Little things you do to save money?

[barkley]

- Reducing the amount of junk food in the house which is where the $$ gets away from me. Oreos are outrageously priced anymore for example. Plus we just don't need that stuff in the house all the tim

agree greatly on this but i have found i can save in the long run by buying large packages of individual bags of chips and having them on hand vs.the family snagging them for a lunch at the store. at the store the individuals run close to $1 each for that small serving but (as an example w/one type) i just today received a box of 40 bags of nacho cheese doritos for $14.42 (.36 cents per bag).

Cook 'takeout' stuff at home. Cheaper and healthier. Buffalo has good pizza and wings but prices are getting crazy for some bread, sauce, cheese and parts of the chicken that restaurants used to throw out. Same goes for restaurants -- it is very expensive for a family of 5 to eat out anymore and after the bill comes, hardly seems worth it. It makes eating out on road trips and vacations seem more like a treat when we eat out less frequently at home too.

we rarely eat out as well (price but also just not that into it). the places we tend to frequent if we were to grab a bite i sign up for memberships on so i get alerts when they are doing discounts on gift cards. saving on the gift cards helps offset the increased costs (i got the gift cards for my youngest's february bday meal back in november during their annual 20% off sale).

we also make lots of our own 'takeout'. i make and freeze small containers of certain items we would default to at fast food places-chili (for chili cheese fries/just have frozen fires on hand), taco meat (keep tortillas and shredded cheese on hand, tortilla chips and individual cups of nacho cheese). it kills me to see how much it just runs to grab a couple of items at a fast food place these days (but i take into consideration that here the minimum wage went up to $16.28 on january 1st so the prices have gone up accordingly).

 

[nursejackie]

I only eat out of the fridge, freezer and food cupboard in the week leading up to my monthly payday. I am not allowed to buy anything, and if it's not there, then I can't have it, end of! I definitely save money every month.

 

[barkley]

I only eat out of the fridge, freezer and food cupboard in the week leading up to my monthly payday. I am not allowed to buy anything, and if it's not there, then I can't have it, end of! I definitely save money every month.

i'm realy working on that right now b/c i hate to shop when items are not on sale. sometimes it's just a matter of figuring out what to do with the ingredients i have on hand. i've found some inspiration from the site yummly b/c you can enter the ingredients you have on hand and come up with mutliple options.

 

[NYCgrrl]

@firefly_ris and @barkley since you breakdown large roasts and portion out just a “you might want to know” moment.

Beef bottom rump roast (boneless) is traditionally on sale this month and is wonderful marinated in wine with onions and cut against the grain. A nice beefy flavor at a very reasonable cost.

 

[firefly_ris]

@firefly_ris and @barkley since you breakdown large roasts and portion out just a “you might want to know” moment.

Beef bottom rump roast (boneless) is traditionally on sale this month and is wonderful marinated in wine with onions and cut against the grain. A nice beefy flavor at a very reasonable cost.

Thank you, on my list!

 

[barkley]

@firefly_ris and @barkley since you breakdown large roasts and portion out just a “you might want to know” moment.

Beef bottom rump roast (boneless) is traditionally on sale this month and is wonderful marinated in wine with onions and cut against the grain. A nice beefy flavor at a very reasonable cost.

sounds delicious!

 

[Nicnicnic.nic]

Following

 

[ronandannette]

I get my hair cut at Great Clips and box-colour, and polish my own natural nails. I purchase (relatively) inexpensive clothes and shoes and almost all my cosmetics come from the drugstore/WalMart.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I do some of my shopping at Aldi’s. I started buying dog food there and the dogs really like it.

One dog I groom myself (the other has to go to the groomer). I also try to do his nails (which costs $20 each time at the vet’s or groomer’s). The vet wanted to start smaller dog on a really potent and expensive medicine and instead I’m treating him at home (with medicated baths) and his skin is mostly all cleared up. Also thinking of switching vets as ours has gotten super expensive (thanks to an expansion).

I bring my own food and drinks to work, as does DH.

I mostly do my own nails. I do my own eyebrows (no waxing). No fancy makeup or skin products, just Dove soap, Oil of Olay and occasional Mabelline. My hairdresser is good but inexpensive. Thankfully I found her when my old one retired! (I tip her well and make her lunch each time I visit though, because she came to the house to do my mother’s hair twice when she was sick and on hospice and I’ll never forget that. She even showed up at her funeral!) I buy good quality clothes that last a long time and try to get them on sale or clearance.

We just painted the outside of the house ourselves. We renovated our whole lower level family room and bathroom ourselves last year and we’re about to tackle our in-law apt update. We do our own lawn care, snow removal and pool maintenance.

We mostly bake our own cakes and cupcakes and other desserts for special occasions. We cook a relatively inexpensive and healthy dinner most nights and almost always have leftovers for another meal or to freeze.

I take advantage of an FSA at work and have been putting money into a health care retiree savings account (that my company matches up to a point) for over a decade that will help with medical costs when I retire.

When we go away I often do a grocery order for the room which covers breakfast, drinks, some stuff for sandwiches and fresh fruit.

I’m sure I’ll think of more. Good thread!

 

[TCRAIG]

Biggest little money saving things I do is turn off lights religiously, use paper products sparingly, set the house temp at 66 in the winter and 72 in the summer, rarely eat out, consolidate errands to save gas, use Target 5% off Disney gift cards for all things Disney, shop on senior days for groceries and stock up when they have BOGOs. I also cut my own hair, don’t color my hair and don’t really use any hair products or makeup.

 

[barkley]

certain things we only buy at the dollar (and a quarter) store-

a1 sauces (yes smaller bottles but much less expensive if you compare by unit weight)

contedina pizza sauce

kraft bbq sauce (in a variety of flavors), bullseye as well

catsup (name brand and i have not seen it that price in a few years on the best sales)

pickle relishes

water packed sliced bell peppers

all purpose cleaner (awsome orange)-stuff is phenominal to pretreat dishes

small plastic containers, baskets, aluminum pans, cookie sheets (perfect for bbq cuz i don't worry how trashed they end up by the end of the season)

fireplace/candle lighters (the long ones)


one must have item from amazon-

Kirkland Signature Reynolds Foodservice Foil Sheets 500​

500 sheets of STRONG aluminum foil sheets (12"x10.75") for about $28. i waste so much less foil using them.

 

[tony67]

Something else we do is to buy the produce that is on clearance.
We now that there is a morning every week where they have marked down produce to clear it out.

For example we get a bag of limes for around 1.25. Ill go through the bag and vacuum seal the best ones and use the rest within a few days - honestly they are good for at least a week. You can also use them to make a "super lime" juice for drinks which I plan to do in the summer when I make more margaritas.

They also have mixed bags of peppers - for around $1 - again they are perfectly fine and will last more than a week. I cut them up and again vacuum seal them in portions for cooking for the next week.

Same thing for steaks although its less regular. Was able to get a bunch of vacuum sealed 10oz grass fed steaks and ground beef from Amazon Groceries for half price, plus they had $20 off $100 order (you can use that three times). Lastly when you spend $100 shipping is free. We can occasionally find steaks on a managers special as well at the local super market.

We used to buy candy for 90% after the holidays - but that does not seem to happen much anymore - and if it does its limited.

Same for decorations - I just bought our Christmas tree for next year at 85% off. There is less and less of that stuff every year though - we found nothing after Halloween.

Also if you have an American express card make sure you keep an eye on all their offers and benefits - the offers also differ by card. In December they had $15 back from an online Walmart order of $50 - so we ordered cat food.
One of my cards give $25 a month to use in restaurants - I use that to buy fresh sigh at a seafood restaurant that also happens to sell fresh fish - so it gets flagged as a restaurant and I get the $25 credit.

I've had much less luck with my non Amex cards - seems like they never credit you for the deal you add to your card, but I need to start looking at them more.

As for the vacuum sealer - its a good investment. Keeps your produce fresher longer. Also allows you to cut them up in portions that you will use for various meals. Lastly you can marinate food in it, freeze it, defrost it and it will pick up a ton of flavor. We can also sous vide the steaks in the vacuum seal bag which is an added bonus.

There are a few other things that are unique to our situation. One of my kids works in a deli and they get a large sub for lunch every day. Most days he just brings it home and we freeze them. Once a week we have a sub night. We can also just take a meat out of the Italian cold cuts, Vacuum seal and save it for a charcuterie board. In addition there is often stuff past its sell by date, like Olive oil so he always takes that. Other stuff as well and once a week there is bread that they did not sell. We get so much of that we give it to the neighbors. The stuff is perfectly fine - but they cant sell it and they don't bother marking it down.

Another kids works in a restaurant and similar thing - they get a meal every day and often just bring it home. Sometimes we give it to an elderly neighbor, sometimes we freeze it, sometimes we eat it the next day. He also takes most of the mistake orders as well as leftover from parties, So we often have a bunch of steak tips they did not put out or a tray of shepherds pie that did not get put out and they can't really keep it once they have heated it up. Many times we get a tray of cannoli. All stuff that restaurants would just throw away

 

[Darcy03231]

Making my own coffee in the morning, packing a lunch for work, cooking meals at home, stocking up at the grocery stores on sale items (which sometimes means going to several stores), changed all my prescriptions from Walgreens to Walmart (90 day supply at Walmart for $10 vs. $20/month at Walgreens), downloading free books from the library on my Kindle rather than buying from Amazon, buying things we need from 2nd hand stores, are just some of things we do.

 

[NYCgrrl]

Remember those pandemic lessons and keep your pantry stocked. Keeps you from running out at the last minute for that one essential ingredient (saves transport expenses as well). Which reminds me I need baking soda…

 

[ronandannette]

Making my own coffee in the morning, packing a lunch for work, cooking meals at home, stocking up at the grocery stores on sale items (which sometimes means going to several stores), changed all my prescriptions from Walgreens to Walmart (90 day supply at Walmart for $10 vs. $20/month at Walgreens), downloading free books from the library on my Kindle rather than buying from Amazon, buying things we need from 2nd hand stores, are just some of things we do.

I do all those things too, but I never considered them money saving measures. Clearly they are, but I would buy coffee and lunch and books if I felt doing so would be better/nicer/more enjoyable than what I'm doing now. Interesting to think about why we do what we do though. The other things I mentioned up-thread are things I know would be higher quality/better experiences if I spent more, and I make the conscious decisions.

 

[barkley]

I do all those things too, but I never considered them money saving measures. Clearly they are, but I would buy coffee and lunch and books if I felt doing so would be better/nicer/more enjoyable than what I'm doing now. Interesting to think about why we do what we do though. The other things I mentioned up-thread are things I know would be higher quality/better experiences if I spent more, and I make the conscious decisions.

it's strange...times change...attitudes change without our realizing it.

i think back to when my kiddos were little (late 90's/early 2000's) and it got to a point with some foods that i traditionaly made from scratch it became much LESS expensive to buy them prepared (lasagna immediatly comes to mind-lots of strore brands that were less expensive and comparable quality). now i wince at the prices but when i start pricing out ingredients it's still head to head.

i read the threads on eating out/compare it my infrequent eating out and the costs are shocking but then i start pricing out things-

something as simple as a hot dog at a fast food. well i think about how the last time i went to buy a pack of buns the cheapest store brand price was $3.50, then add on over $6 for an 8 pack of decent quality dogs, add in condiments (and for any place that serves it-plating, condiments, labor, fuel, overhead....) so the price should'nt shock me.

coffee i spend WAY more than the average for homebrewing but i mentally justify it. i'm guessing most people don't regularly do 100% pure kona but i justify the cost as less expensive to do a pound per month (which makes many pots/cups) as costing me FAR less than many i know spend on 10 coffees at starbucks.

books and such, well.........i have WAY too many but even with the odds and ends of stuff i wanted to read over the years i always defaulted to free at the library or cheap at a used store. these days with audio books, i don't listen to them myself but as i pointed out (to the surprise of both my oldest and dh)-their local public (let alone university) library memberships avail them to so many associated library audio books free that between those and the freebies amazon keeps giving me for delayed shipping-they would be hard pressed to find anything they would have to pay for.

 

[tony67]

now i wince at the prices but when i start pricing out ingredients it's still head to head.

Yes, but take a look at the ingredients - the amount of salt for example - the amount of things you cant actually pronounce.
So even at the same price you may make a much healthier product.

 

[Meriweather]

I buy most things on sale....the way I was raised, especially meat.
Divide it up and vacuum seal it and freeze it.
I do reuse plastic bags to line the garbage cans in bedrooms and bathrooms.
Always buy clothes for me on sale.....and I have so much I really don't need more, so trying to stop buying any at all.

 

[barkley]

Always buy clothes for me on sale.....and I have so much I really don't need more, so trying to stop buying any at all.

we have a household (and oldest's apart from ours) that a prolific t shirt wearers. once every year or so someone (usualy me ) wants to purge the closets so all the t shirts come out and people pull the ones they don't want anymore-those then to up for grabs to everyone else. it's amusing to see how interests change esp. depending on when someone got into a particular video game or anime series. the shirts all change closets/homes (sometimes returning after a time to their original). we call it 'in-cycling'.

 

[ronandannette]

we have a household (and oldest's apart from ours) that a prolific t shirt wearers. once every year or so someone (usualy me ) wants to purge the closets so all the t shirts come out and people pull the ones they don't want anymore-those then to up for grabs to everyone else. it's amusing to see how interests change esp. depending on when someone got into a particular video game or anime series. the shirts all change closets/homes (sometimes returning after a time to their original). we call it 'in-cycling'.

Great job re-framing the process! It used to be call it hand-me-downs and nobody liked it.