Economy

Home cooked meals are the best money saving practice, I believe. The more preparation that's been already done, the higher the price on food.

Make vegetable or potato soup; cook dry beans/lentils/peas/rice; bake biscuits and cornbread;

Don't buy on-the spot one-serving bottles/cups of drinks nor individual packages of chips, crackers, etc (always go for larger packaging on these things and re-pack them in baggies, if needed for packed lunches, etc).

Angel Food Ministries and S.H.A.R.E both offer great food purchasing power -- 'more bang for your buck'.

Make your grocery list according to the grocer's sale flyer. Over a period of several weeks, they'll have 'on sale' most of the things you normally use. And if you have an 'Aldi' store nearby, SHOP IT first for your basic staples (then go elsewhere for your 'brand-name' purchases)!

Freeze stuff, but try to decide a day or two ahead what you'll use and put it in the fridge to thaw.

If you buy bottled water, opt for a Brita or Pur faucet filter and purify your own (a lot of bottled water is simply 'filtered municipal water' anyway!).

Buy 'used' (clothing, jewelry, appliances, furniture, decorating treatments, etc) if you need something different than what you already have.

Only 'eat out' if you have a coupon for the meal whether it's pizza, fast food, or sit-down quality meals. And most buffets have a less expensive 'lunch' price before 3:00 or 4:00 o'clock.

Remember that nothing's a 'good deal' unless you need it.

Oh, just FYI, the all-purpose cleaner, 'Awesome', ($1 at most dollar stores) makes a wonderful pre-wash treatment for most food stains on clothing.

I was raised 'poor' and we raised 4 kids on a teacher's aide salary, so 'pinching pennies til Lincoln hollers' is just a way of life for us! LOL So, these are my basic tips (which you probably already knew, but I hope they help!)

Hi Tammy!
Our circumstances changed dramatically. We HAD to find a way. I was surprised at how little we could live on without it feeling like a hardship.

We have done about the same as Adrienne B. I was surprised how much less we could actually spend.

Winter is over but we kept the heat around 62 & dressed more warmly.

Make lists for grocery & errands & plan driving days/routes to conserve driving. Stick to your lists. My only exception to that rule if there is a really good sale on an item we use frequently & has a shelf life.

Utilize your freezer. Double what you cook & freeze half of it. Stockpile good frozen sale items, like meat & poultry.

I plan my errands so I do less driving. For example, my daughters preschool is close to wal.mart, say what you will but they have the cheapest dairy & canned goods hands down.

I shop carefully at Sam's Club. They have very inexpensive fruit and vegetables.

I cook a lot more from scratch. Even if you purchase a pre-made thing from the grocery it is cheaper than eating out. We dont eat out anymore at all.

We cut our cable to the bare minimum. We use "red Box" the DVD vending machines, $1 rental.

We play with our pets more & utilize our neighborhood parks & sidewalks. We invite friends to play. This eliminates the need for buying new toys or games, or going somewhere to do something.

We go to the library a lot now! At least every Saturday. The kids will get at least 10-15 books between them.

We go to the $1.50 theater to see a movie & sneak in our own popcorn (air popped w/real butter - cheaper than microwave!)

I swap kids with neighbors & friends instead of calling the babysitter or using the drop-off center.

I am constantly turning off the lights behind my family & reminding them to do the same.

Unplugging infrequently used things, or putting them on a powerstrip you can shut them off. Many things continue to draw energy even when not in use (computer,TV,phone charger etc)

I have gone through the family's clothes & gotten rid of a good percentage of what they were. I find less ends up in the laundry that way. We wear clothes two or three times if they are not soiled (PJ's, jeans) to reduce the laundry. I use half the amount of liquid detergent recommended, my clothes come out clean. I do pre-treat.

If we want to do something special, we sell things on craigs list. My husband sold some items recently so he could have a poker night with his friends.

Didnt mean to ramble.
You will find the oddest ways to pinch pennies if you really need to. You might find your family spending more quality time together & eating more healthfully & together!

P

Has something changed in your situation? I think if nothing has changed and you have always lived within your means changing is the worst thing you can do for the economy. I say have fun, don't worry and do the right thing financially. I think all of this worrying is making the situation worse. However if you are struggling like many people are. I have found great bargains at farmers markets instead of the grocery store, some store brands are just as good as name brands, eating out is not all it's crack up to be and for fun we have been playing a lot of board games. Sounds corny but I am actually enjoying it!!! Most of all pray and continue to enjoy the benefits of being a Christian!!!!

My husband is a hunter so we always have meat in the freezer. We just got some laying hens for our own eggs and we grow a large garden every year and can and freeze alot of the veggies. We eat out once a week, and I shop for alot of things at second hand stores or on ebay. We also barter alot with family and friends.

Some ways my family is saving money.

1. We live in the county and have stopped our trash service (since we have to pay). We started recycling, so now we take everything to the dump at the same time.

2. We cut our home phone and cable. Now we subscribe to Netflix for only $4.99/month (or you can rent through the library for free). Any TV shows I want to watch, I watch them for free online.

3. We've turned our heat down and just wear warmer clothes inside.

4. We cook larger, cheaper meals and don't eat out. We take left overs to work for lunch and freeze the rest for another meal (plus leftovers). This saves time too, because every meal is cooked once, but served twice so you end up cooking half as much each week.

5. My kids don't drink juice anymore, they drink lemon water.

6. Something we've talked about, but haven't done is splitting a cow/pig/lamb with our neighbors. Basically, you buy a cow/pig/lamb and have it butchered so you don't have to buy meat at the store. BIG SAVER!

7. We buy in bulk when things are on sale at the grocery store, but only if it has a long shelf life or can be frozen.

8. I buy and sell our clothes at second hand stores. Once Upon a Child in Downtown West is a great kids store. They have clothes and toys and some furniture. Repeat Boutique is a great store for teenagers/adults.

9. I buy good makeup online when they offer free shipping and delux sized samples. It may cost a little more for the makeup, but most places will return it if you're not happy and the makeup usually lasts longer than drugstore brands.

10. I get perfume/cologne samples at department stores and don't buy it anymore.

11. I don't buy books anymore, I use the library. With the books I own, I go to www.paperbackswap.com and exchange them for free with other book owners.

12. We recycle our printer ink. It costs about half as much to fill vs. buy new.

13. We use cloth napkins and towels vs. paper towels and napkins.

Hi T.
I am a mom of 2 teenage boys and we also are taking care of our 14 year old niece so trying to save money in this economy is huge for us. My husband and I have a binder that has lots of menus in it. We go through it and find what our meals will be for the week-then find coupons and hit the store. We shop at Wal-mart but we also have an Aldi's in our area. I am not a fan of off-brand stuff but much of the items I found are actually really good. We just had chicken parmigan-6 chicken patties w/tomato sauce for only $2.49 in the frozen section. I did add my own sauce too and it was great. I guess be open to try new things and be creative. Using coupons helps us too. I even let the kids pickout meals that they like so we don't waste any food. I'm always looking for new ways to save too. If you get any good ideas come your way, please share them if you don't mind. Take care, good luck!!
M. V.
Smyrna TN

One major thing I'm doing is to make cutoffs out of my kids' pants. My son also has some of those shirts that "look" like 2 shirts - they look like a t-shirt that has a long sleeve shirt underneath. I'm going to try to take the long sleeve part off so he can wear them through the summer (he's 3, this may not work with older kids.)

Last year, for my daughters' birthdays, we were able to take one to Busch Gardens and one to Chimney Rock. Unfortunately, neither of these will be possibilities for us this year. For my 8 year old, we are planning to go to the zoo. It's only an hour drive from here and a family season pass is only $50, so we would be able to use it over and over again. For my 12 year old, I am thinking about going on a day hike at Lake Crabtree Park or over by the Eno River. We can pack our lunches for both of these trips and still have a lot of fun.

Good luck and thanks for posting this - I love seeing other people's ideas. I'm thinking of checking into the angelfoodministries (heard good things from another source about this) and Dave Ramsey (I've seen him mentioned on here a lot.)

Hi T.,
I make a grocery list....when I take something off the shelf I add the cost on the back of the list. This keeps me from overspending at the store. I use vinegar to clean my windows and floors. I get alot of my food ideas from www.kraftfoods.com , www.allrecipes.com , and I sell Pampered Chef so alot of my recipes come from there too...sort of cook once eat it twice type things. My car bill is $250 a month and my husband gets pd every week so I take $75 from each pay check to make that payment and the extra I just let sit in the account until I need it or I transfer it to the savings. And as far as activities I don't have any ideas.
Jen

Hi T.,
One tip: try making your own laundry soap (liquid) or detergent (dry). At anywhere from .01 to 5 cents per load, it's a real money saver, and it works! Also, no additives! Here's one of hundreds of sites on this subject: http://tipnut.com/10-homemade-laundry-soap-detergent-reci... . It's soooo easy, too!

Hi Tammy
I'm learning to use coupons now. Here are some great sights for coupons and one site even list the different grocery story specials.

coolsavings.com
couponmom.com
www.moneysavingmom.com
restaurant.com

Hope this helps

A few things that I'm trying to make things easier on our budget:

*As I use up the cleaning chemicals that I already have, I'm not buying more. I'm using baking soda, vinegar, and hot soapy water instead. I use rags instead of paper towels, even though it means more laundry.

*I belong to a group of ladies who "co-op cook." Once a month, we get together and prepare 12-15 freezer meals and split the cost. It usually ends up costing $50-60 per person. Each person does "homework" before we meet (cooking up ground beef, chicken, processing onions, etc.) and each meal feeds ~6 people.

*If I notice something is on sale, I'll buy more of it. For example, my hubby drinks Dr. Pepper and it's usually $3.98/12 pk at Walmart. If I see it for less than that...like Food Lion occasionally has it 4/$10...then I'll buy the limit.

*We eat out less. Eating out gets EXPENSIVE really quickly, and PB&J is faster than most drive-thrus. I try to prepare stuff in advance so if I schedule something where we're going to be out during the day, I can just grab it out of the fridge and stick it in a cooler.

*Our family likes to go hiking, and there are several trails close by. We purchased a book that has a few notes about each trail...how long, how steep, etc. But it's free to use them, the only cost is gas, and it's usually good for a few hours of entertainment.

*We wait until a movie goes to the cheap theatre. We have a theatre here that is only $2 matinee and $3 otherwise, so if we feel the NEED to see a movie on the big screen, we wait to go.

Tammy W

Mary Kay has great opportuntities for stay at home moms. Work when you want, be with your family when you want and earn some extra money to help your family. My website is www.marykay.com/jbernhardt3. Call me and I'll be happy to give you more details.

Have a blessed day Tammy!

J. Bernhardt
Independent Beauty Consultant
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the best thing i have found to save money is making a menu week by week. i make a menu then a list of grosherys for the week. i only get whats on my list! it has saved us soooooo much money. also i have alot of yard sale and take old clothes to the consignment store. buying clothes from consignment stores helps a ton!

Tammy,that is a great story and you keep the faith beause that's going to get us through.I'm a 43 yr old to and been married for 21yrs and I love my husband so much we have been through alot together and I have daughter she is my gift from god.walking and family time is special to me and being with friend helps me through this horrible times.
T.

Hey T., My husband and I opted to go debt free about 10 years ago. (thank God) When we saw the onset of the recession comming about 2 years ago, I went to our church library and borrowed the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace program. I felt that I needed to make sure all of our bases were covered. We knew the economy was about to get rough!! Dave's program is full of a lot helpful imformation. Most of it we had already taken care of, but there were things he mentioned that we had not considered. We will continue to think frugal, even after the economy turns around. Check him out. Let me know what you think.

As far as activities go. We only considered the free or very low cost options, during our process. I bought groceries from Save-a-lots and dollar stores.(with coupons) Soups and casseroles were the most cost friendly. Yard sales were my best friend, when ever we needed anything. Good Will dollar days were helpful as well. It is shocking how little we truly need to be happy. Once we were completly out of debt,took about 2 years. We decided instead of spending, just because, again. We began putting more and more into savings. It is such a blessing now! God bless you T..

Hmmm.... not sure where you're at, but we have a group here in Memphis called Midsouthmoms.com and they send out flyers and emails for stuff to do that's either free or low-cost.

I am also a lot like you. Something we do to save money is to stop buying quick meal fixed things. I try to make everything from scratch. I also try to cook in larger quanity and save the extras for meals that week or into the freezer for future use. We just moved to TN from MO, into an apartment from a house. We now pay for the use of washer and dryer. I make sure I have a large load everytime, we only have one option for load size. I try to do the laundry so if I have something heavy-jeans-that take more than one cycle to dry, that I have something light and quicker drying to finish the time on the dryer. One of my families favorite meals would be enchiladas. I cook the meat, usually boneless, skinless chicken breast but you can use ground turkey or beef. We don't do to much beef because of the cholesterol. Break the meat up into small pieces and add salsa or picante sauce to cover. I usually add refried beans to stretch the meat. Take tortillas, Place meat, shredded cheese and roll up. Place into a greased baking dish. I usually put a line of salsa down the center and lightly add some extra cheese. Bake for 10-15 minutes at 350. Serve with sour cream/guacomole. Sometimes I put rice in instead of beans. We also just have rice with salsa as a side dish. You can experiment with the fillings. My middle son likes diced potatoes( cooked before hand, we use leftover baked potatoes)and ground beef seasoned with taco seasoning, cheese and sour cream on the inside as well as the topping. We also take any leftover tortillas, cut into wedges, sprinkle with season salt, or garlic and onion powder blend. Spray pan with Pam spray and wedges lightly before adding seasoning. Bake at 450 for 5-7 minutes. Watch carefully because the can get to brown fast. Serve alone or with salsa or dip.

T., I don't really have much to add, except I am still working on paying off credit cards, but I've helped supplement my income by starting my own business. It's through Arbonne International and with their new business compensation plan, I make anywhere from 200-400 a month extra....just with 4 hours a week. That plus my regular 40 hour week is easy! I have a friend that works 40 hours with me and another 24 a week with another job....really takes it out of her. If you want to take a look go to www.arbonne.com they have lots of info on the biz itself and what it can offer. Let me know if you have questions or want to see a presentation of your own. Only takes an hour and can be relaxing and informative. My very best to you and your family. Take care

Tammy,
My husband and I purchased a web based software that is like a GPS for your finances. It uses computer algorythms like the banks do and it has us paying off our 27.6 years of debt in 13.5 years. It will save us over $154,000.00 This works with mortgages, car payments, credit card debt....whatever! My in-laws got it also and they will be debt free in 3.8 years! A man from my church showed this software to me and I thought that this is an amazing way to help people in this economy so I became an agent. It costs nothing to get an analysis to see what it can do for you, so if you're interested you can email me or call. I pray for the state of our country a lot and hope that I can be at least a part of the solution. You can see what it's about at www.joinu1st.com
T.
____@____.com
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Have you heard of angelfoodministries.com? I ordered from them for the 1st time this month & think we'll like it. Seems that you get quite a bit a food for a very good price. It's not a program for just 'the poor' but for anyone wanting to save money. For $30 you can get:
1.5 lb. New York Strip Steak (4 x 6 oz.),
2 lb. Chicken Breast Stir Fry (Boneless/Skinless Chicken Breast Chunks)
2 lb. Breaded Breast Fillet
1 lb. Steak Fajita Strips
20 oz. Supreme Pizza
28 oz. Jumbo Beef Patties With Gravy
1 lb. All Meat Hot Dogs
10 oz. Individually-Wrapped Cheese (16 slice)
1 lb. Mixed Vegetables
2 lb. French Fries
12 ct. White Corn Tortillas
1 lb. Rice
15 oz. Peach Halves
6 oz. Pancake Mix
32 oz. 2% Shelf Stable Milk
Dozen Eggs
Dessert

It may not sound like a lot but it is good for sides or when only a few need a meal, like for lunch. I have a friend with 10 children & she uses this service all the time. There is also a variety of meat boxes you can order. I ordered the one with 10lbs of boneless/skinless chicken breasts for $21. There is also a veggie/fruit option too.

Just go to This Month's Menu to see all the options and then you can find a location nearest you. They are just churches in your area that do this once a month. For instance my pick up place has an order deadline date of April 12th with pick up on April 25th.

So I'm looking forward to seeing if it helps my budget as my husband has taken a pay cut & change in benefits that reduced our monthly income just over $350/month.

Sounds like you have a wonderful family and God Bless.

Oh for activities. Have you looked to see what a yearly pass to the local zoo would cost you? Our 1st year in Memphis we did that and it saved us a lot of money because we went often to make it worthwhile & the neat thing was that we didn't have to stay all day to 'get our money's worth' and be exhausted & burned to a crisp. We'd go when they opened & see maybe 1/2 and go home when it started getting hot & then go back a few days later to see the other half. And we packed a lunch because food there is ourageous for what you get.

T.,
First let me recommend Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace. This is a wonderful program that will help you develop a working budget that is so important when money is tight or unstable. As for saving money, I never shop without a list. You can make up a menu two or four weeks at a time. This will allow you to have 'planned' leftovers. Also, if you are shopping with a list for a menu, you know you have all of the ingredients on hand to make what you have planned and avoid that last minute 'well let's just eat out tonight'. Then of course there is eating out on nights that offer discounts, like kid's eat free nights. Also you can purchase an "Entertainment" book for your area for around $9 (they are usually on sale this time of year) and you will save a ton of money on eating out and other activities in your area. You can get the book at entertainment.com Those are some of the ways that we are saving money!

Again, some grat entries here!! I would reiterate Dave Ramsey and craigs list.

Dave is great! I was pretty much doing everything he was saying already (steps of how to be debt free in book). But, his website, hopefully you've visisted it already, he has an archive of questions with his answers that is absolutely insiteful to hear. One day I probably listened to it for 8 hours! You can put in your specific financial question and it sorts them so you don't have to. He is on the radio 3 hours a day which are all free on his website to listen live to. He is also on the Fox News Business Channel, but not sure when. Then also on XM Radio. This year we almost saved up enough to pay cash for a one year old 30 thousand dollar SUV, when our other was done for. (Major waste of money to buy vehicles brand new and with out cash!)

The other main thing is SELL STUFF ON CRAIGS LIST!!! I have made probalby FIVE THOUSAND dollars selling stuff on there this year, no kidding! We are moving soon, so we have had some higher priced items, but it definitely adds up. It is so easy and you price it as you want, no shipping to deal with like ebay. Just look around your house and I bet you have so much 'stuff' you are not using.

Also, the people 'stressed' about this recession and freaking out about it are the ones who have been overspending and with a lack of faith that helped lead our coutry into this mess. IT IS NOT AS BAD AS THE MEDIA IS ACTING!!! Back in the 80's we had just as high of unemployment and no one even remembers that, Now, it is the debt this country has that is killing everyone. Again, Dave Ramsey! He's the best.

T., you've gotten a lot of great ideas. Some that I haven't seen other respondents mention yet are:
Walk and ride bicycles more.
I suggest seeing if you have freecycle.com in your area, also.

T. - I'm from Memphis area - but I am sitting in Johnson City, TN at the moment at my folks - so not far from you!

Mary Kay and Arbonne are good companies helping a lot of moms make additional income, but because it is a different strokes for different folks world - go to www.melaleuca.com and click on Getting to Know Melaleuca - then click on the section that talks about helping moms stay home with their kids. $29 to join us - No inventory, no selling products, no deliveries, no risk whatsoever. It's been a financial blessing to my family for 17 years - without messing with my priorities.

Just another angle for you -

J. B.
www.joyboudreau.com