This month I received an unexpected check. It wasn’t a lot of money, but it was enough that I was able to give each of my children some cash to purchase summer clothing.
It is customary for us to head to a thrift store to so we can get the most bang for our buck, but this time, it was unanimous that we head to our closest outlet mall so they could shop for new clothing. This was a huge hit! We also saw firsthand that, when your children understand the value of a dollar, they make wise choices and appreciate each financial blessing.
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.
Continue reading “10 Free Everyday Things that Save Us Money”Ways We Saved Money in April
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.
9 Ways We Saved During Our Fabulously Frugal February
We have now completed our Fabulously Frugal February (FFF) and the 2nd month where we are sharing some of the ways we saved money that month, so here we go!
1. We still have no dryer. Yes, we could have used the money Mr. SF earned by selling stuff he didn’t want any more to buy one, but we decided to continue to tough it out and put that money toward our emergency fund.
Ways We Saved Money in January
Every month this year I will be sharing some of the ways we saved money that month. This will not be an exhaustive list as it would take me too long to compose but it will be some highlights! 🙂
So, without any further ado, here is a list of how we kept a few more pennies in our pockets last month:
I cut up clothing that could not be donated into various size rags to be used in place of paper towels
I mended family clothing that had small tears and holes
Continue reading “Ways We Saved Money in January”The 10 Things That Saved Us The Most Money
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”Frugal Christmas – Our Story
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.
October Pantry Stock-Up for $20 or less
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.
How to set up a pantry
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”10 Reasons You Need 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”