Perhaps the easiest step you can take in your journey to debt freedom is to cut your spending.
In our house, we’ve found ways to save on practically everything we buy. I’ll list a bunch of items here and ways to save 30% or more—and I invite you to post questions of items you’d like to save money on, and I’ll reply with my best cost-cutting idea and encourage others to do the same!
1. Baby diapers (disposables) or overnight trainers: Costco is pretty good, Toys R Us is also good. At any costs, don’t buy these at the grocery store. The very best place however, is a liquidator’s shop. They’ll sell bags that were damaged in shipping, have misprinted labels or are odd lots. A pack of pull-ups for our tot are usually $16. I spend no more than $9. Bonus if the pack is damaged and you can negotiate a price because it’s missing one diaper or one is torn/cut. Never buy baby products like this though if the pack has been damaged in shipping with water or other contaminates. I try to make sure that the damage appears to have come from opening the box. Switching to cloth diapers for some families (especially families with multiple little ones). Independent liquidators will often negotiate!
2. Office Supplies: Find a thrift store that carries them. I found one that is run through a church and is often donated things like paper, pens, post-it flags and more. I go through a lot of legal size paper that usually costs $70 to $80 a case if I use a coupon. The thrift store sells me the cases of paper (usually with one broken strap or missing the box lid) for $10.
3. Auto Service: Ok, this one isn’t a guaranteed 30% savings, but that’s usually my goal. First, shop around the price on the service you need. (Don’t forget to check auto shop’s ratings!) Also, ask about discounts that may apply to you. USAA member, Military member, Senior, AAA member? This will usually get you 10-15% off. Combine that with a local coupon (check the service provider’s Web site) and finally, ask if they’d give you a discount for allowing them to schedule the work at their slow time? The week of tax day auto shops are dead. Same for the week of Christmas. I just got a large auto service done over New Year’s weekend and saved a bunch of cash. Also, ask if they can extend the discount to services needed but not yet scheduled. I need a serpentine belt and a transmission flush that I didn’t have done on New Year’s. Would they give me the same batch of discounts if I bring in my car again at the end of the month? Sure, why not. Just tell them it’s “Eric’s deal” they told me, and signed the quote on my receipt. Cool beans. Never be afraid to ask. Especially when they know you have plenty of time to shop around.
4. Groceries: First, make a price book, and step outside of your grocery routine. Try ethnic markets and bulk food stores. Next, check co-ops. Finally, especially for large families, consider joining a gleaning club. I’ve just joined one in my area, and in exchange for one run twice a month to a store to pick up produce or breads that are expiring soon, I get a weekly allotment of the whole clubs’ gleans (some glean dairy, some glean breads, others other foods, supplies). If you can or freeze or have a spare freezer, this is a great way to fill your pantry. Liquidators are also good for canned foods, coffees, etc. Learn food safety (i.e. never open a can that bulges) and buy non-perishables that are dented or discontinued. You can check the shelf-life of food at www.stilltasty.com if you want to know if the food is still good.
5. Detergents/Soaps/Cosmetics: I use bulk liquidators/chains for these things. Big Lots is my favorite. I can always find my favorite dishwasher detergent for 50% of what I usually buy. Also, for laundry detergent, I make my own. It costs me about $3 to make one year’s worth. I used to spend $17 a month on laundry detergent. Cosmetics like shampoo, makeup, lotions are very, very easy to find at BigLots and usually very affordable.
6. Eating out: STOP! Do not pass go! Do not collect $200. You don’t need to eat out—you’re getting out of debt. See item 4 and go pick up a can of tuna and a can of SPAM at a liquidator’s. Surf and turf baby!
In sum, on anything you need to buy, try the following: Craigslist free or Freecycle.org (today I got a garbage can lid–mine blew away, and I gave away a fitted crib sheet), pawn shops, thrift stores, consignment shops, liquidators, bulk stores, barter/trade and negotiate. Sometimes you can even combine the above techniques.
So what do you need to save money on? Let’s brainstorm some solutions!
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
How do you make laundry detergent for $3 a year?
If you know what items cost at the store compare them to Amazon. You can get free shipping and save on tax without even leaving home. You can also use the subscribe and save feature on some items. It also saves on gas, plus no impulse buys at Costco or the grocery store.
Hey Chris, here’s my laundry detergent recipe.
Good luck! It makes 10 gallons, so make sure you have a big enough container planned (two 5 gal buckets works).
http://www.thepennywisefamily.com/spending-less/saving-big-money/
If you can get on a time-of-service plan with your local power company, you can really lop a LOT off of your monthly electric bill. We were able to decrease our electric bill by over 20% per month, and received an additional discount from our electric company for doing so. All day Sunday, and from 10:00 pm until 6:00 am are when electricity is cheapest, so I only do laundry (7-8 loads) on Sundays, and the dishwasher is timed to start after 10 pm among other changes. We changed almost all our bulbs to compact flourescent (got them at a discount store for 30% less than Home Depot or the supermarket), and have everyone trained to turn off lights, etc. when they’re leaving a room. Our electric bill peaks at $55 per month for a family of 5 in a 1800 sq. ft house–that’s in the summer when we occasionally need to run an AC. If our gas company would only do the same for natural gas usage we could save even more!
I’m intrigued by the laundry detergent recipe. I buy Trader Joe’s powdered detergent for $7.95, and a box lasts me almost 6 months. I have a high-efficiency washer so it doesn’t need very much powder at all, maybe only 2-3 TBSP per load. In my dishwasher I only fill the soap container half-way; a box of Trader Joe’s powder lasts three months or more.
Ok–I’m going to investigate this “time of service” stuff because we just had a record high electric bill out of the blue (We don’t use heating at all in our condo because it’s super energy-efficient–not sure what increased our bill!)
The time-of-service option really helps get you focused on your energy use and the how and when of it. For example, I used to do laundry daily, maybe more than one load, but loads were small and so not as efficient energy-wise. Now I only do laundry on Sunday (off-peak, or least expensive time) and do fewer loads, and the machine is full for each load, so more efficient all around because I’m also using less detergent, etc.
Our water bill is another story though. The water bill absolutely drives me nuts. For example, we used half the amount of water this past quarter than the one before, but the bill was not even 25% less than the previous bill. How can you budget that? And there’s just about nothing else we can do to cut back. I’m thinking I’ll budget a high amount, then if it’s smaller will apply the difference to the snowball.
My wife ia an avid couponer. She takes a lot of time organizing and cutting. She has saved 60% on many of her trips.
on coupons, whenever I’m about to make a purchase, I check two web sites for Coupons.
http://www.retailmenot.com and http://www.alexscoupons.com
What are your wife’s favorites?
Take advantage of point systems. I have a credit card that accumulates points for free movies (it’s basically the same as any other that gives you 2-3% back but this is specifically movies). I like to go to many movies and since they are $12.50 per, if I can get these for free when I buy my normal everyday items that’s great. The Caveat is you can never ride a balance on your credit card. If you do, it defeats the purpose of the free points. I will pay for almost everything on this particular card and then pay off the transaction the next day via internet banking. I also combine a few point systems. For example, I have a “speed pass” for gas. This gets me a cheaper rate at the gas station, it moves quicker since I don’t go inside (also keeps me from making impulse purchases at the counter). It applies the bill directly to the credit card. As well, they have my frequent travel point number so I am getting double points from one transaction and cheaper gas.
Where do you find liquidators that sell diapers/pull ups??? I’d really be interested in that. I get pull ups from CVS by rolling the Extra Care Bucks and using coupons. I can usually get a bag for 6 bucks or less. Not sure if you know, but ANY Huggies diaper coupon will work on Pull ups, the coupon doesn’t have to say pull ups specifically on it.
Anyways, I’ve never heard of a liquidator store that sells damaged goods. Other than Outlets, which I frankly felt weren’t that good of a deal.
For the diapers, I’ve only found them at independent liquidators. There’s one in my neighborhood that is run by a local family. You can find them at places like Big Lots too, but the prices aren’t low enough to be worthwhile. We don’t have the CVS chain stores and those awesome CVS Bucks deals that I hear about around here (major bummer).
We’ve just switched our tot to washable, waterproof training pants for naps. We’re in week 2 of our experiment. Oddly enough, the more you wash them, the more waterproof they get because the heat in the washing actually helps to seal the things up. These were a gift from a friend who is a diaper-maker–she wanted my daughter to “test drive” them. A few leaks at first, but so far so good.
The only down side is that she wakes up IMMEDIATELY when wet–and doesn’t sleep through ’till morning, so we tend to have a grumpy day the next day. Also, one day I found her at my work desk, in my chair, sitting in a puddle of soppy wet diaper. “Um, mommy, I have a wet bed, so I sit here ’till you wakeup so I can tell you.” ARRRGH.
I have never heard of using liquidators for groceries, but I will be looking into that! This year my main goal is to stop eating out and really eat at home/bring my lunch to the office. There were two reasons behind this – saving money and losing weight. I will admit I still give in about once a week to eating out at lunch and at dinner.
One way I really save money is in entertainment. You can check out books, DVDs and CDs at your local library. Great way to save money!
“You don’t need to eat out—you’re getting out of debt. See item 4 and go pick up a can of tuna and a can of SPAM at a liquidator’s.”
Eating is one the most important things you do. I am not saying to eat out. But I would not recommend eating Spam just because you are in debt. You could go without a tooth brush, toilet tissue, bathing (water/energy bills), clean clothes , and any number of things because you are in debt and saving a penny to pay off debt may seem more important. But what is paying off debt worth without at least a normal value of things like health and well-being. Besides, eating well probably makes it easier to earn money and pay off debt in the long run- In addition to cutting down on health costs.
My main goal is to stop eating out and really eat at home and bring my lunch to the office. There were two reasons behind this; saving money and losing weight. For the diapers, We’ve just switched to washable, waterproof training pants for naps. We’re in week 2 of our experiment. Oddly enough, the more you wash them, the more waterproof they get because the heat in the washing actually helps to seal the things up.
Shaun, we’ve also switched to washables–and have found that washing them in hot water helps them to seal up faster.
They’re pretty good, though it takes a few washes before they start catching everything you want them to. Unfortunately, they just don’t seem to do the trick for our toddler at nighttime still. 