What did you do today to save money?

[ticktock]

Pulled into the parking lot of three restaurants last night--had trouble parking (it was a sign), DS was on the verge of a meltdown, so we went home and I made my famous nachos for dinner. They cost about 1.50, I figured, instead of the 40.00 we would have spent eating out.

Please print your recipe. My "famous nachos" cost about $20.00. We could eat real food for that price .

 

[ohiominnie]

CVS has some sort of pepsi/frito lay thing this week. Maybe in conjunction with this deal it'll work out better....

lemme pull my CVS flyer:

Earn $5 extra Care Bucks when you buy 4 Pepsi 12 pks and 4 XXL Lays or XXL Doritos Bags

Pepsi Products are 4/$12
Lay's/Doritos are 4/$8

You end up paying $20, but get the $5 back so only "pay" $15. It is limit one deal per customer.

It also says "PLUS See specially marked Pepsi and Frito-Lay products for $15 in coupons by mail.

 

[katerkat]

Yesterday I went grocery shopping and stuck to my list - which I made based on a meal plan for the week - and ended up only spending $50 for meals through Thursday (and a couple extra packets of meat for the freezer.)

Today I feel icky (cold with a really drippy nose) so instead of spending $10 to go to a spa show with friends, I'm going to stay home. If we do go anywhere, it'll just be to Blockbuster to trade movies (free).

 

[jeankeri]

Dug through my cleaner supply to clean my kitchen and bathroom. I'm a Soft Scrub fan, but instead of going out to buy some (I'm all out!!!) I'm making due with what is in the cellar. BTW, my home is sparkling now!!!

 

[minnie1928]

If anyone makes Lipton tea, CVS has a great deal. Buy 4-100 count boxes for $10. Use coupons from todays coupon inserts ($1 off 2), that gets it down to $8, then you receive $5 in Extra Care Bucks which gets the 4 boxes of tea for $3! I don't think I'll get out today (it's just so gross outside ), but I'll get them tomorrow!

 

[Toby'sFriend]

I told my oldest son that if he wants to be a Vegetarian that is a great idea!

But he's not longer allowed to spend over $4 a meal for those "Organic" bean and rice dishes from Kashi. I bought him a big bag of black beans, a big bag of whole grain rice -- and gave him a whole stack of vegetarian recipes I downloaded from the internet --- and told him to learn how to cook them himself.


I even started some beans soaking for him last night.

 

[HOGFAN]

stayed home.

 

[roadtripper]

OK--
Here's the nachos recipe-- I should acknowledge that they are only famous at MY house! Also, your cost may vary-- I am getting a little obsessed with trying to figure out the actual costs of food after reading the Tightwad Gazette. Plus, we just got a supercheap supermarket in my neighborhood which has really helped with food costs. In the interest of full disclosure, I did make 2 batches, so my total was closer to $3.42. And, um, I did have two beers, and DH had three ( no driving ), DS had a seltzer, so those costs were not included, naturally!
1/3 bag of Price Rite tortilla chips .99 bag= .33
1 cup salsa (from bulk container bought at 3.99)= approx .40
1/2 can of refried beans bought at 2/1.00= .25
1/3 8oz. stick of Empire Spicy Jack cheese bought at 1.49= .50
1/2 c (or so) sour cream (bought at .89)= .23
Total= 1.71 (whoops- I lied-- I think I forgot to add in the sour cream when guesstimating)

Fill a microwave safe plate with tortilla chips.
In a separate bowl, mix salsa and refried beans together, and drop onto chips
Grate spicy jack cheese onto the chips
Cook in microwave for 2 minutes or so
Top with sour cream, and other things if desired, if they're hanging around the house (like green and red peppers, onions, etc)
Enjoy!

 

[themainemom]

Got a fire pit at Target for 75% off. It was originally 69.99, got it for 17.48. I really wanted one last summer, but didn't want to pay the price. But, for 17.48 it's mine. It's snowing today, but can picture a warm summer's eve on the patio with my new fire pit!

 

[disneylizzy]

I bought a 3 lb. bag of Cortland applies for 2.19, but quite a few had soft spots, so the kids won't eat them. I used them up by making apple crisp - its in the oven now and it smells really good!

DS21 needed new jeans, so we went to Old Navy to get him a pair and I saw a waffle weave, long sleeve henley top for DS14 for only $3.49.

My best money saving tip is no eating out. Its hard to cook dinner and pack lunches EVERY day, but the savings really adds up, especially with 4 kids.

 

[nicurn]

went to cvs and did the dove deal (buy 15$ get 5$ ecb) and started the st. ives one. had coupons and the cvs 3/15 and a 10$ ecb so it ended up costing 2$. of course now I'm going to run up to ac moore to buy buttons... that will negate any cvs savings... maggie

 

[sk!mom]

We also informed my DD(21) that we couldn't afford the extra $500 for her to go to Finland with her old choir (she was paying some, and was being subsidized some), so, unfortunately, she will not be going. This one really hurt, since her two younger sisters will be going-on our money. But sometimes you have to say "Enough". (The older one has been on a couple of smaller choir trips that the younger two haven't been on, so that makes it a little easier.)

Try not to feel bad. It can be an important budget lesson for young adults to just say no to them when you can't afford something.

It would also be easy for a 21 year old to earn $500 herself if she really wants to go badly enough.

 

[ohiominnie]

Try not to feel bad. It can be an important budget lesson for young adults to just say no to them when you can't afford something.

I've noticed this with my own kids, 12 and 10. They no longer ask (and then whine) to do something (movie, indoor play place, pretzels at the mall. Not that they were horrible whiners to begin with, of course. Now they preface their requests with "is it in the budget to......"

One day they really wanted to go see a first run movie that had just come out. I told them it wasn't in MY budget to treat the entire family to a movie, but if they were each willing to chip in for their own tickets, I'd be happy to drive. I also told them no snacks at the movie. They thought about it for quite some time (a couple hours IIRC) and decided it was worth it to buy their own tickets. So we went. I did break down and buy snacks ONLY because it was "Sour Patch Kids for $1 day." But that's ALL I bought.

Of course, we haven't done full disclosure to the kids (amounts of loans, etc) but they do know we're trying to get out of debt and are seriously watching what we spend. Valuable life lessons, IMHO.

 

[vhoffman]

Shopped at thrift shops! Actually, I went to the Goodwill to drop off some donations, then started looking around. I found a pair of NEW reebok shoes for ds for $6.99. That beats anything I could have found at Payless! However, I won't buy used shoes. Think of how much feet sweat sweat

However, in general, I felt their clothes to be overpriced for the quality and condition. I can buy new for less at WalMart!

My biggest cost saving habit--shop at Costco. The price of milk and bread and bottled water alone is roughly half what I pay at a regular grocery store. Meat and produce are also good buys. I hardly go in to the local grocery store anymore, except for an occassional item. I consider them a convenience store now.

 

[vhoffman]

Also, yesterday was dh's birthday! Instead of buying cards and a cake, we made a cake from a mix (mix 80 cents, frosting with coupon 79 cents) and the kids made him a card instead of buying cards.

cost of store bought cake $15
cost of 2 cards $6

Cost to make cake $1.60
Cost to make cards free with stuff around the house

Savings
$19.40

Happiness from "gifts from the heart" priceless!

 

[miche61]

I haven't done anything yet to save today, except we came home for lunch after church instead of eating out.
I'm going to talk to DH and tell him I can't go shopping alone anymore. I find too many bargains, that we probably don't need. I'd also like to start spending cash only. It's too easy to charge, even though we pay it off monthly.

 

[Debbie]

It would also be easy for a 21 year old to earn $500 herself if she really wants to go badly enough.

Actually, $500 is a lot of shifts at minimum wage. It is not easy. What it is, is one month's rent. That's 10% of her "basic" living costs while she is away at university. She had committed to $700 (her initial quote because of the subsidy), but this almost doubled her costs. She is disappointed, but understands the economics involved, which, as you say, IS a good thing!

As for today, I picked up a "value" (extra large) package of lean ground beef today-with a $2.00 coupon on it because it had been packaged late Friday-along with a package of ground pork (on special). I cooked up a feed of meatballs and a meatloaf for the freezer, added tonight's meatloaf, and the three meals cost me less than $3.00 each.

 

[HenDuck]

Yesterday, I went to Sam's club and bought only what was on my list. Saved the receipt to start my own price book.

Today, I gave myself a pedicure (instead of spending $30 at the salon) and made brownies for my guests (instead of running out and buying cookies).

I will search the grocery adds tonite to get just the additional items I need for the week. Trying to keep my grocery budget to $80 this week!

Keep up the great work everyone!

 

[Echo queen]

I used a coupon from the entertainment book for Maria Callender brunch today. I went to the mall and only bought a pair of crocs and came home and cooked dinner.

 

[minnie1928]

Last night my DH and I started our nightly ritual..."what do you want to eat? I don't care, what to do you want to eat? Doesn't matter to me, what are you hungry for?"

Instead of ordering chinese take out (which I secretly wanted to do) that usually costs us about $15, we both felt lazy and made ramen noodles costing about .15 total. So I guess you could say I saved $14.85 if you ignore the fact that ramen noodles have no nutritional value beyond filling your stomach!