freezer and when I need hamburger meat I thaw one bag and am good to go.

Saving me both time and money :)

Saving money on baby clothes

So, I absolutely love a good deal! When I find one I get what I call a "Savings high"! You know, the feeling you get when you know you are stretching your money a little bit further and doing better to serve your family while being a good steward of the money that God gave you. That feeling :)

Well I get that feeling every time a new season rolls around. That means it's time for Consignment Sale Shopping! I was introduced to a local consignment sale a while back from a friend that I work with and it was love at first sight. All the name brand, barely used clothes at a fraction of the price. It couldn't get any better than that.

The local consignment sale that I shop at happens twice a year and I can typically get my daughter's entire winter/summer wardrobe for around $75. Considering that I typically make that much when I sale her clothes/toys there you could say I get her wardrobe for free. It doesn't get much better than that!

For more wonderful ideas visit We Are That Family for more Works for Me Wednesday.

P.S. I know it's Tuesday when I'm writing this, but I have to get up and go to work tomorrow. Sue me :)

Saving money at the grocery store

Today I went grocery shopping. It was a disaster. Plans changed at the last minute and I didn't have time to make my menu for the week and to go with that the list for the grocery store. I know that making my menu for the week saves me money. As a matter of fact this concept alone has saved me more money than any other technique I have tried.

When I went today I decided that I would make my menu as I went. What a horrible idea! I ended up just putting things into the buggy that I know we will eat. By the end of the trip while I was still under budget I don't think the food will go as far as it would if I had planned ahead.

The best way to save money at the grocery store:

Plan your menu for the week and only buy what you need :)