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6 Ways To Save Money This Year

Is your savings account sad to look at? Do you wish you had a couple more zeros in there?  Yeah, me too. But take some comfort, below are 6 money saving tips that have helped my family save money!

Clean with E-Cloths. I bought the  e-cloth Home Cleaning Set, 8 Piece because I was sick of using paper towels and wanted dedicated towels for cleaning. I kept seeing Norwex pop up in my Pinterest feed and wanted to see what all the fuss was about. The Norwex sounded great but after looking at the price I knew I couldn’t afford those cloths right now. I kept researching and reading reviews and finally found e-cloths which I bought from Amazon. Now all I want to do is clean, they work great. And the whole premise of the Norwex/Ecloth thing is that you don’t need chemical cleaners, only water! Saving you money and exposure to toxic chemicals. Win, Win…..

Drink coffee at home. This saves me tons of money each year. I drink 2 cups every morning and on a special occasion I buy Starbucks, then I’m like “Hello Starbucks, my old friend.” Seriously though, if you have a habit of buying a $2 cup of coffee from the drive-thru everyday of the work week, you spend $520 a year on coffee! I’d rather spend that amount of money on a family vacation, back-to-school clothes or savings! I use a Keurig and have a reusable K-cup, I buy coffee at Walmart, Sams or Costco and save tons. Because, even the K-cups get expensive, I saw a box of 18 at Walmart last night for about $10, and that wouldn’t even last me 10 days! 

Set a food budget & Plan your meals. I used to make my meal planning so complicated, then I would buy too much food and would kick myself at the end of the week when I had to throw food away. Now, I keep it simple. I write down what I I am making for the next week, grocery shop and stick to my list and my $100 food budget. This helps because I only buy what I will be using so I am not wasting food or money. Check out my What’s for Dinner board on Pinterest for inspiration.

Cut the Cable. Just do it. Today. Call your cable company and cancel your service. This was hard for us. We had one full year of a cable bill of $120 per month, that was $1,440 we spent on TV. Seriously, that could have went to my student loans, a savings goal, a vacation….anything. But no, we spent it on TV, that we didn’t watch most of the time. Now we use Netflix, and Amazon Prime Videos  or RedBox. And, during Walking Dead we go to my parents house to watch it. We honestly don’t miss cable and definitely don’t miss the price. I think we have better things to do with the $1,440 each year!

Shop During Major Sales. I love shopping. I love Bath and Body Works. I love Victoria Secret. But, I don’t shop there as much as I used to anymore. What I don’t pass up though are the Semi-Annual Sales, if all this talk about saving money is getting you down, perk up! Now we are talking about spending 🙂 I really love combining coupons and sales. Just make sure you ask when your favorite store has their Semi-Annual Sale and sign up for the emails and/or rewards program. For Bath and Body Works I got an email for $10 off 40 and all the lotions (full price 13.50) were around $3.25-3.50, I bought 12 lotions (to use as game prizes at my sister’s upcoming babyshower) and after my coupon I ended up spending about $2.75 per lotion! Keep an eye out after each holiday season for deeply discounted items! Happy shopping but don’t forget to set a budget!

Family Game Night. As much as we love going out as a family, we also kinda don’t love it. Our 2 yr old is very rambunctious  so keeping her under control during a family outing is the top priority and can really feel like more work than fun. Plus, family night outs can get pretty pricey when you factor in all the related costs. We do Family Game Night. Pick a few games, easy snacks and get your competitive spirit going! We love Uno Card GamePie Face Game (great for the little ones) and War. Yes, that old fashioned game played with playing cards! I taught my kids how to play War this New Year’s Eve. They loved it!6-simple-ways-to-save-money

So there you have it. Six simple ways to save money this year. If you are looking to make a change in your financial life I recommended Dave Ramsey, look into Financial Peace University and The Total Money Makeover: Classic Edition: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness they are literally life-changing. You will get the must-needed motivation and steps to get closer towards financial freedom. Plus, I love his no nonsense attitude towards money, I really need some of that! If you have time to poke around his site, he has freebies too, so get started on the baby steps!

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Crystal Mendez

Crystal is a work from home mom who loves to write about home life, living with a demanding toddler and the journey towards debt free living.

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6 Comments

  1. I keep hearing about these norwex cloths! I am a big fan of using castile soap and essential oils or just vinegar for cleaning, but the more I hear about the cloths the more interested I get!
    We cut cable almost 3 years ago and the only time I miss it is during Bachelor season, haha. I need to convince my husband to get us an antenna.

    1. Crystal Mendez says:

      Hi Jessica, I usually use just vinegar with a little dawn soap and lavender oil. But lately I’ve only used the e-cloths and they are cleaning pretty well! I’ll still keep the vinegar concoction on hand but hopefully use it a little less. Thanks for stopping by!

  2. Have you looked into getting a Roku? We canceled our Dish Network almost 3 years ago and got a Roku and couldn’t be happier. The initial investment is about $100 (Best Buy, Walmart, etc), but there is no monthly charge unless you decide to subscribe to paid channels. We subscribe to Netflix (the majority of what we watch), but there are lots and lots of free channels. If you go to the Roku website, you can get a better idea of what channels are offered. Some are really great and some are limited. It has been a great choice for us, though!

    1. Crystal Mendez says:

      Sharilee, I have not checked into Roku. We currently just use Netflix but I would like something that has AMC on it. I’ll have to check that out. Thanks for the idea 🙂

  3. Wonderful tips for saving money! Visiting from #HomeMattersParty
    Michelle James recently posted…Tips-Spring Decorating with Silk FlowersMy Profile

  4. Hi Crystal! Great ideas here. Thanks so much for sharing them on the #HomeMattersParty this week!
    Jeanne Grunert recently posted…Why You Should Leave Clover in the LawnMy Profile

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