Posted in Simple and Frugal Living
Julia had a great idea for all of us to share 10 ideas about how we save money. If you want to participate just leave a comment on her blog so we can all go around and see each other's answers.
Here are my 10 in no particular order:
- Pay bills on time. Those late fees are killer. Likewise return movies, library books, etc.. on time to avoid those overdue fines as well.
- Grocery shop with cash. It will help keep you from throwing the little extras in the cart.
- Plan meals around what you have on hand. Look in your freezer, pantry, and cupboards and you might find that you have plenty on hand to make some wonderful meals.
- Keep an eye out for good sales and share ideas with your friends.
Before Christmas a friend told me about a Buy One, Get One free sale at
Toys R Us . I went ahead and bought 2 gifts then at less than half
price and had them on hand for gift-giving occasions.
- Watch the prices when you checkout. I used to work on a pricing team in retail and I know that errors happen where prices don't get changed in the system. One day I shopped at 5 stores and found 3 errors on my receipts. Every little bit adds up!
- Take good care of video games, DVD, etc... that you can resell to stores. We used to buy a lot of movies (or were given them as gifts) when we didn't have TV. It was nice to be able to trade them in at a store for credit towards new items and it helped remind the kids to take good care of them and the cases.
- Take advantage of rebates, price matching etc... Sometimes you might just be throwing away $$ that way.
- Cover windows and keep interior doors closed to help keep the cold out.
- Use vinegar as your main cleaning product. Not only is it inexpensive, but it cleans well and is safer for your family.
- Check your phone plans - home and cell. Sometimes new plans are available that might be a better deal for you. We were able to switch to a one-price long distance plan that saved us quite a bit of money vs. paying per minute since my husband is a sales rep and most of our friends and family are long distance.
Nancy Carter
HomesteadBlogger Senior
Editor
www.HomesteadBlogger.com
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