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Whether you are rolling in Benjamins or pinching every penny, most of us wouldn’t mind a little more money. When I decided I was ready to stay at home with my kids while building my photography business, we crunched the numbers and knew that we could make it work, but things would be a little tighter. I wanted to make sure we still had some “fun money” to be able to do things together as a family because that is very important to us, so I started looking for ways to cut costs, save and even MAKE a little extra money. They are all easy and some are even fun!

1) STORE SAVINGS PROGRAMS: If you are like me, you automatically say “No thank you!” when you are checking out at a store and they ask if you would “Like to save 10% today by signing up for a blah, blah, blah credit card”, and you should. However, I was doing the same thing for quite a while at Target when they asked if I would like their REDcard Debit Card and that was a mistake. The REDcard acts just like my debit card which is what I would normally use anyway EXCEPT you save 5% off every purchase, get FREE shipping from Target.com and get an extra 30 days to make returns. The only downside for me is that unlike using my regular debit card where my purchases immediately come out of our account, it takes a day or two and sometimes I forget that two days ago I went in for lip balm and walked out with $50 worth of treasures so I am surprised to see that decline in our account. 😉  (Just kidding…I don’t do that.  Often).
If you have a grocery store that has a fuel saver program or other rewards program, take advantage of that too! I love Hyvee’s fuel saver program and save a ton on gas. Obviously the key is to not buy things you don’t need just to score the fuel discounts, and not to spend more on a brand with a fuel saver discount than another brand without it if it’s not worth it, but even when following those rules, I never pay full price at the pump. When gas got REALLY low this spring I paid $6.40 for a FULL tank of gas!

2) SAVING MONEY…THERE’S AN APP FOR THAT!: Actually there are several. Here are a few of my favorites.

HOBBY LOBBY~ If you ever shop at Hobby Lobby you know that the items in the store all take turns being “50% OFF” which is actually just a reasonable price for the item in the first place. If the item is not 50% off, it is A) Way too expensive and B) will probably be 50% off next week. So what’s a girl to do when you really need (ok, usually it’s not need…it’s WANT but we will discuss this later) a huge, fantastic piece to go on a blank wall right now (and let’s pretend it’s not Sunday because that’s when I usually feel like I “need” something from Hobby Lobby) and there is only 1 left and it’s NOT 50% off? You use your Hobby Lobby App. There is always a weekly coupon for 40% off one regular price item that is not on sale! It also shows you what IS on sale for 50% off and other sales and offers.

SHOPKICK~ I’m still kind of new to this one, but basically it’s an app that you can go into before walking into a store and it gives you “kicks” or points for just walking in the doors, scanning certain items with your phone, and sometimes for making purchases (although I haven’t figured this part out yet). You can choose where you would like to receive your reward from and once you get enough kicks you get a gift card from them. You can choose to get small rewards more often, like a Target or Walmart gift card which you only need 500 kicks for however I believe it is a $2 card, or you can save all the way up to 3,400 kicks to get a $10 gas card or up into the 75,000- 125,000 range to get a $300 Coach gift card, T.V., or mixer! The kids think it is fun to earn kicks and when we have a little extra time we turn it into a scavenger hunt looking for the items to scan and letting them scan them.

YOUR BANK’S APP~ This app alone may not actually save or make you money, but being able to check your balance, make deposits, and transfer money anywhere, anytime is always a good idea when trying to stay on budget.

3) NAME YOUR PRICE FOR CABLE~  Well, not just ANY price, but you know how you were ok with the original price of your cable package when you signed up with your company?  And then at some point it either snuck up to a crazy  amount or jumped up all at once?  That’s the game they play and a lot of people just go with it, but you don’t have to.  When you notice an increase in your cable bill, call your cable company and tell them you aren’t happy with what you are paying for their service anymore.  They will “take a look at your account” and let you know that promotions have expired which is why it has gone up.  Again, let them know that you aren’t interested in paying the amount that it has gone up to.  Next they will see if they can find a way to lower it which will usually start with asking if you want to drop down to a lower package.  Tell them, you aren’t really wanting to do that and that you were happy with the price you were paying for what you were getting previously and if they aren’t able to do that again you will start shopping around to see what kind of rates you can get from someone else.  They will transfer you to another individual who will eventually put your promotions back on.  Set aside a good half hour for this call.  They used to recognize callers who “knew the game” and get them to the end result fairly quickly, but I have found they play “hard to get” now and it takes a little longer…but don’t give in.  You will usually end up getting your monthly bill back down to where it originally was and often even lower in the end.  Your promotions will drop off again at some point and you will have to do this again.  They will usually tell you when that will be and even tell you to call back then to get it back to where you want it.

4)  DO SOME FINANCIAL HOUSEKEEPING~  In this day and age many of our monthly expenses come out of our account automatically.  You just get used to seeing them come out and don’t really think about them.  But are you really still USING them?  Do you have a gym membership, but can’t remember the last time you went to the gym?  Are you paying for XM radio, but could totally live without it?  Take a look at your account and clean out any recurring monthly expenses that you really don’t NEED.  Which leads me to NEEDS vs. WANTS.  I know you learn the difference as a child so this seems obvious, but sometimes after we have lived with a particular WANT for a while, we think of it as a NEED.  When I started staying home,  one of the first things I did was get rid of my fake nails.  Although I had spent months or maybe even years saying “Ugh, I NEED to get my nails done” they were definitely not a need and after getting rid of them, not only did we have that extra money, but I also loved not having to stress about keeping them up and the extra time that I had not having to get them done.  There are probably several regular expenses that are WANTS in your budget.  See how much you can save by cutting several of them and then every once in a while go ahead and pamper yourself and feel good about knowing that you aren’t dipping into the family “fun money” to do it.

5)  STOP EATING OUT~  Ok, so you don’t love cooking or maybe you just aren’t that great at it.  Everyone starts somewhere and cooking a home-cooked meal is not only WAY less expensive than eating out, but it also gives you control of what goes into your meals and what your family is eating.  Plus, the smells and tastes of “mom’s recipes” are  wonderful memory for your children.  I have many of my mom’s recipes that she made regularly and every time I make them it takes me back to my childhood kitchen or dining room table.  I love that my kids are enjoying some of those same recipes.  If you never really learned how to cook and don’t know where to start, there are so many great resources these days.  Pinterest has a ton of great and easy recipes.  Be specific in Google searches to find “healthy 30 minute meals”, “slow cooker recipes” or “easy casserole dishes”.  Get together with a friend and do a “recipe trade” where you go through each others recipes and share your favorites (I would probably also have some wine involved in this get-together).  For a family of 4 I know that what I spend in weekly groceries for 3 meals a day would be blown in about 3-4 meals out at cheap restaurants.  Huge waste of money.

6)  FACEBOOK SWAP PAGES~  Facebook swap pages or garage sale pages are a fantastic way to not only make a little money, but also get rid of some stuff you no longer want.  Whenever I have a WANT come up or the kids really want to go do something like see a movie, I often like to see if I can make the money to pay for it by selling a few things in our “garage sale corner” in the basement…even if we have plenty of money sitting in the account to cover it.  I like to teach the kids that if we want to do or buy certain things, we need to make the money to pay for them first.  If you haven’t tried a facebook swap page, just go into facebook and search the name of your city and “garage sale page” or “swap” and you should find several options to join.  Then start posting photos and information on what you are selling and people will hopefully start buying.  Check to see if there are rules…there usually are.  Sometimes making the pick-up arrangements can be a pain, so I usually don’t bother with things less than $5 but there have been several times I have been able to find something I no longer need and make a quick $20 or more.  These are also a great place to find deals on needs and wants without having to pay full price.

7)  BARTER/TRADE SERVICES~  If you have a profession or even a hobby that provides a service for people, you can most likely find other service providers that would gladly trade their service for yours.  Being a photographer, I have used this with hair and make-up artists who will sometimes provide their services to my clients for their sessions in exchange for their own mini photo session, print credit, etc.  Recently I was just thinking about how I really wanted to get something new done with my hair and stumbled across (on a FACEBOOK SWAP PAGE) a hairdresser who wanted family photos taken and was looking for a photographer to exchange services with so just like that, I have credit towards two hair appointments and won’t have to spend a penny…just some of my time.  I am also thinking of finding another local photographer to trade family photo sessions with because we desperately need new family photos and trying to take them myself doesn’t sound like fun at all.  Bakers, photographers, apparal embroiders, hair and make-up artists…or anyone who provides a service may be willing to barter with you.

 (cake image from pinterest)

8)  CONSIGNMENT “BOUTIQUES”~  Sometimes clothes are a WANT, but let’s face it, they are also a NEED.  Of course it’s ok to go spend money on nice new clothes from time to time, but there are also some great consignment “boutiques” that only except name brand and great condition clothes and you can often find great options to bulk up or refresh your wardrobe without breaking the bank.

9)  SPENDER= FAMILY ACCOUNTANT~  One change we made right away when I started staying home with the kids full time was that I became what my husband likes to jokingly refer to as “his accountant”.  When people ask him about doing, buying or donating something you will often hear him say “Let me check with my accountant”…(me).  Although my photography business has really taken off in the last few years, he is still the main breadwinner in our family.  I, however am the one who does 95% of the spending.  I am the one who grocery shops, takes the kids for haircuts, does the back-to-school shopping, birthday and holiday gift shopping, clothes shopping, etc.  Whoever does the majority of the spending should also be in charge of paying the bills and taking care of the family budget.  Before I stayed home, he was paying the bills and I was doing the spending and that didn’t work.  There were times he had large bills scheduled to be paid but they hadn’t come out of our account yet so I would check our balance and think we were good to go and buy the kids new clothes or spend money on something else not realizing that money was already accounted for.  I now know what bills come out of what paychecks, and when the best times usually are to take care of those extra expenses that always pop up.  If I know an activity or event is coming up that we will be spending a lot of money at, I might pay some bills early so that we have extra money when that event comes.

10)  SAVE FOR LARGE EXPENSES~  We used to kind of have the attitude that we would deal with big expenses as they popped up.  This often meant putting them on a credit card and then trying to pay them off with interest.  Now I am big into not owing anyone money.  There are several large expenses that we can plan for well in advance so now when my husband gets a bonus at work, my business has an extra good month, or maybe we sell some things on a Facebook page, instead of going out and blowing it on something, we put it away towards those expenses.  Once we know we have all of them covered we can officially consider extra money “extra”.  Another way to save money for these expenses is by doing a “52 week money challenge” which you can find here.  I tried this last year and did well for a while but didn’t like how the amount increased as time went by or that December was going to be the month I needed to set aside the most money (Christmas time is not a great time to try to find extra cash).  Also, I pretty much NEVER use cash so not only was it a pain to try to put the right amount into the jar, but also if something came up where one of my kids was going somewhere and needed cash, it was way too tempting to just grab some from the jar.  You can find a better version (in my opinion) of the savings plan here.  If I were to do it again I would probably try it this way and keep the money in our savings account so that I could just transfer the amount over from our regular checking account each week.  I would still keep track of it on paper as a reminder to do it each week and of how much money was a result from the challenge (and because I’m an OCD list keeper).

I would love to hear from you!  Leave a comment and let me know which tip(s) you are most excited to try, or come back after you try them and let me know how much you are saving!  Or if you have your own great money-saving tips…share those too!  Happy Saving from Happy Accidents!