Heh, I should be nopapergirl for the purpose of this thread.
I do think it’s good to know what’s important to you individually. I don’t buy paper towels or laundry softener, for instance, but I’m willing to spend money on good cheese, good coffee, and fresh fruit. Allowing yourself to prioritize is really important on an emotional level, I think.
Don’t buy things for the sole purpose of throwing them away. Trash bags are pricey. Use grocery store bags instead.
A pack of cheap washcloths from Dollar General or some similar place make good cloth napkins. I have a friend who makes napkins out of whatever cloth items she was going to throw away. She cuts out napkin-sized pieces and sews up the edges with her sewing machine.
but in my part of the world we have WINCO, and it is a hell of a lot cheaper than the usual Von’s Ralph’s/whatever major chain you have nearby. So, where you shop can help a lot, it probably saves our family of 4 at least $300/month.
Eat from your cupboards. At least for me that was way I changed some buying habits. Other than veggies I used up all my cupboard stuff before shopping again. Took a couple of weeks & made for some odd meals but now I do a lot less wasting stuff.
Also, never ever ever go to the grocery store without a list taken from a planned weekly menu & stick to the list. And don’t shop hungry.
I also label stuff that my family snacks on that is not for snacks. Started this when the husband & kids ate 2 large boxes of cereal in 24 hours. Also they were going through lunch foods and making me make emergency grocery runs for school lunches. I put signs on the cereal & chips to let them know I’ll not be buying more til (date). They can buy their own if they run out. School lunch stuff is in the vegetable crisper with a note on the front reminding them to keep out.
Re-reading the above it sounds like I’m rigid. I guess I am but we seem to be a family that does better with lines not to cross instead of grey areas.
She’s on the East Coast, which doesn’t include Washington, Idaho, Nevada, Colorado or Oregon. Or for that mater Utah, which has WINCO stores while not part of their acronym.
There are a lot of good suggestions here, many of which I use.
One of my biggest saving areas is at the salvage grocery stores. You have to be very selective of what you buy there, but, for example, one of mine has been getting Jon Freida conditioners for about the past 1.5 years. Hair stuff is something that I won’t skimp on if I don’t want every day to be a bad hair day, so I pop in there every couple of months to buy 10 tubes for less than what three would cost retail. It’s even cheaper than the house brand at most discount stores. I also buy things like linament (doesn’t go bad), salad dressing, toiletries, chewing gum and other things, using my judgement as to where I draw the line (NO dented cans, broken boxes, whole grain items or oils that go rancid).
Big Lots is good for some of the same items. Dollar stores for gift wrapping supplies and a lot of other things that are disposable. I’ve also found that I can buy a box of ninety namebrand kitchen trashbags for about the same price of two boxes of twenty storebrand ones (living in a second floor walk-up, I’ve learned that some things, I just don’t go storebrand on 
).
Another thing I’ve done is to make one of my hobbies a paying one. I don’t make big bucks at it, but what I sell pays for materials for the things I keep and gives me enough leftover to donate material and talent to some volunteer work.
You might want to try homemade laundry soap, it’s very easy to whip up a batch that’s sensitive skin friendly. Simple borax, washing soda and a grated bar of soap, since you choose the soap you control the ingredient most likely to cause problems. Far cheaper than anything available retail, and works great.
Plus, you get to make slime! 
yikes, I think you’re confusing fabric softener with detergent. Vinegar is an excellent fabric softener - especially for those with sensitive skin and aversions to spending money - but it’s not a detergent.
I wanted to link to this Times article on oversudsing\soaping here. Excerpt: "Mr. Schmidt, however, argues that depending on how hard or soft your water is, one-eighth to one-half of what is usually recommended should be adequate. "
Also (for laundry machine owners hose who pay for their water) wanted to link to this cool little calculator where you input how much you pay for electricity, gas, water and detergent and it spits back how much each load costs. I input 100% of coldwater loads with Tide Coldwater, cost of 20 cents\load and 100% of warmwater loads with Target brand he detergent (CR best buy), at 10 cents a load.
I halved the cost of detergent per load (since the article recommends using half the recommended amount or less) and found there’s only a 2 cent difference between them in practice*. Tide Coldwater he actually wasn’t reviewed by CR so I’ll be using Wisk he or Tide Ultra he in the future (#2 and #3; #1 is Tide plus bleach alternative but is 5 cents more expensive).
That’s a lot of nerding out about laundry.
*ymwillv of course
All you need for cleaning is soap, vinegar, baking soda, washing soda and borax. What you don’t need is twenty bottles of specialized cleaners for every task.
For extra income: I forget where you’re living - but are there babysitting and/or nanny services near you? I’d bet you could pick up some part-time work that way, either evening/weekend babysitting, or even on-call nannying. Dunno if that’s of any interest, but the pay is not bad for entry-level stuff. We were paying 10-15 an hour for such services 10 years ago (DC Metro area).
Lots of good ideas there!! You can still eat all the healthy gluten-free etc. stuff but it will cut down on impulse purchases. Give yourself a little wiggle room if you wind up realizing you forgot something or the store has a loss-leader on something you know you will use, of course.
Other savings ideas: can you get rid of cable TV (if you have it)? A lot of shows are available online, either day-of or within a week or the air date.
Truly don’t buy anything you do not need to. Think twice before making any purchase other than food / rent / utilities. No theater movies or if you do, and you want munchies, bring them from home. Us girls can bring a big purse for such smugglage :).
Re using the credit card for cashback: While the benefits are nice, be VERY careful. Studies show that people using a credit card are likely to spend more even when they’re trying to be conservative. Even using a debit card leads to more overspending. Consider leaving all the cards at home and carrying cash for planned purchases. Or have one but don’t use it unless the alternative is dire.
Michelle Singletary has articles talking about a “Three Week Financial Fast”, where you do not spend ANYTHING other than on food, utilities, health-related needs, mandatory work-related expenses like commuting. No meals out even for work lunch (brown-bag it). Pay cash for groceries and anything else mandatory (obviously things like rent / utilities would be paid otherwise). Don’t even buy GIFTS during that period. It sounds like it can be a real eye-opener and I want to give this a try.
True. Not relevant to the OP since she’s said their car situation isn’t an issue, but in general. When my 10 year old minivan started giving us trouble I did the math. We spent 1,000 bucks on it in 2 months after it died when we were visiting Canada (the other US-based Dodge Caravan in the same parking lot, no joke, was not so lucky, their car stayed dead) and I still wasn’t convinced it was fixed. We sold it, had the cash for a down payment for a new car, and the payments were a LOT less than 500 a month.
That replacement is 5 years old and doing fine. Our other one is thirteen years old and we’ll probably want to replace it at some point soonish, but we don’t HAVE to. Repairs are averaging 150ish a month (as in, every few months we’ll spend a few hundred on it, it’s not in the shop every month). This is cheaper than a payment would be.
This blogger is all about eating well on a budget: http://lessisenough.wordpress.com/ I like her approach, she’s all about finding good bulk sources for nutritious food and then planning her meals around that. Deprived she is not!
I haven’t ordered from these guys yet, but plan to: http://www.azurestandard.com/ They don’t display prices until you make an account (which is free), but they’re very, very good. Their prices for bulk foods make grocery store prices look like highway robbery.
My husband and I give ourselves a monthly allowance for clothing and whatever else we want. (The great majority of what I want is clothing, so it made sense to combine those categories.) I find that when I’m broke, I want everything in sight. But if I save up a bit and have $100-$200 to spend, it changes to “yes, I could buy that if I wanted it, but I don’t really want it.” I don’t know if it’d work this way for other people, but it’s the best way I know of to rein in my own spending impulses.
That’s a great one! I still do this even though I am not pinching pennies. Anything that will fill your gullet for one more meal saves you that many dollars that day.
So many great suggestions here, I truly thank you all!
I spent the morning perusing the Rite Aid sale pages. Yes, they definitely have some deals. I’m cross-referencing the sale prices with Wegmans online to make sure they really are the best deal. Rite Aid already has buy one get one half off for my foundation which I just ran out of anyway.
I wonder, is bar soap generally cheaper than body wash? I would have to use something like a Dove Sensitive Skin Beauty Bar, not the cheapest available. Body wash seems the best price per oz. but I’m not sure how long it would last, comparatively.
It would be so great if I could make saving money into a hobby. I need to learn to think differently about purchases.
My husband does the grocery shopping, by the way. He’s the penny pincher in our household. He’s agreed to stop eating specialty cereals if I make him a batch of oatmeal at the beginning of each week.
I was into Paul Mitchell for awhile and it was no better than the Aussie Deep conditioner and Neutrogena Clean shampoo. It’s money down the drain, literally!
Styling products from John Freida, Tresseme and Fructis are just as good as Paul Mitchell, if not better in some cases. Drugstore makeup is just as good as well - with some exceptions of course, like Smashbox photofinish.
For the hubby, if he’s like most men I know, White Rain or Suave is good enough. If he’s got dandruff, generic coal tar shampoo (knockoff of Neutrogena T-gel) or generic head & shoulders is just as good.
One thing I wouldn’t skimp on is moisturizer\sunscreen combo. Cetaphil and Aveeno are worth the extra $.
SO much cheaper. I love and highly recommend Dove sensitive bar. Wait till it’s on sale if you can, but even full price it’s cheaper than any bodywash.
Bundle your phone, internet, and TV services. Call the provider and see if you can get a discount. Sometimes they will give you one just for being a longtime customer.
Depending on your income, you may be able to get a lower rate from the gas company and electric company too. Or sign up for a level pay plan.
So Cal Edison will give you a good amount of credit all year long if you get on the rotating outage plan; maybe other similar companies do the same…?
Consumer Reports did a study years ago. They included dishwashing detergent in with other shampoos. It ranked in the middle of the pack, IIRC. The only difference between shampoos (with the exception of things like medicated shampoos) is the smell. Find a cheap one you like the smell of, and there you go.
I think bar soap is cheaper, but to make it last even longer, open the packages on the soap (assuming you buy a multi-pack) and let it dry out and get harder - it will still lather, but it will last you even longer.