I am always looking for different ways to save money every single day. Same with you? Then read on to get some of the very best money saving tips from my friends.
Each of these awesome money saving tips comes from a friend who blogs about frugal living and saving money. Now, we’ve got all of these money hacks in one place – easy for you to find!
Money Saving Tips from Thrifty Bloggers
Finding ways to save money can sometimes mean we need to change our mindset. Conscious think about things we buy and services we use every day.
I bet every single one of us spends money on things we really don’t need to. Becoming thrifty means trying to think through major purchases and even groceries at the store.
Can you find it on sale? Can you buy it second hand for less money? If we try to change the way we think about our purchases, we might find that we can save quite a lot of money!
I asked a bunch of frugal bloggers for their very best money saving tips – and here they are!
Ready to start slashing monthly bills? Let’s go!
Money Saving Hacks in the Kitchen
I really plan my meals ahead of time. I usually try to do 1 week, 2 if I have the planning time. Here are some great Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner recipes that are not only healthy, but they are REALLY frugal to make!
You can save quite a lot of money by preplanning and buying what’s on sale this week.
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Erica’s best money saving trick is to stop wasting food and she’s right. Every year around the country a total of 40 millions tons of food is thrown out.
Imagine the money saved when you make sure to use ALL your food before it starts turning.
Look at her delicious ways to use up fruits and vegetables – including adding them to smoothies and desserts. PLUS she’s got 15 other creative ways to stop wasting food and ideas for leftovers. They’re right over here at Living Life in Rural Iowa
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Mindy’s money saving idea is eating seasonally, plus using a food service! She’s finding her family is saving $300 a month using these 2 things. Find out how this is saving her money and time over at Our Inspired Roots.
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Annie says her family uses these Money Saving Worksheets. They’re completely personalized for your family’s taste buds. You’ll save hundreds of dollars every month using this method to plan, shop and cook for your family!
Take an hour to set up your worksheets, then use them forever! Perfect!
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Autumn from A Traditional Life shares this money saving kitchen tip with us:
Any time I need to save money, I focus my efforts on the kitchen. Meals made from whole food ingredients always cost less. By preparing and cooking everything myself, I can significantly lower the cost of putting food on the table!
Head over to her site to find 8 more ways to save money in the kitchen.
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Jennifer’s biggest money saving tip in the kitchen: buy freezable foods in bulk and use a vacuum sealer to seal them in individual portions.
Date each portion and rotate them in the freezer (oldest in front, newest in back). My husband and I have saved thousands of dollars this way!
Whenever whole beef tenderloins or briskets go on sale, we buy a few of the biggest and then cut and portion them ourselves. It’s SO much cheaper than buying individual cuts.
We’ll have food for months, and the vacuum sealer ensures they stay fresh in the freezer longer. Jennifer’s other money-saving organization hacks can be found right here at Organizenvy
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Gale from Waco Mom has a great hack for buying herbs and spices
Some grocery stores, like HEB and Whole Foods, have a loose herbs and spice sections. Instead of buying the spices in a jar, you buy them by weight in a plastic baggie.
You can often save as much as 50% or more buying them this way.
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Samantha from Recipe This
I purchase meat ONLY when it is on clearance. If the meat is not reduced it does not enter the Milner kitchen. I will then freeze it and save it for later. A great way to get lots of meat in your freezer and far more cheaper than paying full price for it.
My favourite shopping day of the year is Boxing Day and while the kids play with their Christmas toys i will head out with my husband and we will grab the best meat deals.
One year we got 5 large whole turkeys for 5 Euros each and most years we manage to get beef shin, chicken thighs, chicken breast and whole chickens at 80% cheaper than the usual price. I will then stretch the meat over several meals.
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Lisa shares her recipe tips for stretching out hamburger
To make ground beef stretch further, brown it with some chopped vegetables. Onions, chopped peppers or celery may be used.
Check out the recipe right over here at Fluxing Well (along with other kitchen tips too).
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Kristin over at Mr Animal Farm shares this money saving tip, PLUS 5 Great Tips for Beginning Couponers
We coupon for all of our toiletries (toilet paper, paper towels, toothbrushes…). We shop sales and combine that with high dollar coupons to pay a stock-up price.
When items are rock bottom priced (often times free for things like toothpaste) we buy enough to last several months to several years depending on the item.
Winter is hands down the most EXPENSIVE time to buy groceries. Take a tip from Annie over at Country Living in a Cariboo Valley and stock up your food pantry for winter before winter.
Keeping these essentials on hand saves you money, and lots of it! Plus, you don’t have to go to the store in a raging snowstorm or suffer without food during power outages.
Find out how to stock a winter pantry here.
Cleaning Hacks that Save You Money
You will be amazed at what a little box of baking soda can do, when it comes to cleaning your house. We’ve got 18 ways to use Baking Soda for cleaning.
Read about these neat cleaning hacks right here.
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Try this cost effective recipe for Thieves Oil. Cathy adds it to her cleaning supplies, homemade mouthwash and air freshening sprays. Such a fantastic versatile essential oil blend. Find out more over at her site.
This is a super easy way to make an essential oil that can be used for sanitizing and disinfecting surfaces. And we all know that finding DIY ways to save money is a must in today’s world.
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Christina started making her own dishwasher detergent! Here she shares the one things that literally saves hundreds of dollars a year.
Making my own dishwasher detergent saves me money. For those on “city water”, it’s simply washing soda with a little citric acid.
For harder water you can add in coarse salt & for no-spots on glassware I add a cup of vinegar. Easy peasy.
Head over to A Joyful Homestead for the recipe and full instructions on how to make and use homemade dishwasher detergent.
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Gale from Imaginative Homeschool has this great tip for stretching out that liquid soap:
To save money on soap I get foaming soap bottles (as many as I need for bathroom and kitchen sinks), and one regular bottle of soap.
When the foaming soap is out, I fill it with water and three squirts from a regular soap bottle (and add a drop of rubbing alcohol). One bottle of regular soap will fill up a foaming soap bottle numerous times.
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We’ve got a whole bunch of vintage cleaning hacks right over here at Cleaning Tips from my Grandma. From using onions (WHAT?) to vinegar, there’s literally something to clean almost anything.
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Did you know you can make your own liquid soap? This is what Cathy from Original Homesteading does and it saves her money every single month. Here’s what it takes:
This is simply incredible: one bar of soap makes 1/2 gallon of liquid hand soap….you will be amazed each time you make this recipe.
There are only two ingredients: one Coco Castile bar of soap and water for plenty of safe, all-natural liquid pump soap.
This is definitely a great way to save money on such an important everyday item.
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Saving Money on Clothing
My Clothing tip: ALWAYS do up the zippers on pants, jackets, etc before you put them in the washing machine. But what about buttoning shirts? Find out about that and lots of other ways to save money and time on doing the laundry.
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Cathy’s money saving hack is to stop throwing out wool socks that have holes in them. Here’s what she shares
Vintage skills are usually very practical ways to save money. Learn how to fix your holey socks instead of pushing them to the back of your sock drawer because you cannot stand to get rid of them.
Darning is easy to do so take a few minutes to learn this handy skill that can done anywhere. You will need a darning needle, yarn and a darning egg. Such a great (and, fun!) skill for everyone!
Head over to Original Homesteading to learn how to darn socks (and mend other woolen clothing)
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And, Liberty from b4andafters has the perfect tips when it comes to kid’s clothes.
Something I do to save money is actually something that I don’t do. I don’t buy name brand clothing for my kids unless I come across it at a yard sale for a really good price.
Children grow so fast– wait until they are grown to spend money on quality clothes for them. Then you won’t be so stressed out if they tear a hole or get a stain on something.
They will have a happier childhood– partly because you cared enough not to buy name brand clothes for them!
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Chi over at Petite Dressing has a great seasonal clothing tip:
My money tips: The best time to shop for winter clothing is not black Friday or Christmas, but in January.
If you can wait till January, you’ll score high ticketed items such as winter coats or cashmere sweaters at half the price or lower, when all the retailers have the deepest discount for the winter clearance.
If you live in colder area, you still have 3-4 months you can wear them right away!
Money Hacks That Will Save Money
Jacqueline over at Mom Money Map shares her best tip:
My best money saving tip is to do a no spend challenge. A no spend challenge is when you don’t spend money over a certain period like a week or a month.
It might seem impossible, but you can set rules and allowances in place to suit your lifestyle and situation. No spend challenges are beneficial, especially if you do them regularly, as they can have long-term benefits to your money mindset and habits.
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Monica from Lucky Mojito shares the ONE thing they did to save money – and they’re now living debt free
To save money quickly stop buying things you don’t really need. We paid off over $33k in credit card debt and did it quickly by first eliminating these expenses.
Some were just temporary sacrifices, but now we live a debt free life with the exception of our mortgages.
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Linda from All About Baby makes good use of cash back apps that give you money back on everyday items including groceries and online shopping. Read more to see just how she does that.
Annie from Country Living in a Cariboo Valley shares that January and February are “low spend” months for her family. They eat out of the pantry, stay home more, do free activities and just don’t spend any money.
This has helped not only pay annual bills (another tip – try to NOT pay monthly) like car insurance, but has even helped with the odd holiday! Head to her site and read all her articles on spending less.
Food Gardening To Save Money
Did you know you can save your own seeds from the food you eat? There’s only one catch that ensures this will work.
Pop over to My Homestead Life and find out the one thing you need to do. PLUS there’s 11 other ways to get free (or cheap) seeds and plants for your garden.
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Tamara from The Reid Homestead saves all of her milk jugs and here’s why!
I save money by starting seeds in winter using the Winter Sowing method. Winter sowing let’s you skip all that expensive seed starting equipment.
Recycle milk jugs to use as mini greenhouses to start your seed! Grow your food garden or you flower garden inexpensively!
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Annie from Country Living in a Cariboo Valley grows about 80% of the food her family eats. If you like to garden and have an hour a day to spend there, think about growing at least some of your own food.
It’s the perfect way to save hundreds of dollars and be sure your family is eating healthy, nutritious food! Take a look at her tips for Planning a Food Garden.
Budgeting to Save Money
The Dave Ramsey envelope system is SUCH an amazing tool for paying off debt. But the envelopes themselves are terrible! Here is an easy, no-sew replacement that you can make in just minutes!
Find out more about Victoria’s super clever solution to the envelopes here at A Modern Homestead.
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Kam from Maple Planners is also a fan of the budget envelope idea.
Envelope Budgeting is the technique where you set aside part of your income, place it in a categorized envelope and spend the money from that particular envelope for that particular category in that particular month.
You can add a number of categories on few envelopes for that month. For example, Dining Out, Groceries, Clothing, Entertainment etc. Read more about this method on Kam’s site.
General Awesome Money Saving Tips
Did you know you can take your family camping for free? And it doesn’t matter where you live! And we’re not walking Walmart parking lot, either.
Head over to My Homestead Life for this camping tip PLUS 10 other free vacation ideas.
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Heidi from Healing Harvest Homestead shares this with us:
One of the things survivors of the Great Depression era learned to do is to make things themselves… Cooking from scratch, for example, is one way to DIY your food.
How about learning to make your own body care products, plastic wrap substitute, or other common needs? Try starting small with your DIY projects, and expand! You’ll be surprised at how much money you’ll save and how much healthier you’ll be!
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Sunday’s tip for saving money is “With any purchases that are a want, not a need, I ask myself one question. This simple question has saved me thousands of dollars of the years.
I ask “will you still want this in 1 year?” If the answer is no/maybe/don’t know/not really, I pass. If it will still add value well into the future, I buy it and enjoy it”
Head on over to The Curious Frugal for lots of money saving ideas.
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Heidi and her family use a bartering system when they can, here’s how she does it. Head here for even more money saving ideas
There are many ways to save money and therefore keep more cash available in your home. Bartering is one way to save money that’s included in this list of things you can do right away to keep your money at home.
We just traded homemade herbal teas and soaps for 40 pounds of grass-fed meat from a local farmer! It’s amazing to save money in useful, helpful, and simple ways.