Monday, April 11th, 2005
Looking for Tips - Money Saving Tips
After our son was born 20 months ago, I took a total of 8 weeks off. One of those weeks were my own vacation time, 5 weeks of maternity pay at 60% of my usual pay, and 2 unpaid weeks. I was breastfeeding and going back to work meant pumping every few hours during work hours. I was not looking forward to that, but knew that I had to go back to work. My job was one where I could take it or leave it - I didn’t love it and I didn’t hate it, although I really disliked a few people who I had to talk to occasionally. I have an engineering degree that I worked quite hard for and it was difficult to just “let it go to waste” by staying at home. There were other reasons too, all financially related. We still barely have enough furniture in the house, not enough savings to let us live on one income alone, baby stuff costs a lot of money and we didn’t get many gifts. My baby shower had a pathetic turnout of 5-women. Yes. Five. I don’t think people dislike/hate me, it’s just, everyone I knew lived far away and a lot of my friends are male. So yea, I needed to go back to work.
As our son grew older and more fun to spend time with, I agonized constantly about quitting and staying home. After all, he’s young only once and I will miss all the milestones if I’m not with him. But, for the aforementioned reasons, I stayed working, outside the home. Our daycare was costing a lot of money. So much so that I looked for an in-home daycare and it worked out quite well for both parties.
However, we decided that I would stop working and stay home after we have our second child. It would only make sense, as daycare for 2 children will cost almost as much as I would be making.
But there were some difficulties at getting pregnant and staying pregnant. We’re finally on our way now, and if all goes well, we might get another baby.
At 2 months pregnant, layoffs came around and I was one of the unfortunate employees who were cut. Immediately after that we went on a pre-planned trip for 10 days (which was all free, thank goodness). And by the time we came back, I was starting to swell and needed maternity pants, real bad. I pondered about looking for another job. Things are very slow in this industry at the moment, and I wondered how long it will be before I’d get a call to be interviewed. What if by then, I’d be so big that they will reject me after taking one look? (I know that’s illegal, but how would you prove something like that?) Even if I was able to start working right away at 3-months along, there will be training time, and then I’d work a couple of months before I leave on maternity. Plus, it was not likely that I’d get a lot more pay than I was at the old job. So the money / childcare factor still exists and I’d probably end up quitting right after I finish the maternity leave. Is it all worth it? Do I need the few-months pay to go through all that?
So, here I am today. Almost halfway through the pregnancy, and a staying-at-home-mom.
I’ve always been the frugal type. But now we really have to watch where we spend our money.
Here are some of the things that we’re doing to save a buck or two. We don’t follow all the rules, all the time. But you gotta start somewhere. This leaves our lifestyle less desirable by some standards, but it works for us and most important of all, we’re happy.
* Cut down on eating out as much as possible.
* Don’t order drinks while eating out. Water is good for you.
* Tip less - after all, you aren’t made of gold.
* Make home cooked meals and have the working person bring lunch to work - avoid T.V. dinners as they’re more expensive and less healthy in general.
* Make batches of food and freeze them to save time.
* Recycle grocery bags to be used as garbage bags - they’re free.
* Clip coupons (only for things that you will use for sure).
* Turn off lights when no one’s in the room.
* Wait for a full load of dishes before turning the washer on.
* No cable television.
* Use cell phones that have included minutes to call long distance instead of the home phone.
* Use phone cards or internet phone to call internationally.
* Weigh ‘want’ vs. ‘need’ carefully in all purchasing situations.
* If a generic brand will do, buy it instead of the name brands.
* Shovel your own snow, mow your own lawn, DIY more around the house if you had paid people to do it before.
If you have other money-saving tips that you use, please do share.
on Monday, April 11th, 2005 at 2:58 pm:
I am extremely impressed with what you have done already. I can’t think of anything else, really.
on Monday, April 11th, 2005 at 9:44 pm:
Have you tried your local Freecycle? I’ve seen a lot of useful things go through my area list, including some nice furniture. Baby stuff and maternity clothes are popular items, too.
My favorite money-saving tricks are all food-related, but it depends on the type of area you live in. When we were in the city we discovered that the little neighborhood groceries often had better produce at cheaper prices. I lived around the corner from a Korean grocery and I think I spent $20/wk on food- the same food would easily have cost twice as much at the local supermarket. Now, we save money on spices and some staples by doing some of our shopping at the local Indian grocery. (Also, in the supermarket: the Goya aisle will often have the same food at cheaper-than-store-brand prices.)
We also became members of our local CSA- it’s a farm coop, where we pay in at the beginning of the season and collect fresh fruits and veggies through October. The first year alone we figured we saved about $400- and we had fresh, locally grown, in-season produce for six months. We had so much of it we hardly bought anything other than dairy and grains all summer and fall, and we learned how to cook all sorts of things we’d never even heard of before.
on Tuesday, April 12th, 2005 at 9:45 am:
Freecycle is awesome. I also shop used quite a bit. I’m more likely to shop for used stuff (even kids clothes) on eBay rather than thrift or consignment stores just becaue its easier (I live way out in the country). I even buy maternity clothes through eBay. When I was pregnant with my youngest son, I got an entire summer maternity wardrobe on eBay for $120 (3 pairs of pant, 6 pairs of shorts, 12 shirts, a nightshirt, and a few other items)
on Thursday, April 14th, 2005 at 3:39 pm:
How about going to the library instead of buying books?
I try to do the bring your lunch from home tip– that’s a huge money saver.
on Thursday, April 14th, 2005 at 11:20 pm:
Thanks for sharing these ideas!! Keep them coming!
on Friday, April 15th, 2005 at 2:44 pm:
If you are shopping online, there is a site called Current Codes.com that gives you all the discount codes on hundreds of sites, so you get free shipping, or 10% off or whatever- always worth a look!
Also I read the newspaper online instead of buying it now, which saves 50 pence a day and £1.20 at the weekend.