I am ready to bang my head because once again I can't believe that our household money is once again depleted. Now, let me make sure you understand that money does not make my world go round. I am not one of those greedy little Beverly Hills housewives who just spend, spend, spend.
I would like to think that I am actually pretty good at stretching the dollar as far as I can in most cases. I mean for so very long I was a single mom working 3 jobs and believe me I valued every single dollar I worked so hard to earn.
Now, I do admit that things certainly aren't as tough as they once were but I still can't seem to get that money hungry monster from chasing us every single month. It's just some months that monster gets closer than others.
While I do admit that we enjoy a nice dinner at my favorite bakery or we do get something special once in a while we don't overspend on anything for the most part. In fact compared to the typical American we may even be considered a few steps ahead because we don't own/use credit cards of any type and we pay cash for what we need/want.
Even with all of this it seems that around every corner there is another bill, a new charge on the cell phone bill, light bill or water bill. Worse yet it seems almost daily I have another amount to pay for school pictures, after school activities or whatever else the kids are involved in. Don't get me wrong. I don't allow them to just join anything they want. Each kid is limited in their activities but being the type of parent that wants my kids well rounded and have many opportunities and experiences that I missed out on as a kid they are involved in some. It's just with 3 kids in school those little $5 or $10 here and there does add up quickly.
So, my question today is this:
What do you do to help stretch your family dollars? Do you coupon? Do you carpool? Just what do you do? Let's get our heads together and see what we can come up with!
We are a lot of like in this aspect. We do use 2 credit cards, but only ones with cash back bonus and never carry a balance month to month (meaning we pay it off every month, no matter how tight it may make us some months and we do without frivolities until we can pay in cash/debit (same thing).) We use coupons, shop at Aldi (don't know if you have them or not, cheap small grocery store) and only get what we can't there at other stores. We don't go out to eat as much as the average American because it's more expensive than eating at home. We do treat ourselves but we limit it to 1 or 2 a month instead of daily like some. I usually only buy our clothes on clearance at Target. And love clearance anything!! I shop at Goodwill and Salvation Army, I am not too good for anything. If it is in good shape then what do I care where it came from. Garage sales are great too! If I come up with anything profound to help us stretch our dollar further then I will surely pass it on to the One and Only Jonesie!!! : ) Have a good day and keep your chin up...it good be worse, you could be me and have 6 chins to hold up...which is extremely tiresome!
ReplyDeleteA lot "a like"...this is why I should freakin proofread BEFORE I hit "comment"!
ReplyDeleteAfter walking off on my corporate job last September (to start consulting and get my life back), I finally had time to care about getting a good deal instead of just getting the job done. My friend and I had always talked about checking out those couponing things you see on Good Morning America where the woman rolls out of the store with a whole cart of crap that cost her approximately 75 cents. We did www.thegrocerygame.com. I learned a lot about the system as it works, and while I don't continue to subscribe to her coupon lists, I cannot walk into a store without looking at the sale ad and without coupons. It just feels stupid! The best I have done was 50% off of my bill; which I thought was pretty fly.
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