It may take a little effort on your end as far as cooperation but sharing certain items with friends and neighbors can save everyone a lot of money. Who knows, it may even help build some relationships with neighbors and friends. The first step would be to make a list of items that you can actually share. Here are just a few ideas we’ve collected, we would love to hear your ideas!
Buy items off-season and save tons!
Savvy shopper know the secret to saving cash year-round. Instead of running to stores when every one else does, smart shoppers shop for items during the off-season. Simple economics state that almost all items are priced based on supply and demand. Lower supply drives prices up, extra supply pushes prices down. My wife is great about buying clothing during the opposite seasons. You can seriously cut your clothing budget in half.
Sometimes it takes some work to figure out which items to buy at what times. Thankfully we scoured the internet and complied a list of items that are usually cheaper in the off-seasons. Give us a few minutes and we will save you some serious cash.
Ready to save some extra cash year-round?
Don’t wast moeny on your children’s enertainment
I I am obviously not telling you to skip entertaining your children. Everyone needs some type of entertainment in their life, especially children. My point is that children need very little to keep them satisfied. From my experience with my own two children you can easily find simple things around the house to keep they busy for hours.
Simple things such as a cardboard box can be turned into a princess castle with fancy windows, crayon colored flowers and baby doll filled rooms. Or do a little cutting and it can just as easily be turned into a race car or big wheel truck. If your children are more of the artistic type find some old newspapers and magazines and let them cut out their favorite foods, toys and games. Paste them onto a big piece of construction board to hang in their room. To us it may sound silly but to a child it will light up their faces and save you cash.
I think parents of get caught up in what they think their kids will enjoy. I remember once my wife planning a fun filled night out of town. We would stay the night in a hotel and get up early the next day and spend the day at the zoo. We spent roughly $100 in gas, $100 in hotel charges, $50 in zoo tickets and even more money in food.
We walked into the gates of the zoo and our 5 year old wanted to know where the rides were. After explaining that we were there just to walk around and look at animals she was very disappointed. Our 2 year old fell asleep about 1.5 hours into the adventure. We walked around for about another hour and everyone was ready to go home.
We did learn that our family wasn’t zoo people but we also learned that we could have saved or hundreds of dollars, stayed in town at our house, went somewhere fun to eat and played family games at home. We would have had much more fun and saved hundreds of dollars.
Turn off the TV, Save Money
No matter how frugal you already are everyone can probably think of at least one way to save a little extra cash each month. Today, try turning off your TV. I know what you may be thinking… my television doesn’t use a lot of electricity. Actually, on average a TV at most costs 4 cents per hour to operate. Sure it adds up but there are other things to consider when watching TV.
Television is completely designed around advertising. A typical 30-minute block of time now includes 22 minutes of programming and eight minutes of television advertisements. Over 25% of television is companies trying to sell you something. Obviously it works or advertisers and marketers wouldn’t be paying millions of dollars to advertise on network television.
So… get off your couch, turn off your television and find a hobby you enjoy doing that’s free. You’ll save yourself some money and possibly get healthier as well.
Store lists save money
Want to know a great secret on how to save a little more money at the grocery store? Make a store list, actually take it with you, and stick to it once you are there. A little planning ahead can divert impulse buying and in turn cut the grocery bill.
Start creating your list for the next trip as soon as you get back from the grocery store. If you forgot something the past time it probably wasn’t something mandatory anyway so add it to the new list. As you go through the week keep adding items to your list. Some people keep it on the fridge so it’s in a convenient location. We actually used to have a chalkboard painted on our wall for a grocery list, a to do list and a calendar.
After you’ve made the effort to create your list you have to remember to take it with you. It may be something that’s hard to get used to but it’s an essential part of the process. There are actually some great free applications for smart phones that can help you track lists and more than likely you will have your cell phone with you.
Now that you’ve created your list and remembered to bring it with you, you have to stick to the list at the store. If it’s not on the list don’t buy it. This will help cut out unnecessary expenses and impulse buying. Even if it saves you $5 per week it adds up over time.
If you are a penny pincher then every cent saved counts. Creating a grocery store list is just another simple way to help tighten your budget.
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