Today we are participating in Kelly's Korner - Show us Your Life - Saving Money.
My husband is so greatful that I LOVE to save money. Here are a few things that I do....
1. No credit cards. No exceptions. This saves us thousands of money each year by not paying interest.
2. Coupons! I love coupons. I have learned that you can save hundreds of dollars if you do them correctly. I've been using coupons for years, but it has just been over the past few months that I have really been using them to their full potential. You can get so many things for almost nothing by combining coupons and shopping smartly. I learned most of what I know from Southern Savers. She is amazing. She has lists of all of the good deals from the major stores, and the links to all of the coupons that you can print out to save even more money. You can even print your grocery lists from her site! CVS has become a wonderful place to save thanks to her help! You know it's a good deal when the lady checking you out says, "How did you do that? Can I have that paper???" haha!
3. Grocery Shopping. I've started shopping by what is on sale that week, not by what we want to eat that night for dinner. I try to only grocery shop once a week to keep from impluse buying. This saves us so much money. I have a Randalls, HEB and Kroger within a mile of each other, so I usually spend about 2 hours on a Saturday morning hitting each on, list and coupons in hand to get the best deals. Hubby thinks I'm crazy, but he loves the money that we save. I do get the side eye from time to time, like when I bought 10 cans of diced tomatos because they were $.10 - but he is learning that I know what I'm doing! And, I NEVER take him with me. He costs to much...tee hee!
4. TJ Maxx and Ross. I have found some great clothing deals at these stores. I have to be in the mood to hunt - and to wait in a long line...but when I am I usually get some great steals!
5. Budget. I balance our checkbook each morning. I am a Dave Ramsey follower, and all of our pennies are accounted for before our check comes in. We are budgeted out through the rest of the year. I know it sounds crazy, but planning like that allows us to prepare for expenses like weddings, vacations, homeowner dues, etc. and allows us to save for fun goals that we have too. I love knowing exactly where our money is going and how it is working for us.
Thank you so much for reading! If this is your first time here, welcome and thanks for stopping by!
Happy Friday!!!
10 comments:
Thanks for all the great tips! I took notes off of your post :) Happy Friday
Thanks for all the great tips! I'm just starting to use coupons, so I guess it will take me a while to learn how to combine them together to get even better deals!
great post!
I totally understand coming home from shopping with a lot of extra cans. I've been known to come home with 20 jars of pasta sauce before (they were half price!)
I love TJ Maxx and Dave Ramsey.
We use credit cards but always always always pay them off each month - therefore no interest accrues and I get cash back and hotel points. Using credit cards actually helps me track what I spend better than using cash -- but that's just me. I know a lot of people who have gotten into serious credit card debt -- awful.
Great tips! I am a big coupon user also.
I'm curious... how do you do your budgeting... on a spread sheet? I've been having a really hard time finding something that works well for us.
Anna - I tried all kinds of premade budgets and none of them really worked for us. I use a spreadsheet that is constantly a work in progress :)
Beth McC - thank you so much! Happy Friday to you too!
Beth - I am SO glad that I'm not the only one that stocks up :)
look at you go! I have Dave Ramseys book but I don't think I'm ready for it yet. lol.
We have NO credit cards and a good savings.
I am good with our money and budget what we need for bills/savings but how do you do it for spending? Do you say okay we have X amount for eating out/gas/groceries/shopping and extras? That is really where the $ goes and I can't bring myslef to not shop...I guess if you budget it you just have to draw a line somewhere? My thing is this...if I decide I "need" something I buy it.
I will say that we go out on the weekends with friends much less now and I notice a huge difference. Bars are expensive!
Thanks for the cool blog recc, I bookmarked it.
I am obviosly not doing coupons the right way. I'll have to chek out that site you mentioned. Grocery shopping only once a week saves us a lot, too. We're scrounging around on day 6, but it's so much less wasteful (of food and money).
April, I know exactly what you mean! The more social we are, the more money we seem to spend :)
I do set aside a set amount of money each month for shopping, eating out, and "fun money" (stuff like a starbucks on the way to work, a bottle of wine here and there, etc.). But, if I find something that I have to have and haven't planned for it, one of those other fun categories suffers - which is fine, it's just all about balance for me. Like, if I buy a cute new outfit, no eating lunches out that week, or no more fun money for that period of time.
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