Budget? Money saving tips?

beachybride10

This is kind of a vent, kind of a question.

As most of you know, I am currently unemployed. I quit my job the week before our wedding so DH and I could move to WI. We spent a lot of our money on our wedding, the move (3k+), and purchasing our condo.. oh plus our puppy vet bills. We are in decent shape still, but I am starting to get a little concerned.

Anyone have any tips for setting a budget or any good money saving ideas? I've thought about collecting coupons, but I don't even know where to begin!

Any tips?

 

 

mrsquetee09

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jebuell

I make about $50-100 month doing those stupid online survey things.  They're a bit time consuming (10-15 minutes each) but can really add up, and are a good way to pass the time if you are home alone all day.  I used to do a once monthly update on my blog but haven't in a while, but you can see my first few updates here (complete with links to sign up, some of them are invite only but I think most of the ones I list are open).

Then I get $25 in Amazing Gift cards from Swag Bucks every month and I use that to buy some of the things I need.  Like, you can buy giant box of tampons or dog supplies for Hailey.

And if you get really into blogging you can start doing giveaways.  That's a great way to get some of the things I need.  Whenever I need household cleaners I just contact a company to do a review and they usually say yes and send me a whole kit.  I'm sure you could get your blog up and running like that by next month if you wanted to!

hawaiianbride08

One way we've saved money is by remembering that we don't need everything that many Americans think they do. We don't have cable, no land phone line, no data plans on our cell phones, we use the library for books rather than buy them all of the time, and we have a set aside amount of fun money each that we use for clothes, gifts to each other, and other wants that we have. That controls our extra spending. We also tend to save eating out for when we travel or when people are visiting. Otherwise we eat at home. 

sarlah

hawaiianbride08:

One way we've saved money is by remembering that we don't need everything that many Americans think they do. We don't have cable, no land phone line, no data plans on our cell phones, we use the library for books rather than buy them all of the time, and we have a set aside amount of fun money each that we use for clothes, gifts to each other, and other wants that we have. That controls our extra spending. We also tend to save eating out for when we travel or when people are visiting. Otherwise we eat at home. 

Those are some fantastic ideas,, especially when you consider that if you have internet at your house you can watch almost everything online now. This has actually given me something to seriously ponder...

Another HUGE money saving tip I discovered since we bought our house was to not buy lunch. Make enough dinner to have leftovers and then eat them for lunch. Even if you're super frugal and only from $4-$5 on lunch, that's still $20-$25 of savings per week, which adds up.

We also no longer buy coffee, we got a coffee maker and make it at home. I don't miss going to Starbucks as much as I thought, and we'll still go to Starbucks one time on the weekend most weekends - which really does make it more special and something I look forward to. Seriously - I was one of those people who thought Starbucks was a staple in my day & budget, then I quickly realized it isn't, and now it's really fun to go there once in a while.

Those are just a couple of things that really helped out our budget right away, and we saw differences quickly. I would also suggest that if there are things that you guys really enjoy and/or really need & just don't want to or can't give up, then do some shopping around to make sure you're getting the best price. Ted did that and found a great deal on our k-cups for our coffee maker, on Amazon. 

niuchick21

For the first time ever we're on a REAL budget.  We use mint.com to track our spending.  We do little things like turn the air down when we're gone at work (the dog doesnt need the house to be super cold lol) and shop on sale.  We rarely eat out and I buy healthy choice lunch things for work (I can usually get them for about $2 a piece).  Meal planning definitely helps cut down on the grocery bill.  If you know exactly what you're going to make, you know what to get and your grocery cart doesn't get full of random things that you make not even make that week.  Plus I've found it's easier to cook everyday if I know what I'm going to make and I know that I have everything I need to make it.  We also got netflix instead of going out to the movies or buying a lot of movies we'll only watch once.