Image courtesy of bplanet at freedigitalphotos.net
With four fast-growing children and a wife who works part time so she can spend more time caring for our household, we’re always looking for ways to save money. Sure, we could live like paupers and never spend a dime except on beans and rice and the occasional camping ‘trip’ in our backyard we could teach the kids to call ‘family vacation,’ but that’s not how we want to live our life. We enjoy having fun and living well, but we want to do it within our means. If we can do that and still save money in creative ways, so much the better!
Here are some easy ways our family is able to save money and enjoy life at the same time. If you have any to add, please feel free to comment below!
1.) When we eat out, we do it where kids eat free
We love cooking & eating at home, but occasionally it’s fun to let loose, kick back, and let someone else do the cooking and cleaning for a change. When we do, we always look for restaurants that offer ‘kids night’ – a glorious night, usually once a week, when one or more kids eat free with the purchase of an adult meal. Not to brag, but we do have quite an astonishing knack for sniffing these offerings out and taking full advantage of them. As a quick rabbit trail (because rabbit trails are fun!), here are our three favorites in our neck of the woods:
- Jason’s Deli – This is, of course, one of our very favorite restaurants because of their organic, great tasting, healthy menu and FREE ice cream to waste it all at the end. They were among the best deals out there when they offered two kids meals for every adult meal, but this year they trimmed it down to one. (How dare they?? :)) Still, our entire family can usually eat for a touch over $20, and we don’t have to worry about pesticides on our salad items.
- Macado’s – This downtown sandwich shop has an awesome deal on Tuesday nights – Two (yes, two!) free kid’s meals with the purchase of an adult meal. But that’s not all – Tuesday nights is also hamburger night, when you can get a deluxe hamburger meal, complete with deep-fried, artery-clogging fries, for only $5.85. Drink water, and we can feed our entire family of six for about $13, plus tip. We almost feel bad for taking advantage of this bargain… almost. We definitely don’t expect it to last forever, but it would be really hard to cook all that at home for that price!
- Salsarita’s – Anyone who knows us well knows that this is our go-to Sunday ‘after-church’ place. Why? You guessed it! Sunday is ‘kid’s eat free’ day at Salsarita’s! They only offer one kid’s meal for every adult purchase, but since the adult meals are reasonably priced, we’re able to get more than enough food for around $20. Not bad for a family of six! (Yes, we’re well aware that our kids are getting older and our eating-out freeloading days will all-too-soon come to an end, so you parents of teenagers can hold your comments. :))
We can definitely understand why places have to put a limit on the free kid’s meals!
2.) When possible, we buy used
The way we see it, buying anything to use for just one year is pointless, and that’s especially true of clothes. It’s not that we don’t clothe our children (if you live near us and see Nathaniel outside without a shirt, it’s entirely by choice!), but we have a ‘policy’ on this that works for us: if the size of the article of clothing corresponds with the age of the wearer, we get that clothing in one of several ways – handed down from a cousin or friend, bought for pennies at a garage sale, or received as a Christmas or birthday gift – several ways to be sure, but the one way you can bet we DON’T receive such articles of clothing is to buy them new at retail. Sure, we might bend this rule on occasion to get matching Easter dresses or some other such nonsense (the wife is sentimental that way), but not very often. Then, when the clothing has gone through all four children, if it’s not stained and full of holes we either sell it at a yard sale or give it away.
Sure, there are some things you just need to buy new (I’m not sleeping on ANYONE’S used, critter-filled mattress!), but from cars (buying a new car and driving it off the lot costs you thousands) to kid’s clothes, cribs, toys & other items, to the countless cool stuff you can get at yard sales and auctions, buying used is often a great way to allow a household run on less.
(Be sure to read the first comment below for some GREAT insight on couponing, used items, and other ways to save money. Thank you, Jack!)
3.) We run our cars into the ground, then run them some more
There are few things out there that will financially sink your family faster than a bad decision on a vehicle. We certainly know what it feels like to get tired of what you’re driving – the seat starts to take the shape of your body, stuff starts breaking down, dust and clutter accumulate faster than you can remove it (if you have kids this is especially true – we can have our van SPOTLESS one day, then it looks like a Sanford & Son reject again the very next week!), – but getting something else, even if you buy it used, isn’t always what it’s made out to be. Sure, there will be times when an upgraded vehicle is absolutely necessary (we’re nearing that point on our poor minivan!), but it’s always good to be reminded that, however sweet it smells at the time, that new car smell wears off in a few months. When it does, if you don’t pay with cash, all you have left is a car as dirty as your last one, plus a big, fat car payment. Trust us (and the commenter below, who adds some great insight), oil changes and regular maintenance are MUCH cheaper!
No, this isn’t our car, but I saw it in Walmart’s parking lot and took it to remind myself to never let ours get that way!
4.) We make inexpensive memories for our kids, because they are just as memorable as expensive ones
OK, so they might not compare with a trip to Disney World, but we’re all about making special memories for our kids, inexpensively. For example – every couple of weeks we have ‘family movie night,’ a Morefield tradition that involves the kids’ table & chairs in the living room in front of Leave it to Beaver or The Andy Griffith Show (helloooo Netflix!). Our fare for that night is ‘breakfast for dinner.’ The kids know it, love it, and look forward to it. With waffles or bacon, biscuits & eggs on the menu, ‘breakfast for dinner’ is one of our cheaper dinner options, and one of our children’s favorites.
‘Family game night’ is another family memory-making tradition that costs next to nothing (once you’ve purchased the game, of course). This one only promises to get better for us as Grace begins to stop trying to steal our game pieces to make a part of her personal ‘toy junkyard.’ Whether it’s ‘family movie night,’ ‘family game night,’ or even camping out in the backyard (so long as we don’t call it ‘family vacation!’), you don’t have to spend a fortune to have special times your kids will remember for a lifetime.
It’s not the Holiday Inn, but it’ll do in a pinch
5.) We ‘prep,’ cook from scratch, and eat dinner at home most of the time
Sure, it’s fun to eat out once in a while, but if we’re always eating out or bringing home take-out, not only will our family’s health suffer, but our wallets will as well. (Besides, if you eat out all the time, it’s no longer anything special!)
We write about prepping quite often, but we did a post not long ago about how prepping can save a family money.
6.) We utilize innovation
If you’ve made it this far, this last bit won’t hurt a bit, I promise! I’ve written before about the $50 bidet we have in our bathroom for the past two years. No matter how you roll it, toilet paper is darned expensive! If you can save money and get ‘clean’ the easy way, with a bidet, why not give it a try? There are other ways to save money using recent, inexpensive gadgets. We wrote about a few, including our bidet, in this post.
There are plenty more, and plenty we haven’t thought of, to be sure. We’d love to hear what works for your family!
First, try leveraging extreme-couponing to improve your financial situation. On AVERAGE, My wife is able to save us 75% via her couponing efforts. To do it RIGHT take some time and effort. I’d guestimate that she spends about 8-10 hours per week on it? But, when she saves us 50% or more, I feel that it offsets her being a stay-at-home wife/mom. When you thin of the economics of it, this is a post-tax savings. So, by the time you increase the pre-tax value of her savings, plus the cost of an extra car, extra fuel for commuting to a job, to social/political within the office that then follow her home each night in her head, etc. SAVING a buck becomes more important/valuable than EARNING three bucks. It also allows us to keep our tax liabilities lower, too. If she works, then My income will go up into a higher tax bracket. Whereas, being a single-income family keeps us in a lower tax bracket. We simply make our bucks for further.
Hints for extreme couponing: The website couponmom.com has a database of weekly deals. This website does most of the planning work FOR you. You can simply sort based on the best deals of the week. Thus, money MAKING deals will be at the top of the list! These excess funds can then be used for purchasing non-sale items. Thus, extending your couponing to non-coupon items.
The other “tip” is to visit your local newspaper publishing place, or your newspaper delivery folks, or your recycling center to gather weekend coupons in BULK. You don’t just want ONE coupon. Instead, you want a dozen or more of each coupon — to maximize your savings when the opportunities arise. Also, the ability to “stack” coupons (combining national manufacturer coupons, with local retailer coupons/discounts) is the BIGGEST savings! But, sometimes these coupons are from WEEKS ago. Thus, you need to have an effective way of keeping coupons for a while (until their expiration dates.) It’s not just about THIS WEEK’S coupons. It’s really about all the coupons over the past month or two. Again, the CouponMom website does most of the inventory/tracking of these for you. So, you just have to find a source for all the coupons, and then keep them –ready — waiting — for the best opportunity to leverage them.
Extreme couponing can help you sometimes buy NEW (at price points lower than buying used.) Or, resell items you don’t want/need, to indeed buy the new items your family needs. e.g. all of our kids are out of diapers. Plus, we are nonsmokers, and don’t drink coffee. So, when we get these items for FREE (or at huge discounts,) we can trade/barter them for something else, or for CASH! This, extreme couponing CAN become a casual source of income, too!
Running cars into the ground (and then some.) “Yup,” we had that chapter of our lives, too. We then went through a chapter of nothing but brand-new cars, too. There are multiple options when it comes to vehicles (especially if you have/start your own business.) Historically, there have been some HUGE tax-advantages of buying new SUVs and trucks. More recently, there have been some tax advantages to buying new hybrids and such. So, you have to look at the COMPLETELY picture before you can just randomly say “used is more of a cost-savings than new.”
Also, routine and proactive maintenance is instrumental. If you keep an older car in pristine condition, it can actually become some sort of desired “classic!” Just look at all the 60s and 70s muscle cars that are in GREAT condition, and worth as much as a brand-new car.
But, a poorly maintained car (even a new car,) can be effectively useless. You do NOT, NOT, NOT have to abuse/neglect your vehicles, and “drive them into the ground — and then some.” To the contrary, keep them well-maintained, and dive them FOREVER! And, be PROUD to be driving a car that others WISHED they owned. A classic Mercedes or BMW? A retro station wagon or VW bus? We own a Volvo wagon — and still LOVE IT! Heck, it will probably be an heirloom that we eventually pass down to grandkids?
When possible, by used? I would like to adjust that (a bit,) and say, “When possible, buy NEW from a second-hand shop/online.” We often find NEW items, still in their original packaging — that people simply never used. Yet, we get it at used price points.
The NEXT level of purchase, would then be QUALITY used items, for less than their brand-new knockoff/counterfeit counterparts. Whether it’s blue jeans, or coffee makers. Sometimes you can find a lightly-used QUALITY name-brand product at t thrift/resale shop, or online via CriagsList or eBay, and a lower price point than a new clone (of cheaper quality.)
Another GREAT thing about buying used, is the ability to also RESELL the item for a profit (e.g. as a source of income.) Or, to trade/barter the item, towards something of equal/greater value. This whole exercise of buy/sell can be a source of family income. Whole businesses are built on this model. Used car lots, used boat/RV lots, thrift stores, etc. The beauty nowadays, however, is that you can do all of this from your home. You can literally find/buy deals on eBay, and subsequently resell them on eBay at a higher price point. We sometimes use this for vehicle purchases nowadays. e.g. We have purchased quality used cars, boats, motorcycles and RVs — used them for two or three years — then resold them for the same (or more) than we originally paid for them. Thus, essentially FREE transportation for those years!
Again, don’t overlook the power of trade-ups. For a real-life example, read the blog about “One Red Paperclip” — where a young guy traded-up over the course of just one year, from a single paperclip, to a free & clear HOUSE! If this ONE young man can accomplish THIS MUCH with just one trade per month. Then, what can YOU do — starting with a whole box of paperclips? Or, soemthings worth more than a paperclip to get a head-start? Or, if you do more than one trade per month? Could you end-up with a dozen homes within a year?…
Cheap (as in cheap memories with kids, instead of expensive ones.) I keep hearing “cheap” in your words, and how you view your approach to this. Cheap describes quality. (e.g. poor quality = cheap.) We should avoid cheapness in our lives. We should seek QUALITY items. When possible, QUALITY items at inexpensive price points. Cheap, however, shouldn’t be part of our vocabularies. (It cheapens us to use that word.)
Also, expensive items aren’t necessarily a “bad” thing. Sometimes, a higher-priced QUALITY item, will drastically out-live it’s CHEAPER (and lower-priced) counterpart. Thus, sometimes, the more-expensive item, is indeed the PROPER choice!
When it comes to entertaining the family, there are almost endless free (or inexpensive) things to do together, that will create EXCELLENT life-long experiences. When our daughter graduated college, and started to live on her own, she once said to us, “I never realized we were poor. We seemed to ALWAYS be going places, and doing things. Whereas, all of my friends were staying home and couldn’t “afford” to go places on the weekends.” We would go on float trips, go fishing, go to petting zoos or real zoos, go rock climbing, go on picnics, drive fall foliage routes, go sledding, go swimming at a lake or beach, attend fairs and community parades/events, attend swap meets and car/boat shows, and MORE! We lived life like tourists, and still do! She now does the same. We still take Sunday drives, and TRY to get lost, and find new things. EXPLORE!
Before she even had her first history class in elementary school, our daughter had seen Plymouth Rock and the Liberty Bell. She had been aboard the Mayflower (replica.) She had been to the Vietnam War Memorial in DC, as well as the Smithsonian. She had been to the Children’s Museum in Boston. She had worked in the old-town of Williamsburg. She participated in Revolutionary Way and Civil War reenactments in Virginia and South Carolina. She had seen the White House, and Washington Monument. She had been to Yorktown and Jamestown and Fort Sumpter. She seen almost every historic fort between Maine and Savannah, GA. She had been both a Rebel, and a Yankee. She explored the beaches and lighthouses of Kitty Hawk and Nagshead. She had hiked through the Blue Ridge Mountains and parts of the Appalachian Trail (and the Rockies.) Where others dream and make lifelists and bucketlists — we just GET OUT AND DO IT!!!!
Life doesn’t have to be expensive, to be RICH and REWARDING!
Some of our favorite experiences are those that we’ve shared with others. Friends, family, church friends, co-wrokers, etc. Having pot-luck lunches or dinners together teaches us whole new cultures and cuisines. We grew up in the Midwest, with very conservative parents, and a VERY LIMITED range of meals. Within the first four years of our marriage, we had experienced foods from almost every corner of this planet (without even leaving the States, or venturing more than 30 miles from our home.) We traveled (virtually) via the meals of our new friends and coworkers. Bringing just one dish, inherited everyone to a multi-course MEAL! I can’t think of any less-expensive way to eat, yet receive so much in return?…
Our most-recent “revelation” has been the “FREE” area of our local Craigslist. The ability to get FREE furniture, even FREE boats and cars. Sometimes, we get these FREE items, just to turn around and resell them for income. Other times, you just learn to apply them to your lives. e.g. a dozen free 5-gallon glass carboy water jugs, because our ticket to making our own homemade wines!
So, don’t hold life too CHEAPLY. Be rich!
Peace.
Really, really good stuff, Jack. Thanks for sharing!! Great points on vehicles – I actually had thought to mention that we keep the oil changed, etc. regularly which allows us to use them for long… then forgot when writing. 🙁 Great points on quality too. I’d rather spend a bit more for something quality than spend it three times for something ‘cheap.’ Yes, when I use the word I just mean inexpensive…
Just pay attention to how the average Mormon family does things , they are usually pretty frugal people , but dont seem to do without when it comes to the basics . Also I learned a lot from my gf , who is a Russian Jew , very smart when it comes to money and doing the most with what you have .