Ten Ways to Save a Large Family Money

My friend Jamerrill, over at Holy Spirit Led Homeschooling, did a post with the top ten ways she saves money for her family. I was so impressed with the list that I wanted to share it here, as well as add to it.

Jamerrill's list includes:
1) Reuse zipper shut bags
2) Make cloth napkins
3) Make own cleaning products
4) Shop monthly
5) Use cloth diapers
6) Buy the family pass
7) Buy homeschooling materials at yard sales, thrift stores, etc.
8) Replace ground beef with sausage
9) Use the woodstove
10) Do not keep a car payment

Every one of these things I do, or have done in the past, and they are all ways to save. But I think I can add ten more ways, and I think you can add yet another ten ways.

This is what I want to do to help each other out. Run your own post on your blog with Ten Ways to Save the Family Money. Link back to Jamerrill's post, and this post so that we can find you. Leave a comment here letting us know that you also have ten ways to save on your blog, and we will make sure to come by and read your list.

I'm excited to see how long of a list we can come up with. So for now, here's my Top Ten Ways to Save:

1) First and foremost, we save money by doing without. It is amazing how much stuff we think we need but don't. If you want to make a new purchase, say a new dishwasher for example, wait six months. Do whatever you have to do to get your dishes clean without that new dishwasher for those six months. Then, when the time's up, decide if you really need it.

2) Do all your errands on one day. This can be exhausting for us but since we live seven miles from the nearest grocery store, and 20 from the nearest large town with all the places we like to go, we save our gas by doing everything in one day...grocery, thrift store, library, etc.

3) Garden. I recently spent $54 at the farm store for the following items: broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, and chard plants; two bags of cow manure, and two bales of straw. When my 7 year old heard the price, he whispered, "Mommy, do you have $54?" In the car I explained to him that just to buy the broccoli in the grocery store that I would get from the plants would cost more than all the stuff I bought. You could see the light bulb turn on inside his head.

4) Buy used. We rarely buy anything new. We shop at thrift stores, flea markets, and yard sales. I only carry designer label handbags, but I never pay more than $5 for one, either. If an appliance needs replaced, my husband will calculate the cost of buying new compared with a used one. Many times we've met folks discarding perfectly usable things just because they are redecorating. One man's trash is another man's treasure.

5) Shop around. When I bought my laptop and printer a couple years ago I first decided how much I wanted to spend. Then I started shopping. I read the circulars in the paper. I looked online for discounts. I went to several different stores. And I waited. I did not buy until I could get my price. And it paid off. I got a great laptop and printer brand new for under $400.

6) Re-purpose used items. Just as Jamerrill described how she made cloth napkins out of worn out dish towels, I've done the same kind of thing. My cloth napkins came from stained table cloths. I never give away a bag of clothes with stained up t-shirts. Anything made from absorbent material is cut up for rags (I do not buy paper towels). We use discarded drywall mud buckets to store our grains in. I turned a worn out bed quilt into window quilts to use when the cold winter winds blow through our drafty windows.

8) As a writer, I go through tons of paper. When I edit a story I like to do it on a printed copy. After marking it up, and making the changes on the computer though, I do not throw away the paper copy. I put it in a scrap paper pile. When my children want paper to use, they know they can have whatever they want from the scrap paper pile.

9) Buy in bulk. We buy our wheat, popcorn, and sugar by the 50 pound bag. If I see ketchup for $1 a bottle, I buy a case of it. Same with toilet paper. I rarely use coupons, because we rarely purchase the processed foods for which coupons are made. Although we grow most of our meat, in the summertime we will find our freezer getting low and ourselves wanting a burger. But, I buy the big family packs of burger. I also buy several of them when they are on sale and divide them up into meal-sized portions and freeze.

10) Wow. I could keep going, but this is my last tip for today. Drink water. You will never find soda pop, Kool-Aid, or fruit juices in my grocery cart. I do not buy milk because we own a dairy goat, but we also are not big milk drinkers. In the summer we will make a pitcher of iced tea to have with supper but otherwise my family drinks water. We often flavor it with a little lemon or a sprig of mint.

So, what about you? What ten things do you do to save money? Let's keep the list going. Post yours on your blog with a link back to these ideas so that your readers can get the full effect. And, let us know where to go to read your list.

Blessings to you,