More Money Saving Tips for Frugal Moms

So, I’m pretty cheap. Not even frugal, just cheap. But hey, I have to be and if you do to, you should check out these tips.

1. Check out your local dollar store before you head out to Target or Wal-Mart for your must-have items.

If you’re broke like me, you regularly visit the 99 Cent Store and the Dollar Tree. These are just a few of my recent purchases. All valued at 99 cents or less.

Rules of shopping at these stores; no canned foods (often you can find them at about a dollar anyways), no makeup (because, it’s probably old even if it happens to be name brand), no vitamin’s (when it comes to vitamin’s, quality does matter) and most importantly, always check expiration dates! 

2. Keep those coupons that print at the end of your receipt!

I don’t need another full-time job so taking on extreme couponing is not going to happen. But, I always keep these coupons because I know that I will use them. I mean it! I just bought juice, soda and iced tea for free at CVS because I keep these babies around ^^

3. Eat out for lunch, not dinner

If you happen to eat out for dinner once a week, make it a lunch instead. Lunch menu’s are usually less expensive and it’s less crowded at restaurants anyways. Steer clear of pizza lunch specials though, you never get your money’s worth.

4. Freeze foods

This is a no-brainer for meats but did you know that you can freeze bread and fresh-cut veggies? I will often cut up onions and peppers and put them in little baggies to throw in the freezer. Frozen veggies are pretty expensive but this way, they’ll never go bad on you! My bread is always in the freezer.  You can let a few slices defrost when you need them and I promise they will be just as puffy as before you threw them in there. Or you can just do what I do and make toast sandwiches, kid’s never notice the difference.

5. Visit the store less

When you begin freezing everything, you’ll hopefully find that you can go to the store less often. This is big because how often do we actually walk out of a store with the exact amount of items we intended to purchase? Just make a bi-weekly stop at the store (longer if you can hold out), stock up on your must haves and then eat away at your frozen items for as long as you can. Or you can just send the hubby to the store to pick up the milk, you know he’s less likely to check out the new marinades.

6. Limit splurging

I’ve already said in another post that I limit my splurging to every 3 months. Honestly, my splurging is getting a new $10 nail polish sometimes.  Just don’t let your eyes wander in the store, be on a one-track mind. Bring a toddler with you, if you must. They’ll hardly give you time to get what you actually need. If you don’t have a toddler, borrow one from a friend.

7. Be smarter about your driving

Get off that gas pedal. Firstly; if you speed often, you will inevitably get a ticket and that defeats the whole purpose for being thrifty. Secondly, the less RPM’s you run in your car, the more gas you’ll save.

When you fill up, fill the dang thing all the way up. Don’t just throw $20 in it. Just find a well priced station and plan ahead. It’s no shock that when you put your car in the garage on E and you’re running late in the morning to go to work and you’re running out the door, your car will still be on E! Then you’re just at the mercy of that expensive gas station down the street which apparently pumps liquid gold into your car.

8. Avoid over priced photo sessions at department stores and photo studios

So this one is important because Easter is right around the corner and everyone is making their appointments for their little ones to get their photo’s done at JC Penny’s. That half-priced sitting fee sounds appealing until you are forced to purchase a ridiculous photo package or leave empty-handed. Instead, ask around on Facebook. Are there any new photographers that you know that are looking for some more faces to put in their portfolio’s? You’ll probably get a digital copy of all the photo’s anyways.

Plus, you can ditch the cheesy backdrops, your kids are too cute for that anyways.

9. Remove “over-draft” protection from your account

We have all bought a $37 gallon of milk before thanks to over-draft protection. Just remove it, you might be a bit embarrassed in the store when your card declines but you’ll be much happier to know that you didn’t just make this fatal error.

10. Get an Interest Checking Account!

I have an AMAZING online Checking Account through Ally Bank that gets me .10% on my checking account. No minimum balance and no monthly fee! I can withdraw money from any ATM and they will cover the fee.

.10% might not seem like a lot of money, but I’ll take that over nothing thank you very much!

Hope you enjoyed it!