As I mentioned in my last money saving post, before I moved out of my parents’ house and got married, I didn’t really think about saving money at all. I was living under my parents’ roof for free, not paying any bills, but making money that I felt I could spend the way I wanted to because I could. Little did I know I was creating all of these bad spending habits that I would want to unlearn a few years later. Don’t get me wrong, I was still pretty cautious with my money and wasn’t going into debt, but if I could go back with the knowledge I have now, I would have put that money right into savings.
My husband is really the one who instilled this money saving mindset into me. Like I said I wasn’t going into debt, but I wasn’t thinking of the future either. I was just living in the now and making purchases that I wanted at the time. I was making a lot of impulse purchases and purchases that were way overpriced for what they were, such as anything from Starbucks.
Flash forward to now, I wouldn’t consider myself a penny pincher, but I love to try and think of little ways I can save money here and there. I am very cautious about my purchases and really sit on things before buying them. I believe the more I stay in this money saving mindset, the easier it will become to save money and it will make me more conscious of every purchase I make.
I have shared some things I don’t buy to save money, but there are also ten other things I do to save money.
Let’s get into it!
- Borrow first
If there is something you are thinking of buying, see if it is able to be borrowed first. I always try to borrow things before buying them, especially if it is something that would be a costly purchase. If you can’t find anyone you can borrow it from, you can always go to a thrift store first too before buying a brand new item.
For example, we are going on a trip soon and don’t have any big suitcases, just one carry-on size and a few duffle bags. So, we asked my mom if we could borrow her big suitcase for our trip since she won’t be needing it at the same time. We saved ourselves a few hundred dollars on that loan!
- Use things until they are broken, unusable, or empty
When I do buy things, I usually buy quality items that last a long time. I use these items until they are broken or unusable. If something breaks, I try to fix it first too, but if I have no luck fixing it, then I will consider getting a new one. Some things may look worn out or beat up, but if it still works, I don’t see no need to get a new one. For clothing, however, that is something that I get rid of when it starts looking worn out. But again, I buy quality clothing items which helps with the lifespan of my clothing.
For consumable items, I use these until they are completely gone before buying a new one. Even if I don’t like something too much, as long as it is doing its job and not causing harm, I use it up until it is empty and just remember not to buy it next time. I recently bought this sunscreen that I did not like the feeling of on my skin, but it was doing its job and not doing anything bad to my skin except making me feel greasy. I still used it up, but then bought a different brand of sunscreen when I ran out.
- Cook all meals at home
As I mentioned in my things I don’t buy post, we do not buy take-out or fast food and we don’t go to restaurants very often. We cook all of our meals at home. That is breakfast, lunch, dinner, and coffee! If we are going to be out and about during lunch time, I try my best to pack sandwiches from home to have while we are out.
I never thought I would be the mom saying, “We have food at home.” But, now it’s 2024 and here I am! You’ll only catch us at a restaurant if we have a gift card, someone invites us, or if it is a very special occasion. Even this year for our anniversary, I made a special steak dinner at home that cost less than one plate would have at a restaurant.
Take out and fast food is just so expensive and it is much more cost-effective to eat food you prepare yourself at home. Yes, groceries are very expensive right now, but take out and even fast food is worse. You will most definitely save money from cooking your own meals, and they taste better most of the time, too!
- Wash my own car at home
I was the person regularly getting my car washed inside and out at a physical car wash. I enjoyed sitting back and relaxing while someone else did the dirty work on my car. However, the last time I went to the car wash, I was astounded by the price, as well as the additional charge for the size of my vehicle, and thought it was time to give this one up.
We went to Walmart and got a bottle of car wash soap (which states “up to 100 washes!”) and a scrubber, which was less than my single car wash! We use our mini vacuum on the carpets, our household multipurpose spray on the inside, and our glass cleaner on the windows. Yes, it is a lot more work, but it saves us on a growing car wash bill.
- Unsubscribe from marketing emails
Now, I love this tip for two reasons. How many times have you gotten an email encouraging you to buy something, and you actually ended up buying what they were advertising? This didn’t happen to me too often, but it did happen before. The easiest way to get this to stop is to unsubscribe from marketing emails! Most companies can let you pick and choose what emails you want to receive from them, and you can unsubscribe from just the marketing emails and still get the important ones.
The other reason I love this is it clears up my email inbox. I love things to be neat and tidy, this goes for my email inbox, too. I would receive hundreds of emails a day that I would have to go through and delete. But now, the number of emails I get is way down and it is really only the important ones showing up in the inbox!
- Buy things in bulk
We shop at Costco and we buy a lot of stuff in bulk, which saves us a lot of money in the long run. We have found, however, there are some things we can’t buy in bulk because we can’t get through it soon enough before it goes bad. Our household only has two adults, a toddler, and a baby, so we get most things in bulk that last a while. These are the things we regularly buy at Costco:
- Toilet paper
- Paper towel
- Non perishable snacks
- Frozen chicken
- Frozen ground beef
- Butter (which we put in the freezer)
- Canned goods we use regularly
- Cleaning supplies
- Laundry detergent
- Toiletries
- Diapers
- Baby wipes
There are other things we buy in bulk too, but these are the things we are always buying regularly at Costco. We also only get our gas from Costco. It is usually a way better deal and we have one close to our house. If you have to drive out of your way to get to Costco, it might be better for you to get gas somewhere else. But, I would always fill up when you are shopping there if that is the case!
- Buy generic brands
We always buy generic brands over name brands when it comes to everything, from laundry detergent to canned goods. If you look at the ingredients, most of the generic brands use the same exact ingredients as the name brands and some are even made in the same factory. And the savings on this is astronomical, sometimes even 50% less for the generic brand. That’s like using a 50% off coupon! Even if you aren’t so sure if you’ll like the generic brand of something, it is worth the shot because more times than not, you probably won’t even notice the difference, except on your grocery bill!
- Use Amazon Subscribe & Save
I am an Amazon Prime member and one of my favorite ways to save money is using their Subscribe & Save program. For items I am buying regularly on Amazon, I can subscribe to them so they automatically get purchased and sent to my house in the time I assign it. For most of the things in my Subscribe & Save order, they come every 3 months.
If you have 5 or more items in your order, you save 15%. Less than 5 items still saves you 5%. I always have at least 5 items in my Subscribe & Save order. These are what I usually have in my order:
- Kids’ toothpaste
- Kids’ flossers
- Vitamins
- CC Cream
- Mascara
- Deodorant
- Use Fetch Rewards
Fetch Rewards is a free app where you take pictures of your receipts and earn points. With those points, you can redeem them for gift cards to a ton of stores, including Amazon, Walmart, Target, and so many more!
There are two different ways you can use this app. The way I use it is I do my shopping like I normally would and just take a picture of my receipt and see what happens. Sometimes I get the automatic 25 points per receipt, but sometimes I am surprised with 1,500 points on my receipts because I bought Pillsbury Crescent Rolls or whatever caused the points to increase! It’s always a pleasant surprise when I get some extra points like this because I didn’t do anything different from my normal shopping.
Another way you can do it is look through their deals going on and see what brands you could buy to get points. I don’t like using it this way because it is usually encouraging me to buy things I don’t normally buy. The app also has different ways to earn points like playing mobile games or shopping from their online store.
If you are interested in trying out Fetch Rewards, you can use my referral code 5DBNYF to earn yourself some extra points. It doesn’t cost you anything, and if you save up enough points, you can earn free gift cards!
- Use credit cards for cash back/Costco rewards/Amazon points
Finally, we responsibly use credit cards when we shop. We don’t ever spend more money with our credit cards than we can cover with what’s in our checking account. We basically use it as a debit card, but with all the benefits of a credit card! Credit cards have so many great features they are basically handing out free money.
We have a Costco credit card and once a year we receive our Costco rewards check that we use at our next trip to Costco. We usually end up earning enough to cover our whole trip! With those benefits, we never buy anything out of the ordinary just because we have the check. We stick to our usuals and basically get a free trip out of it!
We also have an Amazon credit card that earns us Amazon rewards points that are used whenever we shop on Amazon. The points are converted into money and used just like an Amazon gift card. Once again, we never use these points to buy anything out of the ordinary just because we have them.
These credit card rewards are basically just handing you money for using them and I don’t see why you wouldn’t use them. As long as you can be responsible, stay within your means, and not go into crazy debt with your credit cards, use them for the benefits!
This is just a short list of things we do to save money. I’m sure after posting this I will think of a few other things we do to save money, but these are the main things I can think of right now.
I hope you found something in here that you can try to do to save money in your own household. These are things that I have gradually started doing overtime and I feel like there are more and more things I will be adding to this list overtime. Don’t be afraid to try something just to see if it works and if not, you can always go back to what you were doing before.
With love,
Victoria O’Brien