We absolutely LOVE saving money. But I mean who doesn't?! Ha! We do everything we can to save money while still being able to do the things we want aka to keep us sane!! Here are some ways we have found to save money that work for us!
- We meal plan by the pay period! I just write out a list of dinner options and what ingredients each needs and note which ones we will have left overs of. Then I go through the cabinets and see what we have vs. what we need to buy and make a grocery list. Most of the time here lately we have been eating soup, pb&j or left overs for lunch so then I'll list the things we need for lunches. and then I add a few snacks in there. But for the most part we don't eat a whole lot of snacks.
- We buy our drinks at the grocery store vs a gas station. We also fill our water bottles up when we are going somewhere. This one sounds silly, but it is something that has actually saved us quite a bit. We both love our sodas and I love some propel. Sodas are super bad for us, but oh well. So we have been buying our sodas/propel in a cans and/or bottles (whichever is cheaper or on sale) from the grocery store that will last us for the two week period. I also have been buying lemons and making homemade lemonade which has also help cut costs on sodas!
- SELL THINGS. Sell what you aren't using. It’s been sitting in a closet for forever? Sell it. It’s been sitting on the shelf or in the drawer without use? Sell it. Whether it's worth $5 or $50, it adds up. And let's be real, its fun and freeing selling things. We have been trying to purge what we don’t use or need. In March just by selling items we don’t need, we made around $450 and we still gave away nice clothes to the good will. When we kept a tally and added it all up at the end of the month and were completely shocked!!
- Shop Aldi. If you have one, shop at it!!! It is so cheap and there is nothing wrong with Aldi. People are skeptical of the meats and produce, but you don’t realize they most of the time come from the same manufactures. We get our meat and produce from there and here we are, still alive haha! Somethings are more expensive or not as good, so we get those elsewhere, but majority of our food comes from there - produce, meat, snacks, etc. There are some things we don't budge on like Ragu or Velveeta hamburger helper, toilet paper, etc. haha!! We shop everything we can at Aldi and then go to Food Lion for the other items.
-Ditch the luxury items! Cable, gym membership that you never use, unnecessary subscriptions, etc., ditch them! They add up quick! If you have a gym membership, more than likely that is on a credit card because *most* gyms won't take a bank card, cancel it and put that money towards something more useful. The fancy cable packages are not a necessity, drop it to basic cable or just wifi and get Hulu or Netflix.
- IBOTTA! We just started using it about a month ago and love it!! You can take a most 5 minutes before you go into the store and see what money back offers the store is offering and choose them. Then once you’ve paid you can scan the receipt or if you link your mvp card, etc. to it, it will automatically do it for you!! You can even earn money back on Amazon, Lowes, Aldi, Walmart and so many other stores!! Sign up HERE!
CHALLENGE:
Start purging! While doing so, don’t hold back. If you haven’t used it in awhile, sell/give it away. If you “find” it and think wow I forgot I had this, that is a sign to sell/give it away. Over the next month, document what you sell and how much it is. At the end of the month, tally it up. I bet you will be shocked too!!
Can you believe this is our LAST official blog for the series?! We have loved sharing our start to present with you guys and what we have found helpful! Next week we are sharing an exciting giveaway with you guys!!!
