One Family's Journey to Debt-Free Living
The month of March always brings many celebrations for our family and therefore it is one that is the most difficult for us to save money. But, we are always up for a challenge and we tried our best.
Here are some of the ways we saved money last month:
1. We discontinued our fruit and veggie delivery again for this month. I am still missing those weekly deliveries but we are trying to remain gazelle intense on paying off the mortgage so this had to go.
Our family has been on the road to debt freedom for a very long time. In fact, it has been so long that I can no longer remember when it all started. But looking back over the years, I thought it could be helpful to share a list of the things that helped our family save the most money. These are ways that we continue to use to save money on a daily basis and are listed in no particular order.
1 – Berkey Water Filtration System
Purchasing this system required us to save a little each month until we could afford the model that we believed would work the best for our family. Although it cost us approximately $550, it has more than paid for itself over the years.
Continue reading “The 10 Things That Saved Us The Most Money”
Throughout our years together, Mr. SF and I have lived a rather frugal life. But once we were blessed with children we had to learn how to make our money stretch even further.
We had all the regular bills, housing, utilities, food, transportation and on top of all of that lots of medical bills, so when it came to Christmas, I had to be creative. I wanted to make sure we focused on the true meaning of the season in a very budget friendly way.
Now that my kids are older, Christmas looks a bit different, but we still enjoy many of the ways that I wrote about in my book, Frugal Seeds Christmas Edition, 101 Ways to Celebrate the Holiday Season on a Budget.
You can buy it on Amazon or read it FREE with Kindle Unlimited.
This month I headed over to Meijer to see what I could find to stock up on for our family.
I would like to first mention that I have randomly chosen stores and did not seek out items on sale to purchase. Instead, I looked for foods that my family eats on a regular basis and, if it happened to be on sale, it was a bonus. I also did not use coupons on any items that I purchased. The reason I have chosen to do these monthly stock-ups this way is because I wanted to see what people could purchase without doing any planning. Life is busy, people are stressed, and having to worry about stocking up on food does not need to be another stressor. So, when I was out running errands and I (1) happened to have $20.00 in my purse and (2) I was near a grocery store and had time to run in, then I did a monthly stock-up. If you haven’t already, please check out our August and September stock up posts.
I was happy to see that Meijer was having a 10 for $10 sale, with the 11th item free on a lot of canned goods.
October’s score included the following:
2 disinfecting wipes $3.99 each – total $7.98
2 garbanzo beans $1.00 each – total $2.00
1 northern beans $1.00 each – total $1.00
6 black beans $1.00 each – total $10.00
3 peach slices $1.00 each – total $3.00
All canned goods that I purchased were part of the 10 for 10 sale, 11th one free, so I also received one of the canned goods free.
Tax was $0.56
Total for all 14 items was $19.54
Two more months left to in the $20 pantry stock-up challenge and we would love to have you join us.
Have you been able to fortify your pantry? Please take a moment to let us know what you’ve found in the comment section.
In the last blog post, we discussed the reasons you should have a pantry. I think we made a rather compelling argument for the importance of having a “deep pantry” (food that is set back in case of an emergency), so in this post we will discuss the 11 ways to go about setting up a deep pantry for your household.
Continue reading “How to set up a pantry”I started writing this blog post way before covid19 became a household word. Why did I start writing it? Because this is a subject near and dear to my heart. I truly believe that having what we call a “deep pantry” is one of the things that helped us win with money. Just like having an emergency fund set aside in case of a true need, a pantry helps provide stability and peace of mind in case of an emergency.
First, let me start out by listing the top 10 reasons we believe that having a pantry is so darn important.
Continue reading “10 Reasons You Need to Set-up a Pantry”We did it, we completed the low-spend February and now that we are on the other side of it, I wanted to reflect upon what we learned as a family through this experience.
We saved a total of $285.00. That’s it. Why? Because we figured out this month that we truly are Seriously Frugal. If you look at this recent post, you’ll see that we are pretty hard core about saving money in all aspects of our lives. There is only one area of our spending where we could cut back, and that would be groceries. But, we eat at home almost almost 100 percent of the time and, with 4 teens, food goes fast. Plus, living with chronic illnesses, many of the less expensive foods, like grains or packaged foods with lots of additives or preservatives, I simply cannot eat.
Continue reading “Reflection on our low-spend February”This month is our Frugal February and we are on a mission to spend as little money as possible this month. This got me thinking of free things we could do and reading was one of my first thoughts. Since we are trying to spend so little, I didn’t want to even drive to the library to search for some good reads. This encouraged me to search for finance and success focused books that are free to read on the internet. I was shocked at all of the great reading I found and wanted to share it all with you!
If there is a book that you have read that encouraged you in your financial walk and is free to read on the internet, please leave a comment below, we would LOVE to share it.
Continue reading “February’s FREE Financial Reading”What is it that, at least here in the U.S., you are already paying for and, in my opinion, is one of the most underutlilized resources for saving money?
Your local library!
I worked for a large library system for two years and now live in a small mid-western town where I use our library frequently. Even after all that experience, it still surprises me what can be found at a library. What amazes me even more is that most people don’t have any idea just how much is available at no cost, beyond any taxes you’ve already paid, of course.
By merely walking into a library, you probably wouldn’t be aware of even half the possibilities. It can take some time to truly learn what all they have through exploration, research, and talking to the library staff. To help you save time and, hopefully, some money, I wanted to share what is available to my family and neighbors at our local branch so you’ll have an idea what you may be missing.
Continue reading “You are already paying for it – use it!”
The FrugalSource would like to take a moment to thank our brave men and women in uniform for all they do for our country. I, Mrs.FrugalSource spent several years working at VA Hospital and it was the best job I ever had. I was deeply touched by the many sacrifices and stories that I was honored to witness during my time there and it has forever changed the way I view the world and those that work tirelessly to protect our part of it. We are extremely grateful.
Below are a few links to sites listing numerous discounts and freebies that our offered for these brave men and women. We hope all veterans will take advantage of as many as possible.