Five Money Saving Tips

As I 've shared before- this year has been a tough year for our family in more than one way. Today I'll only be touching on the financial aspect of the hardships.

At the beginning of the year my sons and I lost our jobs, quite unexpectedly. It took a long time for my oldest son to find a full time job- and when he got a job he started at only about 30 hours a week- he has only recently started getting more hours. Because of this - we have had to help him. And then my husband having to have surgery - and all the medical bills that went along with that. All of these things have made this year tight for us. Anyway with all of that being said -now to get to what the purpose of this post.

Since money has been tight, I have been doing more to save money. The following is a list of some things that I have learned over the past year:
#1. The store brand is not always the cheapest option. Case in point:
I have been buying my cats Whiskas cat food- but last week I thought that maybe I could save money by choosing the store brand instead. Boy was I wrong. 6# bag of store brand cat food- $7.22. Same size bag of Whiskas cat food- $6.98. A savings of 24 cents by going with the name brand.

#2. Buying bigger packages are not always the better deal. Sometimes it is a good idea to buy the bigger package because it ends up saving you some money in the long run by spending less per serving - but this is not always true. It is a good idea to have your calculator with you and figure up the price per unit- many times this info is given on the tag for the item on the shelf.

#3 Buying in Bulk is not always the best deal. Some people love to shop at stores like Sam's and Costco but when I have gone - I have many times realized that buying a regular sized item would be a better deal. Or even buying the store brand. Just don't get fooled into believing that your saving money just because you are buying in bulk. A lady I know would buy the bulk sized cans of beans and such for her family of 3. Many times half of that can would be wasted. That is not saving money.

#4. Using coupons is not always the way to get things the cheapest. Ever since I have checked out Aldi's I have been going there once a week, why? Because I save money every time I go. Many times I can get things for a better deal than if I bought a brand named item with a coupon.

And don't forget - most coupons are not free. I really loved to use coupons, especially back with our local Krogers would not only double but triple coupons up to $.39 cents. This would help me get really good deals- sometimes even free items, but they stopped that a couple of years ago.

For me to use coupons now- I would have to pay $3.00 or more for a double back Sunday paper to get double the coupons. Then the extra trip to a store that sells that double pack - more money spent on gas. Some would then say will you can get coupons free on the computer- yes you get them for free- but in order to use them you have to print the coupon, which would mean you would have to have ink for your printer. The ink costs money- and right now we don't have ink in our printer - and haven't for the past month or more because we just don't have the money to spend on ink. So my point - the coupons that save you money- cost you money- make sure that you are saving enough to make it worth using them .

#5. Sometimes it really does save you money to shop around. So what I do now is compare prices at different stores. I learn where the best deals for things are and buy them where I can get them cheapest. It really makes a different.