Cost cutting measures

[tvguy]

different places different practices. we happened to be at a kfc a couple of days before thanksgiving last fall and the food bank trucks pulled up to gather that single location's donations-4 full grocery store carts full of individualy bagged 8 peices of chicken (we asked what the bags contained). we chatted with the food bank employees and were told that while this was an exceptional amount to pick up they averaged one shopping cart per day at that location in addition to carts upon carts from other restaurants/fast foods and grocery stores with prepared hot-table foods.

There are individuals here who distribute sandwiches and fast food items to the homeless. If they get caught, the Health Department cites them. Apparently the fact that these people are hungry does allow an exemption to the law.

 

[ThereYouSeeHer]

I've thought about going to a cash/envelope system. Can't track what we spend that way.

We started on the envelope system about 15 years ago (after going through Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University). We still use cash today! An easy way we started was to take envelopes from junk mail and put a budgeted amount of cash in it. As we spent money, the receipt would go inside the envelope, and the purchase would be recorded on the back of the envelope. So, we would have both a running total of expenses written on the envelope and receipts inside to track what was spent.

Plus, since we use so much cash, we also have a lot of coins pile up. Once we get a good amount, we take it to Coinstar, get a no-fee gift card to Amazon or another store and then use it to purchase things we need. It feels like found money!

I have to buy a new loaf about once every week since that one'll go bad.

We like putting bread in the refrigerator or freezer to extend it's shelf life.

So I just make the minimum payment on them then charge a couple of things back onto them. That way I'm helping build my credit, although it appears to be doing it very, very slowly.

According to FICO, credit scores are generally calculated by the following:

35% payment history (paying on time)
30% amounts owed (not having a maxed out or close to maxed out balance)
15% length of credit history (how long accounts have been open)
10% credit mix (having different types of accounts)
10% new credit (not having too many new accounts)

For people trying to build up a credit score, paying on time and keeping balances as a low percentage of available credit are most important (about 65% of the credit score).

For FICO, paying the minimum and then maxing the card out again would generally have a negative effect on the score. For them, they don't mind that individuals carry debt, but they do care if people have used almost all the credit available to them.

We also cut back on travel and play the thermostat game (about 74-80 degrees during the day, but we just splurged to 72 last night!).

 

[WDW_fan_in_TX]

Thanks for this insight. I'd sure love to try and the envelope system. Wife doesn't like change, plus it's so much easier to just swipe the card and check the bank account since she works there. We do have coins. We cashed out before our last trip and had saved over $600 in coins. Such a great feeling.

As far as the bread thing, I did put it in the freezer. But it just tasted weird being cold and not room temperature. And I tried laying a couple of pieces out early for lunch, but it'd take so long to thaw out that I just decided to do it the old fashioned way and just put it in a cabinet.

We started on the envelope system about 15 years ago (after going through Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University). We still use cash today! An easy way we started was to take envelopes from junk mail and put a budgeted amount of cash in it. As we spent money, the receipt would go inside the envelope, and the purchase would be recorded on the back of the envelope. So, we would have both a running total of expenses written on the envelope and receipts inside to track what was spent.

Plus, since we use so much cash, we also have a lot of coins pile up. Once we get a good amount, we take it to Coinstar, get a no-fee gift card to Amazon or another store and then use it to purchase things we need. It feels like found money!


We like putting bread in the refrigerator or freezer to extend it's shelf life.


According to FICO, credit scores are generally calculated by the following:

35% payment history (paying on time)
30% amounts owed (not having a maxed out or close to maxed out balance)
15% length of credit history (how long accounts have been open)
10% credit mix (having different types of accounts)
10% new credit (not having too many new accounts)

For people trying to build up a credit score, paying on time and keeping balances as a low percentage of available credit are most important (about 65% of the credit score).

For FICO, paying the minimum and then maxing the card out again would generally have a negative effect on the score. For them, they don't mind that individuals carry debt, but they do care if people have used almost all the credit available to them.

We also cut back on travel and play the thermostat game (about 74-80 degrees during the day, but we just splurged to 72 last night!).

 

[Lumpy1106]

I've been using a clothes line to dry our clothes for years. That may sound like nothing but at one point I calculated it's saving us about $10/month.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

- "shop your pantry" - keep track of what's in there. Can you do a challenge and do a few weeks of meals without needing to buy any additional ingredients?

That's how I do meal planning a lot. It's easier because we're only 2 people so we can halve a recipe and still be okay. We're making sausage and gnocchi soup tomorrow, the onion part of it is from leftover onions (and I'll use some of the leftovers for a recipe next week too of that onion) used for yesterday's chicken pot pie, the sausage leftover from a prior recipe and because we only had about half a lb of sausage instead of a full pound we'll just halve the recipe.

The chicken pot pie we had last night I chose that because we had some frozen peas to use as well as some chicken in the freezer and the amount left was just enough to make it. Heavy cream was purchased but is being used for 3 recipes.

I do think making a lot of entire meals let alone several weeks of meals just from the pantry is more difficult for many to do because there's considering non-perishable items, shelf life of other items, make up of the family and the schedule of the family. We don't stock our pantry or fridge or freezer to the point of bursting, that would actually lead to food wastage for our particular situation. My mother-in-law does tend to have a lot in her fridge or freezer and pantry but forgets about it and it goes bad (we did a huge purge over this past Christmas getting rid of things even 3 or 4 years past their dates). TBH while I think your video (which I did watch some of it) is great it actually shows me that household buys indiscriminately without thought to what they will use the food for. If you're going through your freezer and finding that you can make a month's worth of food together it means you were buying a whole lot without care. Someone who buys enough food for several weeks and prepares them (like how you see people do one day a week doing a bunch of meal prep for the next week or next several weeks) is different than buying a lot of stuff then making meals out of it later on when you've realized your freezer, fridge and pantry are just so full. Over time that can be food wastage and a lot of money spent unnecessarily.

But I do think you can look at your pantry and use an ingredient or multiple of some to come up with recipes. I think the overall point though is to not purchase all the ingredients all the time to start from scratch. You can drum up some meals by looking at what you already have and we do that but I couldn't do a ton of that.

 

[barkley]

Speaking of AC, we've started leaving our house AC on 74 while we're not at home instead of 72. And we keep it on 68 at night instead of 66. Doesn't seem like much, but 2 degrees can make a big difference. So that helps a little, but our bill will still run $300-$400 during the hottest summer months.

not a cost cutting measure but it helps us not have big seasonal fluctuations in the monthly budget by doing a balanced payment plan with our utility provider. i pay the same dollar amount every month so i'm building a nice credit during the spring and fall to use during the higher utility usage months in the summer and winter. i like the bill being done this way b/c that way just like with our cell, satelleline, landline and garbage it's the same amount, every month.

 

[barkley]

That's how I do meal planning a lot. It's easier because we're only 2 people so we can halve a recipe and still be okay. We're making sausage and gnocchi soup tomorrow, the onion part of it is from leftover onions (and I'll use some of the leftovers for a recipe next week too of that onion) used for yesterday's chicken pot pie, the sausage leftover from a prior recipe and because we only had about half a lb of sausage instead of a full pound we'll just halve the recipe.

The chicken pot pie we had last night I chose that because we had some frozen peas to use as well as some chicken in the freezer and the amount left was just enough to make it. Heavy cream was purchased but is being used for 3 recipes.

I do think making a lot of entire meals let alone several weeks of meals just from the pantry is more difficult for many to do because there's considering non-perishable items, shelf life of other items, make up of the family and the schedule of the family. We don't stock our pantry or fridge or freezer to the point of bursting, that would actually lead to food wastage for our particular situation. My mother-in-law does tend to have a lot in her fridge or freezer and pantry but forgets about it and it goes bad (we did a huge purge over this past Christmas getting rid of things even 3 or 4 years past their dates). TBH while I think your video (which I did watch some of it) is great it actually shows me that household buys indiscriminately without thought to what they will use the food for. If you're going through your freezer and finding that you can make a month's worth of food together it means you were buying a whole lot without care. Someone who buys enough food for several weeks and prepares them (like how you see people do one day a week doing a bunch of meal prep for the next week or next several weeks) is different than buying a lot of stuff then making meals out of it later on when you've realized your freezer, fridge and pantry are just so full. Over time that can be food wastage and a lot of money spent unnecessarily.

But I do think you can look at your pantry and use an ingredient or multiple of some to come up with recipes. I think the overall point though is to not purchase all the ingredients all the time to start from scratch. You can drum up some meals by looking at what you already have and we do that but I couldn't do a ton of that.

those who are challenged to come up with recipies to use what is on hand might try playing around on the website yummly. you can enter the ingredients you already have and it will pull up multiple options.

 

[WDW_fan_in_TX]

That's a cool idea. I'll have to see if our provider offers that. We're locked into a contract until the end of September, so we can't change our plan until then. But when this contract is over, I'll check and see if they offer that plan. Thanks.

not a cost cutting measure but it helps us not have big seasonal fluctuations in the monthly budget by doing a balanced payment plan with our utility provider. i pay the same dollar amount every month so i'm building a nice credit during the spring and fall to use during the higher utility usage months in the summer and winter. i like the bill being done this way b/c that way just like with our cell, satelleline, landline and garbage it's the same amount, every month.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

those who are challenged to come up with recipies to use what is on hand might try playing around on the website yummly. you can enter the ingredients you already have and it will pull up multiple options.

We've used that before! Although usually for desserts hehe

 

[MICKIMINI]

We started on the envelope system about 15 years ago (after going through Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University). We still use cash today! An easy way we started was to take envelopes from junk mail and put a budgeted amount of cash in it. As we spent money, the receipt would go inside the envelope, and the purchase would be recorded on the back of the envelope. So, we would have both a running total of expenses written on the envelope and receipts inside to track what was spent.

Plus, since we use so much cash, we also have a lot of coins pile up. Once we get a good amount, we take it to Coinstar, get a no-fee gift card to Amazon or another store and then use it to purchase things we need. It feels like found money!


We like putting bread in the refrigerator or freezer to extend it's shelf life.


According to FICO, credit scores are generally calculated by the following:

35% payment history (paying on time)
30% amounts owed (not having a maxed out or close to maxed out balance)
15% length of credit history (how long accounts have been open)
10% credit mix (having different types of accounts)
10% new credit (not having too many new accounts)

For people trying to build up a credit score, paying on time and keeping balances as a low percentage of available credit are most important (about 65% of the credit score).

For FICO, paying the minimum and then maxing the card out again would generally have a negative effect on the score. For them, they don't mind that individuals carry debt, but they do care if people have used almost all the credit available to them. as

We also cut back on travel and play the thermostat game (about 74-80 degrees during the day, but we just splurged to 72 last night!).

Regarding the thermostat, last night I thought it was a bit warm in the house...well, I had the heat on! We are in NH and do have central a/c so it took a total of five minutes to cool it off (I had it set at 74 anyway. Obviously the heat never came on but neither did the a/c. That was a senior moment LOL!

 

[Brian Noble]

You say you used cash, but then you say you track your bank balance. Just curious.

Here's the basic idea:

I keep track of the "available" bank balance, plus the cash I am carrying, to the penny. I used Quicken for this, but you can use a spreadsheet if you prefer. When I withdraw from the ATM, I enter that in my own records by deducting it from my "available" bank balance but adding it to my cash balance. When that happens my "total money" doesn't change, just where it is.

When I buy something with cash, I keep the receipt, and enter it into my records, deducting it from my cash balance. That means my "total money" goes down. When I buy something with a credit card, I do the same thing, but deduct it from my "available" bank balance. So my "total money" still goes down. That money hasn't left my bank account yet, but it will when the credit card bill is paid.

But my wife works at a bank, so she's anti-cash. Can't track what we spend that way.

You can. You just have to do the work to do it. This is why I reconciled my cash balance regularly---every few days---because it helped me catch the times when I forgot to record something. Over time, that happened a lot less often.

 

[tampabrat22]

I love finding ways to save $, here's some of ours...

• MAKE your own laundry soap! it's easy and super affordable
• use dryer balls, I no longer buy dryer sheets
• hang dry as much as possible
• wash on cold, most HE washers don't need hot water these days
• no nail or hair salons, we do our own
• keep the AC on 77 during the day and 75/76 at night (in FL)
• meal plan weekly dinners, prep and pack all work meals
• challenge yourself to make cheap dinners (I do under $15 for 4 adults)
• dinner doesn't have to be the traditional entree & two sides, we normally have a protein & veggie
• don't buy soda, bottled drinks etc. Make tea, lemonade or old school kool aid
• don't use lights during the day, unplug anything you can
• use your crock pot in the summer, avoid the oven at all costs

 

[PHXscuba]

I think some of the biggest bang-for-buck savings is scrutinizing your subscriptions, several of which have been mentioned. What do you have that you don't use and could cancel or downgrade?

--streaming -- downgrade to ad version, or use one streaming service exclusively and rotate every 2/3 months
--cell phones -- best plan for how you use it? prepaid vs. traditional
--memberships:, gym, massages, chiropractor -- cancel and shop around for a better deal? community center options?
--Spotify etc. --- how much is it being used?
--Subscribe and save
--protection plans, warranties, service agreements

I think most people have subscriptions that come out of bank accounts or credit cards so routinely we forget how much they add up to.

PHXscuba

 

[barkley]

memberships:, gym,

on this-check out your health insurance and see if they offer it as a benefit. many do at locations nationwide.

 

[MrsPete]

What else does everyone have for unusual tips like that?

Make your own laundry soap -- I put a note on mine the last time I made it, so I know that it cost about $50 in July 2022, and I'm just running out. I could definitely use less, but this means I'm spending about $25/year for laundry detergent -- I use the optional items. This recipe is safe for HE machines and really cleans:

4 lb, 12 oz box of Borax
3 lb, 7 oz box of Super Washing Soda
3 lbs OxyClean, optional
Two 14 oz bars Zote Soap, shredded in food processor
4 lbs Baking Soda
Two 55-oz bottles Purex Crystals, optional

With laundry soap or any other cleaning product (from toothpaste to dish soap), experiment with using less and less and less. When you find the results are no longer good, add a bit more.

I've always been thrifty, but when I was newly married (1990) I read all the books I could on thrifty living, couponing, food preservation, etc. I particularly recommend The Tightwad Gazette by Amy D_____ -- look for The Complete Tightwad Gazette, which incorporates all three of her books into one volume. The numbers in the book are, I'm sure, outdated now, but her strength is "walking you through" HOW to calculate a bargain. Since you're talking about food, I particularly recommend her food-price-comparison notebook, which she describes in the first book.

Cut your own hair and those in your household. No nail salons either. No coloring hair, etc. All that adds up.

The pandemic changed haircare in our household:
- My husband bought an electric clipper from the internet, and I've been cutting his hair ever since. I think he paid about $35 for it, and he hasn't paid for a haircut in four years. I demand a kiss as a tip.
- I stopped coloring my hair during the pandemic -- it was a perfect time to get through that "roots problem". I love my hair now, which is about 1/4 gray.

- Buy in bulk and freeze if possible. We have an upright freezer which we stock when there are big meat sales or split an animal with relatives and/or friends. Can find used freezers on craigslist or marketplace. There are small chest freezers that don't take up too much room -- my grandmother had one in an apartment kitchen even.

Agree:
- We bought our freezer off Craigslist about 15 years ago. Still going strong. $40 well spent.
- When you make a casserole, make two and freeze one. When you just can't face cooking, pull the other one out.
- Some recipes lend themselves to batch cooking /freezing: Spaghetti sauce comes to mind, of course. But we also have a sauce for Bourbon Chicken, which has about 15 ingredients -- we like to make /freeze about 10 packets of sauce, then we can just add chicken (or pork), and we have one of our favorite meals.
- A friend gave me a vacuum sealer he wasn't using -- love that thing! Just yesterday, for example, I bought a big pack of chicken breasts and divided them into small vac-bags. The small bags cost about .10 each from Amazon, and they protect better than the store wrapping.

This isn't about freezers, but here's something really smart I started doing about five years ago, when I was still teaching full-time: I bought five identical lunch-dishes, and every Sunday afternoon /evening I cooked a big meal and packed myself 5 lunches. I always made sure it was something healthy -- my favorites were Cashew Cabbage or Stir-Fry. On Monday I'd carry in those 5 lunches, along with 5 drinks, 5 mid-morning snacks and 5 pieces of fruit for an after-school snack. It made getting out the door easier, and I stopped eating lunch out of the vending machine.
Several of my co-workers copied me, and they were polite enough to purchase different-colored dishes.

- Learn basic home maintenance/renovation skills and beyond.

Anything you need to learn is on You Tube. For example, my vacuum cleaner stopped sucking last week. I watched a video, which showed me how to remove the back plate with a screwdriver and push a broom handle through to remove the clog.

- Buy gently used items for growing kids, especially sports equipment. There are stores that only sell used sports equipment, and Facebook Marketplace is a great place to find sports gear for kids.

Not just for kids! Being retired, we buy few clothes these days, and most of them are from ebay or Goodwill type stores. I stick to a couple brands that I know I like, and that pretty much assures me of getting the right sizing.

I buy many of my grandson's clothes, and I only shop at a consignment store. It'll become more expensive as he grows older, but I can get him a whole outfit for $4-10 now. I love spoiling him, and my daughter returns some of his outgrown things to me; I "sell them back" to the consignment store and get store credit towards larger sizes. Another nice benefit: When he ruins something (and he does -- he's only two), no one fusses over a $2-3 shirt. I also shop on Tote-bag Tuesdays (20% off anything you can fit in their store-brand bag) or Grandparents Day Wednesdays (10% off anything).

Having said that, beware of SPAVING -- spending to save. Even if it's a bargain, spending on something you don't really NEED isn't money well spent. For example, if I know my grandson will need a winter coat, it's smart to go ahead and buy the one I see for $5 at the consignment store -- that's a good price -- but if he already has a coat, and he's likely to outgrow it in a single year, buying him a second one (no matter how cute) is money wasted. Advertisers are really good at convincing us to SPAVE.

3. This might be TMI, but if you're a young female, a menstrual cup is a small investment that will pay you back huge over the years.

Oh, my yes! I bought one of these just after my youngest child was born. It cost $30 (and that was in the 90s), and it required a couple months' practice to feel secure with it -- but I absolutely loved it. I'd empty it in the shower in the morning and again before bed; in between, I didn't think about it at all! It lasted until surgery removed my need for such things. Money well spent.

if she had a hankering for a rotisserie chicken she knew what time they would mark down the price.

A rotisserie chicken is an excellent value at full price -- and I see them marked down about 50% of my Walmart shopping trips.
Typically we get two good meals from the chicken, then another 1-2 scrappy meals (like Chicken-a-la-King or chicken soup), and we often put the bones into the InstaPot and make them into free chicken broth. Which we then store away with the above-mentioned vacuum sealer.

I used cash as often as I could. The act of parting with cash is more intentional than swiping a card, and this made it easier to catch myself making impulse purchases.

I have read that people don't feel like a credit card (or a gift card) is "real money", and they spend more freely. I genuinely think my husband and I -- at least at this point in our lives -- approach money that way, and we appreciate the points we gather from credit cards. We put everything on the credit cards and use the points to buy restaurant gift cards for our parents for Christmas. But the important thing is to KNOW YOURSELF.

Groom your dogs yourself. I have two havanese that need regular grooming and clipping. I do it all myself. I got them both as puppies so I spent a lot of time getting them tolerant of all the grooming tools, nails clippers etc which makes everything easier now.

Better yet, choose a wash-and-wear dog. We've had Beagles and Pitts, both short haired dogs that require no grooming. I have failed at nail trimming, and I pay $10 + tip for that service.

"shop your pantry" - keep track of what's in there. Can you do a challenge and do a few weeks of meals without needing to buy any additional ingredients? Relevant video...

Consider adding a box for things that're close to expiring. It'll encourage you to reach for those items first.
Something I heard long ago and try to live by is, Complete the purchase. When you bring an item home, store it properly. For example, I have plastic pour-out containers for cereal -- I bought them when my now-adult kids were small and couldn't close up cereal properly, but they keep the cereal fresher (and hide the fact that I bought store brand). My granola bars and other such snacks go into a plastic stack-up drawer. Because I live in the South and mealie-bugs are a problem, my grains and pastas go into large Mason jars (all old, inherited jars -- don't go spending big money on whatever Pinterest says is trendy for pantries today).

For people trying to build up a credit score, paying on time and keeping balances as a low percentage of available credit are most important (about 65% of the credit score).

Don't chase a better credit score. It's a measure of how well you handle debt. You could have an up-to-date mortgage, two up-to-date car payments, credit card debt, just a couple hundred in the bank -- and still have an excellent credit score! You could be one paycheck from tragedy, but as long as you're paying your bills that credit score could look good.

Instead, focus on financial stability: paying off debt, living frugally so you can build up an emergency fund and retirement fund, etc. If you do this, the credit score will fall into place. Keep your eye on the real goal.

 

[ThereYouSeeHer]

Don't chase a better credit score. It's a measure of how well you handle debt. You could have an up-to-date mortgage, two up-to-date car payments, credit card debt, just a couple hundred in the bank -- and still have an excellent credit score! You could be one paycheck from tragedy, but as long as you're paying your bills that credit score could look good.

Instead, focus on financial stability: paying off debt, living frugally so you can build up an emergency fund and retirement fund, etc. If you do this, the credit score will fall into place. Keep your eye on the real goal.

Oh, I totally agree that individuals shouldn't chase a better score or even use debt. However, I understand that not everyone agrees, so at least taking actions to improve a low score can have a positive universal effect.

Unfortunately, once someone is seen as a credit risk, it can affect all areas of their life. Low credit scores can negatively impact credit card rates, rent or security deposits, car insurance, employment, etc.

If someone is struggling with high rates everywhere, it can be hard to make progress anywhere. So, focusing on timely payments while reducing balances can help a tough situation from getting worse.

If anyone needs encouragement, please feel free to stop by The Dave Ramsey 'Baby Steps' Thread.

 

[WDW_fan_in_TX]

All of our streaming, cell phones, stuff like that just comes out of the bank account, but we know exactly how much it is. I wish I could pay cash for each of that stuff, but I know companies don't take cash anymore (I'm sure so they can track you).

We only stream the ESPN/Hulu/Disney package and Discovery+. But we do the ads version. Wife absolutely hates sitting through 3 minutes of ads. She'd rather pay $1 more per month than sit watch ads. And Amazon music is part of the Amazon Prime package we have. So no Spotify or other music streaming. I do YouTube, but we're thinking about upgrading to commercial free version due to having to sit through 30 seconds of ads every 5 minutes (we probably won't, but I'm seriously thinking about it).

No memberships for us that I know of. We don't do the gym, which I need to change. I'm almost 50 and don't work out in any way. The only thing really the wife does is gets her nails and toes done. But that's just about 1x a month.

And as far as cell phones, I recently upgraded from a slider phone to an Iphone. I typically just use it to make/receive phones, but I don't take on many. Maybe just 3-4 a day. And I text about 15 messages a day. Don't get online or anything. And I have the cheapest package offered by Verizon at $115/month.

So we're in the cheapest possible package on cell phones and YT and most other streaming and no memberships (gym, etc). And wife only gets her nails done 1x a month. So we've cut just as much as we can in these areas short of just outright cutting it out.

I am loving the tips and cost cutting measures mentioned. Now I'm headed to Walmart to spend $200 for the week for just 2 people (it sucks Walmart has their grocery prices so high that it costs that much to buy food and supplies (laundry detergent, soaps/shampoos, etc for a week.

I think some of the biggest bang-for-buck savings is scrutinizing your subscriptions, several of which have been mentioned. What do you have that you don't use and could cancel or downgrade?

--streaming -- downgrade to ad version, or use one streaming service exclusively and rotate every 2/3 months
--cell phones -- best plan for how you use it? prepaid vs. traditional
--memberships:, gym, massages, chiropractor -- cancel and shop around for a better deal? community center options?
--Spotify etc. --- how much is it being used?
--Subscribe and save
--protection plans, warranties, service agreements

I think most people have subscriptions that come out of bank accounts or credit cards so routinely we forget how much they add up to.

PHXscuba

 

[barkley]

We put everything on the credit cards and use the points to buy restaurant gift cards for our parents for Christmas. But the important thing is to KNOW YOURSELF.

we put everything on the credit card as well but our credit union offers the option of a monetary transfer to our bank account (same per point value as getting a gift card so no loss). i let the points sit to build up and if we have a higher cost month it will offset it to an extent.

supplies (laundry detergent, soaps/shampoos, etc for a week.

are you buying this every week? if so keep in mind that larger containers that will last weeks if not months (a 10 pound arm and hammer detergent lasts our household of 3 around 6 months) are much less expensive on a per unit basis. i'm a big fan of walmart but i've price compared charmin, bounty paper towels, cascade dishwasher tabs and puffs tissues down to the penny on walmart, costco and target. hands down the BEST deal is when target has their gift card household essential sales (today is the last day on one but they have them regularly). buy 3 qualifying items (which according to my local pricing is pretty much identical to walmart/costco) and you get a $10 gift card. i save the cards and use them on the next sale (or for when target is having a great sale on something so i can save additionaly). they also do this with hair and bodycare products.

 

[WDW_fan_in_TX]

No, we don't buy them on a weekly basis. But I was just telling DW today that the containers are lying. They say you get x mount of loads out of the container, but you get way less than that whenever you have to use a cap full. Anyway, But I have to use scent free on detergent (I'm allergic to all fragrances), and Walmart has the best pricing on that. For reference, we bought an 88 ounce bottle All at Target last night for $11.99. Bought a 150 ounce bottle of Great Value (or whatever Walmart has) today for $9.99. So you get 80% more for $2 less at Walmart.

are you buying this every week? if so keep in mind that larger containers that will last weeks if not months (a 10 pound arm and hammer detergent lasts our household of 3 around 6 months) are much less expensive on a per unit basis. i'm a big fan of walmart but i've price compared charmin, bounty paper towels, cascade dishwasher tabs and puffs tissues down to the penny on walmart, costco and target. hands down the BEST deal is when target has their gift card household essential sales (today is the last day on one but they have them regularly). buy 3 qualifying items (which according to my local pricing is pretty much identical to walmart/costco) and you get a $10 gift card. i save the cards and use them on the next sale (or for when target is having a great sale on something so i can save additionaly). they also do this with hair and bodycare products.

 

[Tygerlilly]

Having said that, beware of SPAVING -- spending to save. Even if it's a bargain, spending on something you don't really NEED isn't money well spent. For example, if I know my grandson will need a winter coat, it's smart to go ahead and buy the one I see for $5 at the consignment store -- that's a good price -- but if he already has a coat, and he's likely to outgrow it in a single year, buying him a second one (no matter how cute) is money wasted. Advertisers are really good at convincing us to SPAVE.

I used to be SO BAD about this (and honestly, sometimes still am). I've been purging closets and it's crazy how many things I got "for a deal!" that were never even used.