10 EASY Ways to Save

Are you looking for easy ways to save money  as a family?    We have 10 simple things that can help get you started on your journey to saving money and spending less.   Drink Water. When you go out to restaurants, skip the sodas and go with water.  If you are a family of four and you go out to eat once a week you will save $622-$1000 a year (depending on how many of your family members you can get on board to skip the drinks). Cut Cable. These days, most TV shows are available on line. Try sites like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Instant Video to see which one has your favorites.  Cutting cable can save your family around $720 a year. Turn down the heat. If you drop your thermostat 5 degrees while you are sleeping, and have it set to come back on to your comfort level when you usually wake up, you can  save around $300. The best part is, you probably won’t even notice the difference in temperature since you’ll be asleep!   Gardening. I know you might be thinking you don’t have space for a garden but even a small herb garden can help you cut back on spice expenses. If you are feeling more adventerous or just want to save more money, consider Backyard Farming! There are so many ways to customize your backyard garden/farm so you can find the way that’s easiest for you. One of our favorites is the no-dig method. So easy, and you can even start in the winter time. Extra insulation. We got Radiant Barrier, it comes in a giant roll and looks like a cross between bubble wrap and aluminum foil.  We used it to line our garage door with this and sealing off windows in bedrooms on the north facing side of the house.  We also made sure that our insulation in the attic was thick.  By increasing the insulation in our home we have brought our heating bill to roughly $200 for a 3100 square foot house.  Not too shabby. Reduce healthcare costs. You can also try home treatment before turning to OTC or a visit to the Dr Office.  We have found that we can cut medical bills by catching issues early and seeing what home remedies are available! Go meatless one day a week. Sure we all love our meat, but it can often be the biggest contributor to the size of the grocery bill! Try doing “breakfast for dinner” and serving scrambled eggs instead of large portions of chicken or beef. Or go with a simple rice and beans approach. Every one can get their healthy proteins through the beans, and it can be a good lesson for the kids about how most of the world eats. Meal plan. Since you are already planning to go meatless once a week, you might as well plan out all your meals for each week too! Planning ahead before you go to the grocery store will help ensure you get more of what you need and none of what you don’t! This saves money because you won’t be worrying about impulse purchases every time you go to the store to pick up something you forgot about from not planning ahead. The less you shop, the more you save! You can also plan meals around each other so you are sure to use leftovers in other meals before they go bad. You can grab an awesome printable meal and grocery planner here. It helps make everything a lot easer! Establish an Emergency Fund. Hide away $5-$10 every chance you get. Or, if you can manage it find a way to send 10% of your income to savings before doing anything else with your money. This can be a quick way to build up an emergency fund for those unexpected things life throws at us.  Having a little nest egg saved means that when life happens you don’t need to put the broken leg onto a credit card.  It’s debt prevention! Cut corners. Use less wherever you can. Even in simple things like buying the select-a-size paper towels so you can use less each time you clean up messes or cutting your sponges in half before you use them so you don’t end up dirtying one big sponge for no reason. There are so many things you can cut in half to save money if you stop and strategize over what you might not need quite to use as much.   These are just a few of our favorite easy ways to save money! If you are up for more of a challenge try these 50 ways to be frugal  or another 36 Tips to Budget..