February 19, 2011
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Saving Money?
Saving Money?
A good saying: You have to have money to make money. We use to live pay day to pay day. We couldn’t get ahead. We don’t do that any more. We saved and have an emergency fund that can’t be touched accept for emergencies. We have a car fund. I call it our reverse car loan. I put what I think we would pay for a vehicle in the savings on a regular basis. We’ve paid cash for our vehicles for over a decade. We have never just pay for our home mortgage. We pay a few extra dollars on it every month. Now after several years of doing that the principle amount is much lower. We also have a cushion fund – about a pay day ahead. My wife is a master penny stretcher. When she finds things on sale she buys several months worth of the item. Cans of vegetables went on sale yesterday. We bought several months supply. It was over ½ price off. Kim has been known to get gas for under a dollar a gallon.
Hy Vee gas station has a promotion that gives us so much off a gallon of gas for purchase in the Hy Vee store. My wife gets the meds and food together and very cheap gas. I don’t make a lot of money and getting the money saved for the different funds took a lot of sacrifice but it has paid off.
What ways do you use to save money and make your pennies go further?
We always have to be on the alert for the guile, but not to the extent we fail to love people.
Comments (26)
We have an emergancy fund too and we were able to replace our car when the truck broke…we don’t do car payments we buy used
I’m not good at saving money. When I need extra money I work more or sell things.
At present with this liquid diet am saving a fortune on food, in terms of saving the interest rates are so low over here it is not worth it, if they go up I might consider saving again but for what I am not sure.
Like your wife, I buy sale items in bulk. I keep my home cool in the winter and warm in the summer. I shop at thrift stores and yard sales. I pay ahead on my mortgage just like you do. I try to pay cash for big purchases by saving up for them. I have an emergency fund and retirement savings. I don’t purchase things unless they are necessary. I compare prices on car and house insurance every couple of years and if I find a better deal, I switch. I have $1000 deductible on those two policies and that money is in the bank. If I make a large credit purchase, I do same as cash financing. I use a credit card that pays me cash back for gas and groceries. I pay that card off each month before I own interest. I normally make about $20 a month profit on that card.
What sage advice. And what a blessing to have a spouse who is on the same page as you.
@SisterMae - We buy use also – works just as good.
@nattata - That’s good – I should probally sell things also.
@andreasiscrazy - Can’t make anything in the savings account now. I have a checking that the interest irritates me – 14 cents here and there.
@C_L_O_G - That shows a lot about your personality. We just got a check back from a credit card – 140 dollars. It’s nice having a credit card pay us.
@LoBornlytesThoughtPalace - Wasn’t always like that – years of marriage at least put us in the same chapter -lol
@Randy7777 -
Yes it is.
Hi Sir Randy! I haven’t been here for so long.
I am so busy with school. I am graduating this
coming April 1st and I need your help, hope you
don’t mind. Here’s a link, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLXtu0FN35E
this is my Economic Project, need plenty of views to win.
Hope you could watch it. thanks so much!!!
We buy canned vegies on sale too when they come on-light salt.
We plan a budget and stay on that budget.
We no longee use charge cards and we stay in an apt. that we can afford to live in and have a few luxuries.
We are still having to learn new ways of making money stretch, being retired with everything else going up, and our income staying the same but we manage well. We use over the counter medications and Walmarts $4 perscritpion plan as much as possible. We do prevenitive medical by taking care of ourselves and exercising.
We are still learning how to make ends meet but we are paying our bills off. One thing I am totally certain of and that is that staying in this little apt and now moving is the best decision we have made.
@loving_you_annika - I watched it. I love it. Thanks
@tymedancer - America would be so much better off if many did as you are doing.
Saving money? I’m in college; that doesn’t happen. lol
I’m in college as well
All the spare change that I get, I put into a container and store it away. After a while, enough builds up and then I go cash it at my bank. That’s actually how I got my account started. I saved up $112 over a course of 6 months.
I also try to limit my meals for home (since I’m in college) so I would eat the same thing for a while, like ham and cheese sandwiches or PB&J sandwiches. It gets old kinda quick, but for the sake of saving money, I do it.
@Cestovatelka - You’d be surprised that it can work. I taught my older girls how and my 19 year old is in her second year of college. She was able to pay cash for her car and she has very little student loans. She gets a little help from Mom and Dad but not too much.
@fabolousclown - What are you studying?
@laytexduckie - So good of ideas.
I have a savings account, but I haven’t added to it in about two years :-
What I do is pay for everything in cash, so that I am much less tempted to buy things I don’t need. It’s worked for me decently well.
@Randy7777 -
I’m studying to be a teacher in the english department of my university, and learn a bit about english literature, also have been developing my public speaking skill (: (: ——> (I’m still pretty much pathetic at all of them though lol) hehehe
when i was in college, i also worked at a restaurant and that really helped with my food costs. sometimes, my roomies would go in with me and we would cook a meal for everyone. you cannot beat home cooked meal at pot luck cost!
we have done a lot of the same things you have mentioned in your blog over the years, but when we had some major health and home repair issues to resolve last year so it is pretty much back to square one for us now…
I keep coming back to read all the good tips here!
You and your wife are very wise in the way you are handling finances. I can’t save money from my SS payments, but I do have an IRA & a small account for investments and cash. At my age, I am required to take a calculated amount each mo. from IRA which is transferred into another account that is for cash and one investment. I try to save as much of the required withdrawal as possible, but some months when I have additional necessary expenses, I need to tap it. About the only way I can keep my outgo lower is that I don’t need to buy clothing as much. I make use of coupons for items I’d buy anyway. I don’t buy an item just because there is a coupon for it. Buying in bulk and taking advantage of sales and discounts sometimes helps. I have some ways to earn a few extra shekels from time to time, but they are not consistent. I do use credit cards for convenience in purchases, but the total is paid each month. ~~Blessings ‘n Cheers