Witchy and Thrifty

WitchyWife's Thrifty Living Tips

      

        The task of trying to save money can be daunting! For some of us it seems like we're living pay check to pay check, constantly checking the bank account to make sure we have enough for the bills, for others you just want to have a substantial amount of money tucked away for a rainy day or emergency. No matter where you are in life, living frugally is worth it and will pay off in the end! Don't be discouraged or think you have to do everything you've ever seen on a thrifty living blog to benefit from it. Pennies add up! So here is what I do to help my family save money, worry less about our finances, and spend more time with each other. 

1. The first obvious place to save money is grocery shopping. And no I am not about to tell you the secrets of being a crazy coupon lady (if you know them, please teach me your ways!).  Saving money at the grocery store is much simpler than you might think! 

• Make a meal plan:  When I first came across a few frugal blogs one that I read suggested meal planning and shopping for the entire month in just one trip. This sounded great. Less time in the store means less time being tempted, makes sense. But for the majority of us this is not realistic-fiscally or lifestyle wise. I shopped for the entire month ONCE , but the strain on the finances of taking an entire months grocery bill out in one week was just too much for my family. We then moved to a 2 week plan and stayed there for several months. This worked GREAT-until my husbands new job where he is often gone and we literally don't know from one day to the next when he will be home or if he will be going out of town for work. We now do a 1 week plan. We have had to adapt meal planning to fit our family's schedule, but we will never abandon it because IT WORKS! Make a meal plan, look in your kitchen, if you don't have everything you need for those meals write it on your shopping list, buy ONLY what you need for those meals and nothing else. This will save you time-both at the store and when 5 pm rolls around and you have a grumbly belly.  
• Do you really need Walmart or Target?  When I first began meal planning I switched to shopping at Krogers. It is closer to my home (we'll talk about saving gas later), with the customer rewards program I get in store savings and the website has coupons you can load onto your customer card. I could see how much I was saving on my receipt ( visuals are a great reinforcer ). I have now stopped shopping at Krogers too (when I can help it). When my husband is home to go with me, I will now go to Save A Lot or Aldi's. These stores are GREAT for finding deals. Aldi's is my store of choice for the following reason. 
• Stop buying name brand I switched to shopping at Aldi's for several reasons (the store itself actually implements several frugal tactics) , one being that they do not carry name brand products. When myb husband would go to the store to pick something up (rare) he would ask what brand to get, my response was always "whatever's on sale", because honestly generic tastes just as good ( for homemade ingredients, we have stopped buying prepackaged premade food). When you buy namebrand you are not always paying for better quality. You are literally paying for the name and the advertisement behind it. 
• Look at the top and bottom shelves If you don't have those grocery stores in your area, or if you just want to continue going to the bigger store chains-stop looking at the products that are eye level. Companies pay for their products to be at eye level because if it's the first thing you see, coupled with advertisements outside of the store, you are more likely to buy it. The items on the bottom and top shelves are more likely to be cheaper because they don't have a prime real estate spot. 
• Go homemade this is something we've just begun to do. Whenever possible now I make our food from scratch, because a box of flour is cheaper than a box of bisquick ( and flour is used in more than just pancakes!) 

2. The second place you can save money is on utilities. We were lucky to find a rental home that has the utilities included in our rent, but the rent can go up if we exceed a certain amount and we always try to be responsible with the resources given to us. 

• Dishwasher yes, washing dishes by hand does use less water, but it also takes more time. We're women damn it! Our time is valuable! So how can you use you dishwasher in a way that will save you money? Stop using the dry cycle. This will help the electricity bill. Simply wait for your dishwasher to kick itself to the dry cycle and open the door, let the dishes air dry. Nothing could be simpler. 
• Flushing the toilet Any toilet can be turned into a "low flow" system. All you have to do is take a water bottle, fill it with water and put the lid back on it. Then stick it into the tank on the back of your toilet. If the bottle is 20 FL OZ, you will save that much water everytime you flush your toilet. 
• Showers My favorite way to save water in the shower is of course to shower with my husband, but when we aren't showering together I time my shower. Yes, I time my shower. I used to take 30 minute showers (well, I'd stay until there was no more hot water left...is that 30 minutes? ). I now only take 10 minute showers, 15 minutes if I've had a bad day. I get it, the shower is great, it's a quiet place to relax and get away from the hectic atmosphere of our homes. We love our families, but sometimes it feels like the only place we can get away is the bathroom! But no one is saying you have to leave the bathroom after the shower is over. Stay and enjoy the steam. Only spending 10-15 minutes in the shower frees up some room in your water bill to run the dishwasher though. 
• Drying clothes unless we NEED the clothes that day or the next we use a drying line that I've hung in our laundry room. This saves on the electric bill and helps the clothes last MUCH longer. I will admit that it's not often that I do this, we should do it more often though. 
• Turn off the lights!!! My husband is the WORST for leaving lights on when he leaves a room. I'll come home and every single light in the house will be on. Get into a habit of turning the lights off when you leave a room, and during the day OPEN THE WINDOWS, seriously. The sun will warm the house, cutting down on the heat bill and let some light into the house eliminating the need to turn the lights on. 
• Unplug things Ever heard of phantom electricity ? I hadn't either. When an appliance is plugged in-even if it's not in use-it IS using electricity. Crazy, right? Rather than ruin all your plugs by pulling them out all the time, invest in a power strip and just switch it off. 

3. Say no to credit cards. We have one credit card. It is a secured card, meaning we put a deposit onto it to get a certain amount of credit. We did this ONLY to build our credit history. Once we do that we will get rid of the thing. Credit cards are not extra money, they will only bite you later when you need a car loan or a house loan. Not worth it. To keep track of our money, more so our spendable money, we only put into the bank what we need for the bills-nothing more, nothing less. If it's spendable, we keep it out of the bank as cash. When the cash is gone, it's gone. And no I am not saying the spendable money is expendable- two very different things. The spendable money ( aka left over after bills) is for gas, groceries and necessities. The expendable money ( aka left over after the spendable money) is what we use for dates and extras. 

4. Saving on the little things : Gas, cleaning supplies, etc. 

• Gas This is the resource I am probably the worst at monitoring. I only put enough into my car to get me back and forth from school and work for the week, and every week I worry it won't be enough. Somehow it magically is. This is very lucky, because it is inevitable there will be an unplanned trip completely out of the way. But what I attempt to do is group all of my trips together. Don't just rush out when you have one errand to do. Wait until you have two or three and taking the most realistic route based on time and task. 
• Cleaning Supplies  Baking soda, vinegar, bleach, and soap-I basically don't buy anything else. I make my own laundry detergent with baking soda, borax, and a bar of laundry soap. Window cleaner, vinegar. I wipe my counters off with either vinegar&baking soda or a mix of water and bleach. I clean my bathroom with bleach. I sprinkle my carpets before vacuuming with baking soda and it pulls up the dog smell. *I do splurge on Lysol, because my husband and in laws STAY sick (he only gets sick at their house). 
• RUMP's  reusable menstrual products. There are many brands of menstrual cups (what I use) and cloth pads that are reusable for many years. I spend on one cup what I spend on pads/tampons in 3 months, it seems more expensive in the short run. but over the long run it will save me YEARS of buying pads/tampons. 
• Personal Care I now make my own deodorant, and in the future hope to make more personal care products such as moisturizer and other things. Maybe that's something to consider-can you make your won products? Do you really need to pay someone to do your eyebrows or can you do them at home with a little practice? Do you need to pay for your nails to be done or can you do them yourself? 
• Clothing Do you really hate that outdated top? Is there anything you can do to make it more modern? Add an accessory? I strongly recommend upcycling your clothing. 

5. Don't think you're too good for the Dollar store or free give a ways! -That needs no more explanation, lol

These are just a few of the things that I do to save money, they work for our family, maybe they will work for yours. Let me know what you think in the comments below and if you have any thrifty tips please share!