Hi! Just a little background on the situation... I'm 18, married (husband's in the military, gone for a year during training), one baby, Augusta GA... that should do it.
I'm looking for some ways to stretch our paycheck to cover more bills. Cheaper entertainment, cheap places to shop, buying certain products instead of others... any of that is appreciated. Thanks!
2007-03-01 04:44:46 · 9 answers · asked by ? 3 in Business & Finance ➔ Personal Finance
K... Great ideas so far, but so unrelating to my situation! (My fault, of course).
We have cell phones (no home phone), no television, no internet (my laptop picks up the neighbor's wireless). We pay the rent, the car, the insurance, groceries, gas, and Jack's food & needs. Other than that, we're pretty strapped with debts. I can't even save change. I spend every single penny of every single paycheck trying to satisfy the people I owe money to. So setting aside money in a bank account ain't an option. And as far as clothes go, Walmart is high class. I shop Goodwill and the on-post thrift shop. =) Any help with THAT situation?
2007-03-01 08:12:45 · update #1
Save your change (as everyone else has said...it really works).
Call your phone providers (home and cell) and TV providers and see if they can give you a better deal. I pay $31 a month with MCI (unlimited service) when I called and told them I needed to lower my bill. DirecTV gave me $10 a month discount AND free HBO and Showtime.
Buy stuff for the kid from the thrift store. You will find new items with the tags for $1.
2007-03-01 05:46:07 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I just signed up last night for this savings account that Suze Orman talked about on Larry King a couple of days ago.
You put in a minimum of $50 a month and after a year, the company will give you $100 bucks plus commission. I have a very hard to saving money so next year this time I will have a lil' over $700 bucks if I just put the bare minimum in. It's saveyourselfplan.com And the offer code is 701..yeah, I'm cheap..I went to Borders on my lunch yesterday and looked inside the Suze Orman's book.
2007-03-01 12:55:02 · answer #2 · answered by Yvonne 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I have two teen daughters which I've raised completely on my own. Majority of our groceries are the generic brands (Presidents Choice, etc.). Clothes are Walmart (yes I know......yuck,....but you do save money) plus thank god family members give my girls hand-me-downs. I do have a cell phone which I stretched out over 3 years instead of the usual one. My satellite is bare TV, not any additional packages. I walk as much as possible so I barely put gas in my car. I cut my own children's hair, so there's a savings of $20 per child every 2 months.
There's lots you can do. Also, I have about 10 pringle chips jugs with change in them. Just before Christmas I take the money out, roll it and end up with about $1000 for Christmas for the kids.
There's lots you can do to save money. Coupons are wonderful and I use them all the time. Also, at my bank I signed up for what they call "money matters". Each month they take out $50 and put it aside for me. I have to go into the bank physically to sign it back out and since it'll cost me $5.00 per withdrawal I just leave it in there. Hoping with that money I can fly away within a year or two somewhere.
2007-03-01 13:03:26 · answer #3 · answered by GirlinNB 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There are 2 little things that i do to save money. First, I have my bank take out a small set amount out of my account every payday and put it into a savings account that has no Bank card set up on it. That way, if I really need the money i have to go to a bank to get it out. Makes you think, do you really need what it is that you want to spend the money on.
Second, if I get any refunds, I put it into the savings account as well. I figure the money is already spent so it is kinda like extra money.
2007-03-01 13:02:51 · answer #4 · answered by blackcatmingus 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
An easy way to save money is to buy in bulk. But from your post it seems you would need to get with a group of people buying similar products and buy them in bulk which would save money for everyone. So if you have 3 friends who all need to buy baby diapers combine your money to buy them in bulk from places like Costco or BJs.
To save some money on products for your baby I suggest you check out http://babytobee.excellentabc.com . They give out lots of coupons and free samples for baby products.
Hope this helps. Good luck
2007-03-01 18:57:53 · answer #5 · answered by Wendy F 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes there are lots of ways to save money. The links below have the most detailed savings information i've seen so far.
2007-03-01 13:01:00 · answer #6 · answered by novansa7 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
this may sound corny but I am telling you it works! don't spend your change, save it and watch how it can add up
we started doing this for our grandchildren 2 years ago, just simply throwing change into old cleaned out milk jugs and we were amazed when we rolled it all up and took it to the bank...there is one catch to it working however, you can NOT get into the jugs, no matter what ...if you are out of money except for the money in the jugs, then you are out of money...you have to make a promise to yourself to NOT get into the jars...if you do this, it will add up faster then you may think.
When you pay for things, purposely give them 2.00 for something that costs 1.20 and throw the change in the jug for example
Hope this helps...also coupon clipping and cashing them in on double coupon days.
2007-03-01 12:53:05 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
heres my secreet Dont tell anyone..When you write a check for 9.34 put it in the ledger as 10.00. the change adds up .. i did that for a year and saved 700 dollars
2007-03-01 12:55:21 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
i think that you should give your self a spending amount each day and only spend that much. but, you should make it enough that you can get you and your baby stuff each day that is going to last you a good while.
2007-03-01 12:51:38 · answer #9 · answered by horse lover!! 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋