Thursday, October 7, 2010

$ saver ideas

2010 has brought on a LOT of changes for us!
These family changes required us to make some life changes in order to rearrange our budget

These are some ways we've figured out how to save $ in the Draper household:

We got rid of satellite on our t.v. (now we 'enjoy' the farmer 5)
I cut both Joel's and Eme's hair...yes, with the same pair of shears :)
Joel rides his bike to work on every day he can
I carpool to HU with a neighbor who is in my program
We began a garden this year to grow some of our own veggies (sidenote: this got WAY out of control...I'd venture to guess we have been the owners of well over a thousand tomatoes this year...)
Joel has learned how to fix/replace some of our car parts and problems to save on labor costs at a mechanic
I borrowed about half of my maternity wardrobe from a sister-in-law, another sister-in-law, and close girlfriends
We got as much hand-me-down furniture and clothes for Mylin as possible, from my brother's families (cradle, crib, pack-n-play, 0-18 mo girl clothes)
I also tried my hand at making baby food (um, way easy!) and made over 50 containers this summer
We keep our house warm in the summer and cool in the winter to cut down electricity costs
And we elected not to get any extra tests with and for Mylin in preparation for her birth

While we have had an expensive year with pregnancy, a surprise c-section, and graduate school, we hope that what we have put in place and continue to change will keep us afloat, financially!

Do you have any tips for us?
How have YOU saved money this year?!

7 comments:

  1. Setting weekly grocery allowances, hanging clothes outside rather than the dryer, making our own bread, yogurt, and tortillas, getting movies from the library, trying to split meals when we go out. And biking and cold house for us, too! :)

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  2. PS - not sure why but the feed to my blog on the left side of your page there is showing a longer title.

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  3. ah yes - we hang clothes out and split meals as well! thanks for reminding me :)

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  4. you know me and coupons! :) Paying with cash makes a huge difference. I love the envelope system. Garage sales when I actually go; but only go when you are looking for something specific. Sometimes you can purchase. Go to the store the least amount of times as possible (like at most once a week) and only shop with a list. Stock up on good deals. Only go out to eat for special dates and not for convenience. Cheapest internet (dsl) and cell phone plans you can get. Pay cash for everything!

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  5. Adam takes his lunch to work and Hunter takes his lunch to school.

    I had a girlfriend dye my hair, only had to pay for the cost of the dye.

    I take my family's pictures- Hunter's school and soccer pictures, Isaac's 1st year cake pics, etc.

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  6. Great post Rachel!! I also cut Art's hair (luckily Charlie sheds...did I just say that?!). Sign up for Coldstone's Bday club! You get a free like-it :) Just bought 100lbs of potatoes at Troyers for $16 (Yukon gold and red). Oh! something that has really helped me in shopping is that I made lists: 1 for Pantry, Fridge, Freezer, Non-food, Fruits, and Veggies. Then I went around our house and wrote down all that we usually keep on hand. That way when it's time to go shopping I can just go down those lists and see what we need. It's really helped keeping us on budget and not forgeting things...which has helped keep us on budget - like Leslie said, go to the store minimally!!! :) And when the end of the month comes we use up what we have instead of buying more right then.
    And I make as many things as I can from scratch. Healthier and cheaper then from a box.

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  7. Great post. Garage sales and thrift shops! I make a list of what I want or need and little by little I find it. If I can't find it right away, many times I find I don't need it as much as I thought I did.

    Ditto on making things from scratch, that's really cut down our food budget.

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