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mancila60 · July 2012

So since I quit my job H and I have been looking for ways to save money. Obviously we can't get rid of some bills like we wish we could. And we are doing our best to pay them down as fast as possible. MIL is able to help us a little but still H is not working 40 hours a week which has hurt us a little (stupid construction.)

Anyways I was wondering what good ways you have for saving some money? We try to use coupons as much as possible and we have obviously cut back on extra spending and eating out a little bit less. Anything else you know of?

kushie77 · July 2012

I know we called the cable company and told them that we were going to switch to dish b/c it was less expensive unless they could do something for us and they gave us a lower rate and locked it in for a year, which saved 70 bucks a month.

we also do a goofy thing when balancing the checkbook all payments out we round up to the nearest $ amount and all deposits we round down that way we don't have to add/subtract change and it builds a little cushion.

comeongetdown · July 2012

since you're already familiar with couponing, maybe you could try looking into doing rebates. P&G does rebates all the time, and if you're using their coupons already then you probably won't have to buy anything more than you already do.

also, you could get into extreme couponing (not like the tv show, that's bs) where you combine coupons with sales, double/triple coupon deals and pharmacy special offers to really save money on household items. i LOVE CVS and got really big into couponing and rolling my ECBs there, i haven't done it for a while, but i had a stockpile of shampoo, bodywash, tampons and razors that i'm still working through a year later lol

this was one of my favorite websites, they pretty much tell you how to do everything: http://www.hotcouponworld.com/ i used to spend most of my time in the forums. there are people there that can get a hold of certain ads before their available to the public so you can plan your shopping trip ahead of time.

this has me excited to get back into couponing haha sorry, that's all i've got for you, if i think of anything else i'll come back and post it

spalko · July 2012

You should check out the Money Matters board on here. They have some good advice but be prepared for the harsh truth, they don't like to sugar coat things over there. What about cell phone, cable and internet? Can you cut back on any of those? I found a website called grocery101 and every week put out a food menu that only costs $50/week. Something else you might want to look into.

I know for H and I we are on a 2 year plan where we are paying down as much debt as we can and cutting back on all the 'fun' stuff. We figure it is a 2 year sacrifice that is going to help us out greatly for the rest of our lives. We want to start a family too so that plays into wanting to pay down as much debt as we can. Student loans are a b*tch and we are focusing on those first.

mildlymailyn · July 2012

I get paid every week and H gets paid every other week. When we get "bonus checks" (an extra paycheck) we stick as much in savings as possible. We also JUST almost paid my car off, we left only the payment I would make this month, and are working at paying our debt off. I also try to pay as much as I can with my checks (I make more) and use his to make bigger payments towards our debt. Neither of us really minds being broke. We both grew up lower middle class with our families pinching pennies. We paid for the whole wedding so we KNOW we can do it!

Good luck!!!

toothpastechica · July 2012

As the ladies have said, coupons and sales are good. We also have decided that instead of giving up date nights, we would try and find cheap or free things to do locally....check your parks and recreation sites, in the summer we find lots of things like free concerts, skateboarding demos, etc.

Small things at home do help too (if you are not renting I suppose), turning the heat off in the summer, keeping the lights off etc. Oh and we always take my car for anything thats around town because its better on gas.

KissaC18 · July 2012

I wish I had something to help but I don't. We just watch what we spend our money on.

mandi921vh · July 2012

What about ways to lower your electricity bill, and getting rid of cable and subscribing to hulu or netflix?

PPs suggested excellent things as well.

AurorasEnvy · July 2012

Other PPs have good suggestions!

If you guys are good with not spending money...I might suggest using a credit cards that earns you rewards. H and I put literally just about everything on our credit card. I've had one for almost 10 years now, and I've never had a finance charge because I pay it off every month. Together we earned enough rewards over a year or 2 and ended up getting almost $2,000 paid towards our honeymoon from our CC company.

So I know it's not "saving" money per se, but if you are going to spend the money anyways (gas, groceries, etc.) the rewards do add up for travel, gifts, even money taken off your balance, etc. Right now we are saving our rewards since we are going to Hawaii in May!

But, this only works well if you guys are already disciplined about spending money and are just looking for even more ways to save =]

geojam224 · July 2012

I have Hulu instead of cable, its $8/month as opposed to like $50 or whatever. I agree with PP about using a CC that has good rewards (I have Discover and LOVE IT). Oh, and to save on electricity, unplug your phone charger when you aren't using it, try to keep lights off, and open windows instead of AC if possible. If you can afford to set aside some money for a while, you might want to look into a CD (though rates are the worst in history right now), and of course savings accounts will earn you some interest...

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