With the economy the way it is today – We are all looking to save an extra buck…

There are many ways you can do this but the key is sticking to your guns in saving. I will be the first to admit that I haven’t been doing that great of a job this month. Our family has been going out to eat for almost every meal the past couple of weeks. The excuse? None. We are setting ourselves back into saving motion next month – when our budget resets. Here are many of the small ways that we take to save some extra cash.

1. USE THE ENVELOPE SYSTEM: I can’t tell everyone enough. When you know exactly how much cash you have left for the month, you are less likely to spend 20 bucks on that shirt that you kind of want.
2. When coming back from shopping – put all of your extra change in a jar. It really adds up! In a couple of months, we have saved over $50 bucks in change alone! That’s a nice little date HUSBANDS!
3. Use coupons everywhere you go – including shopping at the mall: Stores will always have some type of deal and not taking advantage of it is simply making you pay more when you could have saved 10-15 percent on the item. We have a very good printer to print most of these coupons
4. Go grocery shopping for what you are only going to eat. Go to the grocery store after eating a meal and not before dinner needs to be cooked. Studies have shown time and time again that going to the store when you are hungry will make you by unhealthy and unnecessary foods.
5. Plan your meals before going grocery shopping.
6. Sell the stuff you have laying around the house on ebay. Someone out there needs that extra extension cord that is in your “electronics” box. (I’m doing this soon and I will post the outcome.)
7. Ever heard of a store closing? Check them out – you never know what you might find. Today I found a CD and t-shirt of a good band for 5 bucks instead of the original 28 dollars. That’s 23 bucks in savings!
8. Don’t take the easy way out – instead of buying it, see if you can create it instead! ( I will start posting more of my creations on here very soon. )
9. Store brand or name brand? This one should be easy. STORE BRAND!
10. Lastly, always ask yourself if you want it or need it? Feel free to come back later to decide.

Those are my tips for saving a few extra bucks. A lot of these might sound easy but they can be hard to stick to! Let me know what you do to save a couple of extra bucks!