Tips on How Families Save Money

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darcee:
I know a lot more people who are getting rid of their landline instead of the cell. A cheap plan with free long distance can often beat the landline.

-D
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You’re right about that! Thanks.
 
Rubber Chicken

Day 1: Roast a chicken with a lot of carrots, potatoes, and other veggies that roast well. I “stuff” the chicken with a couple of lemons, some garlic and herbs. The way to get juicy breast meat is to start the chicken off upside down in the oven. After a half hour, flip the chicken and roast rightside up.

Dinner is chicken, veggies and a salad. Refrigerate the leftover carcass.

Day 2: Take off every possible scrap of chicken off that carcass, and serve with one of the following things: black beans, curry sauce… you name it. Anything that just needs “some” chicken. Serve with rice. We keep a couple of jars of ready-made Indian sauces in the cupboard for Day 2.

Day 3: make soup with the carcass (add onions, celery, garlic, and have soup for dinner! You can add rice, noodles, vegetables…

Obviously, if you have a huge family, you’ll need two chickens.

This is a great way to get your money’s worth out of a chicken. My husband absolutely looooooves roast chicken, so we do this almost every week.

Naprous
 
The little things add up, but so do the big things.
  1. Shop around for your home and auto insurance EVERY TIME the premium comes due. You’d be surprised how much you can save.
  2. Be careful when you buy a car. Somebody (Consumer Reports, maybe?) publishes the per-mile cost of different vehicles. Some cheap cars cost a lot to maintain, some drink gas. After you buy them, maintain them.
  3. Buy used cars.
  4. Don’t get a cell phone unless you really need it.
  5. Take care of your health, and your family’s. If you lose weight and get some exercise, you’re going to get sick a lot less. You’ll miss less work, and you won’t have to go to the doctor as often.
  6. Floss. Seriously. Taking care of your teeth is cheaper than having them repaired or replaced.
  7. Don’t get a Golden Retriever. (I speak from personal experience.) They eat a TON and tend to get ill. Cheap tropical fish are the way to go. A complete catastrophe and restock costs less than $20.
  8. If you’re a picture nut, get a digital camera. Yeah, you spend more to start with, but you don’t buy film, and you don’t print pictures that later turn out to stink on ice.
  9. Don’t eat out.
  10. Cheap vacations are great. My family’s scattered all over the place, so our vacations are almost always a road trip to Uncle Dan’s, where everyone sleeps on the floor. We tent camp in state parks a lot, too. If you do a big trip, be smart. Last summer, we went to Arizona for a week with the kids. Instead of driving out to Flagstaff, we took Amtrak and rented a car when we got there. We got a great hotel rate through priceline.com (we got the car through them, too), bought the park pass, and played in the hotel pool.
  11. Travel light. Live light, too. How many pairs of shoes do you need? How many dress shirts? How many ties? Can you borrow power tools from your neighbors instead of buying your own?
 
check out the books at your library the tightwad gazette 1, 2, & 3
 
This is a fun thread. I read an article yesterday with several suggestions that are already here. One that isn’t here yet is to keep a “price book” with the prices of items that you buy routinely. Then you can stock up on them when they are really “on sale,” as opposed to just advertised. I find Consumer Reports worthwhile to help determine quality and value. The least expensive item may not meet your needs, and the most expensive is usually not the best. I don’t know if it is available in libraries, but if you subscribe on-line you get access to all the old articles as well as the current information.

I would like to emphasize the advice to protect your physical and dental health. There are many hidden costs to being sick, as some of you already know!

Finally, I recommend not skimping on giving (tithing). God is good, and He promises to meet our needs. Reducing our gifts during difficult financial times will not necessarily have the desired effect.

Ellen
 
Well as most of you probably know…I’m getting married soon enough (a year form now) and I’m in college. My fiance is still $6000 in debt from college. So i have been making it a point to try to save money wherever possible…this thread is awesome…keep up with the tips!! We recently cut our cable…it was a messy situation because the landlord deals with the cable, the last renter’s cheque bounced and he wanted us to pay for their bounced check!!! I told him no and to cut the cable if this i the sort of trouble it was going to cause us.

(BTW, the cheque bounced because he didn’t cash it when he was supposed to…we are acquantiances of the previous renter! He did that last month with out rent, didn’t cash the check for almost a month after he got it…frustrating, anyway)

We try not to eat out (my fiance no longer lives with me, but he’s here all the time!!), but we went on a big stint for the last week, I only cooked once…oops!!

I work at a department store that has AMAZING deals!!! Serious. i got a pair of pajama pants regular $25 on sale for clearence for $5.79 plus a 30% managers sale ($4.17) plus my 10% employee discount. I paid $3.75 for a pair of $25 pants…I was sooo happy!! i can also write myself rainchecks so when I see somethign on sale but don’t have the money, out comes my pad of rainchecks…it’s great for school stuff because usually the stuff I need is on sale different weeks.

For school, instead of binders, i buy lot’s on one subject notebooks and dou-tangs and label them when the are on sale…I usually save anywhere from $1-10!!!

When I got my text-book list (great tip for those with kids in college!) I wrote a chart and compared the college books store prices with several online bookstore prices and ebay…I saved a huge $200 on textbooks where I could…you just won’t get all your texts at the same time because of mail!!

I don’t buy new clothes, I just repair the old ones…unless i really have the money for it…I used to shop at name brand stores like guess etc…now i shop at department stores and thrift stores…I save so much…though my style has suffered. when once I was a fashionista goth girl…now I where sweats and t-shirts…oh well.

I reuse paper in my printer when I can (not for assignments though). after I am done with paper that is already printed on, i flip it over and print on the other side…saves about $5. I also used lined binder paper for printer paper when I don’t have to use the good white stuff…saves $10!!

At the grocery store I buy the store brand…it is so much cheaper and tastes just the same…their vegetable soup is SOOO much better than campbells!!

I make extra when i cook and eat the leftovers for lunch the next day…helps cause my fiance and I both hate sandwichs. For breakfast, I eat peanut butter on toast and an apple…good for you and costs very little!!

I only spend a lot on my kitty…she gets all the treats and good food. I see myself spoiling my kids that way too when they come along!!
 
  1. If you haven’t got around to re-finacing your home to a lower rate, do it fast!
  2. Saved a ton of money switching from Private School to Homeschooling! ( that should be the main motivation though but it was a big plus!)
 
Marys daughter said:
1) If you haven’t got around to re-finacing your home to a lower rate, do it fast!
  1. Saved a ton of money switching from Private School to Homeschooling! ( that should be the main motivation though but it was a big plus!)
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That should have read “that should NOT be the main motivation”

Hmm, I tried to edit for that and a spelling mistake but I got a “banned user Ip message” Are we no longer allowed to Edit anymore?
 
I keep a cell phone for security because I drive a lot and live alone – but I switched to a prepay plan. The cost per minute is exhorbitant (35 cents) but I only use it once a month to keep it activated (I call myself at home and when the answering maching kicks in, I hang up. Thirty-five cents a month is not bad for peace of mind!) If I have trouble on the road, I have the phone.

I also camp (in a tent, of course!) for recreation – late in the summer when the heat just really gets on my nerves, I load up my economy car and head up into the hills to a state or federal park for a couple nights’ sleep. Visit parks and historical places during the day… spend next to no money…

Now that I’m going back to full-time work and need a somewhat larger wardrobe than previously (ha!) I’ll be checking our area thrift shops and “Twice Is Nice” sorts of places. I’ll be buying just a couple of basic items to interchange for the fall and winter while I (ahem!) lose weight.

I try to get my hair cut at schools, but yesterday I found a place that did a great job for only a dollar more than our area schools charge, and has much more convenient hours for me.

I try NEVER to wear pantyhose! I wear longer skirts, slacks, etc., so I can use kneehighs instead.

And I only have a couple pair of “nice” shoes, but I do NOT skimp on shoes – since I suffer from back trouble, paying for good shoes saves me a TON in chiropractors’ bills!

Getting ready for work, I’ve found ALL my texts and supplemental books at used bookstores, locally and online. Lots of fun, too!

I had my satellite service disconnected earlier, and except for the old classic movies, I really don’t miss it (much).

I cannot say enough good about the Tightwad Gazette series. Great ideas! and if you have kids, there are all kinds of ideas about toys, costumes, crafts, etc. as well as home repairs and so on.

Good luck, all – oh, this IS a fun thread!
 
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