Your Simple Random Money Generators/Savers-

[DnA2010]

Given that we are into 2016 and a lot of people are starting fresh with finances, I thought it might be nice to throw out some of our own money saving/generation ideas-

Mine has been using a local 24/hr facebook bidding site to sell stuff we no longer need and buy stuff we do use at great prices. I have sold a ton of stuff we didn't need and I hadn't got around to getting rid of and got some great deals on gifts that I would have spent much more on (ie for Christmas DD11's main gift was a guitar and case that I bought for $40 that is like new- that sort of thing)
People are paying me to take away the stuff I need to get rid of anyways!

So what are some of your randoms?

 

[hollypoast]

Super simple-- I only use half the laundry detergent that the bottle says is required per load. My clothes always come out clean anyway.

 

[Tay N Evie's Mom]

I do envelopes for miscellaneous stuff. I have twins and they went to band camp every year at a cost of $220 each. So, I would put $10 a paycheck in an envelope and would have enough to cover one of the fees each year. I have a perpetual envelope that I use for our annual NYE dinner and our anniversary dinner in July. When we go to WDW or DCL, I save $5 a paycheck for spending money for the kids. I usually have 4-6 envelopes going at any given time and it usually only takes $20-25 out of the paychecks each payday. It works for us and it's a painless way to save.

 

[barkley]

Super simple-- I only use half the laundry detergent that the bottle says is required per load. My clothes always come out clean anyway.

works great for me too!

we use dollar store 'awesome orange' spray cleaner and their floor cleaner-a fraction of the cost and every bit as good if not better than name brand.

we have one bank account named 'reserve' and we auto transfer in a set amount monthly for all non monthly expenses. this way I can pay the car and homeowner's insurance in full when they are due-saves me the $5 'convenience' fees that insurance charges for monthly billing statements=$120 per year.

 

[DisneyMandC]

works great for me too!

we use dollar store 'awesome orange' spray cleaner and their floor cleaner-a fraction of the cost and every bit as good if not better than name brand.

we have one bank account named 'reserve' and we auto transfer in a set amount monthly for all non monthly expenses. this way I can pay the car and homeowner's insurance in full when they are due-saves me the $5 'convenience' fees that insurance charges for monthly billing statements=$120 per year.

All of those Awesome products really are awesome! My mom got one of them to clean the outside of her RV and it looked amazing afterwards, I couldn't believe she'd gotten it from the Dollar Tree.

I use apps like Ibotta, Saving Star, Checkout 51, and Snap to save money on groceries. It's not much, but it adds up over time. I know some people don't like having to scan the products and receipts, but to me it's like a fun little game to see how much I can get back each shopping trip!

 

[writermommy6]

I love to eat out so instead of going cold turkey(which always leaving me crashing and burning) I give myself a cash allowance of $10 a week. This put me at deciding what "special" outing is worth my $10.

 

[robinb]

Super simple-- I only use half the laundry detergent that the bottle says is required per load. My clothes always come out clean anyway.

You can also just take a sharpie and mark where the recommended minimum is ... which is about half of where the bottle top is marked with the heavy ridge.

 

[biminibigblue]

I love to eat out so instead of going cold turkey(which always leaving me crashing and burning) I give myself a cash allowance of $10 a week. This put me at deciding what "special" outing is worth my $10.

We are really focused on dining out less this year, too... we were going out about 10 times a week.... horrible, I know! There are 4 of us so we're having one dinner out a week with a $40. limit and each person gets to pick where we go once a month.
Also, I earn on average a $10.00 e-gift card each month using the mplaces app on my phone. Not a lot of money but it adds up.

 

[Deffenm]

My goal for 2016 is to stick to my budget. I struggle with groceries. My goal is to spend $150 a week on groceries. If I spend less whatever that amount is will go into savings for 2017 trip to WDW. We are also only going to eat out once a month. For a family of 5 it costs us at least $60 to eat out. That is $60 that could go towards our WDW trip. We have a ton of books and movies that I will take to a place here that will buy them. I am trying to do more survey's as well for extra money. I would love to be able to pay deposit for WDW vacation with "found" money (not coming from our bank account).

 

[writermommy6]

Has anyone ever used the boards for inspiration to launch a side biz? My SIL and BIL are taking my niece to WDW in February and I offered to make her a bag in the fabric of her choice to use as her Disney bag. (She's not really a purse kinda girl). So that got me to thinking that maybe I could use my huge fabric stash to make and sell bags on etsy or ebay to earn some Disney money. Anyone else do this kinda thing?

 

[Gigi22]

You can also just take a sharpie and mark where the recommended minimum is ... which is about half of where the bottle top is marked with the heavy ridge.

The repairman who came to fix my stacked HE Maytag told me I should only use 1 tablespoon of liquid HE detergent per full load, so I relocated a jigger to the laundry room to measure detergent!

 

[Eureka]

I do envelopes for miscellaneous stuff. I have twins and they went to band camp every year at a cost of $220 each. So, I would put $10 a paycheck in an envelope and would have enough to cover one of the fees each year. I have a perpetual envelope that I use for our annual NYE dinner and our anniversary dinner in July. When we go to WDW or DCL, I save $5 a paycheck for spending money for the kids. I usually have 4-6 envelopes going at any given time and it usually only takes $20-25 out of the paychecks each payday. It works for us and it's a painless way to save.

I do something similar but I have "savings lines" in quicken. I put aside certain amounts every paycheck for things like the kids' sports/activities, the cat's shots, new glasses, etc. So then I don't have to come up with a big chunk each time. Except for now, when the bills are coming in from an emergency surgery I had. Lol, didn't plan for that one.

 

[toystoryduo]

We try to use cash when we can. When we get change back for our purchases, we check the $1 bills to see if there is a "D" (for Disney) or "F" (for Florida) Federal Reserve Seal on them. If so, we put those $1 bills in an envelope and deposit them into our Disney savings account at the end of each month. We also have two separate change jars for silver coins and pennies as well.

 

[Jake&IzzyLand]

My goal for 2016 is to stick to my budget. I struggle with groceries. My goal is to spend $150 a week on groceries. If I spend less whatever that amount is will go into savings for 2017 trip to WDW. We are also only going to eat out once a month. For a family of 5 it costs us at least $60 to eat out. That is $60 that could go towards our WDW trip. We have a ton of books and movies that I will take to a place here that will buy them. I am trying to do more survey's as well for extra money. I would love to be able to pay deposit for WDW vacation with "found" money (not coming from our bank account).

This is what I have budgeted for my 5 for groceries, some weeks are easier than others. I would get so upset spending 60 bucks on eating out on often sup par food. I save dinner out for my husband and me only, or treat the kids on a family day. Mini golf plus pizza or something similar.

The hardest to give up was Sunday after church. But it made the most sense. It takes pennies to make pancakes and I do it simply on a griddle, throw in some eggs and fruit and bacon and it's a fraction of the cost.

For dinners I have a rotation of favorites that I know the general cost of and then a few times a month I make something from a different culture, or a little more fancy.

For instance I made fresh pasta with homemade sauce, arugula and fennel salad and warmed italian bread and served with olive tapenade. I opened a nice bottle of red and we finished our dinner with some cookies and chocolates. Amazing if I say so myself. I can only imagine how much that would have been out- especially the wine. Doing this allows us to linger over dinner as well.

 

[Sagginit]

I use apps like Ibotta, Saving Star, Checkout 51, and Snap to save money on groceries. It's not much, but it adds up over time. I know some people don't like having to scan the products and receipts, but to me it's like a fun little game to see how much I can get back each shopping trip!

I used Ibotta too and Cartwheel. I saved big with Ibotta for xmas gifts. I got a total of $42 in rewards in 3 days for those cashback at store offers. the $5 back on $10 at hallmark was awesome! I can't seem to get any of my friends to join which is silly since they all shop at Sephora and Sephora almost always has a cashback deal.

The hallmark near my office is going out of business and everything is 50% off, I spent an hour in there and stocked up on the cards I could find (the place was picked over fast). this was an hour spent to save me 50% off each item as I would have needed those cards anyway.

I have a bunch of clothes to get rid of and they are going to ThredUP or being posted to a facbook site to sell. Every time I think about buying something in these after Xmas sales I think of that pile in my spare bedroom lol.

My husband and me just moved in together. We still are going to have date nights but since we go home to the same place now we can eat at home a lot more. I also now have leftovers for my lunch more often which is a painless way for us to save.

 

[lttlmc3]

I'm another person who uses basically half the amount that is suggested. It saves a lot on laundry detergent, dish washing detergent, etc.

 

[barkley]

just did this last night, might see odd but it works for us.

I buy movies vs. going to see them at the theatre. the way I see it for dh and I to go to the movies it costs AT MINIMUM $22 for tickets (non 3-D) and 2 gallons of gas (we live remotely from any movie theatres) so before we even buy a small drink or snack it's about $27-with even shared snacks over $40. I know it doesn't seem like much but it kills me to pay this for just being able to watch a movie ONCE. I therefore wait until the movies I really want to see (but aren't available on our premium channels) come out for sale. i'll look to see if they are available on pay per view but if the price is somewhat comparable i'll just buy the movie outright.

last night I ordered 3 newer movies (2-2015 oscar nominee/winners, 1-2016 golden globe nominee/likely oscar contender) that cost me in total (with tax/shipping free through prime)-$50.99. so for just a little more than one visit to the local movie theatre runs me-I have 3 movies. movies we'll likely watch more than once eating the same stuff we get at the movie theatre or better for a fraction of the cost, movies we can lend to others to do the same with.

 

[Marla Hellwig]

I get movies from our library.

I have a Mickey Mouse piggy bank that all of my change goes into, had about 60.00 mad money for my last WDW trip and about 80 for Alaska cruise the year before.

 

[Ning Ning]

Something I've done for many years now - back in 2008/2009, the highest I paid for gas was $3.99 per gallon. Once it started going down, I would multiply the number of gallons bought by the difference between $3.99 and the price I paid (ex. $3.99 - 3.49 = $0.50 x 12.7 gal. = $6.35). I opened a separate savings account titled "Vacation Fund" and deposited that amount into that account. I save all my gas tickets and make the deposit on a monthly basis. For December 2015, I saved $173.11 and I only spent about $100 on gas. My total savings for 2015 were over $1600. I've paid for quite a few vacations this way.

I figure I would have been spending the money on gas if the price was still $3.99, so it's better to put it in savings to use for fun later on.

 

[barkley]

I get movies from our library.

I have a Mickey Mouse piggy bank that all of my change goes into, had about 60.00 mad money for my last WDW trip and about 80 for Alaska cruise the year before.

I wish our library had some decent titles (and to check out/take back still runs us about 2 gallons of gas).

we've got one of those big plastic water cooler jugs that we toss our change into-it's amazing how it adds up over time. when I was still working and commuting I recycled one of those glass lipton ice tea bottles to sit in one of the two cup holders in my car-all my spare change went into it and when it got near full it would get emptied into the jug. it all adds up (and thankfully our credit union cashes in change for free-I hate paying those awful 'coinstar' fees or having to roll coins).