One of the biggest things about having a kid is saving money. Kids are expensive, no kidding, just a pack of diapers $36 that'll last about two weeks maybe more if we're lucky. I should mention it's 124 count pack. And while it doesn't sound like much, $72/month ends up being about $860 a year, which once again doesn't sound like much, but adds up quickly especially if we're buying more than that in a month.
We try to save everywhere we can on everything, from baby related items, to clothes, to bags, to food, to whatever we can. While I'm not a
couponer
(should think about it for the zombie apocalypse), I do look for coupons. Here are some of the things I do to save money. If you don't care about saving money, than I would just skip this post.
And while originally there was 23 ways, I added in one more....so it's really 24! Bonus for you!
~~~
amazon mom
|
Bundled with Amazon prime, you get all of the benefits of Amazon prime plus 20% off diaper subscriptions. Amazon mom isn't purely made for mothers (don't think you need a child for it, it's just catered for mothers, I mean who buys diapers for fun?) They raised their price up to $99 (from $79) a year, which may seem expensive but for what you get for it, it's worth it. Besides you're paying about 27¢ a day.
and if you're feeling really nice, you can actually share these benefits with another member using
Amazon household
, which essentially links the two accounts together so that they can have access to everything at the same time. I did this with my mom and she splits the costs of the Amazon mom with me, meaning I only pay $50 - score! Or you can just share the benefits in a similar fashion but doesn't link the accounts together. I can't find the link to just share the links, but it's on Amazon.
Or if you want to save even more money, you can use Amazon student if you're currently a student at college (need a verifiable .edu email address):
You get a trial period of 6 months! 6 months! The trial for Amazon prime is 30 days.... It's also half the cost at $49 a year.
amazon subscribe and save
|
Yes, another Amazon benefit that stems from the prime is the subscribe and save items. For me, they have a variety of items that we use everyday for Sophie and for ourselves. Diapers, baby wipes, baby food (which we're weaning out), paper towels, toilet paper, lysol wipes, etc. All of which are cheaper than at our local stores. Many stores both online and in person provide a per unit cost (10¢ per oz.) and that's what what you use to price check. As I'm the budgeter (totally not a word) in the family I price check and found that most of the items that we buy are cheaper on Amazon. what you get with Amazon subscribe and save:
amazon pantry
| I only added this on because of the fact that some of the items are cheaper through Amazon pantry and not the a regular store, however the flat $5.99 shipping does bother some. I've used it a few times and liked it, but it's not something I use regularly. I usually use Amazon pantry for non-perishable items. I wouldn't use this as a replacement grocery store.
amazon trade in
|
There are several places to trade in phones, such as
gazelle
, but the nicest thing about Amazon's trade in program is that there are several categories that you can trade back in (books, electronics, etc). I personally used this for trading back in old iPhones and textbooks. You select the item you want to ship back, its condition, and if Amazon should ship it back to you if it doesn't fit the condition you originally chose.
ebates
|
All I ever do is online shopping, so why not get some money back for it? Ebates has perecentages of what money they'll give back and for what. Make sure to start at ebates. in order to receive the money back the "shopping trip" needs to start through ebates. You get money back every three months. Along with this, it also has
coupons
to stores.
splender
|
While I haven't personally used it yet, someone else told me of this site. I don't think it's as big as ebates, it may not be as worthwhile as ebates but still check it out and use it. I'm adding it on to the list because it's similar to ebates.
retail me not
|
since I online shop a lot, I'm always looking for coupons or promo codes to save on shipping or discounts. Several of the past places I've shopped at I've gotten 20% my total order and free shipping! That's worth it to me! Combined with ebates, it's saving all around. They have several stores on there, the last one I used was Forever 21.
winn dixie fuel perks
and
winn dixie baby club
|
not all states have Winn Dixie, but their fuel perks program is really great for us. We can use some of the deals they provide at the store (such as buy 2 for $5 and get 5 cents off the gallon). I haven't lately, but there have been several times that I've paid absolutely nothing at the gas station because of the fuel perks and it's only what we pay for normally at the store. And they have a baby club, perfect for if your a mom :) I get coupons every month relating to baby items.
netflix
or
redbox
|
Kyle and I notorious for missing movies when they come out, but instead of buying the movie, we either wait for it to come out on netflix or we check redbox. Netflix streaming only is $7.99, and redbox is usually is about $1.50 for us, however I heard they're raising their prices to $2. We watch netflix every single day, I know I watch at least 3-4 hours of netflix when I'm home and blogging. So for us, it's well worth the price.
DIY
|
when all is said and done, DIY (do it yourself) instead of buying it. I'm so guilty of buying instead of trying to make it first. Or I start a billion DIY projects and end up failing.
eBay
|
remember this
bag
? Would you believe I got it from eBay for $89 instead of the regularly priced $145? I got it for that price because someone had written $89 in the pocket. Doesn't even bother me, and for carrying it around for a year? Well worth the money, HOWEVER, be smart about buying on eBay. a few things to focus on;
seller history - how long have they been a seller? A month? A year? Several years?
seller reviews - is the feedback positive or negative? How many positive to negative? If a seller has 20,000 positive, but 10,000 negative, that's still 1/3 negative, which to me is too much.
negative feedback - how recent was the negative feedback? If a seller had negative feedback when they first started but have since only had positive, and they've been selling for years, I take it like a grain of salt.
seller responsiveness - got a question about the product they're selling? How do they respond to you? Rude, nice? Helpful?
All of these are important when buying off of eBay.
And here are the non related website saving tips.
thrift shops
|
instead of buying your clothes new, consider second hand. While many clothes of mine are new (because of my petite sizing), most are actually from thrift shops and most of Sophie's are too. All of us wear hand me down clothing as well. Even Kyle! Why pay full price for something that's been worn once and is still in great condition? We usually look for more boutique shops because around here it's a guarantee that it's been worn once only. Same thing with toys. A good chunk of Sophie's toys are from other kids who passed them down to here.
clothing exchanges |
Got lots of clothes you don't wear? Many exchange places will either take your clothes and sell them for you (they take a percentage) or you can see if they'll do a flat out exchange of clothes. Or see if you can sell them using
varagesale
or a local facebook group.
paychecks
|
one of the first things I do whenever we get our paychecks in is not go spend it (I wish!) on clothes or food, it's actually move 20% of the check to our savings account and it's like that money never existed. Depending on how much you make, and how much you put away, you could easily save $5000 in one year! (that's if you're making $15/hr, times a 40 hour work week, removing 15% for taxes, medicaid and social security).
cut the cable
|
this leads back to using netflix or redbox. I haven't had cable for over 5 years now, and haven't missed it for a bit! Many of the shows I watched I can get on Netflix. And with cable costs rising, it's just not worth it for us. However, we don't ever see sports, or news, which for some is a deal breaker.
get a library card
|
for my readers out there! Most places they're free! And then you can just rent the book instead of buying it. And for me, I like having an actual book to read, not just a kindle in my hand. I especially want Sophie to have one when she gets older (right now she just likes eating the book).
buy off season |
sounds crazy right? Wrong! I buy all of my summer clothes after the summer has ended and the clothes are on clearance. Same thing for all of my winter clothes. Sorry I'm cheap #notsorry.
shop on holiday steals |
like on Labor day, black Friday, etc. black Friday is when I do all of my Christmas shopping.
shop in the kid's sections |
if you're like me than you have little feet. A good portion of the shoes I wear are straight up from the kid's section. No shame. Most of them you can't even tell honestly. I quit shopping in the kid's sections for clothes after I got pregnant. I picked up this ailment called hips after getting pregnant.
generic brands |
almost every store has their own generic brand which is usually the EXACT same as the brand name. Don't get caught up in the brand name of the product. Seriously Kirkland anything works all the time, their bacon especially.
buy in bulk |
this is kind of what I use Amazon subscribe & save and Amazon pantry for. I buy trash bags, paper towels and toilet paper all in bulk. Kyle says I have a paper product addiction. Not true, so we have 96 rolls of toilet paper.
consider paying loans off sooner |
any type of loan has interest and with interest comes with more money paid to the lender in the end. We're currently adding an extra $100 on my car payments every month and it will cut the loan time by one year! Incredibly important seeing as had I kept on the original track of paying my car off, I would have paid over $3,500.00 the original sale price. Normally I would consider paying it off sooner, but we also have a mortgage so we can't pay off the car loan as quickly as I would like.
