- Check your bank account daily. You can see how much you have and how much you have spent. It is a great way to check for fraud as well as make sure you don't overdraft your account. Overdraft fees can be mighty expensive for just buying that dollar pop if you didn't have that money in your account.
- Make Things homemade. Pinterest is full of copy cat recipes for snack crackers, and different things like that. Sean and I just attempted making our dried fruit ourselves. Its working so far. I also found a thin mint recipe that I am super excited to try! (I found a make your own thin mint recipe!!!) I have homemade egg muffins on here! and they are GOOD!
- Challenge yourself to not spend money for an entire week. You would be surprised at where you spend money when you don't need to. I read a blog that budgeted very little for a month and didn't spend any money other than that. None on gas, only like 100 on groceries (25 per week) None on eating out/ clothing. They called it their month of nothing... Ugh. That would be hard.
- Bring your own food to work. This is especially important if you work at a restaurant and don't t way to eat healthier.
- Turn off the lights. This will decrease your electric bill greatly.
- When grocery shopping, the things on the end caps are typically NOT on sale. They just look like they are. They are actually priced at the same as they always are, but they just need to up the sales on that product. Don't be tricked into buying them.
- Here are some great tips for saving money when buying groceries. It is something that I put together a while back. I like the fact that grocery shopping doesn't have to be so expensive.. Before I started looking at ways to save money, I was spending almost 100 dollars every time we went to the grocery store. Finally, I just couldn't do it anymore and I had to find another way to do my grocery shopping.
- Here are great meal ideas to help you organize your meal planning.
- Not everything was meant to be bought at a grocery store. Stores like Supermarket and Sunmart specialize in groceries. This means that items like laundry soap, cosmetics, and hardware (like light bulbs) can be much more expensive than the would be at most other stores.
- Try shopping at the dollar store (like dollar tree for some of the things you buy often.) Last time I was there, we looked into getting Pasta Sauce (Only a dollar), Kitchen Utensils (Only a Dollar), Kitchen Cleaners (Only a Dollar), Commonly Used Spices (Only a dollar, and those really add up quick) Here is a list of 100 things you can use to play with kids from the dollar store, but a lot of these also make a great point..
- Don't buy books at the book store (don't mock me Sean), Okay. I definitely don't follow this because I read A LOT, but once summer hits stock up on books from garage sales. Most of the time you can get 7-10 dollar books for a quarter to a dollar! WOO! Check out that savings.. The same can go with movies. Plus you can get some books that you probably wouldn't get otherwise. (if you just can't wait until summer hit up the thrift stores and second hand book shops)
- I have a basket where all of my bills go into as soon as I get them in the mail. This makes it easy to sit down on pay day and pay all of the ones from then until the next pay day. THAT is how I avoid late fees.
- If you don't need it, don't buy it. (I know that is easier said than done, but how often do we buy something that we simply don't need!)
- Make lists. I have an on going list of what I need from certain stores. (ie. Dollar Tree. If I think of something that I could use from there. I have the list that I will take with me next time instead of going to walmart and paying double next time.) I always have a list with me when I grocery shop. It makes it easier to stay focused on what I need to get and what I don't need.
- This website has a ton of great information and other tip!
Okay, well.. that's a pretty extensive list. I know there are a ton more out there and I am always interested in what everyone else is doing.
Are you doing something similar or did you find something that works as well? Let Me Know at Elylyons2013@gmail.com or comment below.
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