money_jar

 Where to “find” money around the house – realistic ways.  PROVEN WAYS!

Installment 1

I figured that I would start a series of posts to help people who just aren’t sure where to get more money from without getting a second job.  Now, these hints aren’t going to make you an extra income, but you’ll be surprised – insanely surprised – at how much money you have at the end of the month.  I know I was!

When I started to budget, for my family, I started by doing a budget on the necessities that we had been spending each month.  Because that is what I was used to.  I budgeted $760 a month for food (I know – seems crazy to me now!), $360 a month for gas, $50 a month for household cleaners, $170 a month for electricity… you get the point.

Now, we spend $180 a month on groceries, $100 a month on restaurants (this is something that I have tried to cut out, but the whole family goes – mother-in-law, sister, etc and the kids enjoy getting together. BUT – we have cut it down from $270 per month!!), $300 a month on gas, $0 for household cleaners, and $150 for electricity (we are on the budget plan, but have a deficit instead of an overage every month!). 

So, where did I “find” this money?

Food was my jumping off point.  I knew I could save money on food.  But how?

I started with coupons. I started to get free cleaners. Free samples. Free Butter. Free Biscuits. Free. Free. Free.  I took advantage of CVS Extra Care Bucks. I scoured the flyers every week for specials.  I started spreading my shopping over 3 different grocery stores to find the best deals and cut – AMAZINGLY – $390 out of my grocery budget a MONTH.  I printed coupons.  Traded coupons.  Asked family for the coupons from their newspaper.  I revised the brands that I ate to revolve around coupons.

Now, keep in mind that I feed my family (of 4 – and every other weekend – 5) on $45 per week WITHOUT resorting to frozen pizza, frozen $1 meals, etc.  98% of what we eat is Free of High Fructose Corn Syrup, Hydrogenized Oils, Aspartame, and Sucralose.  We eat healthy and drink lots of water! This will be a change for many of you. But if you start small, you’ll be surprised at how you can convince your family the change is good! CHECK OUT MY POST ON “HOW TO GET YOUR FAMILY TO EAT HEALTHIER – ON A BUDGET”.

With that in mind, I plan every meal we have for the week.  And guess what?  Most of my meals cost me less than $5!  And some meals I can feed the family for 2 days. It is absolutely possible to do this. Plan your meals weekly and don’t give up. If you have to switch Monday’s meal with Wednesday’s fine.  The day’s are not important.  It’s the content that is important.

We go out to eat every Friday.  It used to cost upwards of $50 to feed 4 of us. Now, it costs $25 each and every time regardless if we have 4 or 5 of us. How? We share meals. Don’t get high priced soft drinks. Don’t get pricey alcohol drinks. It’s that easy! We don’t even use coupons for this restaurant (there aren’t any!). 

Key to success? Get your family involved. Give the kids 3 choices of meals for the week and let them pick some. This will be a great key to getting the menu to “stick”!

Another key to success?  MAKE SURE YOU DON’T SKIMP ON EVERYTHING! If your kids love a bed time snack, make sure you work it into the budget, but make sure it’s in the b-b-b-budget! If you can get free fruit snacks, chips, whatever – even better.

You can do this!  I believe it!

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