I wanted to share some of my best tips for saving money with you all.
I seemed to live simply before I even realised that, that is what I was doing. It somehow just happened as I have never had a very high paying job and either has my hubby. We seemed to just cut costs when we had to and learnt tricks along the way.
Grocery Shopping / menu planning
The first part of living simply and the main thing that we cut back on was grocery shopping.
We menu plan EVERY fortnight [and when we don't, we spend more money that is necessary].
We sit down every monday together and look at what we have in the cupboard and the fridge and freezer and we plan meals around what is left. Then we write down any ingredients needed for those meals and that is what we buy.
We stay away from school snacks / packets and bake from scratch, we pop our own popcorn, we buy fruit and veg in small amounts more frequently to avoid throwing out anything that has gone rotten.
We freeze our bread and bread rolls and defrost when needed rather than letting a loaf go bad.
I also freeze the baking I do, muffins, slices, cakes etc in portion sizes so they are ready for the lunch box and we do this also for my cats chicken wings and kangaroo mince etc, all frozen in portion sizes and then defrosted.
We don't buy resealable bags instead use containers, we wash dishcloths and don't buy disposable ones, we make our own laundry powder that lasts about 3 months and costs about $7. I use vinegar to mop my floors and in a spray bottle with water to wipe my benches and that is it. I also use it in my bathroom so I avoid spending money on household cleaners too.
We shop at Aldi as it's so much cheaper and only buy odd items at Coles if needed.
We go to Woolies during the week and grab the marked down meat and freeze it straight away.
We always eat the leftovers.
We freeze portion sizes [for example we know if we use 500 g mince for spagetti bolognaise it's too much when added with pasta so we freeze in 250 g lots and get double whilst still cooking enough for us to enjoy a meal and possibly leftovers the next night. If we cook a slowcooker meal instead of having the exact same thing for left overs we make a pie with puff pastry and pour the leftovers in and top with more pastry and add some veges and it feels like a totally different meal.
We don't buy cordials, juices, fizzy drinks and only drink water only with the odd smoothie made or a coffee or tea for us adults.
Budgeting
Now our combined income is low. Like I mean the four of us live on approx 40k a year. We have a mortgage and a car loan,car registration, insurances[car, house and health], rates, internet and phone bills, electricity , and probaly more I can't think of and we never miss a payment.
How I do it is.....
I add up what each payment is fortnightly and total it... When I get paid that full amount goes into a bills account and all of those bills are direct debited. There is always enough to cover it all so I never have to worry about owing money to anyone.Whatever money is left is then spending money [which includes my car petrol, school things that pop up etc].
If anything extra pops up then I will pay and go without anything I want in order to make sure I am paid up in full.
Electricity
We save money on power by turning all lights off at night when a room isn't in use. We charge our mobile phones in the car where possible. We use hot water bottles for warmth and occasioally use our gas heater.
We turn every powerpoint off when we aren't using the appliance [except the fridge].
We don't have a dishwasher so we hand wash.
We rarely use the clothes dryer unless it's raining for days and even then we hang the clothes over a clothes horse to dry as much as we can then put in the dryer for less time than what would have been required originally.
Everyday living
I often buy free books on amazon for my kindle rather than paying for books.
We op shop for clothes / books and homewares [basically all of my clothes are opshopped] and we also buy cheap specials from chain stores [e.g I just brought my nephew $1 long sleeve shirts from K Mart and my daughter $3 ones when on special].
I Layby big items if needed and pay off bit by bit.
I do surveys on Valued Opinions and often get sent $20 vouchers from coles or bunnings etc and put them away for christmas time when money is always tight.
I shop around, online, instore etc and search for the best bargain before I purchase any item.
We don't buy newspapers but make the most of the free local one and online news. We stopped buying magazines.
We accept hand me downs. Most of our furniture comes from our parents when they have finished. We rarely buy anything new.
We are happy not having the biggest tv, an ipad, ipod, etc and live without.
Beauty Products
I use coconut oil for hair treatments and moisturising.
I use bicarb and water as a hair wash and facial scrub.
Honey as a face mask.
Any my best tip of all?
Don't buy unnecessary stuff that you don't really need.
I like to live by the quote
Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.
I hope this helps you with some ideas. There are probably 100 more ideas that I have forgotten but these are our main tips that we ude all the time :) Money is way harder to earn then spend, so I spend it wisely ....
Much love...
Kristy
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