Welcome to How I Save Money. Today we have a guest post from The Freebie Blogger who has been so gracious to write for me while I am off taking care of my mother.
In my early days I was not much of a saver. If there was a contest for who could charge up a credit card the fastest, I would have no competition. But in the past few years I have started to change. I now realize that the life I want can’t be bought … but it can be saved . I (like everyone) want the perfect life. For me, the perfect life means having kids and staying at home, not working our fingers to the bone hoping we can pay our bills.
But how can I achieve this? An additional family member, one less income, and all of our current bills … here is how I’m doing it!
- My husband works 15 minutes of overtime each day = $150 mo.
- With no job so I save on gas = $120
- I quit smoking = $100
- Quitting smoking got rid of my heartburn, so no more Prilosec = $30
- Got rid of old phone service and switched to Skype = $25
- Only go out to dinner once a week (no more weekly fast food lunch or ice cream dessert) and try to use a coupon = $80
- Saving on groceries and household items (shopping sales, using coupons, sending in rebates, exploiting ECBs at CVS and SCRs at Rite-Aid, signing up for freebies, only shopping once a week, sticking to my list, shopping at discount stores, making meals for more than one day …) = $200
- Not buying something just because I am bored = $50
How am I doing so far? The amount I am now saving each month makes up for what I made last year working a part-time job. I am still just a beginner but I hope that the longer I do this the more additional ways I’ll find to save and my dream will come true!
If you enjoyed this post please visit the Freebie Blogger and show some love.
(Remember to enter the drawing for a FREE Gas card from How I Save Money to lower YOUR gas bill in July.)
Wow! It sounds like you’ve make a lot of great changes! I’m going to cut my income in half next month….I’m going to have a rough adjustment period…because I can’t imagine giving up anything!
Well if you cannot imagine totally giving something up can you do a reduction in how much you use of it? That would make for an easier transition and would help you save money as well.
In my case I love pizza…but instead of totally cutting it out I budgeted where I could only order pizza once for the month. Once that money is gone there is no more pizza. I have noticed that some months I don’t even order so I ended up saving that money. 🙂
I’ve noticed that the signing up for daily freebies helps a lot with the monthly grocery bill, especially the completely free stuff
Saving Diva,
The cuts don’t seem as hard when you start making a game out of it. It is now fun for me to see just how little I can spend. I used to get a mocha from Starbucks everytime I left the house. Now the thought of paying $4 for a coffee makes me sick to my stomach. Some cuts are easier than others. Start small … and work your way up.
Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog. 🙂 Cheers! Sandra. R.