Saving Money- September 2018

So, If your scroll down to my 2016 post about how I saved over $14,000 in one year on stuff that I didn’t need, you have a good jumping off point. That post referenced a time before we added kids to our life though, so there are more savings to be had, still. Here are some additional ways to save on what you’ve been over-spending on AND, I am including a chart at the bottom of this post, that shows how you can literally squirrel small amounts of money away and watch those dollars add up.

When we started with Cole, we had name brand everything. It wasn’t because it was a priority for us to, but its what our very generous friends and family supplied us with. The only fancy stuff we really wanted was a car seat, and the breathing monitor. When the diapers ran out, and we finally started buying our own, we bought name brand because we were used to seeing those brands. We were spending a fortune. Cole, not unlike today, didn’t sleep through the night and so we ended up changing his diaper when he woke up, two-three times a night. It got expensive.

1. I ended up beginning a couponing hobby. Having a bit of the OCD, it quickly became a fixation, so I halted my efforts, but there were plenty of free diapers from that (I’ll post soon about couponing, it is its own full, long post). I also acquired body washes, shampoos, conditioners, razors, laundry detergent, toothbrushes, toothpaste and anything else you could imagine. It was fun, but too much work. I then discovered after a series of trips to Costco, that usually one of their two brands (Huggies or their housebrand Kirkland) were usually on sale. The price per diaper was ridiculously inexpensive, so that became our next “go to”. Skip to two years later (now), we were given a case of Up & Up Brand Diapers (Target’s house brand) and discovered the sizing was easier for whatever reason. We were given size 5 and they fit our size 4 one-year-old AND our size 6 2.5-year-old! Target is fun because you can stop into the brick-and-mortar store and shop clearance end-caps too (a personal joy) or you can order them online. Its like the sisterhood of the traveling jeans, only with baby diapers. We spend $70 a month now on diapers if we don’t use any cloth. We used to spend that in a week. If you’re couponing, bags and small boxes are where you’ll find ways to get free diapers, but if you don’t coupon, head for the hugest boxes the retailer sells, and buy extra when they’re on sale. (that’s about $2500 annually in savings, FYI)
2. Our first baby made it through teething without much fuss, but our second baby, Silas, has always had multiple teeth coming in simultaneously (and painfully) since he was about six months old. We try not to give him tylenol too frequently, but he gets plenty of it, for sure! I was buying infant tylenol, both namebrand and the generic (they have identical ingredients across nearly all generics). What I discovered was that sometimes, the mg are the SAME between children’s and infants, the dosing is just different. CHECK AND VERIFY WITH THE BRAND YOU’RE USING! So, anywho, I went from spending $6 on a tiny bottle of tylenol to spending $4 on a large generic bottle. My child does not act any differently between the two. They are functionally the same, only now I’m spending $8 less a month.  (that’s $96 a year for one product)
3. Use a rebate app! Even if you don’t coupon, you undoubtedly buy items that are in the rebate app. I get about $10 back a month, using about five minutes of effort before I shop and another 2-5 minutes taking a photo of my receipts after. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but that’s $120 annually in cash back.
4. I grow sprouts! This doesn’t sound like a big savings, and maybe you’ve never gotten into sprouts, but they’re expensive AF. I was spending $4 on a tiny container, and sprouts are off limits when you’re pregnant too, because of contaminants. I found online that broccoli sprouts will grow in 3 days! Three days, indoors. Its saved us a fortune. I controlled the water and how sanitary the process was, so I did eat these while I was pregnant, and my baby was A-OK (9lbs, 5oz and without being a gestational diabetes baby). I ate it as a substitute for salad greans, which we were spending $7 a week on, and saved $4 a week on sprouts and every 3 days I have three huge mason jars of sprouts all for an initial investment of $38! (That’s about $530 annually for switching to a healthier green than any typical mixed green)….

see what I’m doing here? Find the items YOU use the most, and start your savings there. We’re only four products in and I’m already saving over $3000 annually, which is about $58 a week. If you’re on a tight budget, that’s a big deal. For a family of four living in a two-bedroom apartment, that’s a lot too, because all other habits being left the same, that’s another $248 a month… that could be an upgrade in space size/ quality or both…. it could also mean a house that costs another $31,000 dollars if you have a 30 year mortgage.

So onto the next savings.

5. Media. We don’t spend a lot on media. We have Netflix and that saves us from many a tv show and movie purchase. We also have iTunes, so instead of spending $13 on an album, we spend $2-6 on average for the songs we like. We also keep an eye out for full albums on sale or at thrift stores if they’re ones we’d like all of, but mostly, we enjoy what we already have. We also both have music we’ve collected over the past 20-25 years. It feels like plenty most of the time. We have a radio in our car if we fancy something newer. I used to buy a couple cd’s a month and about the same number of tv series’, spending about $2000 annually, Alex spent more on cd’s. Now we maybe spend $60, which includes a rare adventure going to the movies, and spend another $168 annually on Netflix. Cumulatively spending about $5000 annually or so before, and now spending $228. We don’t feel like we’re missing too much (though, we wouldn’t mind seeing a few more movies out annually). We have a good life, and we’re saving almost $4800 annually on crap that we don’t need that takes up space we DO need.’d recommend trying to figure out your top TEN most

This is only five items, and you may have totally different items, but I definitely recommend starting with five or ten of your most common expenses (check your receipts if that helps) and see where your money goes and find out where YOU can save on those items first-and-foremost.