Topic of the week 2/16/16- single income budget tips

[jessiespano]

This is a place for those of us on one income to discuss money savers.  Coupons, meal planning, work from home opportunities, whatever.

Everyone is welcome to participate!  There's a lot of us on mat leave still dealing with reduced income so we can all benefit.  I have some ideas myself but I'll be back later this afternoon.

[cocopuff]

I have no real tips, but definitely interested to see what others have to say. We are trying to figure out paying for pre-school next year (because apparantly we have to register NOW for September).

DH sells stuff on e-bay but I'm not convinced he actually sees a return on the invsetment and time expended.

[britbratjf]

cocopuff yup we registered for preschool next year in January.

I don't really have a lot of tips. I meal plan which helps a lot. Buy the majority of my wine at Trader Joes (this seriously cut our monthly wine bill in half). I try & consign clothes & sell household items on a local garage sale site. We're fortunate because I haven't had to buy hardly any clothes for Freya. And 98% of the reason I breastfeed is to save $$.

I really hope I can get F out of the swing soon so I can sell that.

[cocopuff]

There's a huge consignment sale next month and I am selling stuff for the first time. I always get DD1's clothes there so I'm hoping that consigning will offset the price of her clothes.

DD1 was the first girl in our circle. We are also the first to have two kids. Now there are a few more baby girls and I've been getting comments about handing down clothes as DD2 grows out of them. I'm so torn. We have bought all the clothes ourselves and got zero hand me down clothes. So, I'd love to get some money back now that we are ready to purge. But I also want to help out friends and family.
I just sorted all the 0-3 clothes. I offered them to DH's good friend's wife, who is due in April with a girl. Then my cousin made a comment about passing them my other cousin (due in May, team green) and they should go to family first. I ended up splitting them four ways among people we know are having babies in the next 3 months and selling some of the things I think will consign well.

Is it rude to not offer them or to say we want to consign when people ask about what we are doing with clothes? I have other big items that I want to sell but am feeling guilty and greedy, even though it's all stuff we paid for ourselves.

[jessiespano]

cocopuff I think it's rude for other people to dictate what you do with your stuff! I mean, that's your stuff. You can do with it what you please. You are in no way obligated to give it to anyone. The only exception would be hand me downs that were given with the knowledge that the giver wanted them back. But if you paid for it you can do whatever. Personally i would take it to consignment and then divide what's leftover up to your family.

If people ask what you are doing with clothes, just smile and say you are consigning them to pay for the next size up. That's nobody's business. Asking someone for their clothes is a little tacky.

[xcrissx]

cocopuff, I can't believe they had the nerve to ask for your clothes. I would absolutely not feel obligated to give them anything. If you wanted to, you could offer the stuff that doesn't sell at the consignment sale (I wouldn't tell them that though. Just offer them some clothes). I would definitely tell them I'm selling them to pay for the next size. If they demand an explanation. Sounds like they will.

I consigned a Moby from DS1 and SIL bought it at the sale. I didn't know until she wore it at a family thing over Christmas. I felt a tiny bit bad about that. But I hated the thing and would have felt bad offering her a piece of equipment I didn't like.

[britbratjf]

cocopuff I would 100% try & consign stuff then give what was leftover. Their kid, their responsibility to outfit the child!

[jessiespano]

Ok. Now that I finally have a few minutes.

We don't outsource anything we don't have too. No cleaning lady, no paying for meal plans anymore, nothing. The only thing we paid someone to do is our taxes, but because of all the forms we have to file we feel much better having someone else do it. Plus H&R block will pay for any fees due to an audit or mistake, as part of their service now.

Meal planning. This is a big one. I look at the ad, see what meats are on sale, and then plan around that. BudgetbytesDOTcom is a good website for inexpensive meals. If one week chicken is on sale, I'll do four chicken recipes, two vegetarian ones, and then pizza night (frozen) on Friday. As of late, I've been really using my leftovers and gaining another meal.
Another option I'll do is crockpot meals the first two weeks, doubling each recipe and saving them for the last week of the month, when we are tightest (paid monthly. The last week suuuucks).
I coupon as much as I can. I'll use the KrazycouponladyDOTcom to coupon match, but I do not buy in bulk.
I have rebate apps on my phone that I check frequently.
Ibotta- you see what rebates are being offered, if you bought them activate it, scan the barcode with your phone, and take a picture of your receipt. You can cash out at $20 to your paypal.
Checkout 51- same as above. Many times their rebates overlap and you can get both. Cash out at $5
Savings Star- you link your store rewards card, and activate any rebates you want. If you buy them, you automatically get the rebate. This one you can cash out at $20.
(If you want to check Ibotta out, I'll give you my link. We both benefit).

I sell my kids clothes when they grow out to help pay for the next size. I only buy used at this point.

I chose to keep J out of paid pre-K because it is out of our budget, so I 'homeschool' him. Its really a couple hours of activities. Not hard. This option is definitely not for everyone.

I look for ways to make money all over the place. Right now I'm using Swagbucks, which I've mentioned before. I started on February 5th, and at this point I've made $50. It takes two or three hours a day, so absolutely not worth it for many people, but it's the easiest money in the world. There are FB groups and ways to increase earnings. Again- if you'd like to check it out I can give you a referral. Again, we can both benefit and I'll let you in on my secrets lol.

We cut cable. We spent $40 (single payment) on the Amazon Fire stick, and can stream Amazon prime and Netflix ($7.99 a month), and its enough for us.

So that's what I do. I'm interested to see what others do.

[London]

I am dabbling a bit in Upwork, leveraging my professional skills in the freelance world. It makes me wish I had professional experience in graphic arts or marketing, because there are so many opportunities.

[cocopuff]

Thanks for the feedback on consigning! I was really starting to feel guilty about it. I know I'll get guilt tripped into handing down some stuff but I set aside enough to sell so that hopefully it will fully cover my budget for buying the next size clothes.

[tngrl3]

I've been trying to think back to thinking my mom did growing up because she was great at saving money. I'm one of five kids, my mom stayed at home always, and my dad was a college professor. She meal planned around the sale ads like jessiespano mentioned. Also if it was on sale, she would stock up on it. We had a huge deep freezer and she made good use of it. If something wasn't on sale, she didn't buy it. Couponing was also key these days so many stores have apps for your phone and you can add coupons electronically. That way you don't have to remember to bring them to the store. My mom was also great at using leftovers and didn't let food go to waste. Usually once a week we would have leftover dinner where basically she cleaned out the fridge and we made a meal out of the random stuff from the week. As a kid I always thought this was kind of fun. If we went out to eat we drank water, shared meals, and ate a place that offered free kid's meals.

Some things I have been doing since I'm only working part time these days is to consign/sell things we aren't using-clothes, toys, gear, etc. I also have been using cash more because it helps me to be mindful instead of just swiping my card all the time. Plus when the cash is gone then I know I can't spend more. I use totallytargetDOTcom and hip2saveDOTcom to help good deals and coupons. I like that both provide links and cut down on the work I do.

Does anyone do ebates? I always see the commercials and wonder about it. It seems easy enough but I feel like there is some catch I'm missing. I online shop a fair amount so I'm trying to decide if it might be worth it.

[chad5285]

-No cable
-No gym
-No cleaning person
-Out to eat one meal a week
-I don't buy clothing or shoes unless it's a need like, "job interview and have no professional clothes" versus "wedding and don't like the dresses I have"
-Wash our own cars
-Don't use paper products like plates or paper towels
-Buy bulk non perishables; dog food, toilet paper, rice, beans
-Limit my grocery list to 10% convenience foods

[chad5285]

I also don't do any kind of Internet rebate program because I find that I end up buying stuff we don't need juat because I get money back. I don't use coupons for an item unless it's something we need. 50% off a $5 item is good unless you don't use it. Then you just wasted $2.50

[cocopuff]

Here's what we do do that works:

No cable
Amazon rewards credit card
Target red debit card (5% off)
Meal plan
Grocery shop every 10 days (vs weekly)
Shop ads and go to 3-4 grocery stores
Don't buy kids meals (pack or share ours)
Cloth diaper
Coupons (especially for services/dining out)
No paid services (i.e. Cleaning, lawn)
Free passes from libabray (zoo, museums, etc)
Get gas out of state (cheaper)

DH used to buy gift cards on eBay for bigger purchases and then he got burden to the tune of $500. Thankfully PayPal refunded it, but it was a process and really annoying. So don't do that! Apparently GC are the biggest scams on eBay.

I'm sure here's other things but DH does the budget so I'm not fully aware of hi tricks. But apparently he was swapping ideas at the bank yesterday.

[xcrissx]

Oh! You can buy gift cards at raise.com. Normal stores only have a small rebate (target, Walmart, etc) but some of the clothing stores have gift cards with really good deals.

[xcrissx]

republicwireless.com/plans/

I don't have this cell phone plan because DH needs 20GB data to stream youtube while he's driving. But I've heard lots of positive reviews.

[BookishMomma]

Feb 17, 2016 23:01:14 GMT -5 tngrl3 said:

Does anyone do ebates? I always see the commercials and wonder about it. It seems easy enough but I feel like there is some catch I'm missing. I online shop a fair amount so I'm trying to decide if it might be worth it.

I know this is an old thread, but I was lurking for ideas and saw this. I've been an ebates user since Nov. '09 and have gotten $540 in cash back since then (I have it set up so that it cashes out to my PayPal). If you haven't yet tried it and want to, let me know and I can send you a referral link. That goes for anyone else, too. 

[BookishMomma]

jessiespano,YGPM re: ibotta