As soon as I turned 18, I couldn’t wait to be out of my parents’ house. It didn’t take me long to realize how expensive all the things my parents provided for me were though. I was amazed at how much groceries cost on my first Walmart trip on my own. I started to regret my decision to move out so soon.
My boyfriend (now hubby) moved into a tiny one bedroom apartment on a decent side of town. We thought we had it all figured out. I thought I would be able to have parties every weekend, stay up as late as I wanted, and be able to buy whatever kind of food I wanted. We picked a place with low rent at least. Thank God for my parents, they bought us most of the things we needed to get started. We went through my $750 savings account in the first month of moving out. I had no idea what I had gotten myself into. I expected to only spend $500 a month on rent, bills, groceries, etc… But I quickly learned that all the small things add up. I couldn’t just give my parents a list of all the things I needed every month anymore.
I came across a frugal living blog that really saved me. I found ways to budget so that I didn’t have to eat ramen noodles every night. I would like to share some frugal living tips I have learned since I moved out on my own two years ago
Everything from groceries to saving on your electric bill
1. Coupons! I am not talking about being the crazy couponing lady that holds up the line at the grocery store for an hour. I thought couponing was a waste of time, but 50 cents off here, dollar of there, really does add up. I began tracking my savings each month and I average $50-$60 a month by just using a few coupons. One very important thing to remember is to not use coupons for the expensive items you normally don’t buy just because you have a little 30 cent off coupon for it. Sometimes the generic brands are the better money saving way to go even if you have a coupon for the name brand. I also go to places like Harps when I have 50 cent off coupons because they double their coupons. I bought a can of chilli with a 50 cent off coupon and it made it free. It is possible to get free things using coupons. The key is to wait for the item to go on sale. You can get coupons by looking in your Sunday paper, online at various websites, emailing a manufacturer, and signing up at P and G’s website for online and mailed coupons.
2. Free samples! They are out there you just have to look. I search free samples every morning. I haven’t had to buy pads or tampons for a whole year now because there are always free samples for them and they mail you coupons too. I always sign up for Poise free samples. They send you two-four pads with a $2 dollar off coupon. I buy the smallest pack of Poise pads and only pay 25 cents for them when they go on sale. Most of the time they are free! I refuse to pay full price for pads and tampons anymore. O.B. tampons always have free samples going on too. Always pads came out with a new pad and I received one pad and two coupons! I google search free samples and then check facebook for any free samples and giveaways. Make it part of your routine every morning because free samples go fast! Another trick is going to the manufactures website finding samples that way if there’s a certain brand you want to try out.
3. When shopping for meat I always go to Walmart. Now, not everyone likes to buy their meat from Walmart, but I have saved quite a bit of money by doing this. I buy the 1-4 pounds of beef in the long wraps on the bottom of the meat department instead of the packaged beef on the shelf. It’s usually about 50 cents to a dollar less. You can’t be as picky by doing this, but if money’s tight, you do what you have to do. We also switched to eating turkey bacon instead of pork. It is only $2.17 for a pack of great value turkey bacon!
4. Rewards cards are great! I recently started shopping at Walgreens more because of their balance rewards program. I only go to Walgreens to buy my soda because they have the cheapest soda than any other store! I can usually get about 500-1000 points on my card too. Each prescription you pick up there gives you 500 points too. Every 5,000 points gives you five dollars to use towards your next purchase. It can take awhile for it to add up, but five bucks is five bucks.
5. Cook budget friendly meals. I don’t know about you, but ramen noodles get old fast. I try shopping for budget friendly foods. Some examples are, French toast, chicken stir fry made from ramen noodles, omletes, and fried rice. There are so many great budget friendly recipes out there. Another thing I like to do is use my crockpot. Crockpot meals are usually very cheap and super easy.
6. Hit up the thrift shops! I live in Fort Smith, AR and I love Savers! It is one of my favorite stores. Most of the things around my house and even clothes I have are from savers. I found a toaster for 2 bucks there and it still works great. As far as clothing goes, it can be tough to find something to wear, but you just have to look around. I found a plaid purple shirt that was a size too big for me for $2, but I bought it and I have a very cute black waist belt that I wrap around it and it looks great. I have found American Eagle jeans there in good condition for only $10. Thrift shops really are the way to go. If you sign up for Savers club card you get 25% off on Mondays and sometimes even 50% off. Savers is just one example though. Goodwill stores and thrift shops are always my favorite places to shop.
7. Store closing are the best, aren’t they? The first week they announce their store closing you can usually only get things 25% off, but Price Cutter recently closed down and I got a ton of groceries for 75% off! Oh yeah, I stocked up on personal hygiene items while I was there too. Dollar general closed down here too, but they’re items only stay 25% off. I brought coupons with me and got a lot of great deals. So, watch out for those store closing signs!
8. Let’s talk electricity. One of the things I do is leave my thermostat on auto. That way, you’re not running your air conditioner or heater constantly. It goes off when it reaches the temp you set it for and comes back on when it goes lower than that temp. During the winter, I try to leave my heat off and just bundle up with blankets or wear a jacket. Hey, it saves money and you can always warm up a different way. I also have a small space heater that can heat up my whole downstairs or upstairs quickly without the price of putting my thermostat on a high temp. Call your electric company for price saving plans. OG&E has a peak hours plan that has saved us $30 in three months. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but it adds up. Make sure you turn all the lights off when you leave your home or room. Change your air filter out when it needs changed out. Ours gets changed out every three months. This will make your air conditioner run more efficiently. When you don’t change out your filter as often as you should, it makes your unit work harder, leaving you with a higher electric bill. Unplug all appliances when you are not using them, phone chargers, TV, microwave, etc…
9. Get rid of your cable! Cable is one of the biggest waste of money. Netflix is only $8 a month and you can watch just about anything on there. ABC and MTV post all their shows online. www.Movie2K.com has movies and TV shows too and they even have movie that are currently in theaters posted. No more spending $8 to see a movie in theaters or having to wait months for it to come out on DVD.
10. Do away with those magazine subscriptions. Most magazines post every article online. Whatever they don’t post can easily be found on the internet. Why pay $3.99 for an issue of OK! Magazine when you can find the same gossip online?
11. Girls, don’t get your hair professionally colored anymore. Hear me out, I use to get my hair colored professionally for a long time. I experimented with home hair dyes for awhile and finally found a color I love and it lasts a long time. I pay $10 a bottle for it, but I usually find a coupon every month, making it as low as $6. My cousin is a hair dressing and even she knows that professional hair dyes are cheap. Doing it yourself is easy and not as time consuming. I have also started cutting my own bangs too. Savings can be as much as $100 by doing this.
12. For those of you who wear glasses, ever hear of www.eyebuydirect.com ? It is a great website with a wide variety of eye glasses at unbelievable prices! You can usually get coupons for them too.
13. One website that I absolutely love is www.Mypoints.com it rewards you for each dollar you spend at certain online stores and even gives you five points for each email you read. It can take awhile to start seeing any money, but it is well worth it. They even reward you for buying gift cards. If I know I’m going to buy groceries at CVs or eat out at a certain resturuant, I will go through mypoints and purchase the gift card to get money back. I highly recommend this. I usually cash out at every 1,700 points for a ten dollar gift card. Sometimes, I will save my points for a larger amount around Christmas time. Doing this means I can give someone a gift card for Christmas as a present and it is free!
14. Ever thought about making your own laundry detergent? I found a great recipe for laundry detergent and it works really well. My clothes have never been so clean. I use 1 cup of borax, 1 cup of baking soda, and 1 bar of laundry soap (grated and then put in a blender). You only have to use one tablespoon. I was very hesitant about using a powder because I like liquid detergent, but this stuff really works! It takes some time to make, but it’s worth it. You can add a scent to it, but I think the original laundry soap smells really good.
15. Planning a wedding on a budget? I got married Feb. of 2012 and had a beautiful wedding for around $3,000. Supposedly, the average wedding in America cost $26,000. That just amazes me! There is no reason someone can’t have a nice wedding for around $1,000-$4,000. Cut out the DJ and have a friend do your music for you. I just hooked up some speakers my friend let us borrow and my laptop. Found all the music online for free. Look around at different bakeries to find the best price for your wedding cake. My sister in-law made our groom’s cake. Make your own decorations! I found instructions on how to make a little tree out of branches and you can hang things off of it such as photos or string lights on it. My centerpieces were fake flowers, expandable gel beads, feathers, and dollar tree vases. I got all the items from hobby lobby. I checked the store ad each week and purchased everything when it went half off. Hobby Lobby always has sales so never buy anything from there for full price. My bouquet was done by myself with real looking flowers from hobby lobby, ribbon, and feathers. I went very cheap on invitations. I just found a photo I liked of my hubby and me and wrote the date, time, and rsvp on it using PhotoShop. I got them printed from www.Shutterfly.com and got 100 free prints for being a new member! I just paid the $2 dollar shipping!
16. Take advantage of your discounts! College students get discounts from a lot of places from clothing stores to fast food joints. Military personnel and even dependents get discounts from wide range of places. My dad is retired from the Air Force and I still use my Military discount.
17. Stop going to the gym! I’m not saying, don’t work out, just don’t pay $80 a month to work out. There a lot of free fitness videos online you can use. Netflix has a lot of videos to choose from. You could even invest in a small stair stepper from Walmart for as low as $40. I used a stair stepper from Walmart for a long time. Goodwill stores and thrift stores are a good place to shop for exercise equipment. You can even find some on craigslist.
18. Sign up for a gas card. I wouldn’t get a gas card that is a credit card, but if there is a hydration station near you, you can apply for their card. It is connected to your checking account and you use it as a debit card at the pump. It can give you 10 cents off a gallon, sometimes even 13 cents off!
19. Do your Christmas shopping a year ahead of time. Christmas items can be marked down as low as 75% after Christmas. Sometimes, even the popular gifts of the year are marked down as well. Take advantage of these after Christmas sales. I know some families even celebrate Christmas a few days after the holiday.
20. Give up those bad habits! I know quitting smoking is very difficult. I just started my quest to quit smoking. I am slowly beginning to quit. I am using an electronic cigarette, which is much cheaper than buying a pack a day, and hopefully I can quit for good. Cutting out these unnecessary things will save you a lot of money in the long run. Gambling can cost a lot too. I’m bad about going to the casino, blowing through forty bucks, and then coming home disappointed. I always think, “Man, I could have gone on a really nice date with that much money!” Stop giving away your money to the slot machines or buying lottery tickets. There is almost always no big payoff. Now, I have hit a jackpot before on a slot machine, but I ended up just giving the slot machines back most of my winnings. Next time you want to go buy a lottery ticket or casino, just set that money you would’ve spent aside and save it for a rainy day.
21. I love to entertain in my townhouse. I like decorating my townhouse and making it look nice for when we do have people over. Decorating on a very small budget always seemed difficult to me. My favorite store to buy décor is Hobby Lobby, but I refuse to pay full price for ANYTHING at Hobby Lobby. They always have 50% off sales every week. Metal, glass, picture frames, holiday décor, etc… It all goes 50 % cent sometime during the month. Never, ever pay full price at Hobby Lobby. Be patient and wait for something to go on sale. I always look at thrift stores first though. You never know what you will find. Sometimes, you will get inspired to go in a different direction when you find something you like at a thrift store. I try to make all my Christmas décor myself. There are so many wonderful tutorials out there for Christmas décor. I make all of my own wreaths and ornaments. I will be doing an article on decorating on a dime soon.
22. Don’t ever buy something just because it is on sale. Stop those impulsive buys. I am very bad at buying something just because it is on sale. I have quite a bit of things laying around my house being unused because I bought it on sale. I will check Walmart’s and Walgreen’s clearance sections every time I do my grocery shopping, but I try not to buy things I know I’m not ever going to use. I bought some ribbon at Walmart because it was marked down so low and it is just sitting in my closet being unused because I don’t have any reason to use it. These impulsive buys really add up. I encourage people to keep all their receipts and at the end of the month look at them and see where you waste your money the most.
23. Start a simple savings plan. Have you heard about the 52 week savings plan? The first week you put away a dollar from your paycheck, 2nd week 2 dollars, third week 3 dollars, 4th week 4 dollars, etc… Basically, just set aside a dollar for each week of the year it is until you get to week 52 and set aside 52 dollars. At the end of the year you will have $1,378. That’s enough for a decent vacation each year!
All these changes will add up in time. I know there are hundreds of frugal living tips out there, but these are the ones that I have applied to my life. Some people cook from scratch, sew their own clothes, or never run their air conditioner, but you just have to pick out what will work best for you.
