Friday, November 14, 2008

Saving Some Green

Lots of scary stuff is happening now with our economy. If you are lucky enough to have a nest egg, are you cracking it? I am trying not to completely freak out.

While I was waiting for Jake to get his haircut a couple weeks ago, I read a good article in Reader's Digest about saving money. It was about a couple who decided to go a whole month without buying anything except the essentials like milk and fresh fruit. They did pay the mortgage and their monthly utility bills but they just tried to use what they had for everything else. That is one way to save money and they learned a lot about how we don't always need to run out and spend right away. I want to save what I have in the house to use for the real emergencies though. I have been adding to my food storage and plan to keep adding. I really need to get some water storage. I am trying to save money and stop those stupid impulse buys. Do you have any tips or ideas to share for saving money that work for you?
  • I have started to ask my mom for the Sunday coupon sections. There are some good coupons in there and I am trying to work dinners, etc. around that. (Now if there was just a coupon for the energy to make dinner!)
  • When shopping anywhere online, I always do a google search for a coupon first. Retail me not is a good site for coupons - both printable and online. Also Ebates gives you cash back for online purchases. I have made over $50 back over 2-3 years by clicking through them to the site I was going to buy something anyway, like iTunes or Old Navy, etc. It is great around Christmas time when you're doing more shopping.
  • Vinegar is a great fabric softener! Just use some in the softener section of your washer. Plus it is supposed to keep clothes color fast.
  • Vinegar and baking soda for slow drains is better for the environment than chemicals and it worked for my kitchen sink. Now I need to try it on my bathroom sink.
  • Getting books at the library.

I don't have to worry too much though, because I just received an important beneficiary notice from the AMBASSADOR BABAGANA KINGHIBE, the new secretary federal government of Nigeria of Office of the Presidency. 'Sounds like he wants to do business with me. So, I'm set. I hope you can find a way to survive.

3 comments:

JoAnna said...

Ooooh! Congrats, my friend!! how very exciting!

So... Here's what has worked for me. First of all, drain your bank account completely. Then add to it a complete and total fear of debt of any kind. (That helps you not want to spend beyond your upcoming paycheck on your c.c.)
This combo has really helped me to eliminate spending all together. Really.
So to catch up, we are paying our utilitles, mortgage, cell, and basic groceries then cutting everything else out entirely.

We've also gained a testimony of savings. Once we get out of this little hole we've dug for ourselves, we will continue to live frugally and build a savings. It's trouble if you don't have one. I've learned.

Christmas= totally creative and pretty much nothing. We can go without. We really can. We already have more than we need. It's not that much of a sacrifice, all things considered. You can go without now or later, it's up to you and it's important to keep that in perspective.
When you want that cute shirt or decoration, it's so easy to realize how stupid a purchase it is when you remember how little money you have and that you would rather buy milk. What is really a need versus a want. Really.

Sigh... Money.

But did you know you can log on snapfish and click on the Oprah special and get a free photo album that's worth $30?!! Hurry. It ends like tomorrow night or something. It's for real! Talk about saving money on Christmas presents!!

Kathi said...

Ok, that was hilarious!

But do you guys realize how you're hurting the economy? Retail sales are way way down right now. Jobs will be lost.

JUST KIDDING!!

JoAnna said...

I can't comment on your FB post for some reason so I'll do it here.
OKAY! So I just spent about two hours talking with my friends about how much I hate facebook. I think it is so weird, so creepy, so ugh! So that's funny to come home to this post!