Another Frugal Repeat… What is your best tip for saving money the easy way?
13 Easy Ways to Save Money
1. Stay home. The more you are out running around the more money you spend in purchases, gas, food, etc.
2. When you must go out combine errands. Gas is expensive, if you can combine your errands into a once a week trip you will save money and time.
3. Pay with cash. This has been endlessly debated, but statistics show that people spend 12-18% less when paying with the green stuff, and I don’t mean American Excess.
4. Eat at home. Unless you are a single person eating off the dollar menu at Wendy’s, it is hard to eat out for cheaper than what you can make
at home. Strapped for time, bulk cook on the weekends so you will have food during the week.
5. When you leave a room turn out the lights. I am amazed at how many people don’t do this. (including my kids!)
6. Cut your shower time in half.
7. Menu plan. Once again, this takes a few minutes at the beginning of the week and save tons of money by avoiding extra trips to the store
throughout the week or dining out because nothing is planned for dinner.
8. Don’t grocery shop when you are hungry.
9. Make a grocery list and stick to it. No impulse purchases.
10. Make one meatless meal a week. Hey, beans and rice are cheap.
11. Get a library card. The library is free entertainment, from books to movies, to cds, libraries are an underutilized resource in my opinion.
12. Drink more water. It is cheap and good for you.
13. Recycle. I am not talking about putting things in your recycle bin, although that is a good idea too. Before you throw something out think about how you might use that item for something else. Worn socks = dust rag, shoe box = mailing box, coffee can= storage for kids crayons. The possibilities on this one are endless. If you can reuse it then you are probably saving yourself time and money by not having to purchase something else.
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{ 36 comments… read them below or add one }
All so true. Just wish I could cut those showers in half!
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good advice!! i really need to start trying some of these…and having my kids do things like, turning off the lights when they are done in their bedrooms or bathroom!!
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Toni, you are really inspiring me! This is the first week in a while that I’ve planned out my meals and am only making ONE trip to the grocery store. Let’s hope it works!!
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Great tips! Eating out is one of my weaknesses — I love it way too much.
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Oh, all good tips! Thanks for stopping by! Happy TT!
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These are all great tips!!
I stopped by to THANK YOU for commenting on my blog today for WFMW.
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Great ideas – as soon as this baby is born and I stop craving everything under the sun I am going to start planning weekly menus. Thanks!
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Hey, I do all those too!
*hi-5 with happy housewife*
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Such good ideas…as always! I need to get back to my menu planning. I have been off for a couple of weeks with everything that has been going on. It makes a HUGE difference! I think I’ll do mine tomorrow!
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You are so right re #4! We used to eat out a lot, at what we thought were pretty cheap places. Then the credit card bill arrived and we were shocked!. That seems to prove #3 too!
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The library is a wonderful place. In addition to books, dvds, and cds, our library hosts movie nights, book clubs, and other fun events.
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YEah I am a bad person, I do none of those……. I eat out alot and buy the books and cds.
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great advice
#11 is so true-the library by our old house even carried current dvd’s and cd’s.
thanks!
happy tt
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Excellent advice. I do most of these already. Very well done. Have a great TT.
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Great tips! We’ve probably saved $150-200 a month by not eating out Sunday’s after church. I also am doing once-a-month cooking and that’s helped even more. Plus the extra time saved only having to put a salad and/or veggie together for supper. I enjoy frugal advise. Thanks.
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A fine list! I especially like #1 – Stay Home. Maybe it’s just me, but it seems that everyone is always rushing about so – and it usually involves purchasing some “thing.” It almost always requires gasoline.
Stay home.
Read a book.
From the library.
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I must be doing something right *winks* I do all these things already!
Yay me (————-)
Great list!
AwtemNymf
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Those are all such great ideas! Thanks for visiting my TT. Happy Sunday!
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great tips. happy T13, a few days late. i TT too!
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If you pay with cash, you definitely save at least 18 percent. I’d guess it’s more like 25 percent, because you HAVE to think about every single purchase.
One thing that saved us a lot of money was cancelling all our magazine subscriptions. The only mags we get now are those I get for free because I earn points by filling out online surveys or gift subscriptions. And definitely avert your eyes when walking by the magazine racks in stores! The library carries most of these subs, anyway…we saved a couple of hundred dollars per year by doing this.
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TheHappyHousewife Reply:
July 16th, 2009 at 10:27 pm
Great idea! I don’t buy magazines either, but I sometimes add them to my Christmas list. I should think about doing the online survey thing…
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I especially love #11. We take advantage of the library as much as possible!
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Suggestion to shorten those showers – just turn the water off when you’re soaping/shampooing – it’s the “navy” shower.
I might spend 10 minutes in the shower, but I’m only using 3-4 minutes of water to get wet and later rinse off. The rest of the time I’m using to scrub myself clean.
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Very well said. We checked the library off our list yesterday, and I highly recommend it!
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Great tips! Thanks!
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Grandma taught us to turn off the lights if i could get my own children to do that I will be much better off
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I have been trying to convince my hubby that we need to go to a cash system. He swears if we do, we will spend 90% less because he will avoid all stores.
Oh, and one great thing about recycling containers – they come with screw on lids. We keep colored pencils and pens in plastic mayo jars.
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Good tips. Here are a few of mine. Cancel cable and use Netflix instead. Clean with rags instead of papertowels.
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I bet ya that within the next 15 years there won’t be a public library anymore! It is so terrible all the wonderful things that are there that just go unrecognized and unappreciated! I can’t wait until we move into our new house because I will be able to do most all of these!
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6 and 12 may prove too difficult for me. I think I must switch into slo mo once I get in the shower! Haha! And water….I have good intentions, but yuck. The rest I can do! Good tips!
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Great tips! I do most of them, but can’t seem to stay home enough, with 2 teenagers and tween, I’m running all the time!
Thanks for sharing!
~Liz
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I really like your tips. I’m trying to “train” my other half to turn off the tv instead of falling asleep with it on. & I noticed that I do a lot of the same tips already!! Thank you for sharing.
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Great tips! The only thing for us is we don’t have a town library so we have to go the next town over. They charge $60 a year to be a member. Ugh! Still it has saved me money overall so we do it. Perhaps someday we will have a nice big free library!
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we started the cash system this year and instead of paying for our checks to send in payments that we can’t pay online, we live overseas I get cashier checks, for free from my bank!!!! We get up to 2 a day and best thing is the money is taken out immediately and I don’t have to wait for anything to clear its already done plus I don’t pay for checks!!!!! (next month I am going to try and not by anything except what we need!!!! not want or desire but need only and get a feel for how much money we really waste!!! Humm maybe I’ll have to blog about that?!?
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When gas was $4 a gallon, I didn’t go anywhere but the grocery store every two weeks, and church. Ugh. We even quit going to story hour at the library every week, and only went to the library if we were going to a store nearby.
I normally (and this is now) go to the store once a week, so I can go to Weight Watchers, the library, and do other errands all at the same time.
When I menu plan it saves me tons of time and money. I love that.
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Great tips. Although the meal planning & bulk cooking is a tough one for the pregnant wife & toddler of a deployed soldier. Thanks for the tips. I will be sure to use some of them now!
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I’m all about eating at home, since Eat at Home is the name of my blog
Paying with cash also saves us money. It’s easier to keep track of what you’ve spent when you see it leaving your wallet.
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