Ten Money Saving Ideas

#1 Have the Motivation to Change

The first money saving idea is to have a desire to change and be willing to make some adjustments. You may not be used to doing things this way. You naturally just do things a lot like your parents.
This will be a lifestyle adjustment, and it will take a conscious effort to turn these money saving ideas into new habits. After a while, it will become second nature. At first you’ll just do it because it is good for your health, finances, and peace of mind, But soon you’ll come to love this frugal lifestyle.
If you look at the rewards of any goal, it helps you to stick with it. It is the same way with these money saving ideas. These are some of the rewards of living frugally and eating your home food storage: pay off your car, pay off your home, save money for a rainy day fund, have money to pay all the bills, have better health, peace of mind, and a safety net for your family.
Using these money savings ideas Is so worth it!

#2 Grow and Preserve a Garden

Now that you’ve decided that you’re going write down a money saving goal and stay with the goal until it becomes part of your lifestyle, let’s get started.
You save big money on groceries when you eat out of the garden. From July to October almost all the food our family eats comes from the garden. We feed our family on less than “A Dollar a Day” per person in the summer.
Fruits and vegetables from the garden are way healthy. The taste of food straight from the garden can’t be matched. Everything else tastes like rubber in comparison. Let me also point out that your mind, body, and spirit all function at a higher level when you are eating this healthy food.
Dad’s been gardening vegetables for over 70 years. He can help you too.  Then learn how to preserve your fruits and vegetables.

#3 Buy in Bulk

Another money saving tip is to buy in bulk. Here are a couple examples:

You can buy 1 pound of generic brand rice for $1.79 and 25 pounds of bulk rice for $10.35. It costs you $44.75 for that 25 pounds of rice when packaged in smaller units. You save $34.40 on 25 pounds of rice when buying in bulk. That’s a 432% savings! Wow!
You can buy a 2 lb 10 oz package of generic brand quick oats for $2.69 and a 25-pound bag of quick oats for $7.50. It costs you $25.62 for that 25 pounds of oats packaged in smaller quantities. You save $18.12 by buying in bulk. That’s a 342% savings! Big Savings!
See what I mean. I could go on and on giving you one example after another, but I don’t want to bore you.
If you can find it in bulk, buy it in bulk. Use what you need now, store the rest, and use it later. See how that works?
You can use a 5-gallon bucket with a Gamma lid to store your pantry food. We’ll talk more about this in bulk food storage containers.

#4 Cook from scratch

The next money saving idea is to cook from scratch.  Some have the idea that cooking from scratch is opening a cake mix; adding eggs, oil, and water; and there you have it – a cake made from scratch. That’s not the kind of “scratch” I’m talking about.  The question was then asked, “Where do I find “scratch”?”
“Scratch” is whole food that comes to us from Mother Nature. Here are some examples of scratch: whole grains, fruits, vegetables, spices, meat, eggs, milk, etc.
It takes a little more time to cook using whole foods, but look at the benefits you have when you apply this money saving idea:

1. Quality time with your children while you teach them life skills

2. Better health

3. Tasty food

4. Money savings on groceries

5. The satisfaction of knowing you can take care of your family

Click on the link to get Food Storage Recipes

#5 Learn to Love Eating Whole Foods

Eating whole foods goes right along with the previous money saving ideas: planting a garden, buying in bulk, and cooking from scratch.
Do you like this type of food? Don’t turn your nose up at a something that has a different taste and texture than you are used to. If you don’t like certain foods try this little mental experiment -- As you chew it up, savor the flavor, and pretend that you're trying a delicacy for the first time. Believe it or not, it works. You’ll begin to acquire a taste for it.
Hopefully you don’t have any picky eaters in your home, but if you do – have everyone try a sample of something new each day. They don’t have to eat a lot of it. Make it a side dish so that they don’t go hungry.
In an emergency situation, one of the last things you want to deal with is a whining child saying they don’t like the food. Make it easier on your family by slowly adding new healthy foods to your diet right now.

#6 Eat Sale-Price Foods

This is one of the money saving ideas that will help you save money while eating foods your family enjoys. When you find a good deal on something that you normally eat, buy a case of it. Store it and use it. It won’t take long before you only eat bought-on -sale items.
Now you only need to buy the fresh produce. If you have a garden you don’t even need to buy that.
Sprouting seeds is an alternative to fresh vegetables in the winter. And it’s something you can buy in bulk! We love the 7- grain sprout mix.



Keep building your food storage by looking for food that is on sale. Now you’re saving 30%-60% on your canned groceries. Use that money to reinvest in your food storage.
It is so exciting when you find a great deal: Like the time I found Campbell’s Cream of Chicken soup for 35 cents a can. I bought 10 cases. Or when I found 3 pounds of butter for $5. I bought as much as my freezer would hold.
When you are looking, you will find deals all over the place. I pray to find deals and then express gratitude to God when he puts one in my lap. A grateful heart receives more blessings (Sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself. We’ll talk about this in a minute)

#7 Stay Out of the Store

If you can just stay out of the store, you will save a lot of money. A store is like a giant advertisement. When you go into the store, you buy things that weren’t even on your list. It looks good, so you buy it.
Here's some ideas to save money: Cut down your trips to the grocery store. If you are going every day – go once a week. If you are going every week – go every other week. If you are going every other week – go once a month, etc.
This money saving idea just takes planning. Make a list of everything that you need to buy. Keep this list on the refrigerator or some other handy place so you don’t forget what you need. DO NOT buy anything unless it is on your list.

#8 Eat at Home

This frugal lifestyle tip has benefits that can’t be measured just in dollars. As a family, sit down and eat your meals around the kitchen table. Your family will be stronger because of it. This is a time to talk, laugh, and discuss what happened that day.
Up until this last year, this has been our out-to-eat schedule: Mom and Dad would go out to eat twice a month ($80), the family would go out to eat twice a month ($160), and we’d have take-out pizza every Friday night ($80). That’s $320 a month. I can feed my entire family of 12 on $360 a month when I apply all “10 Money Saving Ideas”. Eating at home practically saves me my entire food budget for the month.   Look what you can do by staying home to eat instead of going out to eat. You might not want to cut all the out-to-eats because they're fun. Start to implement this money saving idea by eating a home more.

#9 Reusable instead of disposable

 We live in the world of disposables. Disposable plates, diapers and wipes, feminine hygiene products, cleaning products, etc. How did people ever live without all these disposable products?
Well, try it. Start replacing some of your disposables with reusable products. The average woman spends $3000 - $5000 on disposable sanitation supplies in her lifetime. For around $200 you can buy a lifetime supply of reusable feminine hygiene products for one woman. They work better than the disposables. This is one of my favorite money saving ideas.
Disposable diapers are so expensive. There are some great companies that do an excellent job in providing cloth diapers that really work. Click on the link to learn about my favorite cloth baby diapers.

We use disposable toilet paper, but we do have an emergency portable bidet
toilet paper kit for each member of the family.

#10 Pray and Express Gratitude to God

This last word of advice is the most important of the money saving ideas. It is your life line. Pray over your specific concerns. Express gratitude to God for miracles as he helps you build and use your long term storage and apply these money saving ideas.
You are different from everyone else. Only God understands everything about your specific situation. Talk to Him like you would talk to a friend. Explain your detailed plan to him. He’s interested in what you have to say.
Ask him for suggestions and see what His ideas are. There are many ways that He will answer you, here are a few ways He answers me: a great idea comes to mind, a friend shares a thought, or you come across something that fits you perfectly. There are no coincidences. “Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous.”
He will help you accomplish this important undertaking if you will put your best foot forward. Remember to thank him for what he has helped you achieve. Gratitude opens the door for more blessings.
Remember to take one-step-at-a-time. I’ve given you the whole plan so you can see the big picture. Now Just Do It!We all know the saying, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time, but don’t forget to enjoy the bites along the way.”



All of this great information was found HERE

52 Week Savings Plan

I found this awesome chart here.  -Lisa

Give this super-easy 52-Week savings plan a try, and have an extra $1378 by the end of the year!

On many calendars, each week is numbered, beginning with Week #1: January 1-7.  On this 52-week plan, you save the amount of dollars that corresponds to that week’s number. If one week you find yourself with extra cash, add it to the pot. You’ll end up with more than the $1378 total by the end of December or you’ll have created a bit of a padding for weeks that don’t have any extra cash left over.

Print out this chart or make your own and check off each week as you save. If there are other members in the family with an income, encourage them to do the same. A family with 2 breadwinners could end up with a grand total of $2756.

Weekly Grocery Budget

This blog I've linked to below has some great money saving tips for grocery shopping on a budget.  She feeds her family of 4 with just $50 a week!  Her blog is awesome, with grocery lists, meal plans, and recipes.  Check it out!
http://oneincomefamilyliving.blogspot.com/2011_11_01_archive.html

Financial Preparedness - the Importance of a Monthly Budget

http://americanpreppersnetwork.com/2012/06/financial-preparedness-the-importance-of-a-monthly-budget.html

By Stephanie Dayle - Tue Jun 12, 5:58 am

Financial Preparedness means, you are as ready, financially, as you are well supplied for any disaster that may head your way.  All the supplies in the world won’t help you if you are lambasted by your bank or the IRS and evicted from your home because you couldn’t make ends meet and pay your bills.  Out of all the things we prep for, the least likely of them to happen, always seems to be the ones I hear about people preparing for.  Those black swan (or SHTF) events are a real possibility and worthy of preparedness, but in the scheme of things they are not likely.

The chances of a second Great Depression are far greater than the much talked about single day economic collapse.  A prolonged depression may in fact lead to a collapse eventually, but it could last a long time.  When we “prepare”, its not just of those really bad single day disasters, it’s for ANY emergency, including a job loss or economic depression.

If the above scenario were to take place; you would STILL have to pay your bills.  If you don’t, I can almost guarantee you – there will STILL be plenty of people around to haul your butt into court and either repo your property or put a lien on your house.  If your creditor or bank goes under, someone else will buy or assume the debt, maybe even the government.  Some of the last good paying jobs around will be that of debt collectors and repo men.

The only way you can prevent this from happening, in good times or bad, is to pay off your loans and adopt a debt free lifestyle.  An economic disaster is NOT your ticket out of paying your bills.  Getting out of debt takes hard work and discipline, but the pay off in financial freedom and ultimate preparedness is great.

As you start working towards your debt free lifestyle, your first step can be setting up a monthly budget as described in my previous article here.  Setting up a monthly budget is important because it is taking control of your money.  “It’s making your money behave” as Dave Ramsey likes to say.  A monthly budget is you telling your money what to do, rather than you sitting back at the end of the month wondering where the heck it all went.  It’s a plan, and success always comes quicker with a plan.  People hear the word “Budget” and they think “no fun” and “I can’t buy my preps”, but it doesn’t have to be like that.  There are tons of ways to prep while on a budget, and when you do get out from under that debt think of how relieved you will be, think of how free you will be!

Remember, there is no point in doing this if you don’t stick to it.  Your monthly budget should be done at the end of each month, prior to the next one starting.  Make a rule that if you don’t write it down, you don’t spend money on it.  This is the ONLY way to prevent that ‘lost’ feeling one gets when you sit down to pay bills and wonder where all of your money went.  People who budget know EXACTLY where their money goes and what it is doing.

More Monthly Budget Details – Prioritizing:

• When you are setting up your budget, pay your DEBTS first before other stuff, starting with your mortgage.  Your mortgage should always have top priority over other bills like cable or internet.
• If you owe any taxes these should also take top priority – the IRS is the most powerful debt collection agency in the world and they answer to no one.  Make sure you take care of your taxes.
• Your next priorities should be things like power and water, then you can move on to vehicle loans, then credit cards.  What you are doing, in a sense, is giving priority to things that will keep you alive and safe and allowing you to get to work before you are addressing things that keep you comfortable and entertained.
• Once money is allotted for your bills, then designate an amount for food in the form of groceries.
• Next, before you start paying extra on any bills, set up a “saving account” somewhere for an emergency fund.  And devote as much as you can to it, even if its only $10 a month.  Start with a goal of one month’s income (whatever your household makes in one month) and work your way up to six months.
• After your bills are paid, your home is stocked with food for the month, and you’ve sent a little money to a savings account, then move one to extra activities for kids (YES, your bills and savings take priority over your kids’ entertainment and enrichment), cable, internet, and lastly “eating out / shopping” if you have the funds to do so.

Preppers will often scrap those last three categories and opt to use that money to prep.  Most seasoned preppers have learned important lessons like prioritizing, sacrifice, and responsibility.  We have learned that our family’s safety and security is more important than going out for some sushi on a Friday night or that football package on TV.  It doesn’t mean that we don’t have any fun at all – it just means we’ve focused our efforts and resources into what is important for us.

Pre-disaster financial preparedness checklist

Take these 8 steps now to avoid financial disaster later

By Connie Prater, (information copied from here -Lisa)

If disaster strikes your family, you don't want to be left without access to money or credit cards. Experts say to take these steps before hurricanes, wildfires, earthquakes, tornadoes or other natural disasters hit:

1.  Keep some cash handy.
Have some emergency cash or travelers checks set aside in a safe, secure place. How much you need depends on your family's circumstances, but a few hundred dollars may be a good start. It should be easily accessible. Remember that banks and ATMs may be inaccessible if there are power outages, curfews or mandatory evacuations. Be careful with that cash, and put it back in the bank once the danger passes, because if it's lost or stolen, your homeowners insurance policy will cover only a limited amount. 

2.  List account numbers, institution phone numbers.
Keep a log of account numbers and toll-free telephone numbers for all of your banks, credit unions and lending institutions for credit cards and mortgage and car loans. You can make photocopies of the front and back of the cards or type up a list and e-mail it to yourself. This information should be kept in a secure but accessible place. The Federal Trade Commission has more tips to help keep financial documents up to date and portable for emergencies.

3.  Flood-proof important papers.
Place photocopies of important documents in a plastic bag and double wrap them to protect against water damage. Consider putting them in a safe deposit box.

4.  Use cellphone and email as backup record-keepers.
Save the toll-free telephone numbers to your credit card issuers in your cellphone contact list or email the list to yourself in an encrypted, password-protected file. If cards are lost or stolen, you will be able to quickly alert credit card companies. But beware: Cellphones and Internet access may be limited or completely shut down following a disaster -- as may your ability to recharge your phone. Don't make them your only recourse for retrieving your information.

5.  Create a fire-safe records box.
Place important financial documents in a fire-safe box, but keep in mind that if mandatory evacuations are ordered and your neighborhood is inaccessible for any reason, you may not be able to get to the box.

6.  Spread the wealth.
Don't give all of the credit cards and checkbooks to one family member. If you are separated for any reason, the other person may be stranded.

7.  Set aside emergency-only credit card.
Designate one credit card for emergency use only. It should have enough available credit to accommodate purchases of food and supplies for a week or more. Making purchases on a credit card will help you document disaster-related expenses, which may be reimbursed by your insurance company or other assistance program. If you don't use this card very often, you may want to call the credit card issuer and let them know you will be using the card. Making several large purchases on a card that has been inactive or suddenly making transactions in a location away from your home may trigger a fraud alert and a freeze on the account.

8.  Inform card issuers in advance, if possible.
Call the credit card issuers and alert them that you may be inaccessible and give them alternative numbers where you can be reached. Ask about your available credit limit and if you can increase it during the crisis, have late fees and finance charges waived temporarily or work out alternative payment plans.

Financial Training with our Kids

Money can be a stressful topic, especially in a tough economy, so all the more reason to start now to teach our kids to be financially responsible!  There is a lot of good information about teaching our kids about money from themint.org.  Everyone may not agree with everything here, but hopefully we can all learn a little from it.  Here are some things that jumped out at me...  -Lisa

Model Money Smart Habits

It has been said that "Children are great imitators. So give them something great to imitate."
As parents, we know our children observe our every action, including gaffes that we hope will go unnoticed.  We have those hopes because we know that our actions speak loudly.
In fact, a March 2010 Themint.org poll showed that parents have the biggest influence on the way kids save and spend money, moreso than friends, celebrities or their teachers.  Believe it or not, parents shape the way children manage money more than anyone or anything. They actively absorb the way that moms and dads pinch pennies or make mistakes with money.

Questions to Consider

Modeling money smarts takes a serious parental commitment.  Parents should consider the behaviors that they’re modeling to their kids by asking themselves: 

• Do my kids see me economize?
• Do they see me shop more often at outlet malls or high-class boutiques?
• Do I suggest that shopping is entertainment?
• Do I wait for an item to go on sale?
• Do I regularly clip and use coupons?
• Do I send in rebate offers?
• Have my children ever seen me save up for large purchases or do I whip out the plastic when you see something I want?
• When I make large purchases, do I research brands and features?
• Do I comparison shop with my kids to underscore the seriousness of the purchase?

Teach Them Well

Modeling money smart behavior doesn’t have to be complicated; there are many simple things parents can do.

• Involve kids in everyday conversations about money.  Use real-life situations to help them learn lessons.
• Use the grocery store as a classroom.  Talk through purchases with young shoppers and help them weigh all factors that go into a purchase decision.
• Extend the grocery store lesson to the shopping mall.  Reinforce smart spending, not immediate gratification. Wait for discounts, save for items and pay with cash instead of plastic.
• Emphasize planning.  Make a list before you enter a store to teach children to focus on needs.

Modeling money smart habits to children – aligning your actions with your words – brings the lesson home.  Start early, and you’ll lay the groundwork for financial security later on. 

  

Two ways to help your kids understand money

As savvy as kids are in this Information Age, they remain dangerously uninformed about money. Yet knowing how to manage money is a skill that will help determine the quality of your child's adult life. Just as kids learn to read and write, young people must become financially "literate." Few schools teach money management. As a parent, the all-important task lies with you.
As parents, we must move in two directions.

1. Every day, we need to create conversations about money – not lectures, but casual commentaries on situations that arise naturally in our days. The aim? To teach children a) how to think about money and b) make responsible decisions in using it.
2. We must review our own financial habits so that we are modeling responsible financial behavior. Children quietly observe adults, and parents are "modeling" financial behavior all the time – whether or not we mean to.

Everyday Opportunities
Our days are full of opportunities to talk about money with our kids.  Sometimes we don’t recognize situations as opportunities. Sometimes, we may see an opportunity, but we’re too rushed to take the time to talk about it – so we let these valuable real-life lessons slide. Other times, we think that it’s not “right” to talk to kids about our money decisions.
Question:  If we don’t take the time to use real-life situations, how will kids learn the money lessons they need as adults?  Our days provide many money lessons. How good are you at recognizing and using these lessons?

Allowances - Trial and Error Money Management
The main reason for allowances is to help kids learn – by trial and error – how to manage money. Because allowances give kids a steady income, receiving regular payments helps kids plan for the future: they can set goals, work to reach them, learn how to save and spend. They also learn to be responsible and to profit from their mistakes.

Responsibility of ownership

Allowances give kids money to keep track of – in other words, not lose or misplace it. If money "disappears," it's gone. Kids will eventually learn to be more careful with money.

Responsibility of making their own spending decisions

When kids must spend their own money on items you consider foolish or extravagant, you are no longer put in the position of approving or denying the purchase. It's their money. They may or may not learn that the item was not as great as it promised, or that is was flimsy, or that its excitement only lasted a day. If they learn any of those lessons, the item becomes well worth whatever amount of money your child paid for it.

Good practice

Kids are bound to make mistakes in the way they handle their allowance, but that is all part of the learning experience. Making mistakes early in life on small things should prevent more serious mistakes later on, when errors can have more long-lasting consequences.
While most experts agree that allowances are good money-management tools, opinions differ about structuring allowances. Families must decide for themselves how to iron out the details. Read more on how to structure allowances.

Allowances - the Issues
When to begin? How much to give? Do you supplement allowances with spending money? When do allowances stop? Here are some thoughts on each of these issues. Use them to discuss how to handle allowances in your family. Every family is different and has to decide for themselves what to do.

When to begin

Some parents begin before ages 6 or 7, as soon as children can recognize the different values of coins. What can a pre-schooler need? Not much. The idea here is to learn balance: spend some money, save some, and give some to charity. Some parents want to start these habits as early as possible. Others parents wait until grade school – these parents feel that grade schoolers have a better understanding of money and how it can be used. Let your child's grasp of the concepts be your guide.

How much

Some experts say dollars should match the child's age: $7 for a 7-year-old. Other experts recommend one dollar for every year of school. Such a pat formula is not always realistic. The amount you give your child depends on three factors:

• The economic climate of your neighborhood. What are other children getting? Different neighborhoods represent difference cost-of-living levels.
• What the allowance covers. In the early years, the allowance may be used for incidentals. Later on, it will cover more. The financial responsibilities of your child should grow with age. If your teen has to fund clothing purchases, gas, and auto insurance, as well as entertainment and daily miscellaneous purchases, then you have to give an allowance large enough to cover these needs. Being financially responsible usually makes kids respect the items they buy and teaches decision-making. They will learn very soon that money is limited.
• Other considerations. If you do not give enough money for teens to learn to save some for long-and short-term purchases, spend some money during the month, and perhaps donate some to charity, you are not providing a learning experience. If the allowance isn't generous enough, teens might spend it all because they haven't got enough money to divide among several categories.

How often

When children are younger, they should be paid every week. Young children more easily handle time in smaller chunks.
However, you might consider shifting to a monthly payment for teens. Being paid once a month more closely approximates the real world, where paychecks and bills come monthly. Plus, increasing the time between payments also increases teen responsibility to stretch those dollars. If your teen has buzzed through his or her spending money by the 10th, waiting for the 1st of the month can be a long time.

How long

Some experts say that when your teen starts to earn money at a part-time job, you can begin to reduce the amount of the allowance. The money burden is beginning to shift from inside the family to outside the family. If teens find they're running short of money, then they have choices: 1) review money management practices, with an eye toward spending 2) adjust their lifestyle, or 3) work more hours. However, working more hours during the school year detracts from studying. A better idea is to work longer hours during the summer and cut spending.

"Spending" money

Do you supplement allowances with spending money? Spending money is the money you give your kids to spend on a specific thing or event. It's Sunday and a bunch of kids are going to a matinee. You shell out $15 for the ticket and popcorn. If you supply spending money, then perhaps allowances should not be so generous. After all, you're taking care of entertainment expenses as they arise.

Allowances tied to chores

This is a major controversy. Examine both sides and then make up your own mind.
Pro-chore advocates. On the one hand, some experts say that kids have to learn the connection between money and earning it. To tie allowances to chores does that. The message to kids is that you earn the allowance – you are not simply entitled to it. The real world expects work in exchange for money.
The anti-chore advocates. What happens when kids don't do the chores? If you dock their pay, you're depriving kids of their money management lesson, which is supposed to be the purpose of allowances. Another problem: where does paying for chores end? Do you pay kids for everything they do around the house? Does paying for chores teach kids to expect pay every time they contribute to the good of the family? That's not realistic. Who pays a parent for doing the laundry and shopping? Kids must help with the running of the household. Bigger chores – washing windows – deserve pay.

Pay on time

It's a way to teach your child that commitments have to be kept and that people depend on one another.

Don't cave

Here's the scene. Your teen asks you for an advance. He's worked his way through his spending budget, and this great opportunity has come along. If you cave in, he misses the lesson of keeping money in reserve for unanticipated expenses. Bail him out often enough, and you undercut the lesson he's created for himself.
Look at the issues, and talk them over with your partner. See what fits your philosophy and works best for you. Do you intervene in how your teens handle their allowance? For answers, go to Whose Allowance Is This Anyway?