Saving money

Now that we have talked about budgeting and debt, let's talk about ways that we can save money on almost everything!

To start with, where can you save money? Well, pretty much everywhere! I am a little crazy about saving money and getting the best deal. We even save on our bills, going with paperless and equal payment plans, makes setting a budget much easier too. But what about those things that you use everyday that cost a little, but add up so quickly? Do you ever go into Wal-Mart and come out having just spent $50 and you have no idea what you just bought or what youre even having for dinner that night? Yeah, me too! Wal-Mart can have some really great deals, but only on some things, not everything. I find some things, like produce much cheaper at the Mexican market down the street and I also don't have to deal with crowds.

What about non-food essentials? Wal-Mart can be the cheapest for some of those things, as well as Sam's and Costco, but are you really getting the best price you could pay?

If you really want to save some money, you might have to look at different ads and shop around. Some of you are limited in where you can shop and that's ok, use what you have.

For those of us that have multiple options, the task probably seems daunting, I understand. I have my few places that I shop and sometimes I price match at Wal-Mart just so I don't have to go to every store, and that's fine too. Look at your newspaper ads! This is the easiest way to find out what's on sale and where. Then if you want to price match, go for it, you don't even need your ads, so just make a list of what prices are at which store.

Now this saves you a little bit of money, but how can you save more? Coupons are the easiest way to save on groceries and non-food items. But don't stop there! Pair your coupons with a sale item and you have a killer deal! If the item you have a coupon for is not for sale, don't buy it yet, just hang on to that coupon!

Being the first of the year, we received lots of really great coupons in the Sunday paper, which is nice, they were things I needed to stock up on, like dishwasher soap and contact solution and pens/pencils. Sometimes, if it's a great coupon, I will just run over to Wal-Mart and see what the price is. I went in yesterday to see what contact solution was and they were completely wiped out, so everyone had the same idea! I was able to find some at another Wal-Mart and got three bottles of name brand solution, plus each one had a bonus smaller bottle on them, and I paid just over $8! I saved $15 with my coupons, plus they were on rollback as well. The other great coupon deal I happened upon was dishwasher soap. We got coupons for $2.10 off. I happened to find some at Wal-Mart that were 50% bonus boxes for $2.97, so I got them for 87 cents per box!

When I can get great deals like this, it even puts Sam's to shame because I can get a much better deal per ounce or per item than they can give me at the warehouse.

This is a small part of how i save money and can live on my $400 food budget, but we have also paid very little for larger items as well. Bed Bath and Beyond is such a fun store and they are always sending out 20% off an item coupons, and their coupons never expire, even though they have an expiration date, you can still use it. We were able to buy a Kitchen aid stand mixer for less than $50. Now this was years ago and we used our Discover card for everything, so we accumulated the cash back, and we saved up to get enough gift cards there to cover most of the cost of the mixer, plus we used a 20% off coupon and voila!

I have even seen receipts from people that combining sales, discounts and coupons, they got over $100 worth of items at JCPenny and paid less than $2! I am not that good with non food items, but it just shows you, it CAN be done!

How do you save on your bills and expenses each month? Please let us know, help us all save more, everyday!