10 Free Everyday Things that Save Us Money

Years of paying down debt has shown us that, while bringing in more money is a wonderful way to accelerate debt reduction, it is not always possible. Living with multiple chronic illnesses, there have been many many years that I have not been able to work outside the home, so it has been my focus to search for ways that allow us to stretch our dollars further.

Although we use more than 10 free things in our lives we wanted to share our most used free items…

Plastic Grocery Bags

We realize that plastic is a huge issue for our planet and we are working to reduce our use of it, but not all stores are welcoming to reusable bags these days. While we avoid them when we can, we make sure to put every single plastic bag we do receive to good use. We use grocery bags to line our small trash cans and pick up dog waste. I have also used bread bags to put over my kiddos shoes when it was extremely wet outside and they wanted to go outside and play. Plastic grocery bags also make great shower caps.

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Ways We Saved Money in April

Ways we tried to save money in April (Dumpster Fire)

OK, April was a total buzz kill in terms of saving money this month. I would LOVE to be able to write that we were on FIRE, but in reality, it was a dumpster fire when it came to finances. As the old saying goes, it’s always something and we have found this to be unapologetically true, and the very reason those of us who are on a debt free journey start yelling from the roof tops, “You need an emergency fund!” and in no way shape or form is $1,000 enough, period!

There are all kinds of thoughts out there about how much you should have on hand before you begin to be gazelle intense with your debt payoff. For us, it is our belief that you need a minimum of $5,000 saved in an emergency fund because, $1,000 doesn’t cover squat!
This past month we were slammed with an unexpected $5,600, and $445 vehicle repairs AND hundreds in medical bills.. A measly $1,000 would not have put a very large dent into this situation.

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