I thought we could share our frugal tips here.
If you did something today that saved your family money, share it with other moms! Any time you find yourself getting a good deal or doing something innovative to save money, hop on and share the knowledge. We could all use a little more money in our pockets.

I posted this under the coupons thread but I'll reiterate here.
Always ask stores if you can get a coupon discount without the coupon. I was at Michael's and didn't have the weekly 40% off coupon on me. I asked and ... voila! She had me sign a sheet and gave me the discount. But you have to ask. I know I didn't save that money today, but I just wanted to get us started here.

OH, and after cleaning the kitchen floor this morning, I used the edges of my Swiffer wet sheet to scrub at the trim. I saved on cleaning spray and paper towels!

We have been handwashing our dishes after each meal so I am only running the dishwasher once every few days, we turned up our air a little and are using our ceiling fans. Also I am keeping the blinds closed and lights off in the rooms we are not in. We are turning our computer off after we use it once each day. I am only doing laundry in the early morning or at night so it doesn't heat up our house. We had a dramatic drop in our power bill after doing these things so I am going to keep it up. Sorry for the long post, I was just so excited when I opened the power bill and saw results.

I actually think running an energy efficient dish washer at full capacity is more efficient than even the quickest hand washing.

I'm pretty sure I saw it on the Living with Ed show so it must be true! Right?

I heard that too, Maigen. I think they say it's more efficient - as long as you SCRAPE the dishes (don't rinse/use water) before washing them in the dishwasher.

And I'm terrible at bargain hunting & really hate messing with coupons, so I'm no good on that front. But I do hang out most of my laundry (I try to pretend I don't even own a dryer). And - like 2b1g - I keep my blinds closed and my air at a higher temp (with lots of fans!) during the day & am always switching lights off.
I NEVER drive these days, either. I am stubborn and refuse to increase our gas budget, no matter how high the prices get - so we just drive less.

Go to beechnut.com. If you sign up, they will send you all kinds of coupons for like $1.00 four jars of baby food, or $1.00 10 beech nut items. They will also send you a coupon for a free box of cereal. They also send really good coupons to you email. If you save the proofs of purchase and send them in they will also send you coupons. I take my coupons to Winn-Dixie because they will double them. The other day I was able to get 20 jars of baby food for right at $2.00. For us that is a great deal because my LO goes through at least 4 jars of food a day. The coupons are also good for the toddler food as well.

Yes, I think that is true. If you have a newer energy efficient dishwasher it is cheaper to use it if you always run it full. Although, when I was single and lived in an apartment where the water was included with the rent, I always hand washed my dishes. Because the apartment had an old dishwasher, which I'm sure sucked up the electricity but my water was free, so I didn't care if I ended up using a little more water hand washing than a dishwasher did. Plus, I would have run out of dishes before I was able to fill up the dishwasher!

To save gas, my husband has started taking my car to work on the days I'm not planning on going anywhere, since it has better gas mileage than his 10-year old Mustang. By the way, ever tried to get a car seat out of the back seat of a mustang?? Thant's extra motivation for me to stay home on the days I have his car.

I always watch the sale papers for good deals on items we use a lot. I usually only buy meat when I find a good deal and then I stock up and freeze it. I also clip coupons.

I clean a lot with vinegar. It actually cleans glass better than some glass cleaners and is A LOT cheaper.

I usually only buy Will's clothes on clearance or at yard sales, or thrift stores. When I occasionally buy him something at full retail, it is at a discount store. Babies don't know anything about brand names and they look cute in pretty much anything so I don't see the point in spending a ton of money on his clothes.

Also, we are going to put a clothes line up so we can save some electricity by not running the dryer so much. It will especially help with Will's cloth diapers. They take 3 cycles in the dryer to dry! I'll probably go out and pick up a clothes line this afternoon, since I have my car today.

Sorry, that post got sort of long... I just kept thinking of more stuff....

Something else we do, is we drive to Bessemer about every 2 weeks to a grocery store called ALDI. We are able to get an entire shopping cart full of groceries for right at 120.00. That is including diapers and meat. You take your own bags and bag it your self, and you pay a quarter for a cart (you get it back when you return the cart)...for $1.99 milk it is worth it!

I've heard of that place, PM. Been meaning to try it out - just can't afford the gas to make the trip!

Have y'all tried the Angel Food ministry thing done at some local churches? Haven't tried it, myself, but have heard a lot about it.
You buy food REALLY cheap, apparently, and they donate a box of food (to poorer folks) for every box you buy. So you're getting a bargain AND doing something good.
I post a link in a sec.

Here's the link - http://www.angelfoodministries.com/

And here's a link to a thread they had going (about the program) on the T-News general forum-
http://forums.tuscaloosanews.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/5981059265/m/4381045427

I do Angel Food. The only thing I don't like is that there is a lot of unhealthy food in the box sometimes, like breaded food. But we buy one box a month so we always have cheap and easy stuff on hand for the days when I either don't have time to cook (or don't want to!). I think it is fine to eat chicken strips, French fries, etc occasionally...just as long as you don't do it everyday. I guess I'm just saying that Angel Food is cheap, but the food choices may not always be the healthiest... so you would not want to use Angel Food as your only grocery source.

Distracted- I just got my clothes line. I'm going to try to follow your example and pretend like I don't own a dryer.

By the way, did you change your screen name? I though you used to be DistractedMom.

quote:

Originally posted by SarahMay:
Distracted- I just got my clothes line. I'm going to try to follow your example and pretend like I don't own a dryer.

By the way, did you change your screen name? I though you used to be DistractedMom.

Yes! I am DistractedMom, and I still WANT to be DistractedMom on this forum.
But I shortened my name on the general forum, and it automatically changed here, too. And that's a bummer. Oh, well!

Good luck with the clothesline, though, SM. I really actually enjoy hanging clothes out - it's a moment to myself (usually) and it reminds me of my childhood, because my dad ALWAYS hung our clothes out to dry (and we used to tease him all the time - because our jeans came back so stiff that they could stand by themselves & our towels were so scratchy we decided to think of them as refreshing "exfoliating" cloths. Aaah, memories! )

quote:

Originally posted by SarahMay:
I do Angel Food. The only thing I don't like is that there is a lot of unhealthy food in the box sometimes, like breaded food. But we buy one box a month so we always have cheap and easy stuff on hand for the days when I either don't have time to cook (or don't want to!). I think it is fine to eat chicken strips, French fries, etc occasionally...just as long as you don't do it everyday. I guess I'm just saying that Angel Food is cheap, but the food choices may not always be the healthiest... so you would not want to use Angel Food as your only grocery source.

Yeah, I did hear there was a lot of canned, boxed & junky stuff in the box. But I thought it would be a great to help us stretch our "better" groceries.
Where do you go for yours,SM?