How I Save Money Each Year by Being Our Own Tailor

I refuse to pay for someone to do something that is an easy fix and I can do myself. Sewing our clothes is no different. DH needed 4 pairs of work pants hemmed so he can wear them. He wanted to buy new shorts because the shorts he has have broken buttons.


I am not great at sewing but I can sew on buttons. I can use hem tape and an iron to hem our clothes. Hem tape costs about $3. It took about 10 minutes. Hubby always wears a belt so the color of the buttons don't really matter and I save the buttons off of all of the outfits we buy.


By hemming his pants myself, I saved $40 per pair. By fixing the 3 pairs of shorts he has, I saved $10 per button as my dry cleaner charges or $20 per pair for him to get new shorts. Not to mention it felt good doing something for him. I also love the old show like Leave It To Beaver and The Wonder Years where mom could fix everything. I live in the wrong era.


Total Savings: $200

Shh... It's a Surprise Week 4

Well we turned in our metal this week, continued with my coke rewards and put back tips. We also sold two items on an online yard sale. We also were able to cash in some more My Coke Rewards.


Total: $778.58. 2 more free 12 packs and 2 $3 off a 12 pack coupons.We are expecting a bit of a set back as our A/C went out. We are also expecting a check for $1000 to come from our secondary insurance. That will put us at $1778.85. Our goal is $2000.

Dipping into the Bucket

Our air conditioner decided to stop working last night. It has been burning up in here while I am trying to clean. It just stopped raining so I can open the windows. My parents let us borrow their spare fans to help cool us off since we can not get a repair man out until Monday. We certainly do not have any money set aside to pay for the repair (do not tell Dave Ramsey on me, he'd be mad), so we are going to have to dip into the vacation bucket. That is okay though because it can be replaced. I am just thankful that we have the money here at all. For now we are opening windows and using fans. I am glad that our electric bill will be lowered next month. We have to wait until Monday because I refuse to pay the hefty weekend fees.

Double Insurance Coverage

I am very thankful that my husband was wise enough to buy a secondary insurance policy years ago. Over the years he has been injured by criminals 4 times, three of which resulted in major surgery. The policy that he bought pays us for doctors visits, ER visits for injury, etc. We turned in this most recent injury and they cut us a check for $1100. This was a blessing big time. It allowed us to pay back the loan my grandmother gave us for a car repair and to buy some things we've been needing to get.


During this process we found some extra benefits that they are going to back pay and we will be getting about $1000 to go to the vacation fund. I am so looking forward to this!


Do you have a policy like this?

My Coke Rewards

I am forever trying to find ways to live like someone with money on a frugal mama budget. One of those things is soda. I love soda... yes, I know that it is not good for you but I love it! The thing is that those little boogers are expensive. Good news, they don't have to be! With the My Coke Rewards program you can enter codes from the lids of 20oz bottles or codes from cases of coke and earn points that can be redeemed for coupons for free 12-packs or what I have decided to start getting $3 off a 12-pack coupon, because they are less points equaling more coupons and pair them with a good deal it might still be free or less than a dollar.


Ways to get as many points as me:
* Find a storage container and designate it to coke points.
* Ask friends and family to save their lids for you
* I am not above collecting lids that are left on bottles laying out in a public place and redeeming those points. If they aren't going to be used that is just plain wasteful anyway.


I also save the cans and tabs from my 12-packs. The cans go to the recycling center to be redeemed for cash and the tabs are stored in a special container and will go to Ronald McDonald House when the container is full.


We are really hitting the My Coke Rewards hard right now. We are going to be supplying the beach trip drinks by redeeming as many free coupons as we can.

How I Save Hundreds of Dollars Each Year Just By Reading My Bills

We are all guilty of getting in a hurry and doing things out of habit. How often do you sit down and read the itemized breakdown of your utility, medical or misc. bills? For me, it is every single time. There is a reason for this... nobody is perfect and your bill can reflect human error. I have had my bills credited up to $96 just for rereading my bill. We went out of town a few years ago for a couple of weeks. Mom and dad had the pets so there was no reason to have the air conditioner on. We unplugged everything from the wall outlets to avoid occurring charges for the draw on them (why pay if you aren't using it), we turned off the AC and turned the water heater to the away/vacation setting. Our power bill should have been little to nothing. WRONG. It was sky high. Turns out they actually didn't read our meter for the month and they adjusted accordingly. Another example is yesterday while paying our daycare bill online, the total was high than it should have been. DH became frustrated because I read the total account history to find out what was up. Turns out we were charged a weeks worth of tuition for K even though he does not attend the summer program. Well of course that is human error and it was fixed thus a $96 credit to our account. It really does pay to check and recheck your bills.

Shh... It's a Suprise Week 2

Getting so excited as we get closer to the trip. My best friend and her husband and kids are going with us! So we opted for a bigger condo! The best part is it is going to be cheaper because we found a nice condo for the same price as the first so we are going to split the cost 40/60. Their budget isn't as big as ours so we are covering $150 of their lodging cost. So here is the update for the week...
Our Grand Total is $458.45 so far. We have a few things coming up that will benefit our "Vacay" fund! We also will be saving on groceries because we have 3 coke reward coupons coming in the mail for free 12-packs.
*We will be scraping metal
*Next month a yard sale
*Selling things online
*DH is going to sell plasma twice a week until we go so he says. We did this last summer to make it through the summer because DH was on a 180 day work contract. It'll be better this summer now that he is on a 220 day contract. We learned I can't do it because I faint due to low blood sugar.
*DH asked his mom for a gas gift card for his father's day present. She said that she will try to help.
*DH asked his dad and bonus mom for a gas gift card or restaurant gift card for his father's day present.
*A big thing that is the best bonus of all for us is that we have switch from regular cigarettes to e-cigs. We will have a lot more money this way. A bottle of liquid will last us one month each. Bottles of liquid are $9.99 at our local store. Trying to find cheaper online for next month. So essentially, it will cost us $20 a month where we have been spending $61 a week. So that is more money to put back. Not to mention much healthier.
*Hoping to have enough swagbucks for a $50 gas card.

Save Money By Going Paperless

That stack of bills that piles up every month is not only a constant reminder of the money that is coming out of your wallet but it is an eye sore. If you are like me, you have those pesky little bills laying everywhere. I am all about getting rid of clutter these days. I hate seeing them laying around. We have went paperless through our bank's bill pay option. In a few clicks, we can pay bills or schedule payments for later in the month. This is really helpful for us because we may not have the money in the bank to automatically draft. However, many companies offer an automatic draft on their payment plans. This is helpful to ensure bills are paid quickly and on time, avoiding those costly late fees.This also saves money on checks or money orders, envelopes, stamps and the gas driving to the post office. Which over time can really add up. It also saves time in writting the checks, balancing the check book and driving to the bank/post office. In my world every little penny counts. That is why I work so hard to find little short cuts to save time and money. Every second counts in our busy lives so this is an amazing option. 

Benefits:

• Save Time
• Save Money
• Ensure bills are paid quickly and on time
• Environmentally Friendly