Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Thursday Thirteen #7 - Random ways to save money


Head on over to Thursday Thirteen to join in the fun!

1. Eat at home. Of course, this requires more planning. We've saved nearly $200 a month by not eating out.

2. Couponing. WARNING! Use coupons wisely. It's real easy to buy something just to say you made a bargain. Real bargain on that cat food--never mind you don't have a cat!

3. Dollar store. Bragging here, but the other day they had Sara Lee ww bread and bagels for $1 each. And I'm not talking day old's. When bread in the store is nearly up to $4.00 a loaf, you can bet you'll find me Tuesday mornings at the dollar store stocking up.

4. Make your own cleaning products. Baking soda, Vinegar, Borax. Just do a search on these and you'll find great cleaning recipes.

5. Garage sales. Need I say more?

6. Second hand stores. Great stuff. Great prices.

7. Ebay. WARNING! Know when to quit. Set your top price and walk away. If you're not careful this can turn into a 'gambling' issue. On the other hand, and exercising self-control, you can buy some great product. I buy nearly all of my husband's clothing on Ebay.

8. Library. Free magazines, free books, free, free, free...

9. Once-a-month cooking, or bi-weekly, or roll-over cooking. Just takes some planning.

10. Buying what you need more than what you want. Discerning needs vs. wants is the key.

11. After-holiday sales. Not just talking candy here.

12. Recycling printer paper. Think how much you could save just by printing on both sides of the paper.

13. This is a fun one: Make your own microwave popcorn! Buy a package of brown paper lunch bags. Throw in 1/3 cup popping corn. Fold top over twice and gray tape shut. Microwave on popcorn setting (1 minute 40 secs or so) This way you can add the butter and salt to suit your needs.
It All Good!

17 comments:

  1. I love saving money and your ideas are awesome. I love the how you mentioned eating at home. I've heard it saves between 5 to 10 thousand a year depending on where you eat out. Thats amazing to me. That is a great popcorn tip. I have never heard of that method before. Thanks a lot for all the great tips. It is all good.

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  2. What great ideas. Thanks for sharing your tips.

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  3. Great tips for saving $$$. I had to smile about the hint on popcorn. Years before the commercial bagged popcorn was introduced we did the brown paper bag way of popping at work.

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  4. Hello, the tips are great. My husband is the coupon clipper, but then I go through them and throw out half of the stuff because we don't even use that product!! LOL!! At least he's trying bless his heart!

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  5. Very good tips - I'm always looking for new ways to be thrifty.
    Thanks!

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  6. Thanks for sharing your money-saving "how-to's". Great ideas! I just have one question: How do I stay away from Michael's and Joann's when they lure me in every single week with their coupons and ads for stuff I simply "have to have"! lol
    I love your sparkly words on your sidebar. I went to the site but couldn't seem to figure out how to use them. I'm very computer-challenged. Oh, well. Hope you're having a wonderful week.
    :) Brenda

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  7. A Goodwill store JUST opened up near my house and I bought a few pairs of pants (store tags still on them)for $3.99 each! Can't beat that. I'm always trying to save money. I even take some cheezy online surveys to get gift cards and/or small cash rebates!

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  8. And now that the weather is starting to warm up...plant a garden!

    Great list.

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  9. These are great tips! Thanks for sharing this!

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  10. Brenda, regarding what you said at Hostage Central aka My blog, I will keep you in my prayers. Sounds like a tough situation.

    I like your money saving tips. I have a hard time with the library one though - I forget to take them back and have to pay fines.

    Jennifer

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  11. Great ideas and helps. I like the pop corn one especially.
    Susan

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  12. Really good and practical list. We are missionaries and never know what our income will be so we live this way all the time.

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  13. brenda,we eat at home just about all of the time when we do go out it is to go visit with my family or hers.

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  14. Great tips Brenda. The first one is a killer for us, we love to eat out but we are trying to do the same thing here. Thanks for sharing.

    Hugs,
    LeAnn :)

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  15. Hi Brenda,

    Very nice post for today. I do print on both sides of printer paper. I do several others that you mentioned.

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  16. I'm definitely working on number 1. My budget is out-of-whack, almost entirely because I'm too lazy to eat at home. Per meal, it doesn't make a whole lot of difference for one person (if you figure $5 for Chick-fil-a and $3 for a meal at home), but it adds up!

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  17. Hi Brenda,

    Your weight tracker looks good. You were smarter than me in that you didn't post your present weight when starting but only posted the number of pounds you need to loose. Fifteen pounds was what I needed to lose, and actually I'm now almost 4 pounds from goal as I gained some weight while I was gone to Ohio for a few days.

    For me, keeping the tracker at the top of my blog must made me accountable to all who visited me. I hope the tracker will help you in this way.

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Thanks for taking the time to visit with me. I enjoy your comments very much. :)