A friend of mine and I recently challenged each other to see who could save more money. There are many factors which interfere (our salaries, family situation, geographic location, etc.) but it’s been a fun opportunity to really focus in on what is spent, when, why, and how.
What are ways that you consciously, purposefully, save money?
I started baking my own bread
Wash my car at home (Dr Bronners on a sponge, in the rain, voila!)
Farm share will take care of produce from June-November
Cleaning supplies are down to baking soda, vinegar, and tea tree oil
Do you have pets? If so, read the labels on their food. If you are feeding Purina, you will find that if you upgrade the food to something that has more of the stuff that your pet needs. I know that sounds counter intuitive, but my cats eat less of the good stuff and they poop less so I use less litter.
Shut your electronics off when you aren’t using them. The ever ready to turn on at once mode eats up power.
While I think that home baked bread is an indulgance due to the time, you have a good start. Stop buying processed food. I used to buy microwave food to eat at lunch. They cost a3 or 4 bucks each. Now I use my crockpot to make a weeks worth of lunches for about 10 bucks. The same goes for salads. Don’t buy the salad in a bag, get some lettuce and cut it up yourself.
Do you own a car? If so, be sure to change the oil on a regular basis. That keeps them alive. Check your tire pressure everytime you fill the tank. Proper air pressure in the tires saves gas and wear.
Don’t buy books, get them from the Library. And return them on time.
You can water down dish soap 10 parts water 1 part dish soap and put it in one of those foam pump bottles. Buy 1 bottle of dish soap at the dollar store and it will last over a year using this method.
I went from using a bottle of dish soap every month (name brand, too, $3.00 at least) to the above method.
Saves me $35 per year. Maybe a little less because I have to buy a replacement pump bottle every so often when it gets worn out. But still works great, saves money, less soap down the drain is better for the environment, too.
I tried using liquid laundry soap from the dollar store one time when I was out of dish soap to water down, and that worked nearly as well. The soap rinsed away a little more quickly, but it still worked, the dishes were plenty clean.
I also water down fabric softener with 50% water, and I use about 1/4 of the amount of laundry detergent recommended on the box, and my clothes come out fine. Saves a fair amount of money on detergent and fabric softener - probably somewhere around $5.00 a month, maybe more. Also, I buy the liquid laundry soap and fabric softener from the dollar store, when I used to use the name brands.
The true diehards will probably tell you to make your own laundry soap. I’ve seen the recipes and such online but it sounds like a lot of work, and I’m lazy, so yea. You could probably cut your laundry soap costs back to less than $10 per year if you were willing to do the dirty work.
You might want to tune in to a TV series called Extreme Cheapskates.
They had a guy on that asked for those fast food ketchup packets when he went out to eat and then brought them home and filled his ketchup bottle at home with them.
Fast food restaurant napkins for toilet paper.
He’d go up to strangers at restaurants as they were leaving and ask them if he could have the food they were leaving on their plates. He claimed that they were for his Dog Rescue Shelter, but I think he ate the stuff himself.
Dude had no shame. His poor wife would hide under the table at the restaurant.
It takes me about half an hour to make a 5 gallon batch. It might be quicker to make a powder version.
I live alone - the batch lasts me almost a year. The first batch cost me about $15 in supplies, if I remember right. The second batch was done with material on hand. I’m still using that batch.
I ride my bike to work sometimes - saves money on gas, plus it’s healthy.
The best advice I usually see for saving money is to figure out where you are spending it. Write up your current expenses..so much for cable, so much for utilities, etc. For food, you need to itemize a bit. Are there things you can buy in bulk? Generic brands?
-D/a
Every time you get a raise, have that amount directly deposited into a savings account instead of checking (every payroll dept I have had would allow multiple deposits).
Forces you think about taking money out of savings to spend.
Moved MPSIMS --> IMHO.
If you’re eating out or buying takeaway regularly, switch to cooking your own meals.
Buy large items and divide them (a whole chicken costs roughly the same as two skinless chicken breasts where I live, and a pack of three rump steaks costs about the same as a whole roasting joint of beef, quite suitable for slicing into maybe eight such steaks). Helps if you have a freezer.
Make use of leftovers - In fact, you can plan to purposely create leftovers to save time, effort and money on subsequent meals (as it happens, I just wrote up an article on this subject, as it’s close to my heart)
I moved to my new place in August '11 and bought 2 boxes of JR Watkins (?) laundry detergent…I am about 1/2 through the second box. But I love the idea of making my own products too!
Yes, I just had my bike tuned up and will start using it more now that it’s warm out.
We already did the budget game but it gets tricky as we are both health nuts too, so healthy and cheap don’t always go together!
You have to unplug them or put them on a power strip you can turn off to ensure it’s not using any standby power. You can buy power strips built to help you with this but they’re expensive - they’ll eat up your savings. Look for one next time you need a powerstrip anyway and until then bend over and turn off a regular strip to keep your tv/dvd/blue ray, etc from wasting electricity.
Turn the temperature on your hot water heater down.
Check for drafts in your house and re-weatherstrip any problem areas.
Buy a programmable thermostat and set it to not waste heating and cooling while you’re not home to enjoy. Set it to warm up or cool down 30 minutes before you get home.
Even when you are home, keep the house warmer in the summer and colder in the winter than might otherwise be ideal. Wear less or bundle up to adjust.
Keep a careful record of all expenses and analyze it every month to see if you can spot any spending you want to change.
Save your change (assuming you are still using old fashioned cash). I put it in one of those lucite banks with a counting device in the lid, or simply take a filled up coffee can to the bank, hand it over, and walk out with paper money.
Use up what food you’ve got in the house the day before you have to go grocery shopping (provided you are well stocked). Tuna salad, grilled cheese, or pancakes for dinner the day before payday won’t kill you, resist the urge to order a $15 pizza (and pick up a $9 six-pack to go with it).
I’m trying to think of a third thing…all I can come up with is kind of specialized, which is if you like to knit scarves and mittens, unravel an expensive wool sweater you come across at a thrift store and use that yarn instead of buying new. This will save money, so I’m told.
Grow your own food, if possible. Amazing how little it costs.
Also, trash picking. I just got a bunch of good stuff to sell on Craigslist, use as credit at the local used bookstore, etc.
Cloth napkins, hang clothing to dry, shop at thrift stores, swap clothing with friends, use the library, cancel cable TV, etc.
Find out which day of the week your local newspaper has its grocery store ads. Read them. Buy the sale stuff and plan your meals around the sales groceries. Most large chains’ ads are online now if you don’t want to buy the newspaper.
If the all grocery stores where you live aren’t too far apart (no more than 10 minutes’ drive between the two farthest apart) you can save money by comparing their regular prices and sales ads, and buying the stuff where it’s cheapest.
If you don’t buy store brands, try some. Many are just as good as the name brand stuff. I have never tried any that were terrible, but some weren’t good enough to buy twice. Most were fine.
Those are really good ideas! I think that with baking bread and my crop share I can get my grocery bill down to $30/week but I want to go lower! (I don’t cook meat)
You can save on electricity by hang-drying your clothes.
Um…beer is much cheaper by the keg… 
-D/a
Two ways that worked for me:
Never break a $5 note. Save them and bank them. It is the discipline associated with the action that works. If you want a scone for afternoon tea and only have a $5 note that you won’t break, you go without.
I switched from doing the grocery shopping on a weekly basis to a fortnightly basis. You only have the opportunity for impulse buying half as often, plus I was wasting less food.
I need to be going to sleep but I am scouring the sale flyer for next week.
The $5 rule is interesting…I could definitely switch to making groceries biweekly (especially when my crop share starts.)
I also buy my pets the quality food so I hear ya re the litter.
I am so going to win this game!
pay yourself first - have a ‘rainy day’ account that you simply do not withdraw from unless it pours. take a cut from your salary and deposit it to that account before you do anything else. what’s left is now your ‘actual’ salary. you can’t spend what you ‘do not have’. it doesn’t matter what your situation is, in terms of saving money (as opposed to making), your lifestyle is like shelving space. it doesn’t matter if you increase or decrease it, you’ll find that it will always be filled with stuff.
if you’re unhappy with a lower lifestyle then you need to find more income. drawing from that account simply means you’re living a lifestyle you cannot afford. oh you said easy. well, it is. there is only one conscious step to take.
Cut your own hair.
Reuse egg cartons as shoes.
Stop using toilet paper. Use newspaper or only use public and friends’ toilets.
Don’t eat on Monday. The idea behind this is that you can cut a seventh off your food bill. Here’s a book explaining how to achieve this tricky task.
Only use free wifi in coffee shops, but don’t buy a coffee just sit outside on the pavement.
Make your own clothes or steal them from public laundromats.
When on holiday sleep only in airports. Here’s a website to show you which destination will be your next.
Wash your clothes in the shower as you shower.
Use the fluff that comes out of the tumble dryer to stuff pillows.
Collect your dogs hair and use it to make jumpers. Buy Knitting with Dog Hair now.
Use a magnet to slow down your electricity meter.
Get free stuff. Go to the lost property department of a large bus station or somewhere similar and tell them you lost a black umbrella, single glove or comb.
Lie to everyone at Christmas and say you’re going away. This way you won’t have to go to any parties or buy any presents.
