Being a frugal mom definitely isn’t easy! I haven’t always been a frugal person, however, I was definitely raised in a frugal household. From the time that my mom and dad got divorced at my very early age of two years old, we lived with my grandmother for the next 10 years. I love her and miss her every day. She definitely taught me some good habits, and there are still things I do to this day that she taught me, such as making a wonderful homemade cornbread recipe, I will leave a recipe or a little video to it.

 

We are all so very busy these days, we may not always want to be as frugal as our grandparents may have taught us to be. For example, mine would wash out the plastic baggies in the dishwasher. Science has definitely taught us that that’s not always healthy. She would keep all the bags from the grocery store. Before Covid-19 hit, I would keep some. I keep hearing that bugs hide in those, but I don’t always see how, but I get how they could, so much more so than how could Covid-19 germs live in them.

Since we have progressed through time, and learning that it’s not always best to use plastic bags forever, or filling up those water bottles more than 30 times. Is 30 uses for one plastic water bottle to much for the bpa to start to breakdown? I wanted to go ahead and divulge these 10 money saving tips that can help.

1. One very basic way to start saving money is to setup a budget. Even though it sounds easy and basic, you would be surprised at the number of people that do not setup a budget. If you don’t know exactly how much your spending, it’s hard to know how much you can save. The easiest way is to track your spending. Download this cute tracker for your planner(there are more pages to the planner, you will see them once you download it, it’s actually a full blown planner, and I will try to add some more pictures through out this post.

2.   After we go through and setup your tracker, you can either print it out, or save it to your google drive and enter in things that way. There are several ways you can actually track your everyday spending. One tip I did want to go ahead and share is to call your cable/internet provider and see what specials your missing out on. Even though they may tell you that the deals you see online are for new subscribers, and not current ones, what you can tell them is, okay I may be leaving your company then. If they don’t automatically transfer you, ask for the SAVES DESK.

Okay, PopMom (as one of my Youtube subscribers calls me), what in the world is this SAVES DESK, and why is it such a secret???

I’m not sure why it is such a big secret, most companies have them, actually, and it is usually called the customer retention department. For example, when my husband called the horrid AT&T, as I have a strong hate for AT&T, here is a YouTube video as to why I hate them.

3. Another awesome way to save money, is by using cash back apps, such as Rakuten!  If you are not familiar with them, you can earn cash back when you log into their website or app, then make your purchase with a partner program.  It is completely safe, and will not save your credit card/debit card program.  

One main way you can save money, in a big way is planning your meals AND your grocery list.

I used them for the first time the other day, and will be doing a review video soon!  Check out my YouTube channel for that one, and other helpful content, such as finding a job, and how to start a Youtube Channel!

Let’s say if you want to stay under $150 is what I was spending, before Covid-19 and homeschooling.  (That’s a completely different topic for another blog post and section, yes, it is also in the works, as I am one very very busy momma!) After Covid-19, and my husband working at home and us homeschooling our son, It’s almost always over $200, unless I use Insta-Cart and their currently free pickup service, and even free home delivery for now.  Keep checking, though, because, that special is liable to change at any given time.  I only had taxes added to the order, of course, no other fees, at all!  I was able to stay under my goal of $150 a week, at $148 for my grand total, taxes included!

Instacart did so much of a better job at Publix this time, than they did when I used Kroger pickup the last few times.  It may only be location specific, and even person specific, because the last time I used Kroger pickup near our new house, they throw everything in those horrible paper bags, even if I check no substitutions! I cannot stand it when a person does not care enough to do their job right, especially, when it will costs me even more money to go back a second time to get the things that Kroger messed up on.  Another reason why I am the unpopular mom, because I will call it like I see it, and use their name to! This is how I actually got host gator to fix my blog when it was down last time, I’ll do that review soon to.  

Please let me know in the comments or email me and let me know your money saving tips and tricks, and I’ll be glad to share your blog/website/ YouTube channel in my future blog posts!!