The 3 P’s: Foundations of Frugality
Using the 3 P’s, has helped me stay within my budget.
I have found that thinking in a special way helps me save more money than the average person. I can sum up that
thinking in 3 simple words: Planning, Patience and Prayer.
- Planning: Whether it is what’s for dinner, what the kids will need to wear for the next season or what to give for Christmas, birthday’s, or mother’s day, it’s best to have a plan well in advance. This gives you time to give your best, and also to look for what you want at the best price.
- Patience: When you decide you want or need something, act like a grownup. Don’t buy it on the spot. Shop around, read reviews, ask questions. Being willing to wait will save you thousands over the course of a year. Pushy sales tactics create a sense of urgency and panic in the buyer. They want to make you feel if you don’t buy now, it will be gone forever. Walk away from those kinds of situations!
- Prayer: I serve a God who created the universe and it all belongs to Him. If my little boy needs shoes, it is a small thing for God to provide them for us. God doesn’t want us to fear or worry, but to trust Him. I can’t tell you how many times we have had a need, I have prayed about it, and found just the thing at a garage sale even though I don’t stop at them very often.
The stove we are using now is a great example of my using all 3 Ps. We knew our stove was old, and would need to be
replaced soon, so we built a small category in our monthly budget to save for it (Planning).
When our old stove caught fire and died, we didn’t have nearly enough money to buy a new one. Instead of running out and putting a stove on credit or using our beloved emergency fund, I decided to use other ways of cooking (hot pad, crock pot, microwave) until we could earn the money we needed (Patience).
I made it a matter of Prayer. After several months without a stove (and eating well just the same, though much more difficult on me) my mother found just the thing at a garage sale for $10! It looked practically new and worked beautifully. She called me and said “Do you want me to try to talk them down?” I answered back, “NO!” Just pay her the ten dollars and praise God with me.
Being Finacially Faithful
Stewardship is about more than simply paying your tithe each month. Stewardship is about being responsible with all the blessings God has given you.
When we are faithful to God with our time, money, and possesions He will open up the floodgates of Heaven and bless you. Remember: You cannot out give God!
Christmas Clearance
Every year, after Christmas has ended, I go shopping for CLEARANCE ITEMS to decorate with the following year. Christmas decorations can be so expensive that purchasing them after Christmas really pays off! Some of the items I have purchased for 50% – 70% off over the years:
- ornaments
- stockings
- garlands
- lights
- books
- stocking stuffers
- candy
- bath soaps and other “gift baskets”
- nuts
Wal-Mart always has a whole section devoted to Christmas Clearance – you can really get good deals! I will purchase gift sets of bath gels, lip gloss, makeup, etc. and seperate them out and stuff stockings with them. We always have our Christmas shopping done by November each year – sometimes earlier! We are always shopping the clearance items in any store we visit with a mindset of – “This would make a great gift!”
Since we have nine children, 2 daughters-in-laws, 2 son-in-laws, eight grandchildren, not to mention grandparents, aunts and uncles, neices, and friends to buy for (and our family seems to grow every year!) we have to be frugal! We never give “junk” gifts and our gifts are always thoughtful – something we know the person will love, can use or needs.
Often we will give similiar gifts to family. One year we gave beautiful patchwork quilts to everyone which we had found on sale for super cheap at Kohl’s. Another year we purchased beautiful scrapbooks and I filled the pages with scrapbook layouts using photos of their family.
One more tip I want to share – look for nuts after the holidays are over. Two years ago we went to Wal-Mart and all their leftover baking nuts – walnuts and pecans – were on clearance. We bought the entire supply and put them in the freezer. I have been able to use those nuts – to my heart’s content anytime I wanted - for two years now and I have finally run out. I am hoping to get lucky again this year!
Setting Financial Goals
by Teresa Kaufman
Setting financial goals is the single most important thing you can do to take control of your finances. Your life can’t go according to plan if you don’t have a plan. You will continue to spend every penny you earn if you don’t plan for where you want that money to go.
Now more than ever we have to plan for our own futures. Approximately 70 million baby boomers will reach retirement age within the next 10 years. That is going to put an enormous strain on the already strained social security system.
Alan Greenspan, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, has stated that in order to keep this strained system going, the retirement age will have to be raised or the benefits will have to be cut back. The ever ballooning Federal Deficit is the main cause.
It would be my guess that both of those things will happen and more. If social security is even around in another ten to twenty years, I’ll be surprised. The government’s plans for it are kind of up in the air right now. The President would like to have us invest our own contributions. I would imagine that a program like that will take quite a bit of time and money to set up.
If you are looking at those social security statements you get every year a few months before your birthday, and making that part of your future financial planning by expecting that money to be there, you could be left holding an empty bag when you reach retirement age.
There was a time when our parents and grand parents could survive on their pension and social security and have it pretty good. Especially, if their homes were paid off. This is no longer true.
Many companies do not give pensions anymore, they have 401K plans instead. Due to inflation and an increasing amount of consumer credit card debt, many people do not contribute as much as they should or they make withdrawals when the have a problem come up.
It is for this reason that setting financial goals and having a plan to work toward, is so important. You need to set short term, medium term and long term goals.
The short term goal might be paying down your credit card debt, the medium term goal might be planning that family vacation you’ve always dreamed about but could never afford because of the debt, the long term goal might be a certain dollar amount set aside for retirement or that piece of property that you want to build the home you want to retire to on.
In order to start setting goals you need to ask yourself some questions. You also need to be realistic. If you set the goals too high at the beginning, you won’t stick with it. You can always raise each goal and set new ones as you reach them. You won’t do that if you set them too high at the beginning and then give up because they were totally unrealistic and unreachable.
If setting goals in new to you and you don’t have any idea where to start, get a piece of paper out and make a wish list. Again, be as realistic as possible. If you are only making minimum wage and your wish is to buy a BMW or a Jaguar in the next year and you already have other expenses, it’s not going to happen unless you also plan on increasing your income.
When you are making your wish list, you should also write down in how many years you would like to see it happen and approximately how much money it will take to fulfill this wish. Then decide the order of importance of your list. Which wish you would like to work on first, next etc. If you are single, this is your starting point.
If you are married or have a partner, you should both work on your own lists. Then you should compare them and make compromises so you can both get as much of what you want as possible. Then work on the order in which you will work on these goals.
The most important step in setting goals is implementing them. Making a list is fine, but if you stick it in a drawer with your paperwork and forget about it, it won’t do you any good. They have to be something that you really want and are willing to make changes and adjustments in your life in order to set money aside for them.
A dream will always be just a dream if you don’t have a plan of action to turn it into a goal and then to make that goal a reality. You need to keep that list with you or keep it where you can see it a few times a day. Look at it as often as possible. Keep thinking of where you are now and where you want to be in the future. Think about what it’s going to take to get there and the ways that you can accomplish those goals.
You don’t get a promotion or a raise at work without putting in the effort to prove you deserve it. Your dreams will not turn into reality if you put them someplace and forget about them. You have to be willing to put the time, effort and motivation that you use in other things into making your financial goals come true.
You can face your financial future and make it better. Whether your finances are in okay shape and you would like them to be better or whether you are having temporary difficulties. You just need to have a plan and the determination and desire to follow it through.
Teresa Kaufman Owner/Creator: http://www.yourdollarsandsense-budgets.com/.
Budget Weddings
Weddings are holy events – a celebration of the moment a man and woman enter into a sacred covenant with one another and God. Planning a wedding can be exciting…and potentially expensive. In fact, Bride’s magazine estimates that the average wedding costs more than $19,000. Don’t start off your marriage by getting into debt over your wedding.
The minute he slips a ring on your finger don’t rush out to buy bridal magazines. Instead, spend time talking with your fiancée about what you want your wedding to be. Discuss questions like:
• In 10, 25 or 50 years what do we want to remember most about our wedding day?
• What can we do during our wedding to communicate to our guests who God is to us and what He has done in our lives?
• What have we seen in other weddings that we liked?
• When we show our children pictures or video of our wedding what do we want to be able to say?
• How can we be wise stewards of money as we plan our wedding?
It can be easy to start spending money quickly on things that, in the end, don’t really add much to your wedding day memories. The best thing you can do is to: (1) decide what is important and (2) settle on, and stick to, a budget.
Following are some tips to help reduce the cost of the most expensive categories of wedding-planning:
Your Wedding Dress
• Call local bridal shops to see if they have any special one-day dress sale events.
• Consider looking for dresses in local consignment shops or finding a gently-used dress on online auction sites like Ebay.
• Consider checking out outlet centers. If you find a great deal it’s worth the drive and the cost of gas.
• Instead of buying a veil, which can be upwards of $200, make a veil with materials from local crafts and fabric stores.
• When looking for a dress, consider a less-expensive material like poly satin rather than silk satin.
• If you find a bridesmaid’s dress that you really like, see if you could order the same dress in white.
• Groom’s tip – have your groom (and his groomsmen) wear nice suits and matching ties instead of more expensive rental tuxedos.
The Invitations
• Comparison shop for invitation printers online instead of ordering premium-price invitations through a stationery shop.
• Keep them simple. The more detailed the invitation, the heavier the paper, the more colors you choose…the more expensive your invitations will be.
• Choose return reply postcards and standard-size envelopes to reduce the postage costs.
• To make it really inexpensive, use a free online invitation service like Evite.com.
Flowers
• Check at your wedding site to see if another wedding is scheduled for your same day. Call and ask the other party if they would like to discuss ordering flowers for the venue jointly and splitting the cost.
• Consider using fake silk plants at the church and reception site – they are much less expensive than cut floral arrangements and can be re-used.
• Rent plants from a local rental shop or florist instead of buying live arrangements.
• Choose flowers that are in season.
• Skip flowers all together for your centerpieces and think outside the box with items like groupings of candles, pictures of you and your fiancé as children, glass bowls with shells or floating petals in water on top of mirrors
The Reception
• Because most weddings take place between May and October, consider holding your wedding on an “off-season” date which may reduce your reception costs
• Instead of an expensive hotel site, look into hosting your reception in your church atrium or fellowship hall or at another local site such as fraternal organizations (Elk, Moose Lodge, etc.) or fire hall.
• What could beat the beauty of the great outdoors? National, state and local parks and historical gardens can be wonderful wedding sites.
• Don’t overlook the option of a private home or backyard for your reception.
• Skip the limo and get a rental car…or cheaper still, use your own car!
Catering
• Weekend evening receptions are the most expensive — instead of full-service catering for a sit-down dinner consider having your reception at another time. Breakfast is less expensive than dinner and buffets are typically less expensive than plated dinners. Or consider a light hors d’ouevres or dessert reception.
• Most supermarkets offer nice deli platters, even salads and side dishes that can simply be transferred to a fancier serving dish and no one will be the wiser!
• Ax the alcohol. It’s expensive and isn’t necessary for your guests to enjoy the reception.
• Hire high-school or college students as servers and waiters
• Get napkins, tablecloths from party stores or local restaurant supply stores
• Forget the guest gifts – the wedding and reception were enough!
Pictures
• Call around to a local college or art school to find a student to take your photos
• Ask your reception site for a list of recommended photographers – they may be willing to give you a discount for the site’s referral.
• Contract with your photographer to shoot photos at your ceremony and then for a limited amount of time at your reception. The longer he/she is there the more you will have to pay.
• Find a photographer that works alone (so you don’t have to pay for 2 photographers) and who will give you copies of all your photos instead of just the few you order for your album. Check to see what their reprinting charges are ahead of time so you and your family aren’t surprised when you go to order additional copies.
• Ask friends to shoot video with personal camcorders instead of paying for professional videographer
With a little planning, a little budgeting and a lot of prayer you can have a wonderful, memorable wedding day!
Photo Credit: Noelle Franzen
Saving Money
My husband has a saying: “Poor people have poor ways.”
Now, granted, there are times when a family is met with unforseeable circumstances. But it is possible to become financially independent and reach our goals in life, whatever they may be!
The average American family lives from pay check to pay check. Worse than that, the average American household has $8,000.00 in credit card debt. Bankruptcy has been on the rise for years now. Many families feel they must have two incomes inorder to “make ends meet.” But is this really necessary?
If you found out you could save money and work less would you do it? For many people, changing their spending habits is a very hard thing to do.
My husband has another saying: “Every time you spend money you are mortgaging your future.”
And he is right! There are two categories for spending: NEEDS and WANTS. What is the difference? A bag of fresh carrots is a need. A bag of potato chips is a want. A bottle of juice is a need. A package of individual juice packs is a want. A meal of beans and rice is a need. Steak is a want. Does this mean you shouldn’t enjoy life if you are going to be frugal? Of course not! There are lots of ways to purchase frugally and still enjoy good wholesome meals and fun times with your family. You simply change the way you think, number one. And number two, you change the way you spend.
Frivolous spending and instant gratification will keep most people from ever becoming financially free. Some might think that limiting what you spend money on as limiting yourself. BUT debt keeps you in bondage. You always owe someone else. You have to constantly work to pay off that credit card. If your spouse was to loose his job and you owed a dozen different creditors, how would you survive? If you owe no one, it is a lot easier. Mykal and I pay for everything with cash. If we can’t afford to pay in cash, we don’t need it that bad. You should always have enough money in your savings account for true emergencies. If you do have to take some, repay your savings before spending on other items.
Let’s say you want to purchase the home of your dreams, but in order to do so you will need to save $25,000.00 for a down payment. You would like to purchase the house in 5 years. That means you must save $5,000.00 each year. But you are living pay check to pay check and each time you have money left over you “celebrate” with take out or a new gift for yourself. Are you willing to make the changes in your lifestyle necessary to make it happen? If not, face the fact that you don’t want to reach your goal bad enough. Maybe you have a smaller goal or maybe you want to have enough money to retire early. Whatever you goal or dream, how bad you want it will determine how willing you are to save now. List your priorities and decide what you need to do to make it happen. Then follow through!
There are thousands of ways to save money. Here on these pages I hope you will find some that work for you. Frugal living is not a boring lifestyle! In fact we consider it an adventure. You can have fun and be frugal too. Make your dreams come true!
How Much Does Homemade Cost?
Grocery shopping is one of the biggest budget lines for most households. It is also an area where we can find ways to save money by making changes to how and what we buy. We all have a sense that actually making food homemade rather than from scratch, saves us money, but can we quantify how much we are saving? I think we can and should. The more we understand about how we are actually spending our money, the better we are able to make the best decisions for our household.Although I was never a subscriber to The Tightwad Gazette, I own Volume II and III of the books which were the compilations of the newsletters. I am a very detail oriented person and more than the final results of Amy Dacyzyn’s calculations, I love to read the process she goes through to figure out what is a better deal. In one of the books I own, she does have a table which calculates the cost of individual ingredients down to fractions of a penny. I do not usually go to this level of detail in figuring out how much a recipe costs. I do not, for example, include the cost of salt in a recipe. If you want to go into that level of detail, I highly recommend you review her information.
In order to calculate the cost of your recipes, you need to determine the cost of your ingredients. Some recipes will use an entire package of something while others will only use a portion of an ingredient. In order to show you how this works in each case, I will use two recipes, one for brownies and one for hashbrown casserole. The first is made from portions of common ingredients and the other is made mostly from entire packages.
Brownies
1 C sugar
1 C melted butter
1 T vanilla
2 eggs
½ C flour
1/3 C cocoa
¼ t salt
¼ t baking powder
½ package of chocolate chips
Once, when I was in high school, I was making several loaves of bread and needed to know how much flour to buy. I called our local library reference desk and asked them how many cups of flour are in a 5 pound bag. The answer was 18-20 cups. Sugar is a little less as the grains sit closer to each other. Sugar is about 15-18 cups per 5 pound bag. Using this information, I can calculate how much sugar and flour cost per cup. The last time I bought sugar, I paid $1.89 for a bag/15 cups = $0.38 per cup. The last time I bought flour, I paid $0.82 for a bag/18 cups = $0.05 per cup. Since this recipe only uses ½ a cup of flour, the flour cost is $0.025, which I would round to $0.03.
The price of butter can vary widely. The regular, non-sale price in my local stores is $2.79. However, I rarely buy butter at that price. I wait for it to go on sale and buy 20 or more pounds at a time. I do a lot of baking, and I have a freezer I can put the butter in until I need to use it. I can get butter for $1.50 per pound on sale/4 = $0.38 per stick.
The vanilla I use is Mexican vanilla purchased by a friend while on vacation in Mexico for $12/liter. Based on internet research, a liter contains approximately 65 tablespoons so $12/65 = $0.18 per tablespoon.
I try to get eggs for about $0.10 each, which is a price of $1.20 per dozen. I can usually do this and can frequently get them for less. I can often find eggs on sale for $0.99/12 eggs = $0.08. For this recipe, we will assume I got them at the higher price so the total for eggs is $0.20.
I make a lot of brownies (I probably make this recipe once a week) and a lot of cakes. For this reason, I purchased a 5 pound bag of cocoa from my local cake/restaurant supply place. This cost $18 and since it has a similar volume to flour, I estimate that there are 18-20 cups in the bag. $18/18 = $1 per cup. Since this recipe uses only 1/3 of a cup, $1/3= $0.33.
Salt and baking powder are both ingredients that I have in such high volume at such a low cost, that I do not calculate how much they cost for a recipe. It would be fractions of a penny. Since I have already rounded numbers up for the cost of flour and other products, I assume the cost of these ingredients would be covered by that rounding.
I purchased chocolate chips for $0.67 a bag on a clearance sale and put them in my freezer until used. So for ½ a bag, chocolate chips cost $0.67/2 = $0.34
Therefore, the brownies cost:
$0.38 for sugar
$0.38 for butter
$0.18 for vanilla
$0.20 for eggs
$0.03 for flour
$0.33 for cocoa
$0.34 for chocolate chips
$1.84
In order to compare this to packages in the store, you would need to either calculate the cost of only the dry ingredients in your recipe or you would need to add the cost of the ingredients needed to add to the mix to determine its true cost to you. The cost of sugar, vanilla, flour, and cocoa for the above recipe is $0.92. The store brand packaged brownie mix at my local store is about $0.99, so I am saving a few cents making my own rather than buying the store brand. In order to make a finished product from the store mix, I need to add eggs, and butter. If I go with the eggs, butter, and chocolate chips to the mix, the total completed recipe would cost $0.99+ $0.20+$0.38+$0.34 = $1.91.
At this point, I need to determine if the amount of money I am saving is worth making the recipe from scratch. I believe it is. The taste of the brownies I make at home is superior to the ones in the box. In truth, I started making brownies because my husband loves the taste of the Ghirardelli brownie mix. That mix was costing $1.70 per mix purchased at the warehouse store and it included chocolate chips in the mix. My dry mix with chocolate chips is $1.28, a significant savings. In reality, what I was replacing was not the store brand mix – I wouldn’t have bought that anyway – but the higher cost name brand. My husband likes the taste of my homemade brownies better than the Ghirardelli mix we were buying.
I also think it is worth making the brownies since the ingredients are ones I always have around the house. If my husband has a craving for brownies, I can just whip them up any time and pop them in the oven. I don’t have to say, “I’m sorry honey, but we are out of brownie mix.” We are never out of brownie mix.
I make these brownies so often, I no longer need to look at the recipe. I can mix up the whole batch in about 5 minutes, so there is not a time savings to using a mix versus straight ingredients.
Keep in mind, that if you determine how much your basic ingredients cost on a per cup, tablespoon, and teaspoon basis, you can quickly calculate how much a recipe will cost you to make. You can make yourself a table reflecting ingredients you commonly use and the price you have actually paid. It might look something like this:
| Ingredient | Purchase Price | Per Cup | Per Tablespoon Divide C by 16 |
Per Teaspoon Divide t by 3.5 |
| Flour | $0.82/5 pounds | $0.05 | $0.003 | $0.0009 |
| Vanilla | $12/liter | $2.88 | $0.18 | $0.05 |
| Butter | $1.50/pound | $0.75 | $0.05 | $0.01 |
Hashbrown Casserole
1 bag (2 lb) frozen hash brown potatoes (let thaw a little)
1 pint sour cream
1 can cream of mushroom soup
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 lb melted margarine
4 C crushed cornflakes
1 tsp salt
Most of these ingredients are actual packages, so you would use your actual purchase price. There are a couple of exceptions, so let me talk about these first.
To me, the trickiest ingredient on this list to figure out is the cornflakes. I bought a box of cornflakes, crushed them and measured. I made three recipes using the crushed cornflakes, so I would not waste them. The 18 oz box of cornflakes yielded approximately 10 cups of crushed cornflakes. I purchased the box for $1.27/10 cups = $0.127 per cup x 4 cups for this recipe = $0.50 for the cornflakes.
Cheese is definitely an expensive ingredient. The trick here is not to assume you need to buy the cheese already shredded. It also helps to look at the unit pricing on the shelves. The quantity of cheese needed for this recipe is equivalent to an 8 oz bag of already shredded cheese. You can also buy a block of cheese and shred it yourself. The unit pricing on the cheese tells you what the price per ounce is. In my case, the already shredded cheese was $0.194 per ounce. The block cheese which I had to shred myself was $0.174 per ounce. By buying the block and shredding it myself, I saved $0.16 on this recipe. I had to buy a 16 ounce block of cheese, twice as much as I needed for this recipe. I shredded all of it at one time and put the extra in a Ziploc bag in my freezer. Next time I need 2 cups of shredded cheese, it is waiting in my freezer. It is important when using this strategy that you will use the extra amount of the ingredient immediately or are able to store it until you will use it, or you will not be saving any money. In this case, I paid $2.77 for the block of cheese/2 since I used half of it = $1.39.
The last time I bought onions, I bought a 3 pound bag for $1.43. There are approximately 8 onions in the bag, so the cost per onion is $1.43/8 = $0.18. I only used ½ of an onion for this recipe, so the cost of onion is $0.09. Again, if you will end up not using that other ½ onion, you will be losing $0.09. I used the other half in another recipe I made the same day.
Margarine was purchased for $0.50 per pound/4 =$0.13 per stick.
All the other ingredients used the entire packages, so I can simply take the cost of my store receipt:
$1.37 for Hashbrowns
$1.22 for sour cream
$0.50 for mushroom soup
$1.39 for cheese
$0.09 for onion
$0.50 for cornflakes
$0.13 for margarine
$5.20 for the whole recipe
I might also figure out a per serving cost for the recipe. In this case, I repackaged the food into single serving size containers. It came out to 6 containers, so the cost per serving is $5.20/6 = $0.87. My husband and I take containers out of the freezer to use for lunches. This saves us a lot of money. If I were to buy prepackaged frozen dinners, the cost would be anywhere from $1.00 to $3.00 each. My homemade servings are a larger serving size than the food provided in a frozen meal. If we were buying food out while at work, it would cost $4 to $10 or more.
Doing this kind of main dish calculation can help you when doing your meal planning. You can determine how much different dishes cost you to make, and can use that information to determine how frequently you make a specific dish. More expensive dishes might be saved for special occasions. Or perhaps the ingredient that makes a dish expensive might be on sale. You can stock up on that item when you find it on sale and store it so you can have a dish on a more regular basis.
If you have a spouse who hesitates to take ‘leftovers’ for lunch, this type of calculation may be a powerful motivator. Using this type of calculation can also help a stay at home wife quantify her contributions to the household or encourage a working wife to make the extra effort needed to cook at home rather than picking up some fast food. Let’s say I would have eaten out 6 times at $4 per meal. This would have cost $24. The casserole above cost $5.20 so I saved $24-$5.20 = $18.80. If I am in a 25% tax bracket, I would have had to earn $25 gross in order to be able to pay $18.80 extra for food. A working woman can figure out how many hours at work it would take her to make $25. A stay at home woman can see that she added $25 worth of value to the family budget.
As you can see, I like doing calculations! Even if you find the calculations tedious, keep in mind that you only need to do most of them one time in order to give yourself a guideline. The end result of your work is that you will now have a tool in hand to help you make financially informed decisions in an area all of us face on a daily basis.
Karen has been baking and cooking since she was about 10 years old. She is also an accomplished cake decorator and a member of the Confectionary Artists Guild of Orlando. Currently, she does once a month cooking – spending a Sunday afternoon making several meals, packaging them into serving size portions and putting them in the freezer. Karen has been a vegetarian for essentially her entire life. Her husband, Chris, is not a vegetarian so all the recipes Karen submits for this site will be taste-tested by him to ensure appeal to non-vegetarian palates! Karen and Chris have been married for just over a year and do not yet have any children. They have three cats – Pepper, Puck and Tiger!
Frugal Winter Vacations
As the snow piles up and the skies loom grey, is your family feeling housebound this winter? Would you love to get away but you’re not sure you can afford to? The time between New Year’s and Spring Break is a downtime for the travel industry which you can take advantage of to get some real vacation bargains. Here are some tips for taking a fun – and frugal – winter vacation:Ways to Save Before You Go…
- Go during the week. Prices rise when more people are able to get away. If you can, consider taking your trip during the week instead of over a weekend.
- Find something free. If you have family, friends or co-workers who have a second home or vacation place, ask if they would consider allowing you to borrow it – or pay a discounted rate – for a weekend getaway.
- Go with friends. You can cut your lodging expenses in half if you have good family friends with whom you could vacation. And you might be able to afford something bigger than you could on just your family’s budget.
- Check into possible discounts and services. If you are a member of a professional organization or association like AAA, AARP or even a credit union, you may be able to get discounts on your vacation transportation or lodging, as well as get some help in planning your trip.
- Scout out the internet. If you have some flexibility about when you can go, and are open to some different destinations, you can take advantage of some great bargains online. Check out sites like Travelocity.com, Cheaptickets.com, and Expedia.com.
- Ask for the lowest price possible. Motels and hotels have a lot of flexibility in pricing. Think about it – when a room goes empty for a night they’re making no money. They may be willing to lower the rate to make something instead of nothing. When calling motels and hotels for availability and rates, instead of letting them know your preferred dates, start by asking the lowest possible price they could give you for a room. Then ask what additional discounts they give that you may qualify for.
- Be spontaneous. If you’re willing to take a risk, consider waiting until 3 – 6 days prior to your trip to find a rental place or hotel room. The closer you are to your arrival date the more hotels, motels and rental agents may be willing to discount their rates.
- Discover your state parks. State parks are often hidden gems. They are very family friendly and often have clean, decent motel-style lodging; affordable food, and outdoor activities that the whole family can enjoy. Click here to visit the National Park Service website.
- Contact the Chamber of Commerce. Call or go online to request a visitors packet from the Chamber of Commerce in the town or city where you are planning to vacation. They provide information on sites, events and attractions, as well as often including coupons!
- Take your own food. One of the most expensive (and often overlooked expense!) aspects of vacationing is eating out. Plan ahead and take some of your own food if possible. If you’re staying in a hotel ask if they have a mini-refrigerator, or if you can rent one for a small additional fee. The savings you realize by keeping milk, juice and deli meat on hand can pay for the fee. Bring some healthy snack food, cereal and bread and you can make most of your meals for much less than you would pay by going out.
- Tune up before you take off. If you’re driving think about taking your car into a garage to get your oil changed, tires checked and an overall tune-up. Not only will it give you peace of mind, it can save you from the unexpected expense (and hassle) of potential car difficulty while on the road.While You’re There…
- Get tips from locals. If you are vacationing somewhere for the first time, ask your concierge, hosts or locals you meet for tips on good, inexpensive restaurants and local attractions.
- Eat at off-hours. Take advantage of early bird hours at local restaurants and “kids eat free” nights.
- Trim souvenir spending. Consider putting a dollar limit on how much your family can spend for souvenirs. Instead of shopping for trinkets at tourist hot spots, check out discount stores in the area which carry some of the same items. And pictures of your family enjoying the trip will be the best souvenir of all.
- Pick up a local paper or use the public library. The local paper will have information on upcoming events in the area that your family can enjoy, often for much less than the price of a tourist attraction. And if you don’t have internet access where you’re staying, use the online services at a nearby public library to get information about events, maps and more.After You Get Home…
- Look for photo developing discounts. Some supermarkets offer discounts on certain days to develop film. Or, instead of going to a stand-alone photo center think about using less-expensive services at large warehouse store (like BJ’s or Sam’s Club).
- Consider going back to the same place. If you enjoyed the accommodations where you stayed this trip, call up the owners and ask if they would consider giving you a discount if you reserve the same house or unit next year.
- Start saving for next year! Look over how much you spent on this vacation and come up with a financial goal for next year’s trip. Then divide that number by 12 and you have a number for how much money you need to save each month to hit your target.
By taking a little bit of time and using some creativity your family can enjoy a fun and frugal winter vacation this year!
Katie is a writer and speaker who loves encouraging women to explore and embrace God’s gracious truth for their lives. She and her husband Tim have ministered together to high school students through the ministry of YoungLife and now care for orphans in third world countries through the ministry of ORPHANetwork. She, Tim and their two young children live in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Saving Money on Your Grocery Bill
The average family spends several hundred dollars on groceries each month. It is possible to spend $200.00 or less on your groceries each month! Even if you have three or more children.
** First: pay attention to how much each item costs and compare! Store brands are generally cheaper than name brand products. No, the grocery store does not make their own foods, they contract out to a company who does. Many time one factory will make a food and package them differently for different companies, yet what is inside the package is the same! Don’t assume that the store brands won’t taste good.
** Use coupons on items that are on sale. But check to make sure that it is the best deal before putting it into your buggy!
** Bulk purchase sale items. When something goes on sale for a great price, buy enough to last until the next sale. This ensures that you will pay the lowest possible price for that item. You won’t have to purchase it again at a higher price. If you have a small kitchen or little cabinet space, look for other places in your house to store canned goods. Under the bed, in a little used closet, under that accent table covered with a table cloth, etc.
** Don’t buy non-food items at the grocery store. The prices are often inflated. The store gets you for the convenience of buying it there.
** Go over sale flyers weekly and purchase loss leader items. Good time to use those coupons!
** Get a supermarket discount card if your store offers one. We have a little key ring with all the different store’s cards for our area. We keep it in the car.
** Don’t buy convenience foods. Bake cakes, buscuits, pasta salads, etc. from scratch. You may feel that you do not have time to bake. But think about the amount of time you spend in the grocery store purchasing these convenience foods! If youa aren’t a great cook, practice! Get a good basic cookbook and follow the directions precisely. Easy! Just pay attention to what you are doing. Besides costing less, homemade foods taste better and are healthier for your family.
** You should never have to pay more that $1.99 for a box of cereal. Cereal is one of the biggest rip offs in the store. With the coupons we use, we never pay more than $1.99 a box and often less – for name brands. But the generic brands are really good, too! Hot cereals are healthier. We eat a lot of oatmeal, farina (Cream of Wheat) and grits in our home. Check your local health food store for bulk purchasing these cereals. At our store, farina, which is the same thing as the box of Cream of Wheat, costs only $0.45 a pound!
** Never, ever, throw away left overs. And don’t let food go rotten in the fridge! Make sure leftovers are used up. Before cooking, take an inventory of what needs to be used up. In our house we use everything. Even the juice in the canned fruits. Our children must eat everything on their plates. If they don’t, they do not get dessert. If they are truly full, they know they are welcome to finish there leftovers for the next meal before eating what we have prepared for the next meal. Since we are consistent on this, we never have a problem. We also don’t allow snacking between meals (except on occasion). This ensures they are hungry when they sit down to eat. And for the most part they clean their plates at every meal. We have also taught our children to eat all their potatoes, including the peel, as well as eating their crust. People are always amazed at how well our kids eat!
** Plan what you are going to buy before going to the store.
** Buy bread at your local day old bread store. You can find loaves of wheat bread for as little as $0.25 a loaf!
** If you live near a salvage food store, shop there routinely. Great deals on dented cans and speared boxes. Canned goods are safe unless bulging. Check for leaks and broken seals before buying.
** Shop at wholesale warehouses where you can bulk purchase items. But as with any other type of store, compare prices. Bulk items are not always the best deal! Be aware of what you are spending.
** Don’t impulse buy!!! If you are really craving something, drink a large glass of water and resist the temptation.
** Become a vegetarian. Think of all the money you will save not buying meats!
** Plan to eat dried beans two to three times weekly. At as little as $0.89 cents a bag, a pot of bean soup is a fantastic way to feed your family cheap and healthy at the same time!
** Grow a garden and freeze or can the excess. Gardening can save you lots of money on fresh produce. If you find a source of inexpensive produce (free is best!) spend a few days canning and freezing for later. It is easy enough and although it can be time consuming, is well worth the effort. We canned 50 lbs. of tomatoes this May. We would have canned more except that we had to go out of town. Someone gave us enough peaches to make a few jars of peach jam. And my mother in law gave us 15 flats of strawberries! Boy, were we busy canning them! But the jam and frozen fruit is so nice to have on hand. And they make nice gifts for Christmas! Add a loaf of homemade bread and its a great gift.
** Keep a record of how much items cost and how much you spend each week. Note how much you are spending on WANTS (chips, soda, etc.) and how much you are spending on NEEDS (beans, produce, soy milk, etc.). The first time I did this years ago, was I amazed. That very day I determined to no longer buy junk that I didn’t need anyway.
** Don’t buy sodas. They are bad for you, make your kids hyper, promote loss of calcium from your bones, and are empty calories that nobody needs.
** Make your own potato chips in the oven at home. As well as hashbrowns, and french fries.
** Leftover vegetables can be used in casseroles as well as stir fry or soup. Be creative!
** Don’t go to the store hungry. Eat a good meal before you go.
** Check to see if your store offers rein checks on items they have sold out of.
** Take advantage of free samples at the pharmacy in the grocery store. Often there is a basket of asprin or nasal medication at the window. Don’t be shy. Everything comes in handy sometime.
So what are you going to do with all this extra money you have? Don’t go out and blow it on something else! Be wise and your family will benefit in the long run.
Begin paying extra toward the principle on your mortgage.
Put the money into a savings account and leave it there!
Cut up that credit card and use this money to pay off your debt!
Use the savings to purchase something that will help you save even more money, such as your own lawn mower so you don’t have to pay the boy down the street. Or a saw so you can cut your own fire wood instead of buying it from someone else. Think about how you spend your money. There are thousands of ways to cut back, use less, and save more!
