Back in 2006, we made the decision to move from 2 incomes down to 1 so that I could stay at home with Garrett. When we first put everything to paper to see if this was feasible, we saw that things were going to be really tight, so we started buckling down before we had even lost my teaching income. Here are a few things we either started doing at that point, have done since we've been married just because, or have learned along the way. They're small and somewhat insignificant, but literally every penny counts.
1. We don't have cable. We've actually never had it. Cable isn't available out here in our neighborhood, so our only option would be satellite and that is not remotely cheap. I understand that some people have one or the other for reasons beyond just having lots of TV channels, but sometimes this is an easy place to cut a good bit of money. We bought a good TV antenna (spending on it what we would have spent on 1 month of cable/satellite) and Keith put it in our attic. Thanks to living about 30 miles from DFW, we're able to pick up a lot of channels. And the digital channels have quite a few good options, not to mention a great picture that looks nice on our HD TV. We do have a Netflix account which helps to cover some of those extra shows we might miss or times when we need multiple cartoon options. It's nice and so much cheaper than the alternative.
2. We do use credit cards, but we never, ever, ever carry a balance on them. If we know that what we're wanting to purchase, we would not be able to afford to pay for it in full at the end of the month, we don't buy it. We watched TV on a 19" old tube TV from the 80's for years while saving up to buy the 40" HD TV we have now. We had used living room furniture that Keith bought off of his sister's friend for the first 2 years of marriage until we saved up for new furniture. We don't have a bedroom suit to this day. Just a mattress and box springs sitting on a bed frame that came free with our purchase. Keith's nightstand is an old end table from his apartment days (that his sister gave him) and my nightstand is a wood Winchester ammo box. Is it pretty? Nope, but we don't have a couple thousand dollars lying around to buy new, so we'll make do until that day comes.
3. Aside from grocery shopping, the rest of my shopping is done online 99% of the time. I find that this helps cut down on impulse purchases. I know what I'm needing (new clothes for the boys, Keith or myself. Christmas/birthday presents, etc.) and I find it and buy it. There are a few tricks though. I always google for any coupon codes for the site that I'm buying from. 9 times out of 10 I will find either a 20%, or greater, discount code to use, or a free shipping code, or both. I also keep a running list of things that are needing to be purchased and occasionally peruse my standard websites and when I see they're having a sale (especially when they're doing free shipping) then I will jump in and get what I need. I almost always buy things from Amazon and always look through what Amazon sellers have to offer. Sometimes I can find a used book that's almost like new to give to someone as a gift. Does that make me cheap? Maybe. And if the book or movie or CD were to arrive at my house and not look anywhere close to being like new, then I wouldn't give it to someone as a gift, but many, many times, I have found excellent deals for items like this and they almost always arrive in excellent, gift-giving condition.
4. This one is a combination of #2 and #3. Not only do we use credit cards, but we specifically have cards that work for us. Keith's card is a General Motors affiliated card. So his purchases accrue money towards a down payment on a new vehicle (more on that one up next.) My card is Discover and I accrue cash back bonus money. Not only do I accumulate money, but I can exchange that money for gift cards worth more than the money that I have accumulated. Here's how I combine 2 and 3. Today, I was doing some Cyber Monday Christmas shopping/necessary clothes shopping for myself. The website I was shopping with had everything for 50% off plus free shipping!! Score! Not only that, but I had $60 accrued with my Discover cash back. So I went to my Discover account, looked up this company and found that they had a $50 e-giftcard that I could get for only $40 of my cash back money. So I was able to save $50 on what was originally a $200 purchase, marked down to $100, purchased for $50. And it only cost me $50 actual dollars, plus $40 accumulated Discover dollars which is really free money from them. In addition to this, I also have signed up with a variety of online survey websites (like erewards(dot)com) which also offers reward money that can be exchanged for discounts from websites and all I have to do is take surveys that they email to me. I currently have 5 different free magazine subscriptions thanks to this website as well: Martha Stewart Living, Cosmo, Glamour, Elle, and Reader's Digest.
5. We currently have 2 vehicles, both completely paid for. Keith's truck is 12 years old and has over 200k miles on it. He's meticulous with maintenance which I think is the key to it lasting this long. My SUV is almost 9 years old with almost 130k miles on it. I do my best to keep it clean. I know that sounds weird, but I've found when it's dirty and trashed, I hate it and spend lots of time wishing and scheming for a new vehicle. But after I've cleaned it up, I'm much happier with it. We honestly have no plans to buy another vehicle anytime soon. When that day comes, it may be another used one (both of our current vehicles were bought used too).
6. I know you're probably expecting to see coupons on here, but I honestly don't do much with coupons. I know people who save lots of money with them. However, I know they also spend a lot of time researching putting everything together, not to mention driving all over to different places to save the money. We don't live close to very many stores, so that would require me to do a lot of driving to save this money and that just doesn't add up to being very cost effective in my mind. I do occasionally look online for some coupons for the things that I'm already going to be purchasing, but I just try to shop smart and the majority of my purchases are made at Walmart. I know a lot of people enjoy knocking the store, but I've always found good deals there and our local Walmart is clean and the employees are generally nice and efficient.
7. We usually limit our eating out to once or twice over the weekend. I'm not always a fan of cooking and generally I only cook 2-3 nights a week and the rest of the week is spend eating leftovers, soup, sandwiches, etc. I'm a huge proponent of crockpot cooking as well and have cooked quite a few different things in it.
8. I know this last one will be touchy for some, but I have to share it anyway. I am not a fan of smart phones. Yes, I know they're fun and it's so convenient to be able to access the internet 24/7 in the palm of your hand, but there are really very few people out there who absolutely need this ability. If someone was looking for a place to cut spending, this would be the first to go, in my mind. I honestly prefer an iPod touch as something small that can access the internet, but of course you have to have a wifi connection to use it, but do you really need to be able to check Facebook or read a blog when you're out somewhere that doesn't have wifi? Just food for thought.
I know there are many other tips and tricks for saving money and I'm sure there are plenty others that I do frequently that I'm also forgetting, but this will hopefully give you a few ideas.
2 comments:
Lydia, thanks for posting this. You have a lot of good ideas here. I wish we could get rid of cable. This is one area that Waylon and I completely don't see eye to eye on. Of course I love having DVR but I could live without it and just watch shows that I miss online. He HAS to have it for his sports though (Fox Sports South West) and because he sells DirecTV, he feels he HAS to have the service he sells. I disagree but I can't force the issue. And now we are in a 2 year contract with them anyway so we will be riding that one out.
I completely agree on the phone issue. This was the hardest thing for me to get rid of because I do love a nice phone with internet access. I just realized when I started staying home that I really didn't need to have internet access on my phone when I was home with my computer all day and the internet on the phone was costing as much as our regular internet! So I got rid of mine and now have one of those month-to-month plans with unlimited talk and text for $35/month. The phone is cheap but it does what it's supposed to do.
I have always thought it would be cool to use a credit card with some sort of rewards like that one it and pay it off each month but Waylon and I don't have that kind of will power or self control right now. Maybe one day. For now, we have to stick to cash and debit cards only. In fact, I don't have any credit cards anymore, which has made life easier for us since we haven't accrued anymore debt. I know they can be very good if you pay off the balance though and get those rewards. For now, I just have to keep that temptation away! lol
The coupon thing I'm still on the fence about. I see the amazing savings women get by using them but I just don't have the time or patience to do the research and match it all up. I do like you mentioned and look online for coupons for what I'm already going to buy. Target is where I usually go. On their website they have a coupon section where you can print off their current store coupons (and some manufacturers coupons). I look through and select the ones that go with what I need and print them off. Then I pay with my Target debit card which is linked to my checking and gives me 5% off every purchase I use with it. I also just discovered that for every re-usable bag you bring from home and use, they will take another 5 cents off your total. It can really add up that way. I saved $17 with all that put together the other day and that felt pretty good!
I suck at cooking and having things planned. I really need to get better at that so we actually have left overs and Waylon has something he can take to work with him!
Good post! I enjoyed reading it!
These are all great (and all things we do too :)). The one thing we recently changed is we went from no cable to cable, but that was because we got an awesome deal with AT&T where we got Uverse and internet for the same price we had been paying for internet only with a different company. I think if you are in a position to get stuff like that (I know where you live that isn't an option right now) it's a good idea to check around to different providers periodically to see if a deal is happening that you can take advantage of - as long as you aren't switching real often since you also have to pay service fees to be hooked up and that could get expensive if you change providers every six months. When this deal expires for us, we'll be cancelling the TV part and just keep the internet. We are cancelling our Netflix too to save that money since we have all these channels now and the DVR feature to record what we want. When we get rid of the TV part, we'll renew our Netflix. I also agree about the whole smart phone thing. Especially for me staying home, what do I need that for? The computer is right here! Also, even if I wasn't home all day, I would be at work and should I be using my work time getting on my facebook account on my phone? :) We do the same thing with credit cards too and only have the Disney one which helped us go to Disney World this year and paid for a good half of our stay. It took awhile to build up that many points but we were patient. And if we didn't want to use it for that purpose, we can use the reward points from them for any Disney product on their website and a few other websites as well. I bought some stuff for Tyler for Christmas with what we had accumulated since June. The one thing I haven't done in the past is shop much online. Which is weird since I'm not much of an in store shopper either. But I guess I've liked being able to be there in person to see what I'm buying. But I've done a lot of shopping online for this Christmas and I'm seeing the value in it, like you said of cutting down on impulse buys and stuff. I think I'll be adopting that method more often and checking for free shipping codes and stuff too. I guess that's what has always held me back, is the fact that I have to pay for shipping, but if I can get free shipping, it just makes sense to save gas money and avoid temptation to buy things you don't need.
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