Here are 10 EASY ways to save money that can make a huge impact on your family budget and leave you with money for the things that are most important.
Here are 10 EASY Ways To Save Money Everyday!
1. Find it free.
If I need something, I always, always ask friends, family and neighbors first to make sure they’re not trying to get rid of the thing I need. When we move, we sell almost all of our furniture.
Here are some things I’ve gotten free:
- 2 sets of tables and chairs
- cabinets
- shelves
- rugs
- beds
- coffee tables
- end tables
- shipping table (for our books)
- couches
- chairs
- desks
- tons of free kids clothes and shoes
We once moved into a house in a new housing development. Just by asking the workers, we were able to get:
- free sod leftovers for our back yard (enough to do the entire yard)
- free 120 square foot cement slab for our shed
- free wood for our large shed
- rocks for our landscape
- containers for my plants
If we see something that we need sitting on the curb, we go up to the door and ask if they are getting rid of it. (That’s usually a sign they’re getting rid of it.) So far, they’ve said yes every time!
So ask and you might get it for free!
2. Buy used.
We buy ninety percent of the items we buy at thrift stores, garage sales or off of Facebook Marketplace. When I couldn’t get it for free, I bought most of my furniture used because I have four kids and kids are hard on furniture. If the kids ruined a $50 couch, I didn’t feel nearly as bad about it as I would have if they damaged a $500 couch!
We also bought all of the kids’ clothes used. Why pay $15 for a pair of jeans when you can get them for $2, especially when they grow out of them quickly! (And those retail prices were 10 years ago prices!) Buy used and it will save you thousands of dollars each year!
3. Don’t go out.
Entertainment is expensive. We rarely did activities where we had to pay. We usually only went to one or two movies in the theater each year. We also didn’t go to plays, ballets or concerts, which often cost $80 or more per person.
This saved us hundreds or thousands of dollars each year. I know those things can be fun but, if you can’t afford it, you shouldn’t be going.
Now that we are in a better financial situation, we do a little more than we used to, but we still don’t go crazy with the high prices entertainment.
My husband used to get free tickets for a lot of these events. It was amazing how many people seemed to get stressed out about the event because of how much they paid for the tickets, especially when their kids didn’t enjoy the events as much as mom and dad expected.
Are those things really worth the stress it causes you?
4. Stop eating out!!
American families will easily spend $700-$800 per month just eating out. I know a lot of people who spend WAY more than that! Stop eating out! If you have to buy convenience items and use papers plates, it’s still much cheaper than eating out!
5. Stop shopping!
Only go to the store when you actually need an item. Don’t go to the store just to browse or entertain yourself. When you go shopping and buy food out, you can easily spend $100 just feeding your family, not to mention the hundreds of dollars that most people waste buying things they don’t really need.
Back when my oldest child was 14 years old and mall shopping was popular, my kids had only been to a mall four times in their lives.
You will save thousands of dollars if you only shop when you actually need something.
6. We don’t often travel or take vacations.
We took the kids to Silver Dollar City for three days for the first time in 2010 when our oldest son was 12. That was the first “real” vacation our kids have had. We had a blast and loved the vacation but, up until then, we just couldn’t afford to pay cash for a vacation. When we lived in Kansas, we spent most of our vacation time visiting and staying with family in Colorado.
The $10,000-$30,000 that many families spend on vacations, trips and weekend outings each year can go a LONG way toward paying off debt. (Of course, if your finances aren’t tight and you don’t have to borrow, there is nothing wrong with taking a vacation.)
7. I cut the boys’ hair.
My daughter and I did have our hair cut professionally, but each month I cut all four boys’ hair and before I let me hair go gray I used to color my own hair. The 20 minutes I spent cutting the boys’ hair once a month saved us $720 each year, which would be closer to $1100 a year now! Beauty schools are a great place to go for inexpensive hair cuts and perms, especially if you are afraid to color or perm your own hair. Yes, you can perm your own hair. Years ago, almost everyone did.
8. We don’t drink alcohol, soda, juice or milk.
I rarely buy juice and milk just goes on cereal. As a general rule, we don’t drink juice or milk on a regular basis. I might buy juice five or six times a year and when our youngest son was a toddler, he would maybe drink three or four half cup glasses of milk per week, but that’s it. I knew one family with a mom, dad and an 18 month old and the family drank one gallon of milk EVERY DAY!!!! Really?? That adds up to over $1200 a year just for milk!!
9. No Starbucks.
None! If you spend $8 a day at a coffee shop, that adds up to almost $3,000 a year!! For coffee???? Hello??? And how many Starbucks lovers think nothing of grabbing a muffin to go with that coffee?
The final #1 Super Easy Trick that never fails.
10. If you can’t pay cash for something, don’t buy it.
Period! Really! Yes, we do use our credit cards but we make sure we have the cash on hand before ordering something and we pay it off right away. If you can’t pay cash for your vacation, new car, clothes, kids activities, school fundraisers, new furniture, cable, food and eating out then DON’T BUY IT! PERIOD! If you don’t have the cash on hand, you shouldn’t be going into to debt to buy things. Resisting the temptation to borrow is the biggest money saver of them all!
Go back to the old way of working and saving for something you need instead of charging something and then frantically working, hoping you can make enough to pay for what you have already spent PLUS an outrageous amount of interest.
Don’t believe that little voice in the back of your head or anyone else that might tell you that you simply can’t live debt free these days and that you must use credit cards because “things are different”. They aren’t any different. The same basic principles apply. You always have to pay the piper. Just choose NOT to pay the piper with interest!
-Tawra
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