Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Ways we are saving money


Since March, my husband and I have really been trying to spend less/save more money. We have done the usual:
But there are also some more "outside of the box" things we have been working on that have really helped. I know I am not the first to come up with these, but they are simple and small things that can easily be overlooked, but can make a big impact!
  • homemade dish detergent
  • using the dishwasher less. it has been easy in the past to just throw everything in. and it has been easy in the past to run 2 loads a day. with just 2 of us! that had to stop! we are better about washing bigger things and things that were hardly used, things that are just easier to wipe clean in the same amount of time as rinsing and loading.
  • using washcloths instead of paper towels to clean messes
  • recycling (this saves money because we do not have to take our trash to the curb as often)
  • composting (same as above, as well as both being environmentally friendly)
  • using a deep freezer to cook in bulk and stockpile foods when they are on special.
  • reusing paper towels. we do still have them on hand, and I like to wash and dry fresh lettuce before making a salad. then I dry the towels and use them a few days later when I get more lettuce from the garden.
  • reusing dryer sheets for dusting
  • making my own baby food
Things I have thought about doing to save money, but am not totally convinced yet to do (I do believe that time and effort equal money too):
  • cloth diapering
  • drying clothes outside on lines
  • making all my food from scratch

3 comments:

  1. I am with you on wanting to save money. We've always been really low on money and we have a 1 year old now and we're a single income family (part-time income at that!). Just about everything you listed is something I want to do, and only a few of them are things we've actually done haha. I never heard about using dryer sheets for dusting! Great idea. I do currently cut them in half and only use one half at a time, that also saves :) Cloth diapers are WONDERFUL things!! We borrowed a bunch for 6 months and loved them. I'm hoping we'll be able to have some extra money to buy some soon.


    Also to save money on paper towels: I did an experiment and only used dish rags for 3 months and I never once had to buy paper towels. I just did an extra load of laundry once a week. I really need to get back to doing that.

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  2. So I just wrote this big long comment and I pressed post and it disappeared. *sigh* haha. Oh well, to sum things up..great post!

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  3. Shaina,
    sorry about that, just the comment moderation, so it still went through:):)
    and maybe that's what i need to do, just borrow some cloth diapers for a while before the investment, just to make sure i can do it.
    sometimes it's easy to forget how quickly all the little things add up!

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