We’ve all heard the expression that charity begins at home. Well, so does saving. Since almost all of us wish we had a little more of the green stuff, how can we squeeze more money out of our budget? The answer lies at home. There are many expenses we can negotiate, cut, or adjust, and it only requires a little effort and the right mindset.
With the holiday season lurking around the corner, it’s best to save as much as we can to avoid going into debt for giving gifts.
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Simple Ways to Save at Home
- Reduce dining out and getting carryout. For my family, this easily becomes a budget buster if we don’t watch it.
- It’s so easy to grab something on the way home or to treat ourselves to a night off from cooking, but it costs SO MUCH MORE (exponentially more) than making food at home.
- Cooking at home also allows us to eat healthier because we control what goes in to our meals as well as the portion size . Spending a little time planning meals before grocery shopping and coordinating recipes to use leftovers in a new way will save time and money. Those giant steaks in the picture above fed our whole family for two dinners and a gourmet steak and eggs breakfast.
- If you are looking for some meal planning tips, quick and easy recipes, and ways to stretch your grocery budget, visit Creative Contessa Design’s Recipe page.
- To help with meal planning, try using a menu board in the kitchen. Check out our DIY Chalkboard Tutorial and Dry Erase Tutorial! Having the weekly menu visible also reduces the number of times your family asks, “What’s for dinner?”
- Use coupons. Coupons are a great way to save money, as long as you
avoid the pitfall of using a coupon on things that you don’t need just because it’s a good deal. That is wasting money!- Digital coupons that you download to your shopping rewards card make saving money at the store easier. Having the Kroger app and downloading coupons to my Kroger Plus has saved me close to $1,000!
- Subscribe to email lists for stores you frequent. I love getting an email with a coupon for an extra 10 to 50% off of my purchase. The savings can add up quickly!
- I learned a great lesson from a coworker at my very first high school job as a cashier. She was an avid coupon user, and she calculated what she saved each month with coupons. She put the amount saved into her kids’ college funds. This could be done with your retirement account, Christmas savings, vacation fund, etc.
- Nora’s CouponContessa.com site has a lot of fantastic money-saving tips. Check her out!
- We have also partnered with Coupon Surfer, a service that allows you to Print Free Grocery Coupons For Top Brands You Know and Love with CouponSurfer. Start Saving Today!
- Look for coupons to restaurants so that you can save a little money when you dine out. Usually around the holidays, restaurants offer bonus gift cards with the purchase of a gift card (like spend $50 get $10 free). If it’s a restaurant I know we will visit, I take advantage of these offers for free dining dollars.
- Plant a garden. Get the whole family involved in growing some of your own food.
- You don’t need 40 acres to do it! If you have a small space, use pots on the patio. There are even vertical gardens for very limited space (Check these out on Pinterest.). We have a garden in a corner of the backyard and do some container gardening on the back patio too.
- Nothing tastes better than a home-grown tomato! Surprisingly, your picky eaters may become more adventurous in trying something they’ve grown themselves. Our jalapenos are growing like crazy, and we have been able to have so much delicious salsa.
- Share your excess fruits and veggies with neighbors and friends. They will love it! I was blessed with delicious grapefruits from my friend Cynthia earlier this year, and subsequently found (and enjoyed) the best Spicy Grapefruit Jalapeno Margarita recipe I’ve ever tasted.
- If you think you’ll use the extras, many things freeze well. My grandmother used to shred zucchini and freeze it in recipe-sized portions for zucchini bread all year long.
- Negotiate services like cable, phone, utilities, pest control, satellite radio etc.
- My friend Laura is an expert negotiator and always reminds me to ask for a discount or upgrade for anything (you should see her in action at a car dealership). The worst thing they can do is say no. I always ask if there is an upgrade when checking into hotels now, and we are usually able to get a better room. My husband and I got asked and received a complimentary upgrade at a resort in Mexico to a beautiful room, and when we got to the room, the air conditioning wasn’t working. We got another upgrade to an even nicer room! The panoramic view from our corner room was incredible!
A Room With a View!
It never hurts to ask!- When my oldest was going off to college, we really had to crunch the numbers, and I realized how the cost for many services had inched up through the years. I started calling service providers and politely telling them that I needed to reduce my rates or cancel my service. Guess what?! Companies want to keep their customers and are more than willing to negotiate. I was able to bundle cable, internet, and home phone for less money per month than I was paying for a fewer cable channels and slower internet. I even got all new equipment.
- I shopped electric providers and was able to lock in a rate that was half of what I was paying! Spending a little time on the computer and phone saved me a lot of money!
- I contact SiriusXM every 6 months, just before my contract auto-renews at an unreasonable rate and tell them the service isn’t worth what they want to charge each month. I ask what the lowest monthly price they can offer is. After a little song and dance, I get it down to about $5/month for 6 months. Then I set a reminder on my electronic calendar to contact them before it renews. It’s annoying, but spending 10 minutes on the phone twice a year saves me about $12-$15/month. (See how Shared Online Calendars can bring Serenity Now!)
- Shop around for home, auto, and life insurance. I have been guilty of staying with the same company because of convenience (and lack of attention to the rates), but my home insurance rates have skyrocketed. I spoke to my agent and was able to adjust some things to lower my rate.
- I will definitely compare prices and services when it is time to renew. Please make sure to do your homework. The cheapest premiums don’t usually translate to the best coverage.
- Purchasing cheaper term life insurance is usually recommended over more expensive whole life policies. Nerdwallet.com has a great article on the difference here.
- Using an insurance broker or independent agent is recommended to compare multiple companies. This can be especially helpful when shopping for car and home insurance. Moneytips.com shares the pros and cons of using an agent here.
- Eliminate or reduce excess spending.
- If you smoke, quit. It will save your health and your money. My mom is saving over $100 a month from quitting, and she feels 20 years younger.
- If you like wine, the cost of bottles can really add up. Try cutting back, finding cheaper wine, and stock up when you can get a multi-bottle discount. Kroger’s buy 12 bottles of wine get 20% off sale came right before Hurricane Harvey hit Houston. While I was already prepared for the hurricane, I wasn’t going to miss this semi-annual sale. While everyone was frantically buying bread, milk, and water, I had a cart full of wine and toilet paper. I definitely got some strange looks, but I saved a lot of money on things we were going to use!
- Do you have a latte addiction? Make your coffee at home and save. I have the Ninja Coffee Bar and can froth milk and create Starbucks barista-worthy drinks for a fraction of the cost. I can even brew the coffee into my cup or travel mug and avoid having to clean the carafe!
- How many streaming services do you really need? Can you only subscribe for a month or two to binge-watch whatever must-see series you can’t live without seeing? Xfinity now offers bundles in our area that include Netflix. Spotify has a family plan that is cheaper than the two accounts my kids each had (and paid for themselves). If you have a college student, have him or her check for even bigger discounts on streaming services.
- Are you actually going to the gym you’ve been paying for each month? If not, cancel it. If so, tell them you’re thinking of leaving. Many times they can reduce your monthly fee.
- Challenge yourself to save. Make saving money fun!
- See if you can avoid restaurants for 2 weeks.
- Have a no-spend weekend. Find fun entertainment at home on weekends to keep money in your bank account.
- Play cards.
- Do a jigsaw puzzle.
- Have a movie marathon complete with candy (from Dollar Tree), popcorn, and pjs!
- Have a “Chopped” cooking challenge creating a meal with items you have on hand. One of you can pick the items, and the rest have to create something edible out of it. My daughter loves to do this with friends.
- Get crafty with the kids from supplies on hand or from Dollar Tree.
- You don’t have to spend a lot of money to have fun. The goal is spending quality time with the family, not spending money!
- Give yourself permission for the occasional splurge. It’s ok to treat ourselves occasionally; just not all the time. We may feel we deserve that new car or designer pair of shoes, but if we can’t afford it, skip it or make a savings plan of how to get it without going into debt.
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