Saving Money.

So today in church, Dr Mike continued his finance series.

It got me really thinking about where we can scale back in our finances.

Right now with things being so tight, I don't think there is a way that we can scale back any more than we already have. But what have I done to scale back? Well its not much different than what we had been doing before.

"Buy used and save the difference"

I just love a bargain and when my girls are in need of something or I am in need of something, I have no problem getting something used. Goodwill is my favorite store for this kind of stuff. But lately, I have been finding the quality of the things I find, not as good as it was just a couple of months ago. I did recently buy myself a pair of shoes at Goodwill though. I told myself I would never buy a pair of used shoes. Feet just gross me out! But, you know what? The shoes I bought were only $1.99 and they were comfy and in great condition. You can't beat that right?

Craigslist and rummage sales are my other passion. My dad recently sent a check for the girls for Christmas and I found a screaming deal on a "Rose Petal Cottage". If you know what this thing is, you know that its EXPENSIVE! Well I got a slammin' deal on this thing. It looks brand new and the lady I bought it from threw in the stove, nursery set and extra play food, a baby doll and a baby blanket all for $75!!! Awesome right? If you priced this thing out new, you couldn't purchase just the cottage for that. The cottage itself is $90.00 plus the nursery set is $40... you get the idea. I saved a boat load on it! I love to save money!

Coupons, Coupons, Coupons. Sales, Sales, Sales.

I had gotten out of couponing for a while because you usually only find coupons for brand name items. I find it cheaper most of the time to just buy the store brand. However, when you combine a coupon with a sale, you get a very happy Kristi.

I love to shop the sales. I try not to pay full price for anything and with a strict weekly grocery budget of $60, I really have to make my money stretch as far as possible. I will go through the weekly sale fliers and make my list and calculate exactly how much I think it's going to cost me. I will also spend time on my calculator at the store to make sure that I am staying within my budget.

So how do I manage to only spend $60.00 a week? Well not only do I utilize the sales but I pay attention to what is on sale. I find that one week there will be a screaming deal on meat and I'll stock up for as much as my $60.00 can handle. Then the next week, maybe there will be screaming deals on produce and canned goods. Again, I will stock up.

I cook almost everyday now. When I don't cook we are usually getting the sale "meal" that week. Safeway usually will have a $5.00 special on Fridays. I'll pick up the $5.00 main dish and combine that with what I have in my pantry and fridge. To me that $5.00 is worth a cooking break for me. Even if I manage to "cook big" (aka a lot of food) my hungry husband will usually polish off whatever I make. There are normally no leftovers so leftover nights are just not options for us.

I have also learned to get really creative with dinner. Some of our favorite budget dinners are Tater Tot Casserole, Chili Topped Baked Potatoes, Chicken Adobo, Baked Pork Chops, Korean BBQ Chicken and Filipino Menudo. YUM! Easy budget friendly and delicious.

Driving Less

So even though gas prices are plummeting as fast as the stock market, we are still in the mindset of not traveling too much. We are paying half as much now as we were when gas prices were high but, there are other areas of our finances that the extra money could go to. So we still don't driving around all over the place, we just go where we need to and try to plan on doing errands along the way. Plus, when two working people share one car, its really easy not to go "gallivanting" all over the place as my Gramma would say.

Plus there are so many other ways we are scaling back.

We go to the beauty school to get haircuts. The other day Jeff, Kylie and I all got haircuts and shampoos for $25.00. You cant beat that. Most places just to do my hair it would cost $25.00.

Making my own cleaning products and scaling back on the rest. I love making my own cleaning products. I can't stand the artificial smell so making my own cleaner for literally pennies is great! I have been using that Arm and Hammer Essentials recently but that's because I got a FULL SIZED sample at Walmart last month. I love it but once it's gone back to making my own cleaners I go. I also just came across a recipe for laundry detergent that I am itching to try once the laundry detergent that I currently have runs out.

Cloth Diapers! I love my cloth diapers. I just washed a load today. Unlike some of my friends, my main motivation behind cloth diapering was not to save the environment. I mean that's a huge bonus, but I like not having to buy diapers every month. I like not having to budget for that. Its great! Plus even though I bought pretty much all of my diapers new, its still going to save me hundreds of dollars over the long haul. I am completely stocked with diapers until Kaitlynn is potty trained. Plus the colors are so pretty. I love my FuzziBunz!

Yes, we still have luxuries like cable but, we don't ever go out. We don't go out to see movies, we don't buy DVDs anymore. I feel like we but back everywhere else, that we deserve to have a little luxury in our lives like cable. That's what I think, and I'm sticking to it.

What I do find is that its really easy for me to stay on track with budget, but not so much for Jeff. He admitted to me the other day that he doesn't really pay attention to how much hes spending and that's a huge no no when it comes to trying to stay on budget. I'm the type of person where I'm adding up in my head how much I spent and how much is left in my budget. Jeff is very free with his money and that's why he ends up putting us in the red. He says hes going to work on that. I pray that he does.