What We Did To Save Money This Month: January's List

[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.


Most weeks automatically include all of the things I've already incorporated into my routine, like:

1. Washing clothes in cold water.
2. Running dishwasher only when full.
3. Turning heat down 2-6 degrees while I'm not home.
4. Taking lunches to work.
5. Driving a hybrid car.
6. Making our own coffee drinks.
7. etc. etc. etc.

And then there are some things on the list that are so minute that I consider not including them, but then again, every little bit helps.

January

Week 1:

• Baked 2 loaves of bread with the ingredients I had on hand. —[$5 savings]
• Signed up for Ibotta 
• but wasn't with it enough to get the $10 intro bonus. Live and learn.
• I did save a little to my iBotta account, but I've not accumulated enough for a payout.
• Signed up for Checkout51
• Saved $1.25 to my Checkout51 account. (not including this in the total since I've not reached the payout limit)
• Used Target debit card for 5% off purchase. —[$2.18 savings]
• Used Cartwheel app (at Target)—[saved an extra $5]
• Used Rewards card at the grocery store. —[$4.97 savings]
• Bought gas at the cheap Shell station & used Shell card for an extra 3¢ off per gallon. Saved a total of 7¢ per gallon over the next cheapest station. —[$0.70 savings]
• Made yogurt. —[$3.50 savings]
• Used the Honey app to get a discount on Pizza delivery (we had a rough day). —[Spent $15, but saved $5.41]
• Turned the heat down another 2 degrees on Wednesday, while I was home, & just bundled up.
• In general, kept the heat at 66 degrees, whether home or not.

Week 2:

• Turned the heat off for one day. (The temps were warm enough outside that the house stayed plenty warm enough.)
• Used the Target debit card for 5% off purchases. —[$3.82 savings]
• Used the Cartwheel app. —[saved a whole $0.27]
• Bought sale items. —[$4.87 savings]
• Made belated Christmas gifts for a rescheduled family Christmas gathering.
• Used only materials / ingredients we already had (with the exception of one nephew who we gave a gift card).
• For 7 people, we spent a total of $36 (and that included the gift card).

Week 3:

• Made yogurt. —[$3.50 savings]
• Baked 2 loaves of bread. —[$5 savings]
• Waited to get cheap gas in neighboring town where it was $0.06 cheaper per gallon. —[$0.60 savings]
• Invited to have dinner with family one evening.
• Used Target debit card for 5% off. —[$1.68 savings]
• Used Cartwheel app (at Target). —[$0.13 savings]
• Used coupon. —[$1.00 savings]
• Used Rewards card at the grocery store. —[$6.30 savings]
• Bought generic products. —[$1.09 savings]
• Turned the heat off for one day, as it was warmer outside.
• Made veggie chili in the pressure cooker.
• Saved on electricity, although who knows how much.
• Made and froze it for lunches for the week.
• Made granola. —[$7 savings].

Week 4:

• Used a $10 coupon for the King Arthur website and bought 5 lbs. of organic flour with free shipping. —[$10 savings, although honestly, I would have bought the $5 flour if I hadn't had the coupon]
• Made chicken pot pie with ingredients we had on hand.
• Froze for lunches
• Bought coffee on sale. Saved $5 per bag. —[$10 savings]
• Ate from the freezer and pantry.
• Recycled old worn out socks into dust rags.
• Used a $4 coupon for cat food. —[$4 savings]

Just by using rewards cards, finding the slightly cheaper gas, and making food at home, we saved at least $86.

When you factor in the other stuff (that quite honestly, I don't have the wear-with-all to actually figure out) we probably saved over $100. Of course, I'm sure we spent more in other areas (like getting a pizza delivered instead of making it at home, and buying a gift card for a nephew), but these are the trade-offs in any given month.

And, this isn't EVERYTHING we do to try to keep our budget low—it's just the little extra bits that I remembered to write down this month.

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Utilities update: In comparing our January electric bill to last year's bill, we paid $2.89 less, and our gas bill (water heater) was $24.42 less than the previous year.—additional savings of  $27

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