1. Set a budget: This is huge. Sitting down and figuring out how much money you have coming in each month and then how much is going out is really an eye opening experience. Doing this made me realize that we were spending money unnecessarily in a LOT of places. I created a chart with all of our monthly expenses and then made two columns one for the amount budgeted each month for a category (groceries, cell, cable, gas, rent, insurance, etc.) and then another blank column to write in how much we actually spend, the date we paid the bill, and a confirmation number if we paid it online. I handed this over to Frank to use because for some odd reason, unlike me, the man gets a kick out of paying the bills.
2. Figure out where you can make cuts to maximize savings: There are some expenses that are fixed that you just can't do much about (rent/mortgage, car payment, school loans etc.), but there are a lot of areas that you can cut back on such as phone, cable, and groceries. Evaluate what's important to you and what you can live without.
3. Consider ditching cable: We cancelled our cable and opted for an antenna instead. We bought this Mohu antenna for $37 and with it we are getting all the network channels clear as day in HD (CBS, NBC, ABC). We also kept our Netflix ($9/month) and Hulu plus ($8/month) which we are able to watch on our TV by streaming through our Playstation. So, we are saving $60/month on cable and aren't even missing it thanks to buying the antenna (which is just a one time cost) and keeping Netflix and Hulu plus which only cost us $17/month!
4. Ditch the traditional cell phone plan with contract: As our cell phone contract was nearing it's end, we started looking at our different options. I began researching pre-paid/no contract plans when I realized that a lot of them started at just $30 a line per month with no hidden fees (something that really drove our monthly bill up)! Before making the switch, I decided to check out our last monthly cell phone bill to see how much of our plan we were actually using. We had unlimited everything, but we were only using 40 (!!) minutes a month, around 300-400 texts, and hardly any data thanks to our old crappy phones. We were giving the cell phone company money for what we weren't even using! Nearly $160/month to be exact. We began researching different plans and realized that Virgin mobile was the plan that best suited our needs and seemed to offer the most bang for our buck. We are paying $35/month per line for unlimited texting, unlimited web/data, and 300 minutes. We also decided, what the heck since we're saving so much we might as well buy the insurance (for $5 month per line), so our new monthly cell phone bill is $80! That's a savings of of 50% or $80!
5. Meal plan: Your grocery bill is a huge, HUGE way you can save money each month. Before I started meal planning and grocery shopping for 2 weeks at a time we were making a lot of frequent trips to the store for a couple of items here and there. When you go to the grocery store more often, you spend more. I mean, who goes to the store for milk and actually leaves with just the milk? Nope you end up filling your basket with a couple more impulse buys. Also, when you meal plan you will spend less on eating out. If you have all the ingredients for a pre-planned meal, it's a lot harder to decide to just go out for dinner because you don't feel like figuring out what to make or "there's nothing to eat in the house". Another way, I've found to leave myself without excuses is to plan a lot of crock pot meals. How hard is it to throw a bunch of ingredients in a crock pot and forget about them until you're ready to eat? I'm not sure how much we were spending before, but I know it was a LOT. Now we are spending on average $150/every 2 weeks on groceries. I make a meal plan the day before pay day, go shopping on pay day, and then that's it until the next pay day (other than a run to the store to pick up milk and bread at least 1 more time). Need inspiration for making your meal plan? I always start with Pinterest.
6. Coupon: I'm VERY new to this one. My last grocery trip was the first time I used coupons and I saved $14. Not huge, but I thought it was a good start. The key with coupons, is to only use them if it's something you normally would buy, otherwise you really aren't saving yourself any money. You can also get hardcore and plan your meal plan around what you have coupons for, but I haven't gotten around to doing that just yet. A few sites I have used for coupons are: SmartSource, redplum, coupons. com, Coupon Network, and Cool Savings. Also, did you know that Target has TONS of printable coupons on their website? When buying something online, always do a google search to see if you can find a coupon code for the website you're making your purchase from. RetailMeNot is a good place to find those.
7. Shop your pantry: After I make out my meal plan, I make my grocery list.Then, before we leave to go to the store I go through my cabinets/freezer/fridge and cross anything off my list that we already have on hand (usually it's canned goods like veggies and beans, or pasta and meat). It sounds like common sense, but I used to always go grocery shopping without a plan, and then upon returning home and putting my groceries away realize I already had one or more of something I just bought.
8. Shop discount stores: When we go shopping we go to Aldi first and try to check as many things off our list from that store as possible before moving on to Walmart and Target where we do the remainder of our shopping. I haven't actually compared prices side by side, but I know there is a pretty big difference between their prices and the other mainstream stores.
Hope this can be of help to someone looking to save more too!
And because no post is complete with out a photo or two:
And because no post is complete with out a photo or two:
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| Morgan enjoying one of Grandma B's awesome breakfasts |
xoxo,
Ashley
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