Carrie over at Natural Moms Talk Radio tagged me to post the 15 things I do to save money. She must know I have a tight budget, and I am frugal, after all people say my daddy is “so tight he squeaks”, so it must run in the family gene pool. Anyway here goes:
1. I menu plan. I have done this since my hubby and I married. Weekly I make a grocery list and a menu usually based on what’s already in the pantry, sometimes based on the “empty” pantry. Such is the case today and it is “meal planning” day here at my house. This saves me from buying everything in sight at the grocery store and also saves me from “eating out” too often.
2. I write out a monthly budget. This I have also done for almost my entire 7 years of marriage. I learned budgeting from Financial Guru Dave Ramsey. I called Dave’s radio show as a newly wed and he sent me his book “Financial Peace” as a late wedding gift. Yes, for free! I was hooked ever since. I have also been trying to do his “get out of debt plan” for quite some time but I am failing miserably.
3. I too like Carrie use hand-me-downs. I have several friends who have kids older than my kids who we get hand-me-downs from, the clothes are normally barely used and not very worn. It is nice because my friends have good taste.
4. I use Paperback Swap. I recently found this book swapping website and it has saved me a ton on buying books already! I am a book-aholic.
5. I don’t allow my son to eat lunch at school. He goes half days and could stay an extra 45 min for lunch but I figure I can feed him and I won’t have to pay the school lunch fee.
6. I also don’t pay late fees. I pay my bills on time.
7. We don’t go out for entertainment. Not that there is any place to go here, but hubby and I don’t go to the movies or shows or anything.
8. I run all my errands on one day. We live pretty far from a larger town where grocery stores and stuff are. No we don’t have a grocery store where I live. The closest one is 10 minutes away, so I go grocery shopping/errand running one day a week to save on gas money.
9. I plan ahead. Yes planning ahead for things can save you tons of cash! Plan ahead for large purchases, Christmas gifts, vacation.
10. I buy off brand. Yes, sometimes this is safe, but I don’t recommend it for everything.
11. I rarely clothes shop. Another one of those things I don’t do often because there is no place to shop here, but oh well it does save me money.
12. I stay at home! Yep, I work from home and mainly I only get out for church,to take my son to school, to visit family and for a grocery store/errand run. Staying home saves gas money, eating out money, and more I’m sure.
13. I pay my bills online. The ones that I can, this saves a stamp!
14. I shop online. Shopping online saves the gas money to get me there and I often get free shipping! Gotta love that!
15. Bargain shop! I love a good bargain.
Now I tag:
Tricia
Stef
Stephanie
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I’m so excited to announce the winner of my very first contest on my site, the Back to School Contest. The ladies over at Momagenda were generous enough to donate a Momagenda planner and a Kitchen folio to our very lucky winner. I wanted to make the announcement fun and I saw where Kelly’s guest this week on WAHMTalk Radio, who was Heather Ledeboer of Mom4Life, who announces the contests on her blog via video, but since I don’t have a digital camcorder, yet, I will use audio. Sooooo…just click play and hear who won. Then if you’re the winner email me at alyssaavant @ gmail.com without the spaces of course, with your snail mail address so that I can get the ladies at Momagenda to mail out your prize! Thanks to all who entered and be checking back here soon for another Life from my Laptop Contest! A special thanks to my friends, Tricia and Haylee for helping me out!
I just recently found this new line of clothes that I must say are a must have. The line is called Velvet though the clothes aren’t truly 
