A Strong Home

Inspiration and encouragement for mothers and household managers

5 Ways to Save Money on Purchases

I’ve always been a thrifty girl, not drawn in by flashy, name brand things. I get pretty excited when I find a great deal on something that I need. After becoming a homeowner and then a mother, I found new ways to save on necessary purchases. If you haven’t fully embraced technology and all the ways it can help you save money, I’ve got a helpful guide below to get you started!

woman holding shopping bags

1. Coupons

This is obviously nothing new, but the days of clipping coupons from the Sunday paper have definitely evolved. With websites like Coupons.com and Groupon, you get much more variety. If you eat very healthy, organic food and are convinced coupons do not exist for these things, think again! Mambo Sprouts and Common Kindness are two of my favorite websites for organic coupons. You can also visit the websites and Facebook pages for your favorite brands to find discounts and coupons.

2. In-Store Apps

Most department and and grocery stores now have their own apps you can download and use in the store. My favorite department store apps are Kohls AppKohl’s and Target. Both of these allow you to scan merchandise and see eligible discounts. The Target app now has Cartwheel built in, which allows you to add manufacturer’s coupons and store discounts you find in Cartwheel to your Target wallet in the app. In the wallet, you can sometimes find additional coupons such as $5 off a $25 beauty supply purchase. When you get to the register, just pull up the wallet in the app and the cashier will scan the barcode, automatically taking off the Cartwheel coupons and discounts. The Kohl’s app will show you if the item is on clearance as well as your discounted price if you’re enrolled in their Rewards program, and discount offers the item is eligible for. If you shop at Kohl’s, do yourself a favor and get this app! One time I paid under $5 for a very cute dress that originally was priced at $50! Be sure and download your favorite grocery store’s app also. For most stores, you can link your club card to the app and add discounts and coupons while you’re shopping.

3. Rebate Apps

Most popular with grocery store purchases, these rebate apps allow you to submit your receipts and receive cash back for eligible purchases. My favorite apps are Ibotta and Checkout 51. These started a little shaky, but are now very easy to use. You can usually find at least a couple items each shopping trip since offers sometimes include any brand products like any brand of cereal or produce that is in season and an Any Item offer. It only takes a few minutes to browse through the offers, scan a few barcodes, and upload your receipt. In Ibotta, you can withdraw funds in the form of gift cards or through PayPal or Venmo. Checkout 51 will send you a check and will soon have the option to transfer funds to PayPal.

4. Facebook Buy/Sell/Trade Groups.

This is where I get most of my kids’ clothing, shoes, and baby/toddler gear. Since babies grow so fast, it makes sense to buy things used. I’ve found some great deals on baby clothes, shoes, strollers, high chairs, and other baby items that I’ll only use for a year or two. Things like baby slings and carriers are nice to find used since you don’t always know if a particular brand will work out for you. And if it doesn’t work out for you, go ahead and re-sell it! I’ve also found furniture on these groups. Until I’m confident my kid will not draw or spill on my couch, I refuse to buy something brand new. You may even be able to find a “Buy Nothing” group in which people in your neighborhood are giving away things for free.

5. Buy In Season and On Sale.

When planning your meals and grocery shopping, always check out the store ads first. Check out the store’s app or download the Flipp app to find most retailers’ weekly ads and match them to digital coupons. You can usually tell what’s in season because it’s featured and heavily discounted. In late summer sometimes you’ll see 10 ears of corn for $1. I like to plan my meals around things that are in season to get the most out of my shopping trip. You’ll also find that seafood and meat are discounted depending on the season and occasion. For example, on Memorial Day weekend you’ll find hot dogs, BBQ meats, ketchup, etc. on sale.

Don’t forget – you’re not really saving money if you buy something that isn’t a necessary purchase or that you weren’t already planning on buying.

 

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Cut Your Grocery Costs | How to Make a Meal Plan

One of the biggest areas families can save money is on food. Many times, life gets busy and before you know it, dinner time is fast upon you. Without a real plan, you decide to order a pizza, head to the drive thru or to have a nice mid-week dinner at a restaurant. Maybe this happens a few times a week. Add in the cost of eating out every day for lunch and the forgotten groceries that are wasting away in the fridge, and the money spent on food can really sneak up on you!

A simple plan for the week’s meals and a list can really go a long way when you’re trying to save on groceries. It will also help you avoid spending money eating out.

The first thing I do every week when making our meal plan is to get out the grocery sale ad from our local store. I like to use the flyer from the mail, but you can also pull it up on your mobile or tablet using the Flipp app. Knowing what’s on sale and what’s in season is the first step in making a meal plan that will save you money at the checkout. You can get a good idea of what’s in season by visiting the Sustainable Table Seasonal Food Guide.

Next, I go through my pantry and freezer to see what I have already. Have some ground beef in the freezer and know that bell peppers are in season? Stuffed peppers are an easy meal that won’t cost you much! A good way to keep track of your pantry and freezer stash is to keep a list on paper or on your phone. That way, you don’t have to keep opening doors to check what you have.

Now, the fun part! Get your favorite cookbooks out and pull it all together. Now that you know what’s on sale and what you have, you can start making your meal plan. Here’s what ours looks like this week:

Sunday: Chicken Tikka Masala, creamed eggplant, Saffron rice

Monday: Pasta with Italian sausage in marinara

Tuesday: Chopped salad

Wednesday: Leftovers

Thursday: Bison burgers and french fries

Friday: Date Night

Saturday: Open/Leftovers

We always make enough to have leftovers for lunch the next day and we usually have a leftovers night during the week. We like to keep Saturdays open in case we need to finish off leftover meals or we have a family event to go to. To make things easier for ourselves, we’ll cook some things ahead. For instance, since we are grilling chicken and eggplant on Sunday, we go ahead and grill the Italian sausage for the next day’s meal also. Now on Monday, we just have to cook pasta and heat up our sausage in the marinara sauce.

If you like going to warehouse stores like Costco and Sam’s Club, you can make your meal plan for two or more weeks at once. Know what is worth buying in bulk and what freezes well.

While you’re creating your meal plan, write out your grocery list. Make sure you account for breakfast and snacks. When you get to the grocery store, use your list and don’t buy anything else! If you do this right, you can cut your grocery cost down significantly. Our trip to the grocery store for the week only cost us $52 for a family of two plus baby. That includes all the meat for our meals.

So here it is in a nutshell:

1. Shop in season and use the sale flyer

2. Shop your pantry and freezer

3. Make a realistic meal plan from #1 &2

4. Make a shopping list and stick to it!

What are some things you do to save on groceries? I’d love to hear from you!

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Our Debt-Free Journey | How We Paid Off $29k in a Year

When we got engaged, Jacob and I decided to take a pre-marriage class to make sure we both had the tools we needed to have a good marriage. One of the lessons was about finances and featured a segment of Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University. We had both heard of Dave Ramsey before, but never really looked into his books or classes. What we heard in that lesson really sparked our interest and began us on a journey that really changed our lives.

We were both doing pretty well; we had good jobs, we knew how to save and we didn’t think we were in a great deal of debt. Jacob had just purchased a house that was very affordable and we planned to slowly fix it up and furnish it together. I had a car loan, a student loan, and a credit card with a small balance. Jacob also had a student loan and credit card.

After we were introduced to Dave Ramsey, we decided we wanted to live our lives free of debt and teach our children why that is so important. We recognized that if we had no debt and built up our savings, we would have more freedom to do what was really important to us. So we read all of Dave Ramsey’s books, borrowed the Financial Peace University DVDs from a friend, and started on our 7 baby steps. The first is a small emergency fund, the second is to pay off all debt but the house, and the third is to fully fund the emergency fund with 3-6 months of expenses. But we also had a wedding to pay for.

We started tackling our debt individually while saving for our wedding. We had nine months to save because we were determined to pay for all wedding expenses with cash. Jacob and I are both planners and like to use spreadsheets, so we created a budget and a plan. We started meal planning and being smarter with our grocery shopping, stopped eating out so much, and took our lunches to work every day.  We had garage sales and sold things on Craigslist. We were being gazelle intense! By the time August came around, Jacob had paid off his credit card and we had saved $12,000 for our September wedding and honeymoon. It was a beautiful wedding and very relaxing honeymoon. But most importantly, we knew we were starting off our marriage on the right foot.

Now that we were married, we combined our finances and really started concentrating on our debt. Together we now had about $29,000 in debt, not counting the house. We really kicked it into gear. Jacob put in a lot of overtime at work, I got a part-time job for the holidays, and we rented out one of our rooms. We continued doing meal planning and I tried finding good deals wherever I could. Jacob kept driving his old truck, “Leaky Lou” which he owned for 11 years. He did as many repairs on his own as he could for both our vehicles.

One by one, we tackled each debt while setting money aside for car replacement/repairs and travel. Our goal was to be debt-free within a year, and then take a big vacation to celebrate our one year anniversary and being debt-free. By the time our anniversary came around, we had scheduled our last payment, we were on a fun vacation in Seoul, South Korea, and I was pregnant!

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Why We Don’t Use Credit Cards

I’m sure everyone has their own reasons for using or not using credit cards.  My husband and I had several conversations and did a lot of researching before finally making the very scary decision of cutting up our credit cards.  We listed out all of our pros and cons, and decided that we were really just keeping them around for security; because it just made us feel secure in case we had an emergency.  Yep, we had a ton of rewards points which really in the end are kind of a joke, and the backing of the credit card company, and travel insurance, and the list goes on and on.  

My Safety Net

We weren’t impulse shoppers and we usually didn’t hold a huge balance on any of our cards.  Paying them off and cutting them up was a pretty quick process once we decided on it.  We were stuck on thinking somehow these little plastic cards were going to save us from a disaster that was just waiting around the corner.  I had a Firestone credit card that I applied for as soon as my warranty and maintenance plan on my car expired.  What would I do if something happened to my car?  How would I survive without my car?!  

The fact is, emergencies happen.  Cars break down and AC units go out and the pool pump will stop working.  Sometimes all at the same time, usually in the middle of summer, especially if you live in the desert.  If emergencies are unexpected, how can we possibly know when they’re going to happen?  Well, we don’t know WHEN, but we do know that they WILL happen, eventually.  I shifted my thinking and feelings from Credit Card Safety Net to Emergency Fund Safety Net.  And I found that I had a false sense of security with my credit cards.  If I used a credit card to pay for something like new tires, I would have to pay that money back anyways.  But what if I couldn’t for some reason?  Having cash in my emergency fund instead of a credit card is real security.  Just pay for the tires and be done with it.  No worries and no what ifs, and no bill to keep paying on.

His Security

My husband’s reasoning for keeping our credit cards were more logical.  With identity theft being such a huge problem right now, he liked having the security of using only his credit card to make purchases.  If the card number was stolen, he had the backing of the credit card company.  If his debit card was stolen, the money in his bank account could be taken out.  

You see that VISA logo on your debit card?  If you do not use your PIN to make purchases, you are backed by VISA if your card number is stolen.  Now, if he uses his debit card, he only uses it as Credit at the register.  Otherwise, he likes to just carry cash on him.

So why not just keep that little piece of plastic tucked away in a safe?  If we don’t use it, what’s the harm?  Well, we are currently on our way to financial freedom.  We’re following Dave Ramsey’s Baby Steps that you can read more about in his book The Total Money Makeover.  We knew that this was the first crazy thing we had to do to really get our Baby Step #2 on a roll.  It comes down to a change in habits and behavior.  Debt free life is so close now – just a few months away!

What are some of the things that keep your credit cards in your wallet?

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6 Ways to Make and Save Extra Money

These aren’t exactly get rich quick best practices, but they are ways to earn extra money.  Maybe you haven’t thought of all of these before, or maybe you have and just don’t know where to start.  Read on to find my favorite ways to earn extra cash.  Also, when you make a few small changes to your lifestyle, you’ll start finding lots of extra money in your budget.

1. Sell your stuff.  Dust off that unused elliptical or musical instrument, take pictures, and post it on Craigslist or some local Facebook Buy/Sell/Trade groups. Do a little research, especially with collectibles and jewelry if you decide to sell these types of items.  Sometimes eBay is better for certain things. GoldStash.com is a great place to go for selling gold and silver jewelry that is old and not in fashion anymore.  You can do a huge house clean out and have a garage sale.  Make sure to put signs up on your main streets and advertise on Craigslist and Facebook a day or two before.  

2. Rent out your spare room.  If you’ve never had a roommate or have had a bad experience, this might be a little scary for you.  Get over it!  If you have a spare room that doesn’t already have a human living or working in it more than a few times a week, clean it out and put up the For Rent sign.  I admit, this is a big step and shouldn’t be taken lightly.  Finding the right person to live in your home is tricky business, but it doesn’t have to be a long commitment.  Many people will only rent a room for 6 months at a time, so start with that.  Know what kind of person you’re looking for and advertise fairly.  If you live near a college, put posters around the campus.  Always meet your intended roommate in person before making any decisions or exchanging any funds.  Put that in your ad.  There are lots of scammers out there who have an uncle they want to check out the place, or who just can’t make it out because they live in the UK but really want to put down a deposit.  Don’t do it!  Always go with your gut feeling – if there is something off with this person, don’t make any deals.

3. Get to work!  If your company allows it, take on more overtime or get a second job.  There are so many retail stores hiring right now for the seasonal rush.  If you get a job at a store you shop at a lot, you might get a nice discount on top of the extra cash.  If you can’t do either of these, get creative.  Figure out what your talents are and use them to your advantage.  Maybe you’re really good at crafts or sewing – make some quilts or fun Christmas ornaments and start selling them.  Cleaning houses, tutoring (or virtual tutoring), babysitting and pet sitting are great ways to earn extra money, too.

4. Eat real food at home.  Grabbing something from the value menu or heating up that microwave dinner might seem quick and cheap, but it actually costs more than real food. And it’s gross.  Don’t just go wandering around the grocery store grabbing random produce and meat.  Check out what’s in season, what’s on sale, and create a meal plan.  

Last night I made chorizo and rice stuffed acorn squash with a side salad that fed two adults for dinner and lunch the next day and I have two more servings we’ll eat on leftover night.  Squash is in season and cheap right now ($0.88) and so is yellow onion and green bell pepper.  The chorizo was pretty cheap also, from the butcher section.  I spent less than $10 on three meals for two adults!  And it’s healthy, real food.

5. And Brown Bag the leftovers to work.  I get really excited about leftovers.  REALLY REALLY excited.  If I make something amazing one night, I know it’s going to be even better the next day.  When good food sits in a container overnight absorbing the awesome flavors even longer, it’s just that much better.  Example: homemade ragu alla bolognese.  Pure heaven.  I think I just drooled a little.  

6. Learn to DIY. Before you run out to the Home Depot, I’m not just talking about DIY projects around the house.  Ladies, this is mostly for you.  Do you pamper yourself with mani/pedi trips or facials?  Maybe get your eyebrows waxed while at the spa?  Learn to make those cute nail designs yourself.  Learning to shape your own eyebrows isn’t really that difficult either.  And at-home facials can actually be relaxing.  There also seem to be a growing number of men that cut their own hair.  If you’re comfortable with it, go for it! 

There are so many other ways, but these are all my own tried and true ways to make and save extra money.  What have you found that works best for you?

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I'm Jen. Thank you for visiting! You can find out more about me here.

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