101 Budgeting tips: 2017

Oh My God, I Finally Found It! The One Secret To Saving Money!

I've been looking for a long time, but I finally came across THE one bit of money saving advice that will, well let's just say it'll totally save me a boat load of money.

I was surfing on Pinterest (like you do) and clicked on a pictogram (like you do). In an eye-catching, multi-sized, san serif font it stated:

"Stop Wasting Money With These 5 Tips."

I Made a Thing!

...and if you don't look too closely, it is SPECTACULAR.

The kitchen of my 1950s kit house is a bit small, and even though the last owner did a lovely reno—it's not what I would have done (very masculine, lots of dark colors. It even had black curtains when we moved in). But until I can afford to do my own renovation (which I'm pretty sure would include pushing out the front wall and tearing out the interior walls & the floor, + relocating all of the plumbing), I'll just have to make the current slightly awkward layout work for us.

In Which I Made My Wife Get Up Early to Stand in Line to Get a $5 Gift Card

Last week, our local health food store had a grand re-opening. They'd just redone the floors and moved some stuff around & in celebration they decided to have a re-opening extravaganza in which the first 50 people through the doors got a gift card valued anywhere from $5 to $100. (mostly $5.)

Well, that $100 gift card was enticing enough to get me out of bed at 6 am on a Saturday morning and drag my wife with me to go wait in the cold. Of course, when we got there, there were already a TON of people waiting in line. Too tired (or lazy) to count how many people were in line ahead of us (I'd only had one cup of coffee at this point), we waited in line with the rest of the folks & said a little "let me be in the first 50 prayer."

It's Winter. It gets dark early. It's cold. And generally I am ready for pajamas and bed by 6 pm. Unfortunately, other members of my household are ready for dinner about that time.

I stumbled upon this recipe last week and thought I'd give it a try. It's ridiculously easy (even if you don't buy ready-made ingredients), and it's quite tasty. So much so that you might consider making a double batch.

It took us 4 weeks to get the thing built, but this little slice of heaven will allow me to grow all year long. It also lets me protect my plants from certain household cats. ahem.

The kit was delivered in a very small (but heavy) box & just as we were preparing to build it, I threw my back out. So the kit sat for 3 weeks until friends lovingly came over to help build it.

Hello December!

As predicted, I am behind on my advent gift wrapping. Somehow, even with plenty of warning, December crept up on me. You know how it is, you're walking along, best laid plans in hand when, SQUIRREL! (or in my case, "oooo, shiny!")

So now I'm making up new traditions, like "we only open advent gifts once a week b/c it makes it more special" (and gives me a minute to breathe.)

... and the month before that, and the month before that. Clearly, you all were paying rapt attention.

Ah well, I know you still love me—and even if you don't, I'm going to pretend that you do. It's not you, it's me.

Jumping back to October... I know, but forget September, it's gone. We couldn't save it. There's nothing we can do. We have to move on.

[Total savings: $1,440]

I honestly don't remember much about October. I barely remember yesterday. Thankfully, I wrote stuff down. Most of these savings come from buying stuff, as opposed to paying stuff off.

Ahh November, You Crazy Batshit Month

Like The Walking Dead, it seems the season of unrelenting Crazy is upon us. Sure, The Walking Dead is pure fiction, but experiencing the unleashed crazy of November doesn't feel any less horrific. For whatever reason, we go from people who can successfully contain the crazy to "Woo! I'm gonna' fly my crazy flag and let shit fall where it may!" And it always seems to happen with the onset of November. My personal theory is that this is brought on by three factors:

The end of Daylight Savings Time—and the fact that we're thrown into darkness. As a species we really don't do well with this.
The weather changing—again, change is hard, and cold weather makes us cranky.
The immediate and (in my opinion) absolutely premature introduction of Christmas decor and Christmas music in places we normally shop (especially when intermingled with Halloween decor).

It's November and time to start thinking about holiday gift ideas.

For the past few years, we've given handmade gifts, food gifts, and 'donated in your honor' gifts. This year, I'm caught by the zero waste bug & even though we're no where near living a zero waste lifestyle, I'd like to move us in that direction.

I have to admit that I am enamored with the idea of zero waste. When I first heard of it, I thought it was the hallowed path to a simpler lifestyle—less trash, fewer worries, little birds singing happy songs on the window sill.... Yeah, that bubble burst pretty quickly as I realized there were some things that I couldn't talk myself (or my wife) into giving up.

All the same, it seems to be trending on a lot of the budget blogs I'm coming across lately. They're all touting their version of zero waste—and of course they list their Amazon affiliate links to items that will help you in your zero waste journey. Some of which are pretty nifty and enticing, others seem a bit Goop-worthy.

Are You Willing To Give Up Your Privacy?

A number of budget blogs as of late have been recommending Paribus—an app that reads your emails, looking for e-receipts, then checks back with the store to see if the price of whatever you bought has gone down. If it has, they get the store to give you the difference, then split it with you 75/25. Sounds pretty great, right? I mean with the exception of some bot reading your email. Their software does all the work and you get 75% of the difference back! Yeah, 75% back might be enough to salve that pesky email privacy thing.

Saving on OTC Meds at CostCo

I've reached the point at which most of the money saving tricks offered by the Internet are things we already do. These days when I find a way to save extra money, I get a little excited. This week it was over-the-counter medicines. You know, like ibuprofen, allergy meds, etc.

Tortillas are a staple in our house. They're easy and lend themselves to all sorts of foods—burritos, wraps, quesadillas, chips, etc. Usually, they're fairly inexpensive at CostCo or Sam's, but I've noticed that the organic stuff can get quite pricey (when you can find it).

Thankfully, this is one of those recipes that's super easy and super fast to make from scratch. And bonus! You can control the quality of ingredients that goes into them.

Get $10 When You Spend $25 via Ebates

I don't usually share these affiliate deals, but right now ebates is offering a $10 bonus for new accounts. Sign up & spend $25 via ebates and you'll get $10 back. Not a bad deal.

They're only offering it through the end of the month, so if you happen upon this post before then, you could reap the reward.

This is for new accounts only, but if you already have an account and want to refer people, you can earn a referral bonus (the average bonus is $5, I think—just check ebates.com).

You can sign up by clicking on the button below or by visiting the ebates website. (Just FYI: if you sign up via the button below, I get a referral bonus.)

Thanks all & happy saving!

-N

Make Your Own Pit Paste

That's right, I'm pulling a full-on Martha. After I was diagnosed with breast cancer, we started paying seriously close attention to the ingredients in EVERYTHING—not just food, but lotions, shampoos, and yes, deodorants.

The least toxic deodorants were either ineffective or really expensive (or both). We tried just about everything, including going without—which, honestly, works some of the time, but on the days when it doesn't, well....

20 Ways to Save Money This Month

  Saving money isn't always easy. Lots of unforeseen stuff pops up on a monthly basis, but here are some fairly painless ways to save a little more money starting this month.

Lately I've been coming across blog posts on the best toilet paper deals, in which bloggers explain their math in terms of how much money "per roll" they saved. It's weird, I know, talking about toilet paper. But the truth is, it's not a reusable consumable, so OF COURSE we're constantly spending money on it.

When I did the math I realized we were spending (easily) $32 a month to keep ourselves flush in our t.p. of choice. That's $384+ a year that literally went down the toilet. I didn't think much about it really. I mean we needed toilet paper, so I bought toilet paper. I didn't think that this might be an area where we could save money.

[Total savings: $476]

July—was hot and dry. Our water and electric bills were up, but in general we tried not to make any big purchases to keep spending down.

Our healthier eating is becoming the norm, so we're watching the grocery spending (which is not easy). We still do binge every once in awhile. This month it's been ice cream & one dinner out.

Ibotta, Checkout 51, MobiSave—Still Worth It?

The blog post in which I take stock of rebate apps and the time spent attempting to save more money...

Okay, so I've been using Ibotta, Checkout 51, Saving Star, and MobiSave rebate apps now for 6+ months. SIX MONTHS.... Now, I'm not a power blogger. I don't make six-figures by blogging (hell, I don't even make one-figure). So I'm not reaping the affiliate income. I'm just slogging through this just like you. And after 6 months how much have I been able to actually deposit into my bank account? Go ahead, guess.

Last Friday I got an actual piece of hold-in-your-hand mail from Google about their new home delivery service, Google Express. As far as I can tell, this is Google dipping its toes in the subscription / delivery service pond. (Think Amazon Prime, Thrive Market, Blue Apron, etc.).

By now, you probably know what ibotta is, but if you don't you can read this post. OR, if you don't wanna', you can probably guess that it's an app that can save you money by offering rebates (not coupons, but rebates). And a lot of budget blogs try to get you to sign up for ibotta by enticing you to click on their very special link that offers you a $10 welcome bonus.

So here's the deal, you don't have to click on their affiliate link in order to get the $10 welcome bonus from ibotta. You don't have to click on mine or ANYONE'S affiliate link. You can get the $10 welcome bonus by just signing up on the ibotta.com website. Seriously. No strings. Well... some strings.

I tried. I just want you to know that. I want you to know that it was purely accidental, I did not mean to visit Amazon today. I successfully skirted around it for hours, and then... I got a link. Emailed to me. Perfectly innocent. So I clicked. By the time I saw where the link was taking me, it was too late. I was already on the Cuisinart Food Processor page.

Okay, so you've created your budget, pinched all the pennies you can comfortably pinch, whittled down the bills as far as they can be whittled, tightened your proverbial belt (because you sold your actual belt to the guy on the corner for $5), now what?

Well, the adult in the room will tell you that you now need to start making more money. Don't know how? My Grandpa would say "Get a Job!" Already have one? Get another. (Yeah, I know, not terribly helpful, no matter how practical.) There are tons of iterations of that conversation. I'm sure you've heard them all... Ask for a raise... ask for more hours at work... sell your prized possessions... start a blog... etc. etc. etc.

Pretty much every time that conversation comes up, my inner teenager screams, "I hate you! Leave me alone!"

The alternative? Maybe it's time to get extreme. Yeah, you heard me. (Just so you know, the movie in my head showed a frenetic zoom-in on the word "extreme" with explosions in the background.)

Budgeting and being frugal isn't easy. I've read too many blog posts lately that say things like "If you fall off the wagon, get right back on and vow to DO BETTER" (subtext: "you're such a moron, I can't believe you bought the expensive ice-cream just because it tastes better."). So I decided to make a list in which we, the frugal, could continue to be frugal while taking care of ourselves....

So... here I am, in the midst of a No-Spend month, having already spent ~~$20~~ (scratch that) $60 on groceries... and I'm out of mayo. I know, it's a sad story. And most months wouldn't be an issue. We're not huge mayo people, except when we are—and right now, apparently, we are.

So, what's a girl to do? Hop in the car and run to the groc or, I dunno' pull a Martha and whip up some homemade mayo? (Hint, I'm in my PJs and while that wouldn't normally stop me from hopping in the car, I'm just not feeling it today. So yeah, I'm pullin' a Martha.)

So, I'm over on Pinterest and this graphic (to the right) catches my eye. "27 Things That'll Save You a Shitload of Money in the Long Run."

Okay, I think to myself, I'm game. I click on the link, which leads me to an October 2015 BuzzFeed artcle with a slightly different title ("27 Gloriously Simple Things That'll Save You So Much Money.")

Now, the pictures in the graphic should have clued me in that these things aren't really practical items that will save me money. More likely, they're just cool things I'll need to spend money on now and maybe I'll save money later. Or maybe they'll sit in a drawer until I finally toss them out because they didn't really work after all.

To that end, I start scrolling through the list...

If you thought you missed out on gardening this season, think again. Sure, there is an ideal window to sow vegetables if you want to harvest them before the fall, but there are plenty of veggies that you can still plant midsummer.

Easy Steps for Living a Zero Waste Lifestyle

This morning, as I was checking email and Facebook (like you do), I got sucked into a video on zero waste—which lead to another video on zero waste, and another. It got me thinking about how much trash (and recycling) I create in a given day.

[Total savings: $423]

June was not a very successful saving month. We had a conference to attend, which meant a road trip and things are never as cheap as they could be on a road trip. Plus, I hurt my back, which meant I wasn't able to do as much of the cooking or home maintenance as usual.

This is also the month that we started eating even healthier (and more expensive) foods & while we may have saved money on the purchasing of those foods, they cost more in the first place, so it's questionable how much we actually saved on food over the previous month. All the same, we're giving this a shot in hopes it will improve our long term health, which some might argue is immeasurable.

This month my wife and I started a new "diet." Although we've both been moderately active and have eaten quite healthily for the last decade, we've both been hit with cancer (me once, my wife twice within a period of 18 months).

Like most people who have been dealt a traumatic health blow, we tried to exert control where we could, and this meant our eating habits and immediate environment. We started reading labels of EVERYTHING—food, lotion, shampoos, medicines... everything. We stopped buying items with unhealthy ingredients—Parabens, preservatives such as BHT & BPA. We greatly lessened our intake of processed sugars and sweeteners. We started eating mostly vegetarian, mostly organic....

And still, we suffer from aging and health issues—bad knees, aching joints, pre-diabetes, failing eyesight, increasingly worse allergies. Basically, we're getting older and feeling it.

Last year, I hit an employment snag. I went from two, steady, semi-well-paying jobs to none. We had just bought our house and were working on making improvements when the rug was pulled out from under us. A quick search of the Internet told me that this was a pretty common occurrence for a lot of people. I had lost both a contractor job that I'd had for 15 years and a teaching job I'd had for 4 years.

After some shock and a few choice words, we got our rears in gear & both started looking for freelance work (in addition to my wife's full-time day job)—me doing graphic design, and her doing freelance writing. I tightened our budget, started looking for ways to save on food & utilities and figured out that with a little work, most months we could subsist mostly on her paycheck alone. It wouldn't be pleasant, but we could do it.

Thankfully, I got two steady freelance clients that helped fill in the gaps fairly early on in the process, but I kept our budget as lean as I could.

Hey, just a heads up. If you haven't heard of Raise.com*, you may want to check them out & keep them on your radar for more money saving opportunities.

There are lots of fancy cold brew contraptions out there, but honestly all you need is a mason jar, some cheesecloth, a rubber band, coffee, and water.

Get $2, $5, $10, or $15 cash back on Starbucks coffee beans or k-cups

Right now, Checkout51* has $2 rebate on some light, medium, and dark roast Starbucks coffee, plus a bonus $1 cash back if you buy two 12 oz. packaged coffees or 10-16 count K-cups.

The Dietary Challenge: How to Eat Healthily and Not Blow Your Budget

This month provides a new challenge for us. We (me in particular) have been experiencing health issues that are mostly associated with getting older & we don't like it (who does, really?). So we're being more knowledgable and conscientious about what we eat and ways in which we can be physically active (without hurting ourselves).

Of course the added layer that complicates this is... the budget. How do we eat even more healthily while still trying to save money?

[This month's savings: $501]

Hi all! This month we took advantage of Memorial Day sales to save on groceries & stock-up items. We also took advantage of a couple of one-time rebate and cash-back offers (it pays to do a quick web search for specific product coupons). We're still reaping the rewards from switching over to TWC (from AT&T) and I paid off a 0% interest for 6 months loan, freeing up an extra $137 in the budget (which, hopefully, we can put towards paying down our credit card debt—but we'll see what the Universe throws at us).

Next month is going to be more of a challenge because we're adjusting our diet to include only pasture-raised, grass-fed dairy and poultry, which is more expensive. Summer months too, are when we do a majority of our Farmers Market shopping, so we'll see if that saves us any money.

In garden news, it looks like we may have the beginnings of some peppers, tomatoes, and zucchini. Now, let's just hope we can keep the critters away (any suggestions you have would be welcome).

The Ebates Experiment Continues

A few weeks ago I bought a plane ticket through Travelocity and used the Ebates cash-back button to get "up to 7%" back. Today I got a notice letting me know that my Travelocity cash-back rebate was deposited into my account. (Woo Hoo!) 7% of $323 is $22 and change. Not a huge dent, but nothing to shake a stick at.

Amazon Prime Music vs. Pandora vs. Spotify vs. Slacker Radio

Alright, so the days of tuning your over-the-air radio to your radio station of choice are fast becoming a memory. Thanks to technology, we now live in the future where music is streamed through our TVs and phones, and TINY little bluetooth speakers.

For most of us, streaming music is streaming music—whether it comes from Apple, Pandora, Spotify or any number of other services—but which service actually gives you the most bang for your buck? I compared Amazon Prime Music to Pandora, Spotify, and Slacker Radio to see who provides the best service, sound, and selection for the best price.

Amazon Prime vs. Netflix vs. Hulu

I know a lot of people are scaling their cable packages back or cutting them altogether in favor of streaming services like Amazon Prime, Netflix, and Hulu. But how do you know which service is the best to get? They all have award winning exclusive & original shows, and for the most part, they're all around the same monthly cost.

Amazon Prime is so much more than free 2-day shipping. If you thought it wasn't worth it before, you may want to take another look at all of the money saving options available.

I wasn't always a fan of Amazon Prime. When it was first introduced I didn't see the benefit to paying $99 a year for free shipping, especially since I didn't think I spent that much in shipping costs. Since it's incarnation, though, Amazon Prime has expanded it's offerings to include a lot more than just free expedited shipping.

All of the things we did to save money last month aren't amazing epiphanies. (Well, most aren't.) They're the same things that make everyone's top 10 list. These money saving ideas just happen to be what worked for us last month. Some things are simple to execute, others are definitely more challenging. What we found is, if you put in even the slightest bit of extra effort, you'll start to see some savings.

[This month's savings: $657]

Thankfully, we made it through tax season. Usually, this time of year, I haul out the TurboTax and every receipt I can find, along with the calculator and a perpetual pot of coffee. Last year, after going over all of our numbers, our business expenses, the quarterly taxes paid, and our plethora of donations and write offs—we still owed the government $3,000 and change. The previous year, we owed half that & our income hadn't increased (it actually decreased). Everyone I talked to said that something was off.

Turned out it was the new tax laws and the Turbo Tax software (and the fact that I'm not a CPA).

When I started reading other people's blogs about money saving tips, the ibotta app was forever being mentioned. It felt like people were raising it up like Rafiki raised up Simba at the beginning of the Lion King. I expected angelic lights and choruses when I signed up (which didn't happen, by the way).

For those not familiar, ibotta is a rebate app that let's you submit receipts in exchange for product rebates—usually in the range of 25¢ to 75¢. In reading about it, it sounded easy enough, and low, what's this? I could get a $10 bonus just for signing up? Free money? Heck Yeah! sign me up! (I know, not nearly as cool as the Lion King or a chorus of angels).

In looking over my utility bills this month, I noticed that my gas bill, which is usually fairly low, was almost twice as much as usual. After calling to make sure there wasn't an issue with my meter, I began to take a look at our usage.

I've been experimenting with different recipes for sandwich bread. I'd been using an "Amish Sandwich Loaf" recipe, but it called for 3/4 cup sugar (for two loaves). It was good, but a little on the sweet side. I tried reducing the sugar and while the bread was less sweet, it was also more dense (because the yeast didn't have the sugar to react with & create those lovely CO2 bubbles).

So I started my search for better sandwich bread recipes.

It's an easy and fairly painless leap from paper to cloth napkins. A switch that could save you a few bucks a year, but what about the "other" paper products in your life? You know, the one's you're not so keen to give up?

I'm not talking toilet paper here (although you can certainly go that route), but what about paper towels, diapers (for you parents out there), and even pads (for you menstruating women out there)? These may not be the easiest things to give up, but there are other, more cost-effective options, if you're interested.

Every week I get emails from Ebates letting me know how much money I can get back just by shopping through their site. The deals are good. The problem is, I don't usually shop online. Actually, the problem is, I just don't shop (period).

If I did... I could save a nice little chunk of change just by accessing online stores (over 800 of them) through their website.

[This month's savings: $540]

March was our "get back up on the horse" month. After our utter failure in February—the month in which we were perpetually sick—we buckled down. Which, honestly, isn't easy. After being sick, you kind of want a reprieve.

With tax season upon us, and a freelance income (albeit a small one) to account for, we didn't really have the luxury of a reprieve. We needed to make sure there was enough in the coffers to pay taxes, so...

One of our guilty pleasures / go-to comfort items is coffee. Not just regular old black coffee with a splash of fancy creamer. No. Like the multitude of people who wait in line at Starbucks (or whichever coffee seller you choose), we like the "Grande, 2-pump, vanilla latte, with whip." The coffee "splurge" that costs around $4 a cup and makes you feel all warm and fuzzy because whether your recognize it or not, you're part of a kaffeeklatsch. A gang, if you will, or a coffee tribe.

But what do you do when you need to cut back on that habit?

You know, I'm thrilled for all of those people who post about how their family of 5 lives on their spouse's $17K / $25K / $31K income. Seriously. KUDOS. You are freaking AMAZING, and honestly, I hate you.

I was looking at financial tips on Pinterest the other day (like you do), and came across a number of these captivating pins. Since we're currently in a "one income" situation, I naturally clicked on the images.

I knew coming into this month that it would be pretty lean. My freelance work has dropped off, so we're basically living on one income until I can wrangle a few more clients.

Since groceries are our top expenditure (after the monthly bills), this month I thought I would try to prepare meals exclusively from the ingredients we have in the pantry and the freezer.

According to CNN, the top three things we spend our money on, regardless of income bracket, are: Housing, Transportation, and Food (coming in a distant fourth is Health & this is including health insurance and medical bills).

The first two are fairly big areas to tackle and greatly impact our way of life. It's not easy to pick up and move somewhere less expensive. Nor is it easy to decide to trade your car out for a bike (or the bus). Although these are moves you can make in attempts to save some money.

Of the top three things we spend money on, food is the easiest to tackle.

February: Things we did to save money this month. (Hint: we got sick and blew our budget on Kleenex.)

Not every month is stellar when it comes to saving money...

[This month's savings: $115]

Sometimes it's hard to keep track of how much money you're saving in any given month. For most of us, money is an abstract concept. It's a number in a bank account, that tends to be rather fluid. Up one day, down the next.

One of the ways that I've found to help me feel like less of a budgeting failure (other than to keep a savings account & not touch it), is to keep a list of the things I am actively doing to save money during any given week.

I've been experimenting a lot with different ways to save money. Some are bigger experiments that will take months to see changes, others are little things I can do once and just let it ride. One of my experiments this month is the old milk-jug-in-the-toilet-tank trick.

I read that anywhere from 20% to 40% of a household's water consumption is actually from flushing toilets, so I figured I would try out the water displacement method.

I recently read a blog post testifying to the fact that getting rid of "Energy Vampires" (all of those electronics that are plugged in and not being used), saves hundreds of dollars a year. Unfortunately, what that person did in order to save that much money, was to unplug EVERYTHING that wasn't in use—including their Internet router, TV, clocks, lamps, microwave, washer, dryer, etc. I think they stopped at unplugging the refrigerator and freezer.

I'm not a huge fan of coupons or couponing apps. Like coupons themselves, they usually take more time than they're worth (which just makes me cranky—I mean, if I'm going to spend half a day searching for coupons, I want it to save me more than 50¢). That said, I've found a few apps that have proven to be headache free and have fairly consistently saved me money.

How much money do you spend in a month on laundry detergent, dishwashing detergent, fabric softener, all purpose cleaner, sponges, paper towels, etc?

If you don't know, it might be good to figure out.

When I thought I was at my most frugal, I was spending $10 every 4-6 months for laundry detergent. I thought this was pretty good until I realized I could get a year's worth of detergent for the same amount just by making it myself.

Savings Tally

	Description	Amount Saved Per Year
	DIY household cleaners	$130
	Use Soap nuts v. laundry detergent	$12
	Use vinegar v. fabric softener	$9
	Use the Cartwheel app	$16
	Use the Target Red Card (5% off)	$260
	Use couponing apps: iBotta	$20
	Use couponing apps: MobiSave	$5
	Use couponing apps: Checkout51	$3
	Coupons & Store Rewards	$400
	Bake my own bread	$104
	Make my own yogurt	$58
	Make coffee drinks at home	$1,017
	Cook with dried beans v. canned	$47
	Make my own soup stock	$80
	Homemade Granola v. Store bought cereal	$50
	Switch to Scott 1000 TP	$230
	Brown bagging our lunches	$1,000
	Switched Internet companies	$156
	Buy instant brown rice in Bulk	$32
	Buy peanut butter from CostCo rather than Target	$15
	Limit Eating Out budget to $50/mo	$1,200
	Use GasBuddy app to find cheapest gas	$18

	Total Savings:	$4,864

click here to see more savings...

Pages

"Stop Wasting Money With These 5 Tips."

Are You Willing To Give Up Your Privacy?

Get $2, $5, $10, or $15 cash back on Starbucks coffee beans or k-cups

Amazon Prime Music vs. Pandora vs. Spotify vs. Slacker Radio

Amazon Prime vs. Netflix vs. Hulu