What is your favorite budget thing you do?

[worm761]

I make most things from scratch at home and love it. I love cooking so it is fun. The best investments I have made are my bread machine, food sealer, and my freezer. I love going to the butcher too.
I make my own powder laundry detergent. I absolutely love the savings. I can't believe how expensive laundry soap is!
Friday is pizza night in our house too.

 

[nboicepardee]

I make most things from scratch at home and love it. I love cooking so it is fun. The best investments I have made are my bread machine, food sealer, and my freezer. I love going to the butcher too.
I make my own powder laundry detergent. I absolutely love the savings. I can't believe how expensive laundry soap is!
Friday is pizza night in our house too.

how do you make powder laundry detergent? never heard of that! wow!

 

[tschales]

I make my own cleaning soaps (laundry, dishes, bathroom) rather than buying them. They are much cheaper and more environmentally friendly.

 

[Laura24]

Dunkin' donuts and take my own tea in my travel mug every morning!Oh, and I make my own lunch instead of buying out.

 

[The Princess]

We make our own pizza. I used to make the dough but now I just go to a local Italian bakery order 25 pounds of dough come home weigh it out into 1 1/2 pound packages then freeze it. We also make a huge pot of pizza sauce (family recipe) and freeze that too!!! Lately we've been making pizza on the grill. It is so good. It probably cost us $1.00 or less for each pizza..better than $20.00 a pizza!

 

[ChrisinNJ]

For fun on a budget, we take adavntage of our local park system & beaches. We have excellent parks where we play on the playground, walk, bike/scooter ride, go fishing, and play in the sprayground (sprinkler park) all for FREE! We pack a lunch & go.

We also went peach & raspberry picking this week, and tomorrow we will make peach jam to last us the year. In Sept/ Oct we will go apple picking & then make applesauce. My kids love these family activities.

Our closest beach is 15 minutes away, it costs me $8.00, the kids are free, but we often go in the evening once they stop charging just to collect shells, fly a kite & walk in the sand. There is no boardwalk, so no begging for rides & games, just beach!

 

[StitchBuddy]

First, I leave DD13 home!! LOL! That saves me from buying any extras.

Second, I take out $100 cash each week for groceries. I try to only buy what's on sale and go from there to plan meals. I put any money left over in my mad money stash.

 

[Evi]

I don't know how much of an impact on my budget this has had but I've stopped using paper towels and purchased high absorbent cloths that I wash. I still keep a roll or two around for stuff I wouldn't want to have to wash. Also baking soda and vinegar I use it to scrub tub, sinks and toilet. Also purchased a washable shower curtain no longer throwing out and buying the plastic ones. Those would have to be my current favorites.

 

[sasywtch]

Gardening. I grow a lot of tomatoes, boil for one minute, peel the skin, smash and may put in garlic salt, fresh basil or whatever and freeze in freezer bags to use in spagh"etti, chili, or soup. I freeze shredded zucchini for muffins/bread. I just tried spaghetti squash and love it but won't pay $6 for one when I can grow it for 30 cents. The best part is, my 5 year old grandson is eating squash, eggplant and other things just because he helped grow it. Oh green beans also. In the earlier months I grew red lettuce for the first time and had fresh salad every day.

I clean with bleach and comet type only as my bf has a chemical allergy. I have never found one of those "this beats all cleaner"--that costs $5.98 to beat a little comet, baking soda or bleach.

I love yard sales and second hand stores. I have much more fun finding a good buy then shopping in a store where there are 20 of the same kind. I use to find new Levi's for $1 sometimes. When my kids got to the teen years and refused to wear secondhand clothes, I came home, washed them, hid them in the back of their drawer and someday said....oh look, you must have forgotten about these.

I price insurance every 6 months during renewal time. I just saved $30 a month changing (both major insurance companies).

 

[rrconnelly]

I love the library too! When my children were young, I used to take them for the weekly story hour and craft time. My children are 13 and 14 now,, but we still go there to borrow books, movies, and our favorite are the museum passes. The passes include art museums, museum of science, the aquarium, state parks, etc. The passes allow you to visit these places for free or steeply discounted prices. They are great!

 

[charming23]

I have rediscovered the library and love it. It might take a bit but I love getting new movies from there for movie nights.

 

[santa's surpriz]

We got to Petland and pet the puppies!

 

[worm761]

Another good one is Home Depot and Lowes have the free crafts the kids can do. Mine is too old to do them now but he had fun when he could. We also do the Micheal's make and take crafts. They usually on cost $5 each and we have a ton of fun.

I am making beef stew today all from leftovers! When we have a roast, I take the extra stock/broth/juicy goodness, leftover meat, potatoes and veggies and throw them in a ziploc. Today I pulled out two of them, put them in the crockpot and will make dinner rolls from scratch when we get home this afternoon. Since everything is leftovers that equals free to me and the veggies were leftovers, free again. The rolls cost about 50 cents to make so that is a super cheap dinner!

 

[maleficentmom]

please post your thrifty roll recipe!

 

[TobiasFunke]

Ice Cream at a burger joint in-town is our favorite weekend activity. We can usually do it for $4 and it is a great get out of the house time for us.

 

[maleficentmom]

We save by buying cheaper detergent(purex,all, arm and ham. etc)on sale and i use it for anything not really dirty(towels,sheets, darks) and I buy Tide powder HE for around $11 for 80 loads at Walmart (plus coupon),for anything stained or really dirty.(found that the arm and hammer does pretty well on stains too).Hang up all my darks/gentle cycle clothes to dry,run full loads as much as possible all cold water,except towels/sheets.Run d/w only when full and I skip the dry option.Try to keep groceries between 75-100 weekly, unless i am doing stock-up(sometimes sams,sometimes kroger,like last week they had sara lee bread,goldfish crackers,and lots of produce for $1). Use Disney card or Discover and pay off each month. Joined insurance group called Modern Woodman,that foots part of the bill for dining out at their monthly(or more) outings.Utilize the library program over summer(kids got lots of free goodies).Bought AP pass for Universal to save on hotel there(will make 2 trips at least to make it really worth while).Use "good ole country vet" in next town to save money on vet bills,plus they are really good.Try to have only 1 car payment at a time,then go as long as possible w/out one.Buy used when possible.Yard sales.Buy prem. gas at midgrade price on fridays at food city,plus cents off w/ shoppers card.Myrtle Beach trips for a cheap vacation.

 

[maleficentmom]

oh yeah,and I pack lunches for kids/hubby,use entertainment book, sunshine rewards when shopping online, buy an AHS home warranty each year($450 but saved me tons on heat pump),get All You mag. for coupons, I think one of the best things to do is shop around before you buy anything significant...our biggest things we need to save on/cut back on are eating out,travel and entertainment expenses...thankful for the disboards to help me with those things.

 

[worm761]

please post your thrifty roll recipe!

I have several that I rotate between. The reason they cost so little is buy the ingredients in bulk. So if you are buying the ingredients at your regular grocery store, your cost may be different.
I have all sorts of recipes on my blog: http://disneytravelingfamily.blogspot.com/ They are not organized yet. I am still learning how to do the blog thing. The Soft Sandwich Rolls makes really good dinner rolls too. Just shape then into dinner rolls.