Frugal Friday

Rich & I are in a time of forced frugality right now while he is in the midst of changing jobs. So I thought I would share with you a couple of the tips that we're using right now to keep our costs down.

• Plan your meals in advance - I have been doing this off and on through our marriage (5 years in November!) and it has saved us a lot of money. If I don't have a meal planned in advance the temptation to eat out or order in food is very GREAT! Also, when you plan meals you can correspond it with the sales flyer for the groceries stores to keep your meals cheap and ensure you have everything on hand in advance.
• Use coupons! - I know some people don't think they are that beneficial, but to our family it has been. Every dollar we save is a dollar we can either save in a savings account or spend on other bills, etc... The key to good couponing (is that even a word?) is to collect as many as you can through newspapers, online sites such as Smart Source & coupons.com & Money Saving Mom, and then pairing those coupons with items in the sales fliers. By doing this I have NEVER saved anything less than $50 and the most I saved was $100, but spent only $80 on groceries. Pretty good and worth it if you ask me!
• Have a budget - this goes for everything. While budget living can seem like a drag to some people, it is so great to have a written budget to keep you on track. Now some items will not change from month to month (i.e. house payment, cell phones, cable, etc...) but things like groceries, utilities can and it is nice to have a number to at least strive for.
• Think of ways to stretch simple things - One thing that I've been doing is tearing our dryer sheets in half and getting two uses out of the one sheet. I know it doesn't add up to much, but now the box of dryer sheets that I have will service 160 loads instead of 80! I also use cold water when I wash our clothes.
• Clean out your dryer vent - Our dryer vent literally runs 20 feet from our dryer to the outside vent, and it was taking me 4 cycles to dry our clothes. Rich took two hours one Saturday and cleaned that dryer vent out completely. I tell you what, it was like I had a whole new dryer, AND the best part was, our gas bill went from $54 dollars down to $18! I know crazy right? Just by having my dryer running more efficient and using cold water when I was is saving us $36 a month! In fact make sure all your appliances are running efficiently, especially now that winter is coming!

Ok enough tips for today! Hopefully in the future I'll have more tips to share. Another good site for living frugally is my cousin, Jamie's site. Please check it out, it is a great site!