I just love hearing from so many of you. We can learn so much from each other. Thank you to those of you who have shared your money-saving ideas already. If you haven’t entered the contest and submitted your ideas, take a look at the April 20 post to get the details. And pass this along to your friends so we can learn from each other!
My money saving tip for today is to shop Aldi if you have one nearby. Heather posted this tip as well, but I have to reiterate this because it saved our family well over $100/month when we moved to shopping at Aldi. I always shop Aldi first and then head to the regular grocery store to pick up whatever I wasn’t able to get at Aldi.
If you don’t have Aldi in your area, you probably have a no frills store like Aldi. Their generic brands and no frills displays save money! Yes there are still some foods that we prefer brand names, but those are few and far between these days.
What strategies do you have to save money and add to our discussion?
Jill we are in the same financial boat!!! I resigned to my job almost three years ago and our financial priorities and practices changed.
Now we always eat at home healthy and delicous food. Eating out is for special occassions or when we are invited by the grandparents! This has encourage us to learn new recipies and be creative. And when I am not in the mood to cook I have been blessed with a wonderful husband who loves to cook.
Altough we have two cars, my husband and I try to commute together to do the errands specially when we travel to the metro area in Puerto Rico which is about 30 miles away from us and consume a lot of gas. This is also a good way to spend time together as a family.
As a homeschooler mom….I almost teach for free using the internet, trading books or buying them old on the internet. We recycle a lot of materials to make crafts, costumes, etc. We also accept used clothes and we also donate them to others. We try to choose the free outings from our support group.
On January 2007 our 27″ tv broke and it wasn’t until last month that we got an old tv. On the meantime we used my computer to watch movies…and then it broke too (ja, ja!)…then we used my husband’s lap top when it was available. The good thing is that on that year my boys (5 & 3) found creative ways to spend time together inside and outside the house. We have more time together as a family too. This is really a testimony of how God provides even things that are not essential for us. My 5 year old boy asked me when we were going to buy a tv..and I told him that since we don’t have money to spend on that we can pray to God to ask for one even when the tv is not a primary need for us. Then we prayed and ask God to have one donated from someone or that he gives us the money to buy it. Then probably a month after that, a friend of mine e-mailed me offering not one but two tvs..a 32″ and a 16″……so we were blessed with two tvs instead of just one. The boys now know that this was a gift from God.
We are not vacationing a lot, but we do “interior tourism” visiting the differents towns of the island….and when we do this we always pack our own lunch and snacks to eat them in parks and beaches we find on our way. This way we enjoy being together and we know more of our country and our people.
Things learned from the financial difficulties……they refine our spirit to be contempt and enjoy what we have. They always makes us to be creative and works for the benefit of the family spending more time together. But I have to recognize that to be able to say this I have struggle a lot inside to be happy with what I have and not complain!!!
Mayra Rodriguez
I love shopping at Aldi!!!
Hey Jill,
I went to Aldi on Monday and shopped for the entire week. I spent a whopping $34. Then I head to Meijer and spend $15. I’ve been shopping there for about a year now and it sure makes a difference.
As a side note about Aldi. They have a great website: http://www.aldimeals.com where you can find tons of recipes and also you can find foods that have certian food restrictions. Very helpful website.
One thing we do is walk whenever possible to save gas and another is we encourage one another. When one of has a weak moment and just wants to go out instead of having to clean the kitchen and cook, the other (usually my husband) gently reminds me we can get dinner done together quickly and easily together and save the money we don’t need to spend at a restaurant. Besides as he says my dinner is so much better than that of a restaurant.
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Hi Jill! My husband graduated from FPU not long ago. We got an idea from Dave Ramsey that was a huge success. instead of traditional Christmas gifts, we gave gift certificates for things we could do ourselves. It was so much fun coming up with creative and budget friendly ideas! We gave certificates for yard work, dinner in a dash and dessert of the month just to name a few. Our families are hoping the certificates become a tradition.
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Jill: as I wrote before, our budget is very tight right now, for that reason we are doing recycled flower vases for the mother’s day. My kids took the glass containers from sauce, olives, etc. cut beautiful pictures from magazines and are pasting it on the glass. Then we are going to buy flowers and give them to the mothers in our family. We have fun making them and I know the women are going to love this gift made by our hands.
That’s why I do when the budget is tight: crafts, crafts, crafts. It less expensive and I enjoy making them. That’s another way of not letting the culture/society to impose on us the idea of a good gift
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