Monday, June 30, 2008

Thrifty!


I grew up in a thrifty household. We only ate out on special occasions. Never got take-out. One Car. (can you imagine?) My Dad took the train to work, and my Mom drove him to the train station, raincoat over her pj's, lipstick on in case she saw somebody she knew.


Today, it's much more challenging to be thrifty, especially in today's economy. Especially with two teenage boys, one about to get his driving permit, who is already begging for his own car. (How in the world am I going to pay for that??)

We try to be - somewhat - thrifty around here. My husband drives the car that gets the better gas mileage to and from work. I work from home, so the SUV sits in the driveway a lot.

One of the best ways to be careful with your money is at the grocery store. Plan your meals for the week, use coupons, and take advantage of your favorite store's frequent buyer card. I go up and down the aisles looking for items that are on sale, but only things that I would be buying anyway. When an item is on sale, and you're not likely to stop eating it (your favorite ceral, for example), but a few of them.

So, I am off to search for blogs that tell me more thrifty tips. If you know of any, please let me know!!

5 comments:

Ginny said...

I mainly save money doing what they call on the internet the Drugstore game. Here are a few blogs I read ~

http://www.mommieswithcents.com/
http://sahmmoney.blogspot.com/
http://www.moneysavingmom.com/money_saving_mom/
http://sensetosave.com/
http://www.lifewithfive.com/
http://free2befrugal.blogspot.com/
http://www.thriftyfloridamama.net/

Anonymous said...

There are so many things you can do to save money, it's unreal!! Go to Lizz's blog and see the side bar.
http://red-dirt-mother.blogspot.com

Scroll down to "steps we are taking to live sustainably"...that about sums it up!! :0)

Damselle Jewelry said...

My husband and I made the decision to get rid of our second car. I work from home now and am fortunate enough to be able to walk to the post office and grocery store. (It's a pedestrian oasis in the middle of a strip mall desert.) We also try to take advantage of all the free activities we can. The Museum is free on Sundays, there are summer festivals with live music, etc. And I am the Queen of finding fashion forward clothing at thrift stores.

Waterrose said...

I saved $50 with coupons at the grocery store last week...I was SO excited....lol

Pam Hawk said...

At the risk of this sounding almost stupid, one little thing I do that saves me a good $20/week on groceries is to actually read the price labels.

Recent example: we needed hot dog buns, butter, and dish soap.

A big butter sale showed a special on butter for $2.30/lb and all the other butters were $2.60/lb. The sale butter shelf was sold out. On a shelf with all the margarine was a no-name butter for $1.88/lb and it was fully stocked.

Next, I skipped (yes skipped, because I was happy about the butter) over to the bread aisle. All the packages of 6 hot dog buns were around $1.19-$2.45, depending on label or whatever magic powers the buns had. Nearly crowded out was a no-name package of 8 buns for $.25
Yes, it was fresh! It was just ashamed that it didn't have wheat fields or wholesome pictures on its package, but it was fresh.

I skipped again (now you know why) to the soap aisle and found that the larger vat of soap was cheaper per oz than the medium sized (which is usually the most expensive per oz.) Soap doesn't spoil and I'll always need it so I hoisted the 32 oz vat into my shopping cart and nearly danced to the checkout.

It may take a little longer until you get used to knowing what you're looking for but I always find bargains where there aren't any sales.