The holidays are coming and time to purge, giveaway, clean out, use up, or sell and stash some extra cash away for the holidays. Plus I love starting the new year off with things clean and in order.
Let’s clean those closets and donate or have a garage sale.
I joined in the ORC this year, so my closet got a really thorough purging and I have enjoyed it so much. I gave some things to Charity and took a ton to Goodwill. If I had done a Garage Sale, I could have made a ton of money. Shoes, purses, and clothes of all kinds are great attractions for shoppers.
Another great place to earn money is all those unused accessories that don’t fit your style any more. Perfect for that Garage Sale. (Mine is in this corner of the garage and I see quite a few things that I don’t use anymore.)
Let’s go through the pantry and make sure we use up anything that is near an expiration date. Great chance to save on those grocery bills.
Same thing with your freezers. Anything here that has been there for a while? Looks like we could cook up quite a few meals out of here –
here – –
and here.
Instead of buying more, let’s clean up those bathroom storage areas and use the makeup and hair products that we have. (Between these drawer units I have 8 bottles of shampoo or conditioner. Am I hoarding or what?)
This is the post I ran for my 2013 – 2014Budget. I thought I would repeat it. I set a really realistic goal and did stick to it overall. There are some great money saving ideas here even if you only do it for one month.
Frugal & Thrifty Budget Ideas
Ok, I am really going to get a budget going and see if I can stay on it. Not something really outrageous, but something that is totally realistic. We live a rather simple life, not really anything extravagant at all, but I still think I waste money and that is not a good thing.
First off, I am going to look at some of the things I have committed to and see if I can trim those expenses down a little bit. The first one is the cable bill. Do I really watch all those channels, and no I hardly ever watch those movies, so if I cut those out, what can I save? What other bills can I trim down? We don’t really have a lot of bills, so if I just watch the A/C and Heating, that’s about all I can control, but that can save a lot. With the cable bill alone I can save $30 a month. That’s a good start.
Second would be the grocery bill. I usually do one big shop each week and only go back if I run out of something, but I don’t plan out meals and I don’t really watch the grocery budget. I like for the pantry and the fridge/freezer to be fully stocked with everything, so then whatever I want to cook, all the ingredients are on hand. I do read the ads, make a list and use the coupons that really apply to what we like to eat. It wastes money to use a coupon and buy something you really don’t like. We eat really well at our house, but I can trim a little here I think. For just the two of us I definitely think a budget of $100 week is more than ample, so I am going to stick to that.
Third is to not waste money on car gas just running around unnecessarily. I am the world’s worst at just hopping in the car and running here and there for no reason at all. I get 41 mpg with my new little car, so I don’t think about how much I am running around. If I plan to do as many errands as possible at a time, then I don’t have to waste a lot of money on car gas making unnecessary trips.
Fourth is to give myself an allowance. I know that I could be more frugal with my spending, but I just seem to buy whatever I want. Even if I do a ton of shopping at Goodwill and Thrift stores for most of my home decor, that really adds up, so I need to be more selective about what I buy. I need to really take a good look at our wardrobes and purge what doesn’t fit and only replace needed items and maybe an occasional something special. That will accomplish two goals. First I won’t have so much stuff and need to purge so often, and second, I need to use what I have. Ok, so if I set a goal of $100 a month for my allowance, that should be more than ample. Maybe I can even trim that back a little. I need to come up with an allowance to refresh our wardrobes each season.
Now these are just four really easy and simple little things that I can do that will start off my goal of saving an extra $100 a month. Not a big deal, but it is something that I can achieve and then I can set bigger goals. Just need to take baby steps here. lol
I am going to add one more item to my budget for 2014. I am going to curb some of those trips to the Beauty Salon. A lot of time I am in a hurry and color my own hair instead of spending hours in the salon, and I really can go a month between pedicures and just re-polish at home. I do it all the time when “time” is a crunch anyway. Now this should save quite a bit more by itself. Hair color at the salon is around $75 and you can buy everything at Sally’s for under $10. Skipping one pedi also saves about $25.
By the end of the money I hope I have a big pile of $ like this.
Join me each Friday to share some of your favorite ways you saved during the week. I can’t wait to see some of your frugal money saving ideas. Our first linky will be up on Friday October 9. Get set to join in the fun.
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