Mom’s Musings

The theme this week for Ten on Tuesday isTen Ways You Can Save Money:

1. Focus on what you already have, rather than cultivating further ‘wants.’
   
2. As an aid in contentment, recycle ads and catalogs before you look through them. If you don’t watch TV, you won’t see those ads either.
   
3. Maintain your home and your vehicle, to avoid costlier repairs later.
   

   
   

   Oh, and you could carpool to work or use public transit.
   

4. Avoid going into debt for items which depreciate in value, such as a vehicle, appliances, furniture, etc. Instead, save money ahead of time to purchase such items.
   
5. Cancel subscriptions to any newspapers or magazines you don’t really read. It is possible to keep up with the news online. Your local library subscribes to your favorite magazines, which you can read there.
   
6. Check books out from the library, rather than purchasing them.
   
7. Prepare your family’s dinners yourself, rather than eating out, or living off convenience foods. If you really get into the groove of saving money, you can look for recipes which provide good nutrition, but use cheaper ingredients. One example of this would be combining plant proteins such as beans and cornmeal, rather than using meat for every dinner.
   

   
   

8. Bake your own bread. This can be an enjoyable, creative outlet as well, if you have the time.
   

   
   

9. Buy cheaper shampoos and beauty products.
   
10. Purchase necessary items at outlet stores or wholesale when possible. We have a grocers’ supply store, Cash and Carry, which is open to the public where one may purchase herbs and spices, for example, at a third of the price one would pay in the grocery store. I order bulk items such as rolled oats and wheat berries (for grinding into flour) online from a company called Azure Standard.
    

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008 at 7:50 am and is filed under Homemaking, Responsible Consumerism, Ten on Tuesday. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.