Simple ways to Save Money at Home
In this economy I think most of us are looking to trim the fat from our budgets where we can. There’s always those weeks (or months) when money feels extra tight. Maybe the whole pantry needed restocking at once, a car needs repaired, or half the family has a birthday in the same month. We all want to bring in extra income where we can— me shamelessly with this here blog! But sometimes we can’t bring in extra, we just need save where we can. Here’s a few ways I help our family save money at home, when we really need to!
Use what you have: clean out the fridge/pantry
You know those weeks where you have bits of random food/leftovers, but not enough for one concise dish? That’s what I’m talking about. Saving money by using what you have can go a long way. Here’s a spread I made for lunch this week. snack meals are the perfect way to use up that one handful of crackers that can’t be split six ways, those two bananas that everyone wants etc. When we add a lot of a little everyone can pick and choose and still get full. I made this with the bottom barrel of some pantry/fridge items and then half the kids had the few servings of soup I had left over.
The bonus here is this helps save money and reduce the amount stuff we waste. Saving money at home by “living off the land” also helps us come up with the money to do a larger than normal restock. When we are able, we like to buy in bulk (from Azure) which helps our money go even further.
stay home to save money at home
This is boring but important. Sometimes we just need to take out the temptation. It’s so easy to hop in the van on Cam’s day off and grab a coffee on the way to the park. Afterwards maybe we grab a snack for the kids because they are still hungry, even though we packed lunch. Or maybe we get them a treat because they were so great and treats are just fun. Then maybe we go to a thrift store to just look around, but what do you know there’s a few pieces too cheap to pass up. Oops we need to fill up the van, gas is low and we have church in the morning. Just like that we have a $100 day, and we didn’t even realize
. Staying home can save you so much money in the home, we don’t even realize it always. These things are great and wonderful and some of our favorites to do as a family, but if we are trying to save money it looks more like going on a walk, read alouds, painting at the table with some audio books, playing games with mom and dad. As they say, “we pay a fortune to live in this home every month, we might as well use it.”
Emergency Rice and Beans
Ok if you hate beans insert this with the cheapest bottom of the barrel meal your fam enjoys. Have it on hand for when you really want to (or need to) pinch some pennies. Maybe it’s top ramen and an egg, maybe it’s buttered noodles, or a classic PB&J. My personal favorite is waffles for dinner. Something about “brinner” feels like a party to kids. Fresh milled waffles are about as cheap and easy while still being nutritionally great. Maybe this doesn’t sound fun but sometimes when you are desperate to save money at home you aren’t really looking to have a good time.
Loop/Seasonal Meals to Save Money at Home
This is a life hack of all life hacks. I love loop dinners. I have two lists in my planner, one for fall/winter and one for spring/summer. My hope is to share this here eventually, but it will take a bit of time! I rotate through 10-14 meals and then switch to the other 10-14 during the other seasons. There’s a enough variety and spacing that no one gets sick of anything, and usually there’s at least someone’s favorite dish a couple times a month. Buying the same ingredients consistently and seasonally helps to save lots of money in the home by cutting down grocery costs.
No Spend Month
This tip I got from Rachel Cruz who I really love to follow. She breaks down her version of this really well if you follow her, but here’s how we use this to save money in the home. We cancel all subscriptions for a month. Audible, any streaming services (we actually only use streaming services from Nov-Feb to help us cut down on mindless screen time), Spotify, Substack, canva you name it. Many of these we don’t use regularly but whatever we have at the moment we cancel for at least the month. Often times we realize how much we don’t use it and end up taking a much longer break.
We don’t eat meals/snacks etc out, zero. If we have to have a boring dinner, or a “wow it’s 7:30 where did the time go” late dinner, or wait until we get home to have a coffee, that’s what we are doing. We clean out the pantry and go through our “reserves” in the freezer. Anything we need we only get at the grocery store. No late night kombucha from the gas station, nothing. It’s amazing how much we don’t spend when we are actively trying not to. I delete amazon from my Phone because lets face it, it’s way too easy to buy things we could use but maybe didn’t truly need.
Declutter and Resale
this one isn’t exactly saving money in the home as much as it’s recouping wasted resources. Or at least resources that aren’t serving you any longer. Maybe you’ll make $50 and toss it into savings, maybe you’ll invest it into something that helps your home run smoother. Either way you cleared out your home and were painfully aware of the money wasted on a daily basis while doing it. Sometimes it’s one of those mindset refreshers we all need. That being said please hear me when I say owning things is not bad, or the problem most of the time.
Stewardship Mindset
These may feel like rigid rules, but know that we don’t live like this all the time, or do all of these things at once. A lot of this is an extra way for me to stretch my frugality muscle and be a help to my husband who works his booty off to take care of us. I see it as a joy and a challenge. It’s a special reset for me in stewardship and helps me to see some blind spots. where am I not making the best use of my time and resources? I want to do all I can with what I have unto the Lord, not out of scarcity but out of gratitude and awareness of His provision.
Do you have any tips other than these? Will you be implementing any of these into you home, let us know below!
