Frugal Friday: Five Painless Ways We Saved $100 Last Year
I'm reading The Tightwad Gazette right now and one of the first things in the book is the author's list of 10 Painless Ways to Save $100 This Year. Piggy-backing off of some of this idea, I share my list of Five Painless Ways We Saved $100 Last Year:1) We shopped at CVS.
2) 50% of our clothing purchases were made from garage sales, second hand stores, or off of greatly-reduced clearance racks.
3) We had homemade pizza for our Friday night movie nights instead of ordering out.
4) My husband took his lunch to work at least four times per week.
5) We stayed home more.
There's my short list. I'd love to hear your list. Post it on your blog or leave a comment with it.
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Labels: Budgeting and Finances, Frugal Friday
posted by Crystal Paine at 10:13 PM
25 Comments:
Love the topic- here are my painless ways we saved money last year:
1) Buying all of my children's clothes used (swap meets and thrift stores)
2) Getting our books used on Amazon- they're just as good as new ones!
3) Using cloth diapers exclusively for our second baby
4) Having proper extended health insurance for when my husband became ill and was out of work for 6 months!
5) Drinking water at home and at restaurants
Thanks for hosting, Crystal!
Thanks for hosting Crystal!
Mine is up:
http://laurawilliamsmusings.blogspot.com/2008/01/frugal-friday-frugal-roundup.html
1. Making do with what we already have as much as possible.
2. Purchasing only when something is free or close to being free (using coupons for food, HBA items, entertainment, eating out). Most of our purchases are groceries, health items & home maintenance items.
3. Doing without in certain areas so I may continue to stay at home (prioritizing what's most important for my health).
4. Seeing the joys in living simply; that I am blessed with enough than most in other countries. Maintaining an attitude of gratitude saves lots of $$$!
5. Purchasing mainly ingredients for groceries, not prepackaged; cooking from scratch.
6. Shopping usually once a week only for everything (except for really good CVS deals!) Saves gas too.
7. Clean with homemade cleaners as much as possible. Saves tons & better for the environment.
8. Got rid of cable - no t.v. reception at all. Enjoying the peace & no pull towards materialistic stuff.
9. Use mail-order for prescriptions when possible.
10. Focusing on using cash only/keeping better records to be the best steward I can.
I have been reading the Tightwad Gazette for years and love it. Thanks Crystal.
1) Create a stockpile so you ONLY buy things when they are on sale.
2) Learn to say no. My children do not need everything they ask for (and neither do I).
3) Go to the library more instead of buying books.
4) Cook more, eat out less.
5) Started a side business selling the extra freebies I get coupon shopping.
I posted but forgot to add what about--what you can get out of an old flannel sheet. :)
Here's our painless ways of saving 100
1. Buying *all* clothing at thrift stores
2. Dh using a non-profit construction resale store for tools and materials for his work
3. Using the metro library system to get books and movies instead of buying or renting. We are lucky to have a large inter-library system!
4. Not getting cable. ;)
5. Making homemade gifts or gift baskets for Christmas and birthdays--a thoughtful, inexpensive gift is far more valuable than a $30 gift bought just for the sake of having something to give!
Here's our 5 Things:
1) Breastfed our baby!
2) Accepted all offers of used baby items (toys/clothes)
3) Started Menu Planning
4) Became a Stay at Home Mom
5) Began shopping at Yard Sales
PS And Cloth Diapering !!! I guess that makes 6 things... :)
I don't have anything to add this week, but wanted to tell you I think this is a great post, and I love your site and MSM, too. I am inspired by the way you live and how little you spend, and am going to try to figure out all this CVS stuff myself.
Letting you know, mine is up. :0) Thanks for hosting this, it is very useful.
Great topic! I'm excited to see the lists because we've just started on the path of frugality. Prior to this, we thought shopping at Costco was how people saved money... LOL!
Back in the summer, I decided I wanted to hang-dry my laundry to help save some money. And once we started thinking of ways to save money, it was all downhill from there.
Since November we've cut our grocery bill by half (using the Grocery Game and coupons), started shopping at CVS, bought a deep freezer (on sale) and have started stocking up when items are on sale.
Last month, we had a debt-free Christmas (our first in 10 years!), I made cookies and other treats for gifts, gave candles which I got on sale, and when wrapping paper was running low, I pulled fabric from my stash, used some left-over iron-on transfer paper and transferred a beautiful Christmas scene onto fabric, sewing up beautiful gift bags. I was trying to be frugal, but the bags were a hit!
Thanks again for the post! I'm looking forward to reading all the responses.
1. Move into a smaller house. With 884 sq. ft for 5 people, we accumulate less! Therefore, don't spend money. :)
2. Ask your doctor if you can switch one of your prescriptions to something that would work just as well but be cheaper. When stores came out with the $4 programs around here, I found one on there and changed my $60/month script to $4. Then I also almost always find and use a coupon to get a gift card when I buy a new script. Sometimes I spend $4 and get a $25 store gift card back!
3. The library is my friend! :) We never pay to rent a movie, and very very rarely buy a book.
4. Coke rewards it like crazy. We get friends and families codes and use them to get free movie tickets so we do get to go out once in awhile.
5. Sign up for your banks points rewards system. I got $100 in gift cards from Target this year just for using my bank cards for purchases I would normally buy anyways! I pay bills if I can with my debit card (as long as they don't charge an extra fee), it helps the points add up.
I've posted my tips. This is the first frugal friday I've participated in, but I've read the tips many times before. Thanks Crystal!
This is a great topic! I'm looking forward to perusing all the tips today. Thanks.
Oops, I posted 10 ways. Sorry. Note to self: don't post so late. However, I'll consider my extra 5 a bonus. ;) I could have listed lots more I am sure.
Fun thread, thanks.
Excellent tips - my first FF post, hopefully not my last!
Five ways I saved $100 last year:
1)Buying schoolbooks used rather than new or using what I have
2)Planning birthday gifts in advance
3)Shopping sale ads for all my food
4)Buying only clothes on clearance or at thrift stores
5)Keeping things organized so you do not lose things as much and have to rebuy the little things, like tape, elastic, scissors, glue, etc.
6)Okay, it is supposed to just be 5, but I bought all the school supplies when they were on sale rather than throughout the year
Most of the ways we save money through the year have been listed by other people, either here in the comments or in the links to the post. Something that we do do though, that I haven't noticed anyone else mentioning is that we only grocery shop once every two weeks. This not only means I have to plan much better than before, but I am also far more reluctant to grab those "little" extras that we don't need: the bill looks bad enough as it is without adding unnecessary items to it! To make this possible, we also buy a lot of things in bulk - and find that it is much cheaper that way.
We are also soon going to be able to have the coupon inserts and ads from the Sunday paper delivered for free (minus the paper) so that will help a lot I'm sure!
This is a wonderful idea!! I think I'll pop on over to my blog and add a post. Thanks for hosting this! :)
I don't have time to list five painless ways we save, but I know one way I saved $200 today!! Thanks to your MSM blog, I found out about Old Navy's big sale that started today. I was there right when the store opened. I can't believe the deals I scored. My kids are pretty much set for next fall/winter. We will only need a couple more things. And I got some stuff for me and hubby. The most spent on one item was $5.48 for a sweater for my husband! Everything else, was approx $2-3 (one shirt for DD was .88) a piece! I am so excited. I had to share. Thanks for the tip Crystal!! This was definately "painless" too!!
Crystal,
I've never done this before, participating in Frugal Friday, so I hope I did it right. Please let me know if I did something wrong it was unintentional.
Christina
I don't have a blog, so I can list some things here:
1) Unplugged my old stand up freezer--saved $60/month in electricity.
2) Never, ever make an extra trip in the car, always plan errands and make the trips in order.
3)(already said) Share restaurant meals and drink water
4)Only get videos/dvd's at the free library (some in our area charge, some don't!)
5) Buy most Christmas gifts and birthday gifts for our kids far in advance when there's a good sale or coupon.
Amy R.
I finally decided to jump in and play too Crystal! Thanks for all that you do!
I stumbled Upon Cheerful Fugality only last March but have been a true follower since. In 2007 (starting in March) we made the following changes:
1) We changed all our light to CLF (doing one room per month- so the cost was more spread out) We save about $10.month from this- for $120/yr saving
2) We stopped using paper towels (except for cat hairballs and a few other really messy things). I used to buy a 3-roll pack of a generic every week for $2.49. Now a 3-roll pack lasts 5-6 months. That's a savings of $125/year.
3)Switched to cloth napkins.
4) Starting CVS-ing. Saving $$$
5) Started using what I have on hand. I did this last year- but one of my goals for 2008 is to do this better. I could be much more creative and really use what we have to last longer or repurpose.
Love your blog!!
Jen Z.
In!
1) Started shopping from the supermarket circular and cooking mostly from scratch.
2) Moved to a cheaper apartment (and picked up another roommate).
3) Sold extra possessions on Craigslist after the move.
4) Joined the library and bought any absolutely-needed books from Amazon (with free Super-Shipper Savings, of course).
5) Prettified our old furniture (including the ugliest couch in human history) instead of buying new stuff after the move.
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