It’s Marriage Monday again! I love Marriage Monday, we have great topics!
This months topics is frugal living!
Tips For Frugal Living
Where I live there is no double coupon days or hardly any coupons, so I don’t get the added benefit of bargain hunting here (which I love!!) But these are a few things we do for frugal living here.
- Plan weekly menus, and shop for staples where there are big bulk items are sold. Remember to divide out so you actually don’t just eat it all in one sitting (I mention this b/c my hubby loves meat and if we buy something like baby back ribs.. he would eat them all! lol)
- Map out your shopping trip… it will save you time and money!
- Shop at one place.. or closely linked stored.. I say that because here we don’t have many malls anymore and with the price of gas to save on something that is 10c cheaper at store #2 isn’t a saving b/c gas is more to get to store b than it is to just stay at your current location.
- Make my own cake & bisquik mixes (divide out into bags and store as such, so they are easy to take out like betty crocker!)
- Have a garden! It gives you exercise, tastes 10X better than anything store bought and teaches children responsibility and the value of nurturing and life!
- Go green! We’re a geothermal family.. and yes the initial cost is more, but the long-term effects and eventual pay off outweighs the downside of a bit more upfront than a traditional furnace!
- Quality not quanity. With a large family I find buying quality is a big thing! If I buy clothing or toys that are actual good quality they will last through ALL of my 4 children, whom play rough with their toys. We trash any broken or wrecked toys asap so we know what’s left.
- Accept hand-me-downs!!! or we have a recycling group online locally which I sometimes use. It’s amazing what people want to get rid of! My rule is receive freely and give freely! This will reduce clutter!
- Go to after season season sales… sometimes you can get as much as 90% off in stores like Micheals for Christmas items.. last year I spent $50 and got everything I needed for Christmas for this year brand spankin new for the 90% off.. I wouldn’t have been able to afford if I would have bought new during the season.
- Work on pick out your themes... ie. if you know what you like, you are less apt to buy things you don’t need.
- kids treasure chest - I have a little box of kids gifts I keep handy when I find exceptional sales, so I have gifts available all year round.
- Look up local events. With small kids I find the simplest entertainment is usually the most fun and memorable for all! And best of all they are usually cheap or free. The ones that do cost
- When we travel, always stop at the visitors centres. Sometimes they offer 50% off discounts for local hotels!
- swap babysitting services.. find another couple and offer to swap once a month! I also swap for photo shoots!
- Go digital! I’m sure most of you are digital camera people already, but if you aren’t, it’s so much cheaper to edit/crop and find the pictures you like than to take them to the printers and try to figure it out there. Not to mention the wealth of information from great sites.
Given more time, I’m sure I can think of more, but for now that’s good! What are your frugal tips?





















































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