Creative Ways to Save

Who doesn't love saving money???

Kevin and I have been working hard to cut down our spending.

We have regular meetings to discuss bills, to look over spending and set goals for ourselves.  We don't do spreadsheets or anything really strict with cash, but we do talk about our finances regularly.  We both know our goals and we communicate about them often.  We've cut back on areas like eating out and opt for take out instead a few times a month.  I cook dinner most nights and we eat at home a lot.  All these little choices add up to big savings which means we can do more of the things we love.

I thought I'd share some things we've been doing to save money because A. they're really easy and B. we've been trying to get creative with saving.

1. Buy Holiday shirts/clothing/pjs at chain stores instead of boutiques.

I love all of the holiday pjs that are monogrammed and coordinated, but I just can't justify spending $20+ per kid on these items.  They're adorable, but not something I want to splurge on right now.  My kids love holiday clothes and I love dressing both kids in them.  The fact is that they are just as happy with a pumpkin shirt from Meijer as they are a fancy boutique.  So I opt to save money and go with the Meijer options.  Their Halloween shirts were on sale for $4.20 this past weekend and they're really cute.  The regular price is $6 and they come out with cute ones for every holiday.

2. We are making the most of our FREEZER.

We don't have a huge chest freezer so we rely on our regular side by side freezer.  It's just an average sized freezer, but we pack it to the max.  Scroll down to the bottom of the post to see what I mean.

We dice up bread and buns that we're done with before they go bad.  I make sure to closely keep track of what is in our pantry so that I can freeze things before they spoil.  I dice up the bread and then freeze it to use later for stuffing or french toast casserole.

I noticed that a big bag of frozen banana slices was $10 at the store this week.  Bananas are super cheap so don't let your ripe bananas go to waste.  Slice them up and use them in smoothies or bake with them.  I like to buy the big bundle of 8 or more bananas from Sams.  It's usually around $1.50.  We eat the bananas throughout the week and then slice them one they're too ripe.

3. Stock up on TOYS when you find them for a great price.

We are just barely entering into the birthday party stage of life with kids.  We always buy gifts for our little cousins and now we're starting to have friends to buy for.  I heard this great idea once: Have a stash of gifts that would be good friend gifts for boy and girls and then let your kids choose something from the stash when they are invited to a birthday party.  This month I stocked up on all the Melissa and Doug sticker and marker activity pads I could find at TJ Maxx.  They're $3.99 each and are so much fun!  My 4 year old loves them and I think they'd make great friend gifts.

I also found some great deal on character books.  This big flap book was $8 so I'm saving it to give to Olive for a holiday this Fall.

4. Say yes to free garden PRODUCE

Kevin has some coworkers that garden.  Anytime they offer to share, we say YES!  We've enjoyed tomatoes, raspberries and zucchini thanks to them.  I even froze some of it to use later.

5. Buy MEAT when it's on super sale or marked down and freeze it in smaller packages.

Our freezer is currently packed with ground beef, fish, steaks and other random meats to use in tacos, soups, spaghetti, etc.  It makes dinner prep so much easier to have great options in your freezer.

6. Use what you have in your PANTRY or freezer

Keep close track of what you have and try to use it up.  We eat Mexican food a lot.  And every time we eat it we end up with some leftover taco fixings.  Instead of tossing them, I decided to freeze them in a little sandwich bag to use later.  I ended up with nearly 10 little bags of taco toppings.  Perfect time to make TACO SOUP!  I thawed them out, added in a bottle of V8 and taco meat.  Voila!  Delicious taco soup for dinner.

7. Figure out your favorite FREE activities and do them often.

My kids LOVE going to parks and playing outside.  So instead of going on expensive outings like the zoo or the movies, we often opt to meet friends at a park.  I'll pack snacks or a lunch and we all have a great time.  We have tons of neat parks in our city so I'm hoping to keep checking out new parks as the weather cools off a bit.

See my freezer is STOCKED and every inch is being used :)

 Do you have any creative ways you save your family money??