It's liberating to have money set aside on the things we have to spend on. For example: dental and dentures. As we age, proffesional dentists become our very best friends in our most biting days in life. We coud pay VISA for the consultation and 'restructuring". With pun, we literally scrounge for more savings to have those $1500 worth of dentures. Gluing wasn't working anymore; they kept breaking. Our hearts kept breaking with self-pity. 1. Spend grocery money only on the food and condiments from what's in th grocery list. We avoid eating out. Homecooked meals are a lot nutritious and cheaper. I use beef tallow (free fats from our local butcher) for frying and cooking: instead of cans and cans of vegetable, canola, cottonseed oils which are rich in carcinogenic transfatty acids. 2. Scout on thrift/secondhand charity stores. I get a lot of good buys and brands there. 3. When buying online. We go to eBay and look out for trusted sellers with 99.9-100% seller-reviews received. We get our money's worth through them. 4. Sell some pre-loved things in Facebook buy-and-sell. You never know how much you de-clutter, at the same time, get money for them. We sold our old/newly refurbished wood heater to a happy customer. Part of that money was used for new set of dentures. 5. Co-own a Jersey cow with your friendly neighbor. There's nothing like a good ol' delicious, nutritious, heathy organic raw milk. Cost: $1.00/liter. The processing, homogenizing, pasteurization of milk caused eczema in my family; therefore more doctor's consultations and steriod-content creams and antihystamine drugs-- then more money spent. I think these simple practices help us so much.
I'm not sure if item 5 would be applicable to me given my location and the kind of neighbors we have in our subdivision. Though there are no Jersey cows here, there are plenty of chickens and other livestock that we can cook and eat for absolutely no charge or sell for a good price. Thrift stores are cool but when it's hard to find something that you need there, it's always good to do a bit of research online and see if you can just bank on your creativity and attempt to produce what you need by creating something out of nothing.
These are sensible tips. While co-owning a Jersey cow with a neighbor may only work in the countryside or in rural areas, there are certainly urban versions of this practice. Some of our neighbors, for example, share cable, telephone, and internet subscription so they get to split the monthly subscription on these stuff. They'll just buy cables or extra units to extend the line or share passwords. This can work if you have a nice, close relationship with your neighbor and you're both disciplined.
I like saving money with weekly sales here on Oahu. We have weekly sales from supermarkets, membership stores, drug stores and other stores have good sales and prices. 2 good stores with pretty good daily prices are Walmart and Target. Every week like clockwork we wait for our newspaper ads or go online to see what's on sale this week. Every store has a site for their weekly sales. Wednesday is when supermarket sales starts and Sunday is when drug stores like Walgreens and CVS. Don Quiote a huge store with food and dry goods has their ads on Sunday included in our Sunday newspaper along with Walgreens and CVS ads. Like most too we shop at thrift stores and online searching for the best prices for what we need.
These are indeed some good tips. One thing I am doing recently is that finding means to get Amazon gift cards. And that way I am making my purchase through it. This way I don't have to spend money out of my savings. I have tried these methods and it works. You spend less money if you have such gift cards. So I never miss the chance of getting one. You can buy a lot of stuff through such balance. I think it'd be safe to say that apart from gift cards, you should get the cashback offers. As those offers definitely make you some money back on spending.
I love to save money and am always on the look out for a deal. I shop on eBay all the time when I need to find a good deal. I go to thrift stores to find clothing for my children since they grow so fast it is ridiculous to spend full price on clothes that will be too small in a few months. I can usually find some great deals on higher end clothing for them that otherwise I would not be able to afford. This makes the resale value higher as well. I also try to save money by buying on sale and using coupons. Every little bit helps.
Food is the major spending for everyone. Therefore, you should look for the waysb to cut food cost. One of the ways to control your spending and start saving money is cooking food at home instead of eating in resturant. Another way to cut expenses is buying food that cost less, for instance, there is no need to eat chicken every day, you can cut your expenses by not eating chicken every day. You can also save money by not buying junk food and carbonated drinks.
Our usual haunt in the supermarket are the gondolas in the center aisles that contains the items on sale. But we always check the expiration date because that’s often the reason why those items are on sale. With perishable items like vegetables and fruits, we only buy the amount that we can eat in 2 days. In the wet market, we go there in the late morning where the price of meat and fish are slightly lower especially when you know the art of haggling. Instead of being left with excess meat, the vendors are willing to give you a discount since the market becomes empty of customers by 11 am.
My neighbor gets free wifi from our other neighbor, so it pays to be nice to your neighbors. I also like to look for old models of phones since they are already marked down. I also save money by feeding our pets human food rather than cat food, which I read is harmful to them in the long run.
Always look for a brighter sight. Spend your money to the things you need not to what you just want. Before spending money think twice always, with that you can save more and spend less.