Sam’s Club sells big packages of the Dove Sensitive bars.
On the other hand, Dove’s moisturizing body washes make it possible for me to skip body lotion in the winter without going crazy, so maybe it’s worth the extra money.
It actually is possible to watch a movie or TV show without having munchies to eat while you do. The movie theater owners and snack food manufacturers don’t want you to know that, but it’s true.
A few gas-usage tips:
[ol]
[li]Combine trips. Try to schedule all of the driving in one area on the same day.[/li][li]Always use whichever vehicle has the best gas mileage, instead of him using his and you using yours. My wife’s car gets over double the gas mileage of my truck, so we use it when possible. I need the truck for hauling hay or pulling trailers, but most of the time her car works just fine.[/li][li]Proper air pressure in the tires.[/li][li]Adjust work schedules if possible. Four 10-hour days uses less gas than five 8-hour days, if the employer goes for it.[/li][li]Similarly, if you (or your husband) have the right kind of job, ask about working one day a week at home. That saves a trip, too.[/li][li]If cashflow allows it, buy less frequently. If you burn $10 in gas to go grocery shopping, you’ll save $20 a month by going every other week instead of every week.[/li][/ol]
Little things make a big difference, too. I was going through a six-pack or more of Diet Coke every day. At grocery store prices, call that $2.00 a day. That’s nothing, right? Multiply it out – we’re talking about $730 per year! I switched to iced tea. Buying the tea loose in bulk instead of tea bags means I can make a 3-quart pitcher for about a buck, and it lasts about a day and a half. That means I’m saving almost $500 per year.
Do you stop at a coffee shop every morning and buy a $3.00 cup of coffee? You can save a pile of money by making coffee at home. Even if you buy a fancy, expensive coffee maker, it’ll pay for itself in a few months.
If you smoke, give it up. That’ll save you thousands.
You’re so right about changing the way you think about purchases. Personally, when I started getting into couponing a few years back, it amazed me that I could get toiletries for free or next to nothing. Immediately, I considered money spent on shampoo, body wash, shaving cream, etc to be stupid money. As in, there’s a game and all I have to do is play it, or I can be stupid and pay full price for everything. I was laid off that summer and spent a lot of time chasing deals, more than we could possibly use. That Christmas, all my college-aged neicephews got huge bags of personal care items. Since they’re poor kids who’d rather buy beer or books, they were geeked.
Not that anyone else is dumb for buying what they want however they want to. But for me, I get the biggest thrill out of saving money on the petty everyday stuff. Like I just won a retail marathon or something. So it’s worth my time. Never running out of stuff when you have no time to hit a store is just a bonus.
Also, once you start seeing how sale cycles go, and you can take advantage of a lot of buy 1 get 1 free deals (with your coupons, naturally) then you get a stockpile going. I’m not talking 87 jars of mustard or anything nuts, I’m saying it’s nice knowing when I need deodorant or conditioner I just have to check the linen closet and there’s already some there that I got free/cheaply.
It’s automatic for me to quickly scan the sales papers and see if any of my preferred brands are on sale that week. Most of the time promotions run concurrently, which means there are manufacturer coupons in the paper for those products as well. Grabbing the good deals automatically means I never have to pay full price for that stuff, and that means I feel all righteous when we spend money going out to eat or to a movie or other frivolities.
I’ve mentioned this before but since I get so many lady products and toiletries for nearly free, I stock up. Then when I run out of some food I holler at my food-storing LDS neighbors (especially on Sundays when they can’t spend money) and ask to trade. I’ve had 100% success. Not to say you need neighbors who are Mormon but it helps to have neighbors w/ whom you can trade excess goods/services.
Also, invest in a personal shopping cart and walk over to get groceries - good for you for exercise, and costs zero for gas (plus, no emissions!). I use a cart like that all the time - I have three grocery stores that are about a half hour walk away from me.
On the gluten free thing.
Gluten free substitute products are expensive - and honestly, most of them aren’t that good. Skip the Udi’s bread at $6 for a tiny loaf and start eating in ways that just don’t involve baked goods. Like making lettuce wraps instead of sandwiches. Eating rice and potatoes as your starch instead of bread. Buying macroons or meranges instead of the (really good for a GF product) Pamela’s cookie line. You’ll find yourself eating less pizza and pasta, more Indian and Asian food (GF soy sauce though). And more “dinners that look like what June Cleaver made” - meat, potato, salad.
A true story:
My friend C called up DirectTv and asked for a discount. They gave her one.
Really.
Sometimes it is that simple.
I only purchase organic, environmentally friendly products and I refuse to shop at places like Wal-Mart. Despite these restrictions, I spend about $400 per month on groceries/household supplies/eating out foods, and I know we could go cheaper as I don’t currently use coupons and I’m still figuring out the prices differences at our local stores. I also need to cure my husband of his habit of purchasing sugary caffeine drinks.
We rarely eat meat. Most of our protein comes from lentils, beans, quinoa, eggs, and dairy. We occasionally eat chicken or turkey, and I’m in the process of finding someone who will give us venison. I use a crockpot and allrecipes.com to come up with great meals. I purchase my spices in bulk from ethnic markets as much as possible.
I try to use things before they go bad. Since there are only two of us, those bunches of herbs you can purchase in bulk don’t last. I use them for a few days, then chop them up, put them in icecube trays and freeze them. Or, I stick them in my dehydrator. I have a half a gallon of milk that expired yesterday that I’ll be turning into paneer today. Do everything you can not to throw out food.
Celery stocks, carrot peels, onion peels, etc, are thrown in a baggie in the freezer. When I have a bunch of chicken or turkey bones, I make stock. I refrigerate it until the fat separates, then freeze in icecube trays. I put the icecubes in marked baggies and when I need some stock in a dish, I throw the icecubes into my crockpot or pot.
Instead of expensive, unhealthy snacks, I make trail mix from items in the bulk bins at Whole Foods. I use my dehydrator for the dried fruits. Hummus is one of my favorite snacks and can be amazingly healthy if you use veggies instead of breads for dipping. For desert, we normally have homemade breads, which you can make with gluten-free flour. I usually add in some almond or quinoa flour for extra protein. Here’s a gluten free banana bread recipe that’s similar to one I’m currently eating. I use more bananas in mine and add chopped walnuts. Banana bread is a great way to use up old bananas. Whenever ours start going bad, I throw them in our freezer. If I don’t use them for banana bread, I add them to smoothies.
We also live in an apartment, but I’ve been growing my own herbs. I have a bit of a black thumb and I’ve killed 1/3 of what I’ve purchased, but I’m getting better and the payoff has been worth it. My dishes taste amazing. Once summer rolls around, I hope to try growing some tomatoes and lettuce.
Instead of using paper towels and disposable napkins, I use cloth. We’ve only used one roll of paper towels in the past 3 months, and my husband used most of it. I turn old clothes into cleaning rags. I have one basket of wash cloths and hand towels that are clean enough to be used washing and drying dishes. I have another of older rags that are used for cleaning counter top and most appliances, and another that I use on the toilet and floors.
I use natural substitutions for most cleaning products. White vinegar, bought in bulk, can be used on almost anything. I have some in a squirt bottle that I use on all my counter tops. I supplement my organic, environmentally friendly laundry detergent with white vinegar, borax, oxyclean, and washing soda.
I rarely visit stores and only to purchase something in particular. I keep track of everything we spend in a google doc spread sheet that I can access with my smartphone. I’m currently working on a list of price per unit of items at our local stores. My local freecycle is full of incredibly poor people and not much in the way of produce, but when I lived in California, I got great things off of it. You can put fruits, veggies, eggs, etc, in your wanted posts. In California, I helped a friend collect free persimmons which we turned into fruit strips with a dehydrator.
Where are you finding the cheap bulk beans and quinoa? Amazon?
In regards to the new versus used thing, actually, right now is a great time to purchase a new car. Used cars, especially those with good mpg, are stupidly expensive. I was shopping for a used car in June this year and people were selling above KBB value. The only recent I got my 2001 Honda Accord at a decent price was because I responded to his ad within a half hour of its appearance on craigslist. Another gentleman arrived while we were purchasing it and was quite annoyed that he had sold it to us first. For our second car, I ended up going with a brand new one because I got 0.9% financing. I got a Honda Fit, because it has amazing resale value, an excellent warranty, and I wanted something that I wouldn’t have to worry about while my husband is deployed.
The beans are actually not as good a deal as my local store. So far I’ve decided to order quinoa and steel cut oats in 25lb bags. I can’t believe I’m actually getting excited about saving money. I’m going to Rite Aid today to catch this week’s sales!
Just to clarify about my husband’s allergies - he’s not allergic to gluten. He is allergic to many foods that are generally excluded in the ‘‘gluten-free’’ products, including wheat and yeast.
[QUOTE=kimera]
For our second car, I ended up going with a brand new one because I got 0.9% financing. I got a Honda Fit, because it has amazing resale value, an excellent warranty, and I wanted something that I wouldn’t have to worry about while my husband is deployed.
[/QUOTE]
I have a 2009 Honda Fit! I love my car. Bought her new and paid in full. My husband drives a 2008 Honda Civic. I will probably be driving Hondas for the rest of my life.
If you haven’t ordered yet, get over to your local Costco right away, they sell quinoa at a really good price. It might be worth the membership cost on that alone.
The best method I have for saving money is using cash. That’s it. I get two paychecks a month. I have half my bills come out of the first one, and the other half out of the second one. Of the remaining money from each paycheck, I deposit half of that in savings. The rest I withdraw in cash. This is my money for food, gas, and entertainment. I buy whatever the hell I want, but I find myself not buying as much pointless crap as I would with a credit card. If there is a big, unexpected purchase I have to make, I pay out of my savings account and then pay back my savings as soon as I can.
I keep thinking of other little things. If you buy a gift card at WalMart, and then use it to buy your gas at the WM station, you’ll save 10 cents a gallon. If you have a high gas bill, it can make a difference.
I’m going over my budget right now–I just found out I’ll probably need surgery soon which means zero income for however long it takes to recover–and am implementing every strategy I can find. I’ll be changing my cable/computer/phone bundle to the most basic (would cancel it altogether but my son has online classes and I want the kids to have a phone when I’m at work), eating/menu-planning from the pantry, further refining my grocery “will buy/won’t buy” list. Also have to call the insurance companies. My goal is to lower every monthly bill (gas, water, ins, etc) by at least $10 per month. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but it should be easily doable, and that will add up to nearly $100/month right off the bat.
My brother’s windowsill-pot-grown tomatoes are out of this world. It’s not a large amount, of course, but growing peppermint, peppers of the kinds that can be used dry and some rosemary and thime provides you with spices on the sill. No, I haven’t done it, but that’s because I’m always moving. Mom does (not the peppers, that’s her friend Rita).
See if you can find maize flour at a good price; check whether it has a “gluten free” stamp, and if it doesn’t take down the manufacturer’s information and contact them to verify whether their facilities also process wheat or not. If they don’t, you have just found gluten-free flour, which you can use in any recipe calling for flour. That’s* any* recipe calling for flour: white sauces, cakes… your list of available recipes just got a lot bigger!
Body wash is cheaper “per oz” because you’re paying for water. The bar is cheaper “per oz of actual soap”.
It’s like a really virtuous hobby. I got a $200 phone for $50 a couple of years ago, and I’m still talking about it. 
Oh, I forgot to mention another big tip. When looking for things to cut, look for both single ticket items that cost a lot, and smaller items that you end up purchasing in a large amount. My husband loves yogurt, especially berry flavored yogurt, but it was costing us a lot of money to purchase organic or greek, berry flavored yogurt and I hated the amount of waste we’d generate. Instead, I buy large tubs of organic and greek yogurt and save them after we’ve eaten the yogurt. When I get a new tub of yogurt, I divide it in two and then add frozen fruit to the tubs (so far, frozen has been cheaper than fresh except for bananas). When I’m packing his breakfast/lunch, I put yogurt in a small size tupperware. Not only do we save money, but it tastes so much better.
The empty tubs also make great tupperware containers. If I store something strongly spiced or colored in them, I don’t have to worry if the color/smell leaches into the plastic - I just throw it out.
What is the main grocery store near you?
Also, do you like to go to performances and the theater a lot?
Yogurt is also INCREDIBLY easy to make yourself! Seriously, all you need is a bit of last time’s yogurt or a starter, some milk, and… that’s pretty much it. Take your milk, bring it to a boil, then let it cool back down to about 100 degrees or so. Stir in your yogurt, and put your milk somewhere warm and undisturbed (I just put it in my oven and leave the oven light on, that keeps it warm enough.) In the morning, you have yogurt.
Wegmans.
Yes, but we haven’t been doing that much at all lately, for financial reasons.
Go online for the coupon match-ups against sales items. If you don’t know how to coupon, learn. Lots of regular people coupon and save loads of money. It’s not all crazed hoarders. A good site to learn the ins and outs of couponing on is www.livingrichwithcoupons.com. Cindy is great, completely ethical, and you can look at real shopping trips from readers with photos and a breakdown of what deals they did in order to get the hang of it. It’s easier to see it and get the hang of it than to listen to abstract save money, use coupons! type of statements.
http://www.passionforsavings.com/2011/11/wegmans-top-10-weekly-ad-and-coupon-matchups-1107/
http://moneysavingmom.com/store_deals/category/wegmans
http://www.livingrichwithcoupons.com/category/stores/wegmans
You are in the NYC metro area, right? I dress the house, which is a nice way of saying I am a seat filler. There are strict rules you have to follow (like not naming what you saw), but it’s a great way to have an unending assortment of quality things to do for next to nothing.
I pay around $100 a year to access a service, and pay $4.00 for a ticket (used to be $2.00) to whatever shows or events that come up. Single memberships allow you to purchase two tickets. For instance, in the last two weeks, there have been box seating at a major arena for a professional sporting event, suite seating for a major musical artist, suite seating for major musical group, Broadway show in previews, loads of off-Broadway and comedy shows, lectures, a yearly circus, you name it. The good stuff goes fast, but if you like to get out a lot and are on a budget, it’s the way to do it. I’ll pm you the info if you want.
About 10 years ago I went through a financially rough time and really learned some hard financial lessons. I got through it and live even better than I did before the rough time, but on a lot less money because I bank it now instead of spend it. Once you get in the mindset that saving money is cool, you don’t feel deprived. You feel satisfied.