I shop for groceries at a locally owned Foodland. The owner said Wal-Mart places items in the middle of the eyeline with amazing prices and the rest of the stuff is not always so cheap. When I rent movies we have RedBox which is $1 per rental per night. Works for me
I also buy a lot of food in bulk from the co-op at the charter school and share with my mom and grandma and the cost is lower. I think I got a 5 lb bag of baking powder (aluminum free) for about 7 bucks and the regular little can of baking powder at the store is about 3 dollars. That's helped a lot in the saving of basic pantry goods.
Ohio Mom - I'm now saving money like you. My dryer went out and I am hanging all of my clothes on hangers in the basement. We have infloor heat in our basement so they should dry fast. Who knows, maybe I'll save so much on my electric bill that I won't event want a dryer. Naa, I don't think so but I sure will like the savings. It just may encourage me to hang the bigger stuff. So now I'm off to price check wash machines.
I wish I could hang my clothes but our cellar is gross. We have the heat down to 63 degree so they would probably never dry!
I added a little generic detergent from Walmart to give it a boost and it works great now and still goes a long way. I use two tablespoons or less per load; depending on how dirty the dishes are.
Lee, what is the recipe you use for cleaning windows? (Maybe we need a thread just for "cleaning recipes"!!! Perhaps even as a Sticky....)
Yea, we do need a cleaning recipe thread. Okay instead of posting the recipe here I will start a new thread with the windex recipe on it. Good idea!
Ohio Mom, why don't you re-post your dish soap on it, too? (GEESH!!! FOUR POUNDS of BAKING SODA? WHERE can you buy that much??? I'd like to try it, but I think I'll start with a measly 1 pound of each, and even then, I'm not sure where to buy that much!)
This thread is great. I wish I could post some cool money saving tips but I really don't have any. I can say that we have been saving a lot since we cut out all things that are not a necessity. I do try to drive less, use the library for books and DVD’s, shop at Aldi’s and Costco, reuse what I can around the house, and make what I can from scratch. I will defiantly have to try some of the things you ladies do to save money. Thanks for this thread!
***bump*** Anyone have anything to add? I use Murphys oil soap for pest control in my garden, and also to clean and to bathe the dog. We make our own laundry detergent. We shop w/ coupons, esp the BOGO We use baking soda to brush our teeth (mix into paste with mothwash) and for cleaning recipes. We always make our own bread. EVOO for hair and dusting and cooking.
I love the foam handsoap, so I bought enough of them for each sink in the house. When the soap is gone, I fill them with 1/4 liquid soap (my fave is softsoap Milk Protein and Honey) and the rest with water, leaving enough space at the top to shake. Voila! Inexpensive foaming handsoap.
we 'pay' our car payment every month into a separate bank account. we save up until we need a new car and then pay cash. we save BIG bucks because we dont have finance charges. we pay ourselves and we even get the meager interest rate from the bank, but its still better than paying someone else the interest.
We use coupons, shop clearance, can and freeze everything we can get our hands on, make a lot of homemade stuff, Hang out our laundry, sew, make our own soap, buy in bulk so we don't have to go to the next town very often, We only purchase something that we have the money for, But we do use a Credit card to gain the cashback points but keep track of it and pay it off every month, so there are no finance charges (we even buy our groceries on it, that gives us 5% back and I usually get gift cards for clothes and houshold stuff like sheets, towels, etc.) I am sure that there is more but that is all I can think of at the moment.