As promised here are my best daily money saving tips. I'm sure some of these you have heard before, but its things that we specifically do to save money. Also keep in mind, both Howie and I are natural savers, him even more so than me, that makes some of these things pretty easy for us.
1. Pack a lunch for work! This is really a matter of self-discipline, we eat sandwiches A LOT. We refuse to spend that kind of money eating out every day. That's not to say we don't ever spend money out on lunch, we just know it's a bad habit to create.
2. Don't pay extra just for convenience. An example for this would be diapers. I try to only buy diapers when I have a coupon and they are on sale. This does require planning and stocking up, obviously there have been times that I've forgotten and unfortunately had to pay full price, but it is worth the effort on certain items. I like using an app called "coupons" to find coupons for diapers. I'm not big on couponing for everything, but for diapers and personal care items I do try.
3. Buy off brand as much as possible. This is pretty self explanatory, however; there are exceptions, with some things buying cheap can be expensive. The vast majority of groceries we buy are off brand products. With items such as tools, some cleaning supplies, detergents, etc... We do buy slightly higher quality.
4. Make as few trips to the grocery store as possible. We generally go once a week and get whatever we need for the whole week. Sometimes I will make a second trip later in the week to get more fruit or veggies and I always spend more than I had planned. This involves extra planning to make sure you get everything you're going to need for the week. Meal planning is key with this one! I know some people only go once a month or once every two weeks, and are able to get everything then. We frankly don't have the space to store that much food. Once a week is what works for our family. Wasting food is where we really struggle, we really need to work on that!
5. Accept any and all hand me downs. Especially with kid's clothes! I don't even know how much money we have saved not having to buy clothes each season/size. Howie and I also wear our clothes out, we literally wait for holes to appear before buying new jeans lol. Thankfully for work I wear scrubs everyday, so I don't feel the need to buy a lot of clothes.
6. Utilize your local library. Sam has thankfully been given quite a few books, because I am all about just checking books and movies out from the library (FREE). One thing to be careful of is not losing/breaking movies. Sam broke a DVD awhile ago and cost us $25.
7. Find a good budgeting app. We previously used the Mint app and it was really helpful. It links to your bank account and shows how much money you spend in different categories. Unfortunately, our bank updated their app and it's not compatible with Mint anymore. I need to find another app that will work because its super helpful. If you're like me, sometimes at the end of the month you sit there thinking "where did all this money go?" and that's where an app becomes helpful.
8. Self-control. This is probably the hardest, but in order to keep a budget it is essential! I struggle with this more than Howie, which, is probably why he doesn't like going to the store with me😉. There have been many times I've put something like clothes or shoes for Sam in my cart and MOST of the time I turn back around and put them right back up, recognizing she really doesn't NEED it.
What are some of your money saving tips?
Full disclosure: We are by no means perfect in this area but are constantly striving for improvement. Our #1 financial goal is to be good stewards of what God has given us.
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