What's everyone doing to save money

I'm wondering what everyone's doing to save money. Tips on going grocery shopping, what are you cutting back on. I want to see if how else I would be able to save money. Times are tough......... I pay about $140 for cable, internet and phone through Comcast. Am I paying too much???

Thank you all in advance for any input.

I am paying around $140-150 for cable, internet and phone too. I really do not think you could go much cheaper. I have saved a ton of money on dry cleaning by using the dryell (sp?) sheets instead of taking the items to the cleaner. My husband takes lunch to work twice a week and it adds up over the course of a month. Instead of my afternoon iced lattes from Starbucks. I use the leftover coffee from the morning, add ice, milk and hazelnut syrup. It's a fabulous little treat! Additionally, I make my dinner list based on the ingredients/items I have at home and then buy additional items to complete a meal.

I hope that helps! Good luck!

I do angel food have for years. check angelfoodministries.com. other than that I am having a very hard time saving money. everything that can go wrong has gone wrong. I also use vinegar water to clean almost everything. I am interested in seeing what kind of answers you get.

Shoppin at Aldi's!! Be sure to bring a quarter and your own bags. Also, I buy a lot of store brand things and some of them taste much better than the name brand too. I also use vinegar and water to clean alot of things.

Yes, you are paying too much, but then again you have comcast. We pay around $100 for all three and my mom who has comcast pays what you do and she only has cable and phone!! I wish she would call and talk to them about it. Maybe you could call them and cancel and they may give you a great deal to keep you as a customer, it worked for my brother.

Oo.. I love bargain hunting and when I quit working to stay home, I joked that my new job was learning how to make a dollar spend like a dollar fifty.

We cancelled our TV service (Dish Network). We have Netflix, and stream it through our Ps3. We also are in the process of getting an amplified TV antenna to get the HD local channels. This alone saves us about $75 a month.

We changed cell phone plans from Verizon to Sprint for a considerable savings.

I watch the grocery circulars and make my meal plan based on whats on sale. We use the food we buy. I know that sounds obvious - but the average American throws away 25% of the groceries they buy from spoiling. Thats a LOT of wasted money.

There is also a great money saving charity called Angelfood Ministries you can buy boxes of food through. They publish the menu at the beginning of the month, you pay by the cut off and then pick up your box or boxes at the nearby church on the pick-up day. There are no income requirements, no religious requirements, you don't have to be low income to save money for your family. They offer various "boxes" that have different themes. The main box is enough food to feed a family of four a week ($30), there are other side boxes - meat, veggies, etc. The best thing about this.. by helping yourself you're helping others. The more people that buy in - the better their buying power is. The better the prices they can offer all of the families they help. It's a fantastic program. https://www.angelfoodministries.com/menus/menu_2010-04_en.asp

I shop around like crazy for purchases. Anything from kids clothes to a new digital camera. I do my research and find what I want cheap. For instance - I bought clothes for all three kids at Kohls during a sale, with a coupon that stacked with the sale. There wasn't a single piece of clothes that I paid more then $4 for - brand new. (1, 3, and 5 year old)

For phone service you might consider Ooma - I've read a lot about it, you may want to look. It's like Vonage, but normal service is free and I believe "premium" is 12.95 a month. Normal still gives you a lot of features.
http://www.amazon.com/Ooma-Telo-Free-Phone-Service/dp/B002O3W4LE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1271305546&sr=8-1

Hope some of this helps!

I think you are paying the right amount for all 3...that's what I have and what I pay....but to cut back and save we cut the cable and internet off every summer. The kids complained the first year but now they don't even blink :)

I buy almost everything store brand or generic instead of name brand. Some things need to be name brand but if you try them out you would be surprised as to what is just as good but way cheaper! We also started eating less complicated meals...no more home made Chinese food and all its million ingredients. We never go out to eat anymore and we do not buy any splurge items anymore...like DVD's or whatnot. If it is not a necessary item we just do not buy it anymore! I shop for school clothes/shoes on the clearance racks etc.

We make a bi-monthly budget and we stick to it. DH and I do budget in a adult evening out every other month as a reward for sticking to the budget... and it gives us something to look forward to!

Last summer we thru our first ever garage sale to make some extra $ that was a big success.

1) I cut our cable down the the bare minimum. No DVR, no premium channels, no OnDemand, no nothing. We don't even have a cable box, just plain old cord to wall but it only costs $13 a month.

2) Similarly I cut back the home phone to local and emergency only. No caller ID, no call waiting. Nothing.

3) Cut back my cell phone plan from 900 minutes to 450 and cut my texts from Unlimited to 1500 (to avoid actually using the phone during the day I DO need to be able to send and receive texts) and got rid of my data plan.

4) I only go to the grocery store once a week. And Target once a week. That forces me to plan what we'll eat AND stops me from picking up something extra two or three times a week when I'm in there.

5) I plan our meals ahead of time as much as possible and make the whole week a progression of maybe two proteins. For example: Sunday night I might grill chicken breast, make homemade mac and cheese and veggies. Then Tuesday I'll use left over chicken for fajitas. Then Wednesday leftover Mac and Cheese and Sausage (always on hand). Thursday maybe something simply like brown rice with chicken and veggie stirfry, Friday breakfast for dinner (sausages, pancakes, fruit etc.) Saturday whatever looks good in the fridge (you can throw almost anything on english muffin pizzas). For lunches pb&j is cheap, or leftovers from dinner.

6) Making our clothes last. I used to replace clothes if they were stained or a seam ripped. Now I take the time to treat the stain and if it won't come out I just move it to the "weekend play clothes only" category. I put patches on the inside of all my son's pants and replace them for a few cents if they wear through which saves me from buying new clothes until they are actually outgrown.

7) Pay attention to special promotions for free stuff. There's a frozen yogurt place near us that has free icecream for kids on Friday evenings, so we do that as our special treat. I also have the Entertainment Book, so I plan our weekends around the coupons in there. (I don't have the patience to actually CLIP and organize coupons, but the book is already organized so I just flip through and pick something).

I hope some of these ideas are helpful. There are things I refuse to cut back on, but could save a ton if I did (pre-school, taekwondo etc) but it's about prioritizing and deciding what you can do without.

We are always tight with our money. I wouldn't say we do without, we just do things differently. We haven't had cable in over 8 years. And after the initial "shock" wore off we really haven't missed it. If there is something we want to see, there are several sites that carry current shows...so we hooked our laptop up to our tv instead.

We still have a land line, but my cell phone rarely gets used, so we have a pay as you go phone. Most of the time I do not use all of the minutes, so the phone costs us $25 for three months of service. I would go without a phone all together, but that isn't the safest or most convenient option.

Coupons can save grocery money, but I am not very good at couponing and when I did participate I fell into the trap of buying things just because they were a great deal. We don't eat a lot of processed foods, so I didn't need most of the sale items. I choose instead to carefully plan my menus, shop by what's on sale and stock up when I find a great deal.

We rarely go out to eat. We might go out twice a month, if that.

Instead of blockbuster, we rent from Netflix or the library. And since Netflix lets you watch online that's an added bonus for us.

We don't buy books, we go to the library. I have a few magazine subscriptions, but I do a trade for them. My MIL and I trade and then I mail them to my mom, who mails me a different subscription that she gets (Media mail is cheap).

All of our credit cards are paid off. We have one that we use like a debit card. We put ALL of our expenses on it and then we PAY it OFF each month. This helps us track our spending. And we get the added benefit of cash back bonuses. This also helps us if we have issues with a purchase or need to return something, we have the credit card as back up records.

I am a SAHM. I have to get my kids out of the house regularly. I search high and low for free and cheap entertainment. There is a lot of great stuff out there if you do the leg work to find it.

We barter where we can. Sometimes this turns into a fabulous deal for everyone.

We shop for larger ticket items on craigslist and buy used when we can. When we buy new, we always ask for discounts. We saved 10% on our sofa recently because we wrote a check instead of charging it, we would have never known about the deal if we hadn't asked.

When something breaks down, we usually contact the manufacturer before buying a replacement. Obviously we didn't call for our 11 yo refrigerator, but when our 3 yo tv died we called. Shockingly, companies are often willing to work with you. Like the tv, WE broke a part off during a move, we were calling to get a replacement part, we explained it was our fault...they replaced the entire tv.

Be willing to save up. Buy what you want, don't settle. You'll only spend more when you realize you weren't happy with the "quick fix" you purchased.

We do all these minor things throughout the year and our friends tease us sometimes, but we don't live like homeless people. We have a nice house. We go out and do fun activities and take great trips. We just save where we can, so the money can go for more "fun" things.

Only clip coupons for food you generally eat. Compared to many families we buy a modest amounts of junk food. We don't eat junk food frequently, but when we crave it, it's nice to have on hand. We decided if we are going to eat junk food we should only buy it when it's on sale. When on sale we buy quantities of 10 each of our favorite food items such as potato chips, crackers, ice cream, bread, bagels, cereal, lunch meat, bacon, hot dogs, shredded cheese etc... These items all freeze well. We are very fortunate to have a large deep freeze.

Most packaged foods like Mac & Cheese, Canned Goods, Cereal & Crackers, Spaghetti Sauce, Pasta's have a long shelf life, no need to freeze.

We try to buy more than 1 or 2 of the on sale non-food items such as soap, plastic bags, detergent etc....

It's okay if you can't afford to buy 10 items, or can't afford extras of all the items on sale. Congratulate yourself if you can buy 2 or 3. Gradually, you'll build a stocked pantry at a "low, low, cost."

To organize coupons I use a purse size calendar 6" long. I added yellow sticky notes to pages in the calendar. I actually staple the sticky notes onto the calendar page and make sure it sticks out, so I can write on the paper as follows: 1st note is Cleaners, Laundry, Food Storage bags, Garbage bags. 2nd note Frozen Food. 3rd Note Fresh Food. 4th note Canned & Packaged food. 5th Note Feminine products, Medications, Vitamins, Band-aids Tooth Care. 5th Note Candy, Snack Foods, 6th Note Clothing coupons & miscellaneous.

My big splurge used to be Hot Cocoa w/Dark Chocolate from high dollar coffee shops. The day I had my Cocoa/Coffee card stamped for my 10th purchase, I suddenly realized I'd spent $40.00 on Hot Cocoa! I now make my own Cocoa at home & use a travel mug to sip in the car.

Recipe for Dark Hot Cocoa: You'll need a 3 cup or larger storage container, combine 1/2 cup of Powdered Dark Baking Cocoa + 1/2 cup of Powdered Baking Cocoa + 1 cup of granulated sugar. Pour the cocoas & sugar into the storage container, put the lid on and shake it up. Many people prefer this recipe to have more sugar than I have listed.

Every morning I put a cup of milk in the microwave, add 3 Tablespoons of the Cocoa Concoction. To save more money and lower the fat & calories you could use instant milk.

I looked to see where my money was going and tried to cut down there. I make my own laundry detergent, it takes 5 minutes, it lasts a LONG time and it only cost me $15 to get the initial supplies. I haven't bought laundry detergent in 6 months!

I make my own household cleaners. Vinegar and water!

We get netflix, and you can watch a lot of TV shows via the internet now so why pay for cable? We can also watch instant movies through our Wii.

We still pay a LOT for our phones, but we need them for home-based business.

Planning meals and cutting down on expensive foods like chips and goodies. We make one dessert a week and we don't eat chips anymore. They are very expensive and bad for you anyway!

I had given up on coupon cutting when it started to take so much time, plus I never seemed to have the coupons with me on those spontaneous shopping trips (which most are with 2 kids -- are they in the mood or not??) -- and since I work from home, time is money. But then I started a new process where I keep a small expandable coupon file in my car that has the alphabet dividers. I keep all sorts of things in there as well as coupons -- discount cards, small gift cards, band-aids filed under B, xtra hairbands under h -- it's gotten quite extensive!. I'm saving a little here and there just going about my normal errands - mainly because I always have it organized in my car. Plus I can clip coupons while waiting in the car line at the kids schools and then file them.

Also, I found a part-time business I could work from home that brings me extra income. I sock that $$ away for special purchases or rainy days. Now that I see the income growing, I realize that I have created an investment for my future that will become quite substantial in just a few years. Find a great network marketing company that reflects your passion, and you can share it with others just as you're going throughout your every day routine.

Hope this helped!
Blessings,
Nicole
www.MyLifeCompass.com/NicoleSteiman

Start out with 2 small notebooks...one for you, one for your husband...write down every single penny that you spend....and then organize it in one notebook at home under broad categories: Rent/house payment, Utilities,Food,clothing,eating outgasoline,etc. At the end of the month add it all up and you will then have a clearer picture of where your money is going. Then you will be able to determine if you need to cut corners in a certain area.
I am a tireless coupon clipper but, as some of the other Mamas have said, don't fall into the trap of buying something just because it's on sae. (My husband used to tell me that I was going to "save him into the poor house...lol). Sometimes it is worth it to go a little overboard, for instance, sometimes they will put things on a "10 items for $10.00" sale and I will have a bunch of $1.00 coupons. I will use up all of my coupons and store those free items for later use. ( Or share them with my grown children)
Plant a garden, not only do you get great produce for your dining room table but you get to work outside, you get "free exercise" and if you have young children you can turn this into a great ongoing learning experience for them. Teach them the life cycle of plants, how water and nutrients help the plants grow, and teach them some of the greatest skills of all, being self reliant and working together with the family to benefit everyone!!!
There are so many organizations and co-ops out there now and California is one of the "greenest" states around!! I bet if you check into it you can find all sorts of exchange co-ops ( my daughter is in a Mama's group that once a quarter has a free "garage sale" type evening....everyone brings the things they no longer want from their home ( clothing, toys,furniture, anything you would find at a garage sale) and also a covered dish of food...they all eat dinnner together and have an enjoyable evening of visiting and they also go through all of the things there and take what they want to have at their house. A really great version of "one man's junk is another man's treasure" .
See if you can cut back on what you have on your cable...you will miss it at first but eventually you will forget that you don't have those 500 movie channels to choose from!!! You can go to hula.com or casttv.com to watch movies and tv programs for free!!!
I am glad you asked this question...it is interesting to see all of the responses!!
Let us know how you do on your new savings campaign!!

Grocery Shopping - only purchase what is on sale.

Clothing - Don't go to the stores unless you have a list and then stick with the list. I purchase everything off the clearance rack - very rarely do we buy anything "in season". If it's not on sale, it doesn't get purchased.

Lunches - bring your lunches, don't buy lunch. It's far cheaper to pack a lunch especially if you bring leftovers from last night's dinner.

Coffee - get a large thermos and bring it from home.

We carry no debt. We have a mortgage but no car payments. We make our cars last until they croak. That said, we always service them at the dealership which is a little more expensive, but we have developed a long term relationship and we know NOTHING about cars...

We don't have the latest and greatest of anything, but it's okay. Our children don't need a flat screen to watch TV. The big honking clunker of a TV we have works just fine.

Basically we live like paupers, but it's fine. This way we can send our kids to the summer camps they want to go to, the band trips they want to attend, and if something breaks, we have the cash to fix it or replace it depending on what it is...

HI Wendy,

Everyone has great suggestions and my family does most of them. We drive older cars and use the students at our local auto college to repair them. (The teacher is supervising so that keeps the service good.) Same for our haircuts, the local beauty college...

I don't make my own cleaning products but I buy them from an online company that sell them for less than Walmart and the homemade kind. They are non toxic and they keep us healthy. I know this is a little different than what some of the other moms said but staying healthy SAVES lots of money. My husband never misses work, we don't have doctor bills and my girls can babysit even sick children and stay well so they can make some extra money. (Most moms will pay more when their baby is sick.) We even eat primarily organically but I've come to realize that when you are getting proper nutrition, you crave less food and you purchase less. Our budget for food is no higher now than when we were eating all the processed stuff...We eat at home and my husband takes his lunch to work.

We have a season membership to a local theme park so after the initial cost our entertainment is free all year ....rides, zoo and even concerts. Some people think spending money for the membership is a large cost but when we factored out what we used to spend for fun, this was soooooo much cheaper. Once it's paid for, whether we have a good month or not financially, we still can enjoy ourselves and limit stress....which goes back to good health.

Financial health goes hand in hand with physical health and emotional health. We've tried to think outside the box and it's worked for us.

God bless!

Mimi

we don't have a local paper with any coupons, so I get on ebay, and there are people that sell grocery coupons in lots of 100. I pay about 2.50 or something and save over 50.00. I try to go for groceries once in two weeks. I have went to a few Taste of Home cooking schools to learn how to cook better (and make things from scratch, which saves a TON)
For movies, we rent from blockbuster via the mail box...18.95 a month. (we don't have a TV) . We pay for a local phone service (land line) which is 23.00 and then we have skype unlimited for only 2.95 a month. (skype is good for us because we don't do a lot of long distance) Cell phone is a cheap pay as you go phone.
We don't go in debt! If we don't have money for it, we can't have it.
I am also interested in how to save money, so I love the subject.
Good luck

your cable bill sounds about normal. I pay 60 for dsl and the home phone that doesnt call long distance and then another 60 for my cell that does call long distance, 30 for cable with only the basic channels.
Ive been buying a lot of store brand stuff that I never use to do before. Safeway pnut butter is good, I used to use Skippy.
That new Almond milk is good too as I use it as an inbetween snack, a glass of it is like a healthy meal in itself.
Keeping lots of fruit and nuts on hand keeps you full without making big meals that require MONEY to buy.
Mostly you have to say "do I want this or do I need this?" Take the needs over the wants and trust me, you will save a lot of money.

  • DH and I each get a $100 p/paycheck "personal money" to buy whatever we want/need no questions asked. This covers clothes, haircuts, meals out, dates, waxing, gizmos, shoes, birthday presents... you name it. Anything that is not a bill, for school, house, stomachs, or gas tank comes out of our personal funds.

  • Set amount per paycheck for

  • Food / Groceries/ Household goods

  • Bills

  • Savings

  • Gas

  • House

  • School Fund

  • Kiddo's allowance

  • Oh Shoot Fund (aka, the STUFF that always crops up every month... leaky this, repair that, emergency dental appointment, etc.)

Having the set amounts in cash, keeps us from overspending... although it was hard to get used to. We have a 300 every 2 weeks for groceries (which for us includes all household items, like lightbulbs, cleaning supplies, etc,) I can easily spend twice that, especially since we spend $35 of that every 2 weeks on just MILK (we go through about a half gallon a day). But I can't, so I don't. Even if it meant we ate ramen while I figured out how to make it stretch.

Then we paired down all of our bills:

  • Phone... no land line. WAY too expensive, 3 cells on an ancient grandfathered in plan, we pay about $65 a month for 2500 minutes, free texts, internet, free nationwide, etc for 3 phones). Use SKYPE or iChat for international calls.
  • Internet only (about $40)... no cable (we stream from the internet or use DVD's)
  • No subscriptions (no newspaper/ magazines/ gym stuff/ etc.) EXCEPT netflix
  • No coffee out, unless it out of our "personal" money.
  • If we're going to drink, we drink at home
  • DH cuts his own hair (I help)

"Windfall" money we split 5 ways. Half to DH's and my private funds... the remainder we split equally into House, School, & Savings.

We stopped going to Starbuck's! :)

We have a garden with every vegetable we eat. We also freeze many of them for the winter. I have started making my own pico de gallo and salsa as those are staples in our house. I cut my dryer sheets in half - a box of 100 becomes a box of 200. Switched to mostly generic brands - doesn't always work out (sometimes they have more sugar and artificial ingredients) and we have to switch back but for the most part, we are pleased. Only make 1-2 trips per week for errands. Watch for sales. Buy cereal in the big, family size bags. We don't use credit cards. Hanging clothes to dry instead of putting them in the dryer - they last longer and saves electricity. I only wear make-up on the days I work or going to a special event. These are just a few. Nothing with a huge savings except the garden, but it helps a little here and a little there.

What an awesome question. I am really working on my own spending and finances, and this question couldn't have come at a better time. I hope people keep responding. I really need to keep hearing people say they only buy what they NEED. I have the hardest time with that. I compulsively shop and am a champion at justifying buying things I want, but don't need.

Thanks for posting this.

If you want to save money, get rid of the cable and land line. You have a cell phone, right? Do you NEED the high speed internet? For work or school? If not go back to dial up. Sure, it's a pain, but you will save big money in the long run. We need DSL for my DH's work, so we have that. But we dropped all else and now pay $35 per month.
As far as groceries, I stick to a budget and use a lot of coupons. The trick is to use coupons for things that 1) you eat and 2) are already on sale. That's how you save money. I also make a menu for the week. I tend to keep meals very simple. Protein, veg, starch. That's it. Applesauce for dessert. I only buy soda by the case (generic) and wouldn't do that at all if it weren't for my DH. I don't buy coffee "out". I turn off the furnace. We haven't had it on for a month now. I only buy clothes that I can't find at Goodwill or from Freecycle. That part sucks. I like clothes.