Budget Saving Tips

Our Budget Saving Birthday Party

November 17, 2010 By Budget Saving Mom Leave a Comment

My beautiful grandmother turned 86 yesterday! That definitely called for a celebration. We wanted to take her somewhere nice, but still stay within our budget. I am really excited about the deal we got for dinner! We went to Lone Star Steak House last night for dinner. There were 15 of us eating there. Our total bill before tip was only $76.49. That is only $5.10 a person & we all had steak (except my healthy hubby who had a chicken sandwich.)

How did we all eat so cheap? Well, we did our research before we went. There were NO advertised specials in the store. However, we had gone online before hand and found their sales. My mom actually pulled up their website on her cell phone so that we would know what we could order. All of the couples ordered 2 entrees and one appetizer to split for $20. 2 kids eat free for each adult. The server actually argued this point and said it was 1 child per adult, but it didn’t matter since we had one adult there for each child. (-: He wasn’t rude, but I didn’t have to push the point since we had enough adults. Also, we brought our cake in and ate it on our plates our meals and appetizers were on to avoid a plate charge for dessert.

So, appetizer, meals (steaks) and a dessert for only $5.10 a person before tip. Pretty great, huh! Plus my Granny who doesn’t like us to spend a ton of money on her was still able to get a really nice meal. Yay for kids nights and sales!!

Filed Under: Budget Saving Tips

Free Dental Floss

November 3, 2010 By Budget Saving Mom Leave a Comment

There is a new $1/1 Reach dental floss coupon available. You can find this dental floss for less than a dollar at Walmart – making FREE dental floss! Yay!! I love free!!

More budget saving freebies

More budget saving coupons
Thanks, Bargain Briana!
May contain affiliate links

My Budget Saving Life – Part 11 Organic, Healthy Eating

October 4, 2010 By Budget Saving Mom 6 Comments

I wanted to go through and share with you guys about how I have tried to live frugally over the past 12-13 years, plus how I was raised to live frugally. I have learned to live on very little and on much. I have made plenty of mistakes along the way that I have learned from. I figure that everyone will probably be able to relate to some portion of this series, be it through a job loss where you have almost no income, having some income, but barely scraping by, or having plenty of income, but still choosing to live frugally and be good stewards of what God has blessed us with.

If you missed my previous posts, you can catch up here:

As you guys have seen as I have gone through my life over the past few years, there have been many times that I have been thankful for any freebies that I can get. I have not been particularly picky or loyal to any brand so that I can get most items FREE or at rock bottom prices.

However, about a year and a half ago our family decided to make several life style changes to improve our eating habits. I still wanted to be able to feed my family inexpensively, however, I also wanted to eat as many whole foods and organic foods as possible. We slowly began implementing these changes. I did not want to get overwhelmed or quit our new life style, so I just made changes one at a time.

First, I wanted to eat more whole foods. I wanted to make sure that my family ate plenty or organic fruits and veggies. When I grew up, we always had a garden. We started trying to grow most of the produce that we ate ourselves. This way we were able to ensure that our produce was not exposed to pesticides or herbicides. We are fortunate to live in an area that allows us to grow fresh fruits and vegetables almost year round. We also began to preserve our food so that we could have canned, dehydrated and frozen foods to use year round. This allowed us to spend very little money throughout the year on produce. Since produce is a big part of our diet, we were able to save much money on our diet.

For produce that we are not able to grow, I try to buy it locally when it is in season. This is what we do each year for apples. Although we have a few apple trees, we eat many more apples than we are able to grow. So, I always try to buy apples when they are at their lowest price. We dehydrate apples for snacks throughout the year, and can the apples as well. This way we are able to enjoy them year round.

I also tried to grow most of the herbs that we use on a regular basis so that we could enjoy them fresh, and dry them to use in the winter months.

The next thing that I decided to do was start baking our own bread. I wanted to grind our own wheat so that there were more nutrients in our bread. I started buying wheat berries in bulk to save money. We were able to get good deals on wheat berries by going in with other families, and making a bulk order different places. We have bought wheat berries from different online bulk stores, Amish stores, and local mills.

We wanted to be able to eat organic meat as well. We have free range chickens that provide us with meat and eggs. Also, we have bought an organic cow with other families to reduce our price per pound. We have been able to eat organic meat much more affordably this way.

The other way that I have been affording organic items that I really want, but can’t justify the expense, is through Swagbucks. I have bought Quinoa, rye, and all sorts of other fun items that I have wanted to try out for FREE using my Amazon cards purchased from Swagbucks.

There are also many coupons that we can use for organic items each week.

After we began eating healthier, I also started looking for ways to reduce the chemicals that we were using. I started using homemade cleaners (baking soda and vinegar) nothing too exciting. This also helped to save money.

How do you guys save money on healthy items?

May contain affiliate links

Filed Under: Budget Saving Tips Tagged With: Healthy Eating, My Budget Saving Life – Part 11 Organic

My Budget Saving Life – Part 10 Being Real

September 30, 2010 By Budget Saving Mom 4 Comments

If you missed my previous posts, you can catch up here:

My last post was about how I shopped all of the deals, stockpiled for my family and saved us tons of money. This was easy for me to do while staying home with my family, and while I was not pregnant.

One of the main questions that people ask me is, “Do you do every deal that we see on your site? You must have tons of things in your house. Where do you store it all?”

Here is my answer:

No, I definitely do not do every deal that I post on my site. There is no way that I possibly could. My family’s tastes are different than your family’s tastes. We enjoy different things than you do. We have different needs as well. I only buy what my family needs. I have a small pantry, and a couple of three foot shelves where I store the items that we have. Paper goods go in the garage.

However, I think the real problem with that question is that sometimes as bloggers we can get put up on a pedestal. It looks like we have everything together, and are always perfect to some readers. Those of you that no me personally know that I am definitely NOT perfect. (-:

So, this is my being real post. We have four wonderful children. I was able to have our first child without any major complications. However, our next three children were not as easy. With our second daughter, I was on bedrest from 21 weeks until I delivered. I was actually in a wheelchair and could not even walk. I did not eat for months, and I was not able to cook for my family or shop at all during those months. Fortunately, I had quite a few items already stockpiled, and we were still able to make it without having to spend a ton of extra money. I also had friends and family help out.

With our third child, I did much better. I knew that I would probably end up on bedrest again. As a result, I made tons of soups and other instant meals that we would be able to eat while I was on bedrest. I also had rebuilt our stockpile between pregnancies. With my third pregnancy, I was really fortunate not to be on bedrest until 28 weeks. I had a wonderful church family that helped us out. Our homeschool group came and cleaned our house, and we had plenty of premade meals to last us through these months. Once again, I was not able to shop for a few months, but I had prepared for that, and it really did not effect us that much.

With this pregnancy (well, this is scheduled to be posted after his birth, so really our most recent pregnancy) I prepared again to be on bedrest. However, this has been by far my least complicated of the last three. However, for about a month or two before he was born, I have honestly been too tired or sick to even think about cooking or shopping. Our expenses have gone WAY up the past few weeks. Usually we only eat out once or twice a week. However, we have been eating out at least a couple of weeknights plus weekends for several weeks now. I have not been able to eat or cook because of my pregnancy. Last week we actually spent a little over $100 eating out. This is WAY over our usual budget. However, I just could not handle smells without getting sick and so my husband took my kids out to supper for me numerous times.

Is this ideal? No. However, at this point in my life it really is a necessity until our son decides to make his appearance. Which, as I am typing this, I am hoping is really soon!! (-: I had made precooked meals, but I wasn’t prepared to not be able to handle the smell of food.

I think that we can have really high expectations of ourselves sometimes that are unrealistic for our circumstances. Rather than comparing ourselves to others, I think that we can all just do that best that we can for our family. There are some times in my life when I can do better than other times at saving money. This is just a part of life. You know your family best. There is no reason to try to push yourself too hard. It is OK if you miss a few deals. They will still be there when your life gets back to normal and you are ready to tackle them again.

So, to sum up. Yes, I do know how to save tons of money. Yes, I can live on only a few dollars a week and provide food and toiletries for my family. However, I am NOT even close to perfect. I don’t shop all the time. I step back when needed. I am also able to step back because of the times in my life when I do shop all of the deals.

I hope that this post was helpful to put a little less pressure on trying to be perfect!

My next post will be about how to live on a budget AND be healthy!

Filed Under: Budget Saving Tips Tagged With: My Budget Saving Life - Part 10 Being Real

My Budget Saving Life – Part 9 Becoming An Extreme Couponer

September 28, 2010 By Budget Saving Mom 14 Comments

If you missed my previous posts, you can catch up here:

When I began to stay home full time, I had already been couponing and saving money for years. I had my coupon notebooks set up, and a great coupon stash already. I also had a nice stockpile of items already, as a result, I only had to buy free items most weeks. We grow most of our produce year round, and can it as well. We also raise our own chickens and eggs, and have a local source for milk. As a result, I really only have to buy a few things each week at the store.

I wanted to ensure that I was able to stay home with my kids, and that meant saving as much money as possible on our bills. I do most of the shopping in our family (unless it has to do with electronics), so I really am able to reduce our expenditures through being careful with what we spend.

When I started out couponing, there were still items that I had to buy at the store each week until I was able to get them for free or at rock bottom prices. I think that one of the biggest mistakes that people make when they start couponing, is comparing themselves to others. They expect to be able to immediately start saving 90% on their bills. However, it takes 3-4 months to stock up on coupons so that you are able to do most of the deals that are out there. When you start out couponing, you really need to stick to it for a few months in order to see the rewards. During those months, you will have started buying free items that you will be able to use later. As a result, you won’t have to run to the store because you ran out of lotion, shampoo, deodorant, pasta etc. This is what you want to be able to control through stockpiling. You want to buy these items that are free or at a rock bottom price when they are on sale. You never want to have to pay full price for an item again.

During this time, I brought my coupons with me everywhere that I went. Coupons were my form of currency and how I paid for my purchases. I did not want to go to a store and find a great clearance deal that was not advertised, and not be able to use a coupon to get that item for free if I needed it.

I also want to point out that during this time, I stayed home full time. This meant that I could go to six stores in a week and stock up on the deals. I live in a very convenient location. I would always plan out my shopping trip before I went out. I pulled my coupons for each store, and could get in and out of most stores in about 10 minutes. I only went shopping for the deals that I knew about, and then if I had time, I would look for clearance deals. I was usually able to finish shopping for the week in 2-3 hours. For more information about how I shopped with 3 (sometimes 6) young children, you can read my post here.

What exactly do I mean by stockpiling? This will be different for each family. Each family has their own tastes, and uses different amounts of items. When I am stockpiling items, I try to stock up on items that I know my family will use in 6 months. I know that we eat rice almost every day. We have extended family over quite often, and I include them in my calculations. I know that we only eat pasta about once a week at the most. Therefore, I really only need about 30 boxes of pasta at the most to last us for six months. I know that both of these are items that I am able to get FREE in our area the majority of the year. Therefore, I make certain that I only buy them when I am able to get them for free, and I just keep up with how many I have.

I also use items that I am able to get for FREE. There are weeks when yogurt is free. I buy lots of yogurt. My family eats it every day. Then I make sure to freeze it before it’s expiration date to use in smoothies to last us until the next time that yogurt is free.

I live in an area where we often have triple coupon sales. This really helps me to be able to stockpile items. When I first started couponing, I saw that you really can get most items free or close to free when you look at the sales. I was out of razors, however, I was so determined not to buy more razors since I figured that they would eventually be free. So, I used my very dull razor for a month. At the end of the month, I was amazed. All of these stores had FREE razors!! I stocked up big time that week on razors. Razors are one thing that I try to always make sure that I have enough of. Those are SO expensive if you don’t buy them on sale. Once you are used to paying a small amount of money for items or getting the item for free, it will be much harder for you to buy an item at full price.

We ran out of diapers one time when we were out. I try to never spend more than $4 on a pack of diapers. I could not believe it when we had to go and spend $12 on ONE pack of diapers. (Now, there is always a back up emergency stash of diapers in our van.) I won’t make that mistake again. (-:

One note about being an extreme couponer: There are tons of great deals out there that people can obtain using coupons the way that they were intended. Using coupons appropriately can be a HUGE blessing to your family and to others that you can give to. However, there are plenty of deals that are out there. There is no reason to ever use a coupon in an inappropriate way or in a way that it was not intended. ALSO, there is no reason to clear out a store. When you shop for deals on a regular basis, you will see that those deals will keep coming up again and again. Sales are cyclical. You will have plenty of chances to snag the next free item. Don’t be greedy when you coupon. Leave some blinkies for others, and don’t buy all of the items in a store. This way you can be a blessing to others as well. I have heard so many people brag about clearing out a store of an item and how I would be proud of them. This just really seems like a form of coupon greed that we really don’t need to have.

I was able to save money through extreme couponing for quite a while. Then I got pregnant with again. My next post will be about pregnancy, and how I am definitely not perfect and always able to shop the deals.

Filed Under: Budget Saving Tips Tagged With: My Budget Saving Life - Part 9 Becoming An Extreme Couponer