How are you cutting costs at home?

W

WhoseHouse

250+ Posts
The thread about costs at work got me thinking... how are you saving money in your daily life? I've stopped getting Starbucks and made a "one dinner out a week" rule, but what other ideas do you have? I think it's just hard to see how the little things will add up, so they seem too insignificant to bother with. But maybe if we can give specific examples of how much they can save each week/month, it will be easier to make the little changes.
 
Anyone who is not clipping coupons in the Sunday paper is out of their mind. I save about 5$ at the grocery store on every trip. Also, CVS, Walgreens and Target give $30/25/10 gift cards for transferring prescriptions. I just shuffle them around.
 
My Mom taught me this tip last week. My husband and I cook a lot with ground turkey, we normally buy it for $7.50 per package at Krogers or Randalls. However, you can buy the HEB brand of it for $3.50 a package.
 
Buy at Costco's and split up everything in freezer bags. Buy a whole turkey at HEB for $.77/lb, bake, and slice for sandwiches or dinner at home with gravy and sides.

If I grill, I put on enough meat to cover 3 dinners so we use less gas from the stove/oven and use all the available heat from the coals.
 
We're trying to cut back where we can and because I get paid once a month I need to really control how much I spend.

1) Costco meat. We will go once a month and get fish, chicken, ground meat/turkey, and pork chops. Spend about 100-125 and we have meat for at least a month.

2) Keep eating out to a minimum, weekends only and occasional.

3) When we do eat out we share meals. Portions are so big anyways and I want to lose weight anyways.

4) Starbucks is my weakness. I'll buy a gift card at the beginning of the month with a set amount and that's all I have. Once I use it, no more Starbucks for the month.

5) I also get a Wal-mart gift card for gas. I'll buy it at the beginning of the month and I save 3 cents a gallon.

6) Take my lunch to work!!!! This is my biggest hurdle. I run late and just don't want to make my lunch in the morning.
 
I'm growing our veggies.
Have not purchased lettuce, beans, broccoli, peas, & collards at all. Freezer is stocked with these also (some tomatoes also).

Eating out? Whats that?

Ditched Uverse.

Found beef shanks for about $1.00 / lb for stew.
Bake our own bread.

Cut the soffits for the whole attic venting myself last summer. The roof had to be replaced due to the May hail storm any way - adding the ridge vent easily justified my labor savings.
Thoroughly sealed all leaks at the AC air handler, wrapped the supply with extra fiberglass batting.
Programmable thermostat never above 64, 50 during sleep.

Watering the St Augustin is down to absolute minimum - always hand watered. May just tear it out soon and seed in something drought tolerant.
 
I've started baking my own bread, at least some of the time. For me, being out of bread drives me to the grocery store where I buy a bunch of stuff.

I also spend the time to make meals at home rather than buying prepared foods or frozen meals at the store. It adds up quickly.
 
Slowly but surely replacing all the light bulbs in the house with the energy efficiency ones.

Also will be adding insulation in the attic in a couple of weeks.

I've started to eat breakfast at home everyday and try to limit eating out for dinner during the week.
 
My father put together a central broiler that burns wood outdoors and heats water which in turns runs the furnace. Gas bill is 0$. Saves a ton of money since we get the wood ourselves and cut it ourselves. The broiler has about a five year payoff.

Next thing dad wants to do is put in a wind turbine for the house and to "get off the grid". But that's a whole other topic.
 
"You aren't a talking gecko, by any chance?"

Never sold insurance in my life, but I know Texas has the highest personal insurance rates in the country. And I know that the average consumer hasn't shopped their coverage in years. In fact most consumers usually stay with their original insurance company for many years.

I also know that the difference in premiums between the highest and lowest homeowners policies (with comparable coverage) is about 3-1.
 
1. Gave up HBO.
2. Fix more meals at home, especially sandwiches ($6-8 for a freaking sandwich is robbery)
3. No vacations or travel.
4. Drink iced tea vs. sodas/cokes/etc.
 
Nothing. I already rode my bike to work every day. I also make my own lunches the vast majority of the time and limit eating out just for the sake of it. I do so with friends. I don't drink when I go out and I don't smoke. No real vices other than music but I know how to buy it on the cheap.

I may be selling my car and saving the money from the liability insurance every month. That money will go towards a nice road bike though.

Life is pretty much the same. What recession?
 
We eat out once a month, and it usually a cheap place. Every other meal is cooked and eaten at home. We have people over quite a bit, but we set the menu, and they bring stuff to fill in.

We bake our own bread, slaughter our own hogs, grow our own vegetables, collect our own eggs, and soon will be in milk production. We are buying a grinder to grind our own wheat and corn that we will grow this year. Some of the corn will go to feed the animals. Some will go to feed us.

We had a propane "fireplace" out in the garage, still new in the box. We installed it three weeks ago, and our heater never comes on in a 3100 sq. ft. house.

We clip coupons in the paper each week. We price match at our local grocery store. We find places that are doubling and tripling coupons. We have three freezers. We buy bulk when we do buy, or we buy a lot of a certain thing that is on sale.

We never, ever waste food. If we cook a ham from one of our hogs, we slice off the ham and eat it. We make gravy from the fat, we use the leftover meat close to the bone in a homemade ham spread. The bone goes to flavor a pot of beans, with a few chunks of fat.

The hogs get table leftovers. The rabbits' dung goes to fertilize the garden. The garden leftovers go to feed the hogs and chickens. We cook indoors on cold days, and outdoors on hot days.

We had a halloween party where the kids brought a pumpkin and carved it. We took the pumpkin seeds and toasted them for snacks for the kids. We took the flesh, baked it, pureed it, and made pumpkin bundt cakes and pumpkin butter. We gave those back to the people as their holiday basket.

You can find ways to cut. Some of it takes creativity. Some of it takes hard work.
 
coachkiss- that's awesome that you and your family do all that. However, I think the cost of starting up my own farm might offset the amount that I saved
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I think if this recession can do anything positive, it will be to put f-ing Randalls out of business! I usually make the trip to HEB but I ran in there yesterday because we were out of toilet paper, and the kind I buy was $17.99 for 12 "mega" rolls. Are you kidding me?? If they are going to keep their prices ridiculous like that, who the hell is going to shop there? I've already noticed the express line is shorter and shorter each time I go. In fact, can we start a hornfans Randalls boycott? Having a different grocery store two blocks away would probably save me hundreds of dollars a year. Ok, rant over, carry on... and thanks for all the suggestions, keep 'em coming!
 
Randalls is not for poor/cheap people. It is for people that have enough money and don't want to deal with the hoard of peasants at HEB. It is similar to how convenience stores stay in business. That being said, if you have their card (just give a fake everything if you don't like them tracking your purchases.) and stick to their sales, they are fairly cheap.

Manufacturer coupons are also the biggest scam, and they keep getting worse and worse. You can save more by buying store brands and looking for sales. HEB's store only coupons are much better, especially their "combo loco" or whatever it is.

I really think the bulk buying is overkill, unless your family is large. The overhead is just too high. Sure you can save by freezing 40lbs of meat, but that freezer cost a couple hundred to buy, and ~50 a year just for power. Also what is the cost of membership to Costco or Sams? $50. Their prices may even this out if you are buying for a large family (although I hear their electronics prices can be worth it).

I think my biggest way to save money is to never carry cash. It keeps me from buying out of vending machines, or from convenience stores, and overtipping. Using my credit card the majority of the time lets me track my spending, and I'm not left with a bunch of change in my pocket/car that may not be used or deposited anytime soon.

I almost never pay retail for anything. I haven't bought a full priced piece of clothing in many years (and I'm not fooled by places like Kohls where 40% off is regular price) The internet has been a huge resource for bargain hunters it's ridiculous. I also made a bi push to pay off my car in 2 years. I'll probably save at least $1k from doing that.
 
1) I drained the indoor hottub and shut off the power.
2) Cut WAAAYYY back on going out to eat.
3) Cut the volume of trips to Costco. Seriously, the trips were bordering on $500 each time (family of 5) and I always walked away with an impulse buy.
4) Turn down the furnace, burn more wood in the fireplaces.
5) Limit trips to the store...all stores.
6) Re-insulating attic
 
I have started shopping at Giant instead of Harris Teeter to save money. But both of them are still way more expensive than HEB because they jack up the prices of everything on the East Coast. I also only go out a couple of times a week now and generally do it for specials (half price burger night, half price fish and chips night, etc.).
 
Nothing really new, but:

Since I was on the "Body For Life," kick I always grill on sunday and make food for about 3 days.

Another thing that helps is that we live in a house that we can easily afford.
 
My wife found all this info about how to use CVS's reward program to your best advantage. She found a website so you'll have to search to get the true scoop.

Essentially she find the deals that CVS/Walgreens has that week and uses Mnf coupons on those items as well. Also she gets like $5 in rewards for every $20 or so she spends. They've even got a system where sometimes you break your trip into multiple transactions. The clerks are usually understanding because they know how the system works. She'll normally come back from CVS with $40-$60 worth of goods that she spent no more than $10 on.

Its cut our grocery/toiletry bill $150 per month. If you have the time or need the $ its worth it to look into.
 
Yea, I had heard that fireplaces may make the immediate area around it warm, but it sucks fresh air from the rest of the house.

I also question the use of BBQ pits or propane grills. I know it's a nice little thing to do, but I don't think you should fool yourself into thinking it is cheaper than cooking on a stovetop, or oven. Just based on packaging and distribution, a tank of propane has to be more expensive than the equivalent amount of NG supplied by the gas company. I understand the idea of cooking 3 meals while the coals are fired up, if you BBQ just for the fun of it. And wood is sometimes free if you chop it down yourself.
 
Stopped going out to eat. Ok.

Stopped buying/consuming wine and beer: Its a diet thing.

Decided against the new bedroom set. Win for me.

Dropped the idea of getting the new sports car. Bad for me.

Committed to loan poor relations money. Actually, buy some house equity from them. Seems the right thing.
 
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