Is it just me or have groceries gone up by a lot since the start of the Covid 19 pandemic?
At first, I didn’t notice a huge change…
A couple of things here and there were more expensive, but it made sense that people like me would have to pay more for toilet paper (you know, since minimalists aren’t hoarders at all and Costco was out of TP for months ;).
But over the past year, I have noticed a gradual climb in my grocery bill.
At first, I wondered if I was the only one noticing a difference.
Then I realized that since I meal plan in such a Crazy Way, I have a fairly homogeneous grocery budget throughout the year.
And because I have been meal planning this way for over 4 years now… I know that my meal plan hasn’t gotten magically more expensive this year.
Which made me think that this was a good time to bring out this old post and do a video about it for the channel!
So if you are looking for ways to save money as prices keep going up, you’ve come to the right place.
This post will give you a lot of ideas for how to save money on your grocery bill.
You may be wondering if you cut down on our costs without sacrificing quality, or quantity, or both…
And the answer is: yes, you can! Once you start using the tips and tricks in this article, you can buy your cake and eat it too!
37 Ways to Spend Less on Food
1) Set a Grocery Budget
Having a grocery budget is the best way to set yourself up for success if you want to spend less on food.
But how much should you spend on groceries each month?
Before Covid, we budgeted $100 per person per month for food in our house.
We are able to make this happen by following the tricks outlined in this post.
But since Covid, I have had a hard time getting out of the grocery store without spending at least $150 a week!!
Deciding how much to spend on groceries will depend on several different factors such as your geographic location, your diet, and how much prices have increased in your area since the pandemic.
My recommendation is to start with a small grocery budget to see if you can make it work.
You can always increase your budget, but if you start with a bigger budget, you might not be motivated to shrink it. 🙂
Now that you know what your monthly budget for food is, divide it by 4… and voilà there is your weekly budget.
Why is it best to think of your grocery budget as a weekly budget instead of a monthly budget?
It is easier for your brain to manage and track.
Essentially, it’s just a mental trick!
But it’s a powerful mental trick.
When I focused on my monthly budget, I found it much easier to go over my budget because after the first shopping trip or two of the month, I wasn’t quite sure how much money I had left to spend.
Having the money “start over” every week makes is much easier for me to see where I’m at in relation to my goal.
3) Start Meal Planning
Meal Planning saves so much time, energy, and of course money!
If you haven’t tried it before, or if you’ve tried it and failed, try, try again.
When you create your Weekly Meal Plan, choose recipes with similar ingredients throughout the week.
This makes shopping easier because you just get larger amounts of each item, if you need.
Plus, it ensures that you will use all of the ingredients that you buy instead of having small amounts of ingredients left over to sit in your refrigerator for a week, or month, or longer.
Stacking my recipes saved me so much money when I started doing it.
5) Double Your Recipes
Doubling recipes may seem like it would cost more, but it will actually save you money, and here’s why:
When you double a recipe, you don’t have to double every ingredient.
I usually only double the spices and the bulk ingredient(s) and leave everything else the same.
For example: If I were making chili, I would double the spices and the beans, and I would use the same amount of vegetables that I would use for a single recipe.
It makes twice as much food for a fraction of the cost!
I double everything I make. We use our leftovers for lunches every day and for dinner every Thursday evening. (Check out How to Work Leftovers into Your Meal Plan for more details.)
If you don’t like to eat leftovers in the same week, freeze your doubled recipe and you just cooked a meal for your future self. You’re Welcome!
6) Create a Shopping List (And Use It!)
Before you leave your house, check your weekly meal plan and write your shopping list.
Having a shopping list takes out all of the guesswork when you’re at the grocery store.
If you’ve hung out on this blog before, you know that grocery shopping isn’t my favorite hobby, so the least amount of time I can spend at the store the better.
Knowing exactly what I need to get at the grocery store is one of my favorite things about meal planning. (Check out my post The Pros and Cons of Meal Planning for Moms if you want to see if Menu Planning might be beneficial for you.)
Creating a Shopping list is only half of the equation though, you need to remember to take it to the store, use it at the store, and stick to it at the store.
7) Shop At Your House First
When you are making your shopping list, go through each recipe that you are making and check your pantry, refrigerator, and freezer for items that you can use.
You might find that you don’t need to buy any of an ingredient, or you might just need to buy a small amount that you can add to what you already have. (The bulk section is awesome for this, see below!)
This is the most important step when you’re creating a list if you are looking to save money.
Buying things that you already have at home is a waste of money. Don’t be a money-waster!
8) Have a Pantry Week
Most of us have way more in our pantry than we need.
So if you are struggling to shrink your grocery bill, have a pantry week!
Throw out your regular meal plan for the week, and make meals using only the things that you have on hand.
We don’t do this often because I only buy what we will use in a week (aside from having a few staples on hand).
But last week we were able to do this!
Some friends of ours were moving and they had quite a bit in their fridge, freezer, and pantry that they gave to us (yay!).
So I canceled my regular meal plan and rewrote one with the new ingredients.
I went from spending over $150 a week (thanks, Covid) to spending only $50 on some fresh produce!
Cha-ching!
9) Buy in Bulk
Aside from the produce section, this is where I spend the majority of my time when I grocery shop.
I love the bulk section at my grocery store because I can get everything from whole-grain pasta, to flour, to spices, to health food.
Buying in bulk saves me several cents per pound as opposed to purchasing packaged products.
I also use the bulk section in a way that most people don’t think about (because it kind of goes against the name of the section).
I love using the bulk section to buy tiny amounts of things that I need.
If I need one cup of something that I don’t use very often, I will go to the bulk section and buy one cup of that item.
If I need a spice for a recipe that I need that I will probably not use again (or at least for a while) I will go to the bulk section and buy exactly how much of the spice that I need for the recipe.
Buying spices in bulk saves me so much money.
I’m always amazed when I have to buy a spice in the baking isle because they are out of it in the bulk section or they don’t carry it in bulk. It is usually five times (or more!) as expensive as the spices that I buy in bulk!
To store the spices, I got some spice jars and I just refill them when I go to the store. If I get a spice that I don’t use very often, I just keep the small amount in the bulk bag until I use it.
10) Buy In Season
Buying food that is in season will save money while also letting you eat healthier.
Food is typically the cheapest when it is the freshest. Why would we not want to take advantage of that?!
It is easiest to purchase food in season when you are Meal Planning With the Seasons. Check out my post Your Ultimate Guide to Seasonal Meal Planning if you’d like a step-by-step guide for how to do that.
11) Stock Up In Season
If you like to eat fruit all year long like we do, stocking up and freezing fruit in the respective seasons will save you money.
We live in the Pacific Northwest and seasonal fruit-picking is a hobby of every money-saver in the area.
Starting usually around April or May with strawberries, and ending in October in with apples, there is a constant stream of ripe fruit, ready for the picking.
The girls and I go and pick almost once a week.
The rule we use is we pick enough for us to use all year round, but no more.
Our freezer has to be completely empty by the time strawberry season begins the next year. (More on the reasoning behind this below!)
Sometimes I can find amazing deals on seasonal fruit at the store, too. One year there was a surplus of strawberries and I was able to get several flats for $1 per pound!
12) Buy Generic Brands
Ross and I still laugh about how he didn’t know how to buy generic until we were married.
We would go shopping together (because everyone does that when they’re first married, right?) and he would excitedly grab every box that was brightly colored and had the words “NEW” or “LIMITED TIME” on them and throw them into the cart.
I would then point out the box (that was usually right next to the flashy one, just with less exciting packaging) that featured the exact same thing for a fraction of the price!
We saved a lot of money, simply by switching to generic brands.
Generic brands have the exact same ingredients as the Name Brands, but for much cheaper.
If you usually buy Name Brand, make the switch and you will save a lot of mulah!
13) Buy Large Quantities… Sometimes
Buying larger containers of food will (almost) always be cheaper per ounce.
If we have something that we use a lot, like almond milk, we buy the largest size at the store if it is the cheapest per ounce. (Check those small numbers every time, they like to switch things up on you from time to time!)
If something we use a lot is cheaper to buy at Costco, we will buy larger quantities there about once a month. We may or may not go through a lot of peanut butter and toilet paper.
But cheaper per ounce, doesn’t always save you money. If you aren’t able to finish the entire amount before it goes bad, it doesn’t save you money. In that case, buying a smaller quantity will save you more money than getting a large container than you can’t finish in time.
14) Only Buy What You Will Eat in a Week
Aside from our seasonal stash in our freezer, and our large quantities of peanut butter, we only buy what we will eat each week.
This saves money because you are eating everything you purchase instead of purchasing things just in case you are in the mood for it at some point in the future.
15) Shop at Cheap Grocery Stores
These days we have a lot of options for where we can buy our food. There is a wide range of grocery stores for every shopper out there.
If you are looking to save money, find the cheapest place to get your groceries and shop there.
If you don’t know where your cheapest place to find groceries is, do a test.
Have an identical Meal Plan for four consecutive weeks and buy your groceries and the four stores that you think might have the best prices.
At the end of the month, compare and start sopping at the cheapest place!
(Just be sure that you bought everything the same each week instead of stocking up at the store on some weeks or eating more from the pantry for others.)
For us, the cheapest grocery store is WINCO. They don’t accept credit cards, you have to bag your own groceries, and it isn’t fancy, but it gets the job done and is a lot cheaper than the other options around us.
You probably don’t have a WINCO if you don’t live on the west coast, but there are discount grocery stores in every town like Aldi or SuperSaver.
Sometimes you just have to do a little looking around!
16) Grate/Chop/Cut/Bag Your Own Food
Any time that someone else preps the food for you, you will pay extra.
This includes grated cheese, baby carrots (yes, they are the same thing as big carrots, just cut smaller!), cut Brussels sprouts, bagged apples, and the list goes on.
Instead of looking at the pre-packages salads, try making them yourself.
Placing fruit and vegetables into a bag instead of getting the pre-bagged ones will always save you money . (Almost always. Be sure to price check because you never know when those bagged items will be on sale.)
A little extra work in the short run will save you money in the long run!
17) Don’t Buy Drinks
If you have a problem going over your food budget, stop buying drinks.
Drinks may not seem expensive, but they can really add up over time.
Water is essentially free, and better for you than anything you can buy! You can always add some lemon to your water if you don’t care for the taste.
Yes, I know that buying organic food is usually the right thing to do.
But here’s the thing, it’s also the most expensive thing to do.
If buying organic is important to you, but it’s also hurting your wallet, you can try doing one of these things:
1. Only Buy Organic If You Can Afford It.
Remember when we made that grocery budget above? That’s going to come in handy now.
Our weekly grocery budget is $100. But if I know that I will probably only be spending $50 on a given week because we have a lot of leftover ingredients from last week, or we spent some time at my parent’s house, I will buy more organic ingredients on that grocery trip than I normally would.
But when I need to buy more ingredients, I stick with the standard ones.
2. Only Buy Organic for the Dirty Dozen
Another alternative organic food buying option is to only buy organic for the dirty dozen foods. These foods tend to have the highest pesticide levels, so some people will buy organic for them while buying regular items for everything else.
3. Continue Buying Organic and Lower Your Budget in Another Area
If you want to continue to buy organic and can’t seem to lower your food budget enough in any other way, you may need to lower your budget in another area.
Can you drive a less expensive vehicle? Only put your children into one extracurricular activity instead of two? Lower your insurance payments?
Ultimately, something somewhere will have to give if you need to save money or avoid going into debt.
Typically, grocery stores put the most expensive items at eye level.
They want you to purchase them, so they want you to see them first.
Looking above or below the most convenient items will usually save you money.
20) Use Ibotta
I was never a coupon person… until a friend who is always looking for a good deal got me hooked on Ibotta.
Ibotta is essentially a free coupon app that helps you get deals for things that you are already buying. Cha-ching!
All you have to do is download the app. In the app, you can search for deals by the store that you shop at and add them to your list. Once you purchase the item, just upload a picture of your receipt and it will take care of the rest!
You can even earn money by shopping online, as long as you go through Ibotta.
The only catch is that you have to get $20 to cash out. But there are so many items that have coupons on them that it doesn’t take long at all.
Usually, there is at least one coupon for each store that is “any item.” This means that as long as you purchase anything, you can redeem it.
21) Grocery Shop Once a Week
If you limit your trips to the grocery store to only once a week you will spend less on groceries.
Every time you set foot inside a store, you increase the likelihood that you will buy something you didn’t need… usually just because it was on sale or it looked good at the time.
By limiting the number of times that you shop each week, you will save money.
22) Don’t Buy Single-Use Items
I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again:
Single-use products will waste your money!
Single-use products are anything that is designed to be used once, then thrown away.
I’m looking at you, plastic sandwich bags, paper napkins, and paper towels!
Even if you buy paper towels at Costco, you could save over $40 a year if you stopped using paper towels alone and switched to using cloth towels instead.
That may not seem like much, but if I handed you $40 right now, what would you do with it? Would you wipe up the juice your toddler spilled, or would you spend it on something just a little bit nicer than that?
Ways to Save:
1. Swap your paper towels for regular dishcloths or paperless towels.
2. Use cloth napkins instead of paper napkins. (But keep the paper napkins you get with takeout and use them on road trips or when you are out and about!)
We’ve been using ours for about 9 years now and they are still as good as new!
3. Reuse your plastic freezer and sandwich bags until they cannot be used anymore.
Just scrub them with a little soap and prop them upright on your faucet and/or soap dispenser to dry… good as new!
The next time you run out of plastic bags and need to buy more, consider bags that are made to be reused like these.
4. Try replacing parchment paper with a Silicone Baking Mat to cut down on waste and cost in the long run.
23) Buy Seconds
If you buy groceries from farmer’s markets, farm stands, or fruit farms you can usually find “seconds” which are much cheaper than “firsts.”
What are seconds? Seconds are fruit or vegetables that have visual imperfections or are smaller or larger than the preferred size.
I remember getting apple seconds from orchards when I was growing up and the only problem with them was that they were too big. (I didn’t even know there was such a thing as an apple being too big, but apparently, there is!)
They tasted exactly like the apples that were smaller. Shocking, I know.
Occasionally seconds may be a little overripe (which is perfect for juicing) or under riper (they will ripen if you sit them on the counter for a few days).
Buying seconds is a great way to save money while still getting high-quality produce.
24) Eat Simple Breakfasts
At our house, we eat the same quick, simple, and healthy for breakfast every day of the week except for Sunday.
Eating simple breakfasts will keep your Meal Planning simple, it will make your mornings easy, and it will save you money.
Buying any brand of decent bread at the grocery store is crazy expensive. And not only is it expensive, but it’s also still full of ingredients that I can’t pronounce and don’t recognize.
Making your own bread saves money and is a fun activity to do with your kids!
The large numbers that you see on the shelf are the price for the entire item or container that you are buying.
But if you want to know which item is cheaper, you have to look at the small numbers that are usually below the large ones.
This tells you how much you are paying per ounce, or per individual piece.
This is the only way to know which one is the least expensive.
28) Compare Prices EVERY TIME
Maybe this isn’t true for all grocery stores, but at ours, they change the prices frequently, and the cheapest brand changes from time to time.
The almond milk that is cheapest is different almost every week! Sometimes it’s the largest container you can buy, sometimes it is a smaller one, and sometimes it is a completely different brand.
Just because something is cheaper one time when you visit the grocery store doesn’t mean it will be the next time.
29) Don’t Buy Impulse Items
Everything next to the checkout is placed there to make you spend a little bit more money… even if you hadn’t planned on it.
If you really want chips and candy, go to the chip and candy aisle and get a much better deal. If you really need that drink, go back to the drink aisle and get twice as much for half the cost. If you forgot to write gum on your list, go back to the candy aisle and get three packs for the price of one at the register.
But whatever you do, don’t buy impulse items.
30) Make Your Own Detergent and Hand Soap
Another great way to save money at the grocery store is by making your own laundry detergent and hand soap.
Buying hand soap can also cost a lot of money at the grocery store, especially if you want to buy one without all the extra chemicals.
About a year ago, my friend, Karli, shared her hand soap recipe with me and I haven’t looked back.
When I was purchasing soap, I was needing to buy one every month or two. After the initial purchase of the ingredients to make my own, I haven’t had to purchase anything since.
Xanthan Gum: 1/8 – 1 tsp per batch depending on how thick you like your soap. I use 1 tsp because I like thicker soap.
Cold Water: 1/2 Cup
Hot Water: 1/2 Cup
To make it, just wisk the Xanthan Gum into the very Hot Water until it is dissolved. Then add the Castile Soap and Cold Water.
31) Pay Attention at Checkout
Sometimes advertised prices are not reflected at checkout. Be sure to keep an eye out for anything that looks a little strange.
Several times I have had to ask the checker about the price and they will typically send someone back to check.
Just this last week, someone punched in the wrong number for an item and it would have cost me $15 more if I hadn’t caught it!
Always check our receipt after shopping if the final number seems off to you.
32) Eat More Veggies
Eating more vegetables and less meat and dairy will save plenty of money at the grocery store. Money.com says that true vegetarians save about $750 per year!
33) Plant a Garden
While you’re eating more vegetables, start a garden!
Growing your food yourself is the cheapest (and highest quality) way to get more produce into your diet.
Grab a regional gardening book (I like this one if you live in the Pacific Northwest) and get started!
34) Use Your Own Bags
Where we live, stores charge you 5 cents per bag if you need to use paper or plastic bags to put your groceries in.
If you purchase your own grocery bags, not only does it save you money in the short run, but at one of the stores we like to shop at, they will actually give you 5 cents for every bag that you bring in to use!
I know that 5 cents per bag doesn’t seem like a lot either way, but it adds up! I use 5 of my reusable grocery bags every time I go to the grocery store, so over the course of the 2 years that I have had them, I have made $26!
If you also want to use your own produce bags as well to reduce the amount of plastic you use, this set has both produce bags and grocery bags.
35) Store Your Food Properly
Everything lasts longer if you store it properly. Check out this article to find out where you should store common food.
36) Have a Small Amount of Staples
Refrigerator
I keep condiments and things that I use every week, like milk, eggs, and peanut butter in stock. But I’m careful not to go overboard.
Keeping too many things in your refrigerator without a plan to consume them will waste money. Having too many things on hand increases the likelihood that something will get lost in the fridge and go bad before it is eaten.
Pantry
In the pantry, I keep a few staples like dried beans, lentils, rice, flour, and honey at all times. But on a weekly basis, I only purchase what we will be using that week (unless I run out of one of the staples.)
If we needed to, we could live out of our pantry for a couple of weeks on the beans and lentils. But having an overstuffed pantry isn’t any better than having a cluttered fridge is for your wallet.
If you have a pantry that is completely full of food that you don’t plan on eating in the next week or two, then you have money sitting on your shelf for an indefinite amount of time.
Not only that, but you probably have food that has been expired hiding out at the back of your shelves.
37) Declutter Your Fridge, Pantry, and Freezer
Refrigerator
If you have too much food in your refrigerator, it is hard to know what food is good, what food has expired, and what food is stuck in the far corner that will never be seen again.
If you declutter your fridge, then regularly stay on top of it, you will be more likely to eat the food that you buy before it goes bad.
Aside from the condiments in the door, and the peanut butter from Costco, I don’t have more than one week’s work of food in the refrigerator.
Except for special circumstances, our refrigerator is empty, aside from the condiments, before I go shopping again.
Pantry
How do you declutter your pantry without wasting money?
Go through your pantry and decide which food is still edible and decide if you will actually eat it.
Throw away everything that is expired. Everything that is still good but you don’t have any intention of eating, donate to a food pantry.
Now, for the next week, or two, or three plan your meals around the food that you already have sitting in your pantry.
Once you have your pantry decluttered, keep only what you are eating on a weekly basis, plus a small amount of food for emergencies.
Aside from that, keep your money in your pocket.
Freezer
The freezer is the easiest place for people to lose food forever.
Especially if you have a chest freezer, whatever occupies the bottom third of the freezer will most likely never see the light of day again.
That’s why I only allow food to sit around in my freezer for one year at the most. By strawberry season, everything must be consumed, or I won’t pick as much in the coming months.
This ensures that we don’t waste any money for food that will only be used as a shelf for the food that is placed on top of it.
We keep track of how much we pick of each fruit each year and that helps us know how much to pick the following year depending on when we ran out.
Don’t buy food that’s just going to live in your freezer and never be used!
If you need to declutter your freezer. Take inventory just like you did in the pantry. Toss expired and freezer-burned items, and use the rest in your meals for the next month or two until you have your freezer stash down to a manageable amount.
Once you have the clutter down to a minimum, organize your refrigerator, pantry, and freezer so you can easily find what you are looking for.
Refrigerator
Designate different shelves for different items.
I always keep my leftovers at eye level to be sure they are seen and eaten. Condiments go in the door. New food that is to be used for cooking that week goes on the bottom shelf. And I store bread and eggs on the top shelf.
Go with whatever feels natural for you… just be sure that you tell your family so you don’t end up fixing it every day.
Pantry
I use clear containers to be able to see my flours and oats and use baskets to organize everything else.
Each basket has specific things that go in it.
I use one basket for everything I will be cooking with in the coming week, one for tea, one for chips (we mostly eat unprocessed, but corn chips are my weakness!), one basket for hiking snacks, one for tea, one for baking items like cocoa powder and shredded coconut, and one basket for food storage items like tin foil and baggies.
Keeping the pantry organized dramatically cuts down the time it takes for me to make a shopping list.
Freezer
I have two main rules for organizing my freezer:
1. Never put something different on top or in front of something else.
So peaches can’t go in front of or on top of blueberries. They each get their own stack or shelf.
2. Never put something new on top of or in front of something old. The something old will sit there forever, and ever, amen. I promise.
You will save money if you take a little bit of time to put the old things in front of the new because it makes sure that you eat the old stuff first.
What is your grocery budget goal? What would you like to do with the money you save if you hit the goal?Let me know in the comments below!
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The last thing you really want to spend time doing or thinking about, right?
We all know we should do it, but it’s usually the last thing we get around to.
It’s like the vitamins of home management.
Here’s the thing though, budgeting can actually be fun!
I feel like you don’t believe me, so let me show you:
Wouldn’t it be fun if you could afford to take that trip you’ve been dreaming about?
Wouldn’t it be fun if you told your money where to go instead of credit card debt bossing you around?
And wouldn’t it be fun if at Christmas time, you already had the money saved up for gifts instead of digging yourself into a financial hole?
Budgeting can make all that happen!
Yes, it takes some time, some effort, and some grit to stick with it.
No, it isn’t easy at first.
But when you pay off that first debt, when your savings account starts growing, and when you stop spending money on things that you don’t need, it is all worth it!
Before we get into the HOW of building a budget, let’s take a quick look at WHY you should start a budget, in case you still aren’t convinced.
Or if you’re ready to get started, just skip the next section. 🙂
And if you prefer to watch your content instead of read it, here is the video that goes with this post:
Why You Should Start a Budget
1) You Will Get Your Spending Under Control
If you spend more than you make each month and money seems to magically disappear between your paychecks, starting (and sticking with!) a budget will help!
When you have your money allocated to where it needs to go, you know exactly how much money you have left over to play with each month.
Basically, it keeps the money from getting confused as to whether it is fun money or serious money.
Creating a budget will help you see exactly what you are spending your money on… and see if you need to make any adjustments.
Having Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime may be nice, but would it be better if you could afford better gifts at Christmas time if you only subscribed to one entertainment hub?
2) You Will Reach Your Goals Faster
Do you have a trip you want to go on? A car you want to purchase or pay off? Are you thinking of purchasing a house and need a down payment?
Start that budget!
By laying out exactly how much money you need to save and dividing it up into nice manageable chunks that you can save each month, you will reach your goals more quickly.
3) You Will Save More Money
Putting your money toward an emergency savings account or retirement can be a challenge when you are budgeting based on your feelings every month.
Going out to eat will always win over putting that money in an account when you don’t have clearly defined goals.
But when you write down your goals on paper, and auto-draft directly into your savings account(s), you will start to build a nest egg for when you need it.
4) You Can Stop Living Paycheck to Paycheck
Living paycheck to paycheck is frustrating and stressful.
No one enjoys living that way without any financial cushion.
Knowing exactly where your money should go each month will give you the courage to say, ‘no’ to things that aren’t in the budget so that you can begin to build in some wiggle-room.
5) You Can Be Flexible from Time to Time
Sometimes, the kids will need a whole new wardrobe, and usually they all need it at the same time.
If you have a budget though, it’s not a problem!
Just eat cheaper foods for a month, or cancel some subscriptions, or put a little bit less into the college savings accounts.
If you know how much money goes everywhere each month, you can easily move things around temporarily if need be, without completely throwing things off track.
6) You Can Get Back in the Driver Seat
Sometimes it can feel like your finances are in control of you, especially if you are in debt.
By creating a budget, you are back in control.
You can allocate where every bit of money is going and know when your debt will be paid off if you stay on track.
7) Having a Budget Keeps You Accountable
Building a budget, is like having a financially savvy friend who will say, “do you really need to buy that cart-full of things at Target? Or have you already spent your shopping budget for the month?”
It may not be what you want to hear, but you know that your friend is right.
Sometimes it’s just what you need to kick your finances into gear.
8) Having a Budget Simplifies Your Finances
Even though it seems more complicated at first, once you get the hang of it, it will make your finances simple.
Especially if you use my simple percentages trick that I talk about in this post, you will be amazed by how easily you can keep track of your money.
You will know where every dollar is going and never wonder why your credit card bill is so high again.
9) Money Will No Longer Get “Lost”
Have you ever put money in your bank account and had it “disappear” less than a month later? You aren’t even quite sure what you spent the $100 you got for your birthday on, but it must have been something, right?
Having a budget and sticking with it will keep you from spending your birthday money at the Taco Bell drive-through and enable you to use it for something fantastic. (That’s never happened to me by the way…)
How to Create a Budget:
Now that we all understand why creating a budget is so important, let’s go through the simple steps for creating a budget!
1) Grab Your Gear
We are kind of spreadsheet junkies. We have a spreadsheet for everything… from every board game that we own, to our Christmas card address list.
So for us, it’s a no-brainer to grab our laptops if we are looking at our budget. We like to use Microsoft Excel for all of our spreadsheets, and I built aMoney Mastery Google Spreadsheet to get you started on the right foot if you’ve never used spreadsheets before.
The advantage of using a spreadsheet for your budget is that you can easily change the numbers if anything changes without having to completely re-do the math.
If you use the formulas, the spreadsheet does the math for you!
But if paper and pen is more your style, it is also a great way to build a budget. You can grab my Money Mastery Printable Workbook if you would like an easy plug-and-play template.
2) Determine Your Reliable Monthly Income
Take your income after taxes, your spouse’s income after taxes, and any other consistent incomes that you have (after taxes!) and add them all together.
The sum of the net incomes is the amount of money you have at your disposal every month.
Notice that we aren’t looking at every bit of money that you *might* make in a month.
What you want to know is what will absolutely be at your disposal.
Be very sure that you are not looking at your Gross Income. That number is quite different than the cash flow you will have available after all of your deductions are taken out.
3) Write Down All of Your Monthly Expenses
Grab your Workbook or Spreadsheet and write down every bit of money that you spend in a month.
Jot down anything you can think of from how much you spend on eating out, to your mortgage or rent payments, to your Netflix subscription.
If you get stumped, your credit card or bank statements might offer some inspiration.
Be specific.
Then add everything in each category together and write it down. (You’ll find a list of categories in the Workbook and Spreadsheet.)
How to Budget for Food
The food category can be tricky for some people because their eating habits vary greatly from week to week, or because they typically eat out and they want to start eating at home more to save money.
If you fall into either of those categories, you have three options:
1. You can track how much you spend on food for a month before setting your food budget in stone.
2. You can make your best guess and adjust after the first couple of months if you need to.
I used to make a specific recommendation for how much money you should spend on your budget ($100 per person/per month).
BUT in this video I talk about how food costs have gone up since COVID. I now think that you should try to set your food budget as low as you can while still making tasty, healthy meals for your family.
Adjust the number according to your geographic location (I know some places like Hawaii are much more expensive to buy groceries), and your eating preferences (or dietary restrictions). But don’t be afraid to challenge yourself with spending less money!
When you are all done writing down everything you spend in a month, add up all your expenses. Are your expenses 70% or less of your net income?
(If you aren’t sure what 70% of your net income would be, simply multiply .7 by the total net income that you came up with in Step 2. Then compare your answer with the total expenses.)
If you are spending more than 70% of your net income, you are probably going to need to cut some costs in order to be able to save money or pay off debt depending on your goals for creating this budget. We’ll, take a closer look at this later.
Why divide your expenses into two categories? I thought you’d never ask!
After doing all the math. you may find that you don’t have the money to put into savings that you would like to. Or you may be looking to pay off your debt quickly but aren’t sure how you will do that. Or you may want to save for a trip. Or you may find that you are spending more than you make and are getting deeper into debt…
If that is the case for you, then you will probably be looking at cutting some expenses (after you track your spending for a month in Step 8). Dividing your monthly expenses into these two categories will make it easier to see what you can live without.
Necessary Expenses
Everything you put in this category is a non-negotiable expense for your family. You won’t be able to minimize or cut out these expenses without moving or drastically changing your eating habits.
Common things that you may have in this category are Rent/Mortgage, Utilities, Debt Payment, Cell Phone Plan, Groceries, Car Payments, Car Insurance, Home Insurance, Health Insurance, Life Insurance, and Gas.
Unnecessary Expenses
Now jot down everything that is a typical monthly expense that you can either spend less on or cut out completely if you need to.
This is the list that you can work from if you realize that you need to make some adjustments.
It’s hard to minimize necessary expenses (although not impossible if you are willing to put in some work), but unnecessary costs can easily be shrunk, skipped for a month or two, or completely eliminated if you are in a less than ideal financial situation.
Things that could possibly go in this category: Clothes Shopping (most of us don’t need as much as we think we do), Miscellaneous Shopping, Entertainment, Going out to eat, Television/Cable/Dish, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Subscriptions (even though Amazon wants us to feel like Prime is a necessity).
You’ll be surprised how easily you can live without so many of these things!
5) Allocate Your Savings/Debt Payments
Why is this section about Savings and Debt Payment together? Because if you have debt (other than a mortgage), pay it off before you start putting money into savings.
Once the debt is paid off, you use the money that you had been putting toward your payments and start putting it into your savings accounts.
If you try to save while you are paying off debt, you won’t make progress with either of them very quickly and will probably get discouraged before you are done.
But if you pay off your debt first, you are able to put moremoney toward your debt and pay it off faster. Then your savings will grow more quickly when you can put all of that money toward savings.
For this step, you should decide what percentage of your income you would like to save or put toward paying off your debt.
In our budget, this category accounts for 20% of our net income. When we had/have debt, we use this chunk of money to pay it off. When we don’t have debt, we save 20% of our income.
What To Do With Savings:
Instead of dumping your savings into one giant catch-all savings account, I suggest dividing it up among several different accounts.
The main reason for this is that it is much easier to track the money we have saved for different items or experiences without dipping into our emergency fund.
If you decide to have several accounts for your savings, I recommend using a separate tab in your spreadsheet to keep everything straight.
Here are some savings accounts that we have and I would recommend to anyone that they apply to:
Emergency Savings Accounts: This account is for emergencies such as a job loss or a medical need. Don’t touch it unless you are in a crisis. It is best if you can pretend this account doesn’t even exist.
Set up auto-drafting for this account on the day that you know you get paid.
It is a good idea to have 6-12 months of living expenses stored in this account. If you are just starting out and don’t have a savings account yet, put the entire 20% of your income into this account until you could live off of this account for at least 6 months if you needed to.
Big Goal Account: If you know that you plan on purchasing a house, boat, car, going on a trip, or paying for a wedding; it is a great idea to save money ahead of time.
Putting all your savings into one account can make saving for a goal messy. By having a separate account, you know exactly how far you are from your goal.
If you have more than one goal that you are saving for at a time, open two accounts! Opening accounts won’t hurt your credit or cost you anything as long as you maintain the required minimum balance.
Investments: It is a good idea to put money into investment accounts for retirement needs. Often long-term accounts will have higher interest rates than your run-of-the-mill savings accounts.
We use Edward Jones to keep track of putting our money in the highest yielding investments so that we don’t have to watch the market so closely.
Sinking Funds: These accounts are what we use to save for expected hits to our bank account. For us, this is mainly our cars and insurance.
We use Progressive Insurance and with them, we can save money by paying yearly for our insurances instead of every month.
To avoid a financial surprise once a year, we divide the total amount we need to pay into 12 smaller payments. Each month, we put 1/12 of the money into an account. When our premium is due, we have the cash available.
We also use our sinking fund for car repairs and oil changes. Ross averages out what we need for these each year and puts the money away to take care of the vehicles… plus a little extra since car repairs can come at a premium and usually happen when you least expect them!
College Savings Accounts: Each month we put a little money into two college savings accounts. One for each of our girls. Any time Ross gets a bonus from work, we also put in a little extra.
Most likely the accounts won’t completely pay for their college educations, but it will give them a nice start when the time comes.
Considering the time value of money, it is best to start these accounts as early as possible when you have children.
The accounts that we use for our girls are for education only. The upside of that is that they have a higher interest rate than a regular savings account. The downside is that they can only be used for trade schools or college.
So if neither of our girls decides to go to college, we will have to transfer the money to someone else who wants to use it for education. This is worth it to us because we figure that worst-case scenario we could give it to a niece or nephew.
If you want more ideas for setting up different savings accounts, check out this post!
6) Determine Your Giving
You can obviously skip this piece of the puzzle if charitable giving doesn’t align with your personal values.
But if you’ve never done it before, I encourage you to give it a try!
It’s ok to start small here, even donating $25 a month to a cause can go a long way. Just eat at home once or twice more per month instead of eating out and it will cover the cost.
Even if you aren’t part of a church, it never hurts to giveback to your community. Find a cause or a charity that you are passionate about.
I’ve never heard of anyone who regretted paying it forward!
If you really can’t afford it, volunteer once a month at a homeless shelter or soup kitchen in your area!
There are a million ways to give back if you get creative.
Plus volunteering will teach your children the importance of helping those less fortunate than yourself and treating everyone with respect.
In our house, we tithe 10% of our income to our church. (See this post for more information on recommended budgeting percentages.)
Additionally, we like to donate to ADRA which supports people who live in less fortunate areas of the world or who are in difficult situations.
We like to get the kids involved in choosing how we donate and they often like to pitch in by asking for donations for Christmas and birthdays. This year we bought a goat for a family who needed food and a way to make money.
7) Create a Calendar for Your Budget
Sit down with your calendar (I love this Amy Knapp Big Grid Calendar) and write in your paydays. Now, choose which payday you will have your expenses auto-drafted.
For example, We have our mortgage payment taken out on the first of the month with the first paycheck. Because of that, we have most of our other expenses drafted after the other paycheck hits our account.
That way we have plenty left over for groceries and gas in between paycheck one and paycheck two.
After you have your expenses divided up, decide when you want your savings or debt payments auto-drafted. You may want to do this all at once, or a little bit from each paycheck.
Having this money taken out automatically tricks your mind into forgetting about it!
The other thing you should write down on your calendar is your weekly grocery budget.
Divide your monthly grocery budget by 4 and write it down. It is much easier to stay under budget when you know how much money you have to spend each week at the grocery store, instead of trying to remember the monthly amount.
8) Track Your Spending
Alright, now that you know where you want your money to go each month, it’s time to find out where it is actually going each month.
If you needed to cut some costs, track your spending for another month. Then see if the initial things that you cut out of your budget were enough for you to meet your goals.
If you are still spending too much, keep repeating steps 8 and 9 until you get where you want to be!
If you find yourself struggling to stick to your budget, you may want to use a cash system until you have your spending under control.
But I don’t recommend using a cash system in the long run because you can build credit and make money by using credit cards… if you use them wisely.
Using a cash system is a great way to reset your spending if you need it, though!
11) Stay On Top of It
Once you have honed in on your perfect budget, don’t just forget about it. Check your budget regularly against your bank accounts to make sure you aren’t overlooking any spending.
We love using Mint.com to stay on top of our money. It saves lots of time, and it’s free!
I recommend checking at least once a week, but it doesn’t hurt to check daily while you are getting into the habit. Or you can be super-cool like Ross and check multiple times a day from now until forever.
I always play a game with myself whenever I buy anything other than groceries to see how long it will be before I get a text from him confirming that I did indeed purchase whatever it was from wherever it was.
It used to annoy me until I realized that’s one of the reasons we have been able to live debt free for so long… and it was a helpful habit to have when someone stole our credit cards…but that’s a whole other story!
The important thing to remember is to check frequently, whatever frequently means to you!
Determine Your Monthly Net Income: Add all reliable monthly net incomes together.
Write Down All Monthly Expenses: Write down everything you spend money on in a month from your debt payment to buying toothpaste.
Divide Necessary From Unnecessary Costs: In one column write down everything you can’t live without, in the other, write everything that you might be able to adjust if you need to.
Allocate Your Savings/Debt Payments: Put 20% of your Net Income toward paying off your debt first. After your debt is paid off, build up your savings accounts.
Determine Your Giving: Decide where and what amount you will give to charity.
Create a Calendar for Your Budget: Write down when you get your paychecks. Then determine when your expenses/savings/debt payments/charitable giving will auto-draft.
Track Your Spending: Write down everything you spend for a month.
Evaluate and Cut Costs: How did you do with sticking to your budget?
Track Again: If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.
I’m guessing you stumbled across this post because your budget makes you feel a little bit like your pants do after thanksgiving dinner… uncomfortable.
If your budget is too tight, there are two things you can do to fix it: make more, or spend less.
Guess which one most people have more control over.
Spending Less Money.
Usually, when people think of spending less money, they think of not buying the big things like a fancy new car, going on a nice vacation, or getting a bigger house.
But the truth is that the day to day decisions add up faster than you think. The daily spending will set the tone for your weekly, monthly, and yearly budgets, and can make or break your ability to stick with your budget.
And if you can get the little things under control in your budget, you can start to afford some of the bigger things that have always been out of reach.
(If you’d like a step-by-step guide for setting up your budget, check out my full post on How to Start Budgeting.)
We are a single-income family, so there isn’t much wiggle-room in our budget every month.
And on top of living on one income, we only live on 70% of our net income. So basically any time I can cut a couple of extra dollars from my expenses, I am all in!
When Ross and I got married, we found ourselves living on one (small) income… with a bunch of debt to pay off. (You’ve gotta love those school loans that are supposed to land you a couple of nice paying jobs.)
Luckily, I had married a fellow penny-pincher. (He’s probably the most frugal person I know.) And we quickly decided that we would take our spending down to the bare bones to pay off the debt.
This post contains the frugal living habits we used to pay off our debt, save money, and stop living paycheck-to-paycheck.
Frugal Living Tips for Saving Money
1) Create a Realistic Budget
Start by creating a budget that works with your family’s income, goals, and needs.
By setting goals and limits for yourself within your budget, you will see where you can afford to cut expenses, save more, and find out where all the money is disappearing to every month.
When Ross and I were going over our budget about a year ago, the number that we were paying for our insurance struck me as high.
We realized that it had been a couple years since we had shopped insurance companies and decided that it was time to do that again.
I spent every spare minute over the next couple of weeks on the phone, giving different insurance companies the same information over and over again.
About a month later, after going over the policy with a fine-tooth comb to be sure we were getting the exact same coverage, we switched and saved $120 per month. That’s $1440 a year!
All from just making some phone calls and putting in a little time.
3) Be a DIY Beautician
I’m a little crazy when it comes to saving money!
As a general rule, I cut my husband’s hair, my own hair, and my girls’ hair. Once every couple years if I am going shorter than my shoulders, I will go somewhere and get it cut.
But the vast majority of the time, we don’t spend any moneyon our hair.
If the thought of cutting hair makes you sweat a little, stick with me. Cutting your own hair, and cutting everyone else’s hair in your family, can save you quite a bit of money… And it can be fun once you get the hang of it!
According to US News, the average women’s haircut costs $44 and the average men’s haircut costs $28. They also stated that the average person gets their hair cut every two months.
That would be a total of $432 spent on haircuts per year for a family with one woman getting her hair cut and one man getting his cut. Add in a couple kids to the mix and you can be saving yourself a pretty penny if you make the switch to cutting at home.
Thankfully, the beauty college of YouTube can teach you everything you need to know!
Just type in “how to cut a _____________ (type of haircut) for__________________________ (boy or girl) at home” and you’ll get dozens of tutorials that you can play and pause and rewind when you need to.
Here are a couple of tutorials to get you started:
You can technically make regular scissors work, but it will take you a lot longer and it won’t look as clean because they aren’t as sharp.
(I may or may not have used a pair of office scissors for years before Ross bought me these scissors. Like I said, I like to save money!)
Clippers: If the guys in your family like their hair short, you definitely want a pair of clippers. This set also comes with scissors if you don’t want to purchase both, but I still prefer the scissors I mentioned above.
Additional Money Saving Ideas:
If you color your hair, you can also do that in the comfort of your own home. I don’t personally dye my hair, but my mom has been doing her own color at home since I was little. No one ever knows the difference!
I also like to have spa days with the girls and paint their fingers and toes at home.
No, it’s not as luxurious as having someone else do it, but it’s also a very small fraction of the cost and it’s a fun mommy-daughter activity!
4) Stop Buying Single-Use Products
Or at least, stop using them just once!
Single-use products are anything that is designed to be used once, then thrown away.
I’m looking at you, plastic sandwich bags, paper napkins, and paper towels!
Even if you buy paper towels at Costco, you could save over $40 a year if you stopped using paper towels alone and switched to using cloth towels instead.
That may not seem like much, but if I handed you $40 right now, what would you do with it? Would you wipe up the juice your toddler spilled, or would you spend it on something just a little bit nicer than that?
Ways to Save:
1. Swap your paper towels for regular dishcloths orpaperless towels.
2. Use cloth napkins instead of paper napkins. (But keep the paper napkins you get with takeout and use them on road trips or when you are out and about!)
We’ve been using our cloth napkins for about 9 years now and they are still as good as new!
3. Reuse your plastic freezer and sandwich bags until they cannot be used anymore.
Just scrub them with a little soap and prop them upright on your faucet and/or soap dispenser to dry… good as new!
The next time you run out of plastic bags and need to buy more, consider a bag that is made to be reused like these.
4. Try replacing parchment paper with a Silicone Baking Mat to cut down on waste and cost in the long run.
5) Stop Going Shopping
Almost any time I step foot in a store I find something that I didn’t know I needed. But now I think I do because it’s oh so cute.
I’m not exactly sure when it happened, but there has been a switch in our society to the detriment of the consumer.
It used to be that customers would tell the store what they wanted, and the store would try to stock the items.
Now companies tell the customers what they need, want, and can’t live without. And the customer tries desperately to pay for and store all the items.
To take care of this problem, I don’t go shopping unless I have something specific that I am looking for.
I make a list, I stick to the list, and I don’t browse in any area of the store that doesn’t relate to the list.
My mom says I shop like a guy. I say I shop like a saver!
If I do happen to find something that I think I need that isn’t on my list, I have a one-week rule (or one month if it’s an expensive item.) I take a picture and I leave the item at the store while I go home to think about it.
If I am still thinking about it and want it after time has gone by, I can go back and get it. If I forget about it, then I obviously didn’t need it in the first place.
6) Share a Vehicle
Not only have we been a single-income family for most of our marriage, but we were also a single-vehicle family for the first seven-and-a-half years.
Since we couldn’t afford to have a second vehicle and still reach our financial goals, we stuck with our one car.
Call us crazy, but we didn’t want to put ourselves into debt just because society told us that we needed two vehicles… and as it turns out, society was wrong anyway!
When both of us needed the car at the same time, we carpooled. One of us had to work a longer day while we waited for the other person, but it was never a problem.
I was usually the person who was at work more hours, so I would just bring a book for the end of the day, keep working, or go for a walk.
Sometimes I even ended up with a work friend who lived close enough to my house to give me a ride home!
During the spring, summer, and fall, Ross would often ride his bike to work when we lived in a small town.
And when we moved to a large city, I used public transportation to get around since I worked downtown.
There was never a situation that we couldn’t figure out a solution for. It just took a little creativity!
Not only did it work just fine, but we also didn’t feel like we were getting the short end of the stick. On the contrary, we enjoyed our life even more because we weren’t stressed out about how we were going to make a car payment or pay more for car insurance.
Plus, it’s fun to have someone to talk with when you are stuck in traffic!
Another way we saved money with our vehicles was by purchasing cars that we could afford to pay off in short order.
We didn’t choose cars that were the coolest, or that we loved the most, or that we felt like we deserved, we chose cars that we could afford.
When our first (and only) vehicle was totaled in an accident, we purchased a car that we could afford to buy outright between our savings and tax return that year. It wasn’t fancy, but it did the job and is still running over 7 years later.
We only purchased our second car two years ago when we knew we would be able to completely pay it off within one year.
After doing both ways I can tell you, not having a car payment is way nicer on your budget than having to make a car payment.
If you could never afford to pay your car off quickly, consider selling your car and getting a car that will fit more comfortably in your budget!
It is worth driving a car that may not be as amazing to us to have a little extra breathing room in our budget.
Updated: When the first car that we purchased was totaled, we spent a couple of months as a single-car family again before we decided to go ahead and get another.
After scaling back on all our other expenses and putting any extra money (like tax refunds!) toward the principal amount on the loan, we are on our way to paying it off within six months of the purchase date.
7) Plan Your Meals
It’s so much easier to go out to eat than to cook and eat at home.
But when my family of four goes out to eat anywhere other than Taco Bell, it usually runs us close to $50 once the tip is included.
Edit in 2023: It is now closer to $90 for our family of 5! Thanks Covid.
When we eat at home? I usually can shop for meals for our entire week for $100. Max. That works out to less than $6 per meal for the entire family (and less than $1.50 per person per meal!)
Edit in 2023: Groceries now typically cost $150/week. Not as great as it used to be, but it is still a lot cheaper than eating out!
I’m not saying that you should never go out to eat, you just need to make sure it fits within your budget.
We budget $100 per person in our family per month for food. When we eat at home, we almost never go over budget. But it’s a different story when we eat out.
Edit in 2023: For our family of 5, we budget $150 per week for food.
How you choose to diaper or not diaper your children is completely personal. But if you are looking to save some moolah when you have a baby, you may want to check out the price difference between disposable diapers and cloth diapers.
The total cost for our cloth diaper stash (meaning everything we purchased to cloth diaper both of our babies) was about $500.
That was buying everything brand-new off Amazon.
That was my total diaper expense for both of my children. $500 total. Combined. I didn’t have to purchase anything for the second child.
And that’s the total for any children I decide to have in the future. And any children that I give my stash to when I’m done with them.
One of our friends has used our size one cloth diapers for both of their children since our kids have been staggered in ages! Plus, I might even be able to sell the stash when we are done with them and make some of the money back.
My sister was even savvier than we were and was able to get her entire cloth diaper system for $100 from a Facebook mom group!
Friends, family, Facebook Marketplace anyone? Do your best to get some hand-me-downs from anyone who is handing them out.
I know one person who got bins of hand-me-downs for her daughter from a Facebook group for only a couple of dollars a bin.
Sure, some might be a little stained or worn. Sure, they may not be your kid’s style. And sure, they may not even be what you would choose. But you will save so much money!
I’ve read a lot of minimalist blogs that say you should get rid of clothing as soon as your child outgrows them because you can buy them at a thrift store for cheap if you have another child.
Um, what?? I may not be very good at math, but I’m pretty sure “free” is less expensive than ”cheap.”
Maybe if you are well-off this will work well for you, but this minimalist is hanging on to her hand-me-downs until I am positive beyond a shadow of a doubt that I’m done having babies. Those tiny clothes are expensive!
If you don’t have space to store the clothes, see if you have any friends that need them in the meantime. Our friends that we’ve shared the cloth diapers with also rotate bins of clothes with us. Our oldest uses them, then their oldest does, then our youngest used them, and now their baby will use them.
They were more than happy to store part of the stash so that their girls could use the clothes and give them back when we needed them.
Additional Ways to Save:
1. Shop at second-hand stores.
In addition to taking advantage of hand-me-downs, second-hand stores are the first stop we make when we are in need of new clothing.
I often find higher quality clothing than I can on a sale rack at a store and pay about the same for it.
I’ve even found amazing deals on hiking boots at second-hand stores!
2. Head to the Sale Racks.
If our local second-hand store doesn’t have what we need, I can usually find what I’m looking for on the sale racks at Wal-Mart, Target, or Ross (the store not the husband).
I don’t think I’ve purchased anything for full price for the girls and we’ve scored a lot of good deals by doing a little extra looking.
Thrift Stores Aren’t Just for Kids
Second-hand stores are also a great place to find adult clothing.
I struggled with purchasing maternity clothing since you only wear it for such a short amount of time and they are so expensive.
Then a friend who was also pregnant told me that she went to Goodwill and found high-quality items that were affordable. The next weekend I purchased a pair of maternity jeans for $3!!
10) Cultivate a Minimalist Mindset
About 4 years ago I began reading more on minimalism. I have always been drawn to the lifestyle as it naturally syncs with my thoughts and feelings.
This mindset especially comes in handy when the holidays and birthdays come around. You don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars on each occasion as the stores would have you believe.
Sometimes thinking simple is best.
The cool thing is that once you are in the habit of spending less, simple can be fun.
With our girls, we have found that the simplest toys and experiences have brought them the most joy.
My oldest daughter still talks about her birthday party that she had when she was three. Her “party” was going to a local splash pad and play structure (which is free), having a picnic there with friends (everyone brought their own lunch but we shared sides), and having our friends come back to our place afterward to barbecue.
There wasn’t even a traditional gift exchange. But what did she want to do this year for her birthday?
“Go to the splash pad with all of our friends again!”
Sometimes saving money takes a little creativity and sacrifice. But in my book, it’s usually worth it.
Take a closer look at your finances and see if you can cut any costs.
Here’s a Recap of the Frugal Living Habits we use to save money in our family.
Does worrying about what other people will think of you if you start living more frugally keep tripping you up when you try to start a budget? Check out 7 Powerful Mindsets for Low-Income Families.
