Money saving ideas needed.

[lostpony]

Cooking food at home instead of paying for prepared food.

It's still an uphill battle with the outrageous price of uncooked foods but if you chart to costs for the whole month you can see how this is a place to really get screwed if you don't put in the time every meal.  Even steak and veggies cooked at home is cheaper than most prepared food options though, and eating a lot of chicken at home can really help solve the daily costs problem.

Also select foods carefully because the too-many-carbs cheap way out will eventually kill you (I had to quit eating meals of mostly grain per DFr.'s order and discovered peas instead and a lot of my other health issues have magically been reduced, woohoo!) so good luck muddling through this successfully.

[lovesbabysquirmy]

This is going to sound like a really weird question, but....

how much time do you have to save money? 

by which I mean, do you have time to cook meals and dry laundry outside and things like that?  if you don't, I have different answers...

[lostpony]

That's a good question!  Cooking and drying laundry outside also require a luxury of facility that not everyone has too.

[cyberunicorn]

This is going to sound like a really weird question, but....

how much time do you have to save money? 

by which I mean, do you have time to cook meals and dry laundry outside and things like that?  if you don't, I have different answers...

In answer to the question, I work a shift of 7-10 hours depending on work levels five days and Saturdays when I put my self down. This is not really to save for a specific purpose. I am just after ideas how to save more of the disposable income (which seems to disappear each month).

I already do most of the things listed above in the other posts with the  exception of drying outside but  it is just me unless I have people staying so the dryer is only on once a week. The bills are not the issue i get paid enough to live from. it is the actual saving side that does not seem to be the issues.

Reading through the other responses I like the bucket for change at the door and the rounding up when cashing up so it builds up in your account and am gong to give these a go though.

It is bad given my job is in the financial industry and this should be easy for me haha I am great when do workers ask how to do it just cannot seem to do it my self

[achab1984]

There is a lot of good ideas that others have posted!

I am what you would call a frugal and minimalist person! I live to save money and never (most of the time) to pay full price for anything!

You have to plan your meals! That will help a lot! You need to sit down and see what you have in your house. Look at the sales that are going on in your local stores and plan around that! I have three people all adults in my home will one is 13 but she eats a lot! I am able to feed us for $300 or less a month! We don't buy a lot of extra stuff, unless that is a good sale on it. When something like can goods are dirt cheap I stock up! I will stock up on meat when its also super cheap! I separate it and package it to be frozen. I write the dates on them so I know what is the oldest. I spent around $55 on meat last winter and just used the last one this week!

Coupons is another one! Its a must! But just cause you have a coupon for a item does not mean you have to buy it! I have many sites that I go to to print off coupons. If your interested in them please send me a message. I have way to much to list on here. Its also a good idea to have a printer to.

Join those rebate apps you can get on your phone! Ibotta is a great one and I also use Checkout 51. That checkout one is taking me a bit longer to get money back though. I have gotten $45 back so far on the Ibotta one. I also use the saving catcher app from wal mart. I am banking it all up so that I can do shopping and one a trip all paid for! I have close to $50 on that one right now.

I do not buy much cloths and when I do I buy them second hand of when they are marked down to $3.00 and under. I don't do that style of the season stuff. That would give me great stress and anxiety!

We have our phones threw Straight Talk and bought out phones outright. Mine was even a used phone so its not brand new. We pay $48 a month with tax for our internet phones. If you don't want internet then its $32 a month!

We are spending a little bit more then what I want to on internet, but we live out in the country and don't have a lot of options. But I am a National Consumer Panel person so after a few more months I might be able to get %25 off my bill!  And we are thinking of dropping out TV DirectTV after our two years are up unless they can give us a killer deal! We don't need all those channels that we don't watch!

I don't have a car payment. I did have one for 18 months. I bought it paid half of the $12000 with cash that I had saved up over 9 years. So I worked like crazy and put extra money on it to pay it off faster! I am putting that extra money on my home loan now. I really am not saving anything right now. But in the long run I will be saving on the interest on the loan!

I also don't really collect much of anything anymore. I have come to find that buying ponies takes up a lot of my extra money. I enjoy looking at pictures of others collections though. I did buy myself two very nice Breyer horses this year. But I limit myself and have to have the cash saved up for it!

It all comes down to making sure your not buying things that you really don't need! I wish you luck on saving money and finding what works for you!