Saving money around the home is actually a lot easier than you think. My frugal journey started when my then partner lost her job, and the resulting job only paid half the wage she was on before. This obviously meant we needed to make some changes to our lifestyle and cut our spending. After looking for some suggestions online I came across three great tips that really have worked for me and actually don’t take too much effort to implement in your daily life and will save you a nice sum of money over time.
Don’t eat out, eat at home
Buy all your ingredients in bulk and cook from scratch as much as you feel you can. It will save you a fortune. Until I sat down and actually broke all my expenditure down I had no idea how much I was spending on eating out each month. Save eating out for special occasions, trust me you’ll appreciate it more if you do this as you won’t take it for granted. If you plan your meals ahead, especially if you have kids, its actually not all that difficult to cook a decent meal for everyone.
Make your own repairs and cleaning products
Don’t use conventional cleaners that have lots of harmful and toxic chemicals in them, create your own using cheap and basic, multipurpose ingredients. This currently saves us a lot of money over the course of a year. Its also a good idea to try and keep your home well maintainted yourself. Nowadays there are lots of videos and articles online which will help teach you, however there are certain things I wouldn’t recommend you try (especially if they’re to do with electrics!) so for these tasks id recommend you use Repair & Protect.
Buy second hand
Before buying something brand new its always worth having a look to see if anyone is looking to sell it second hand. This is great for clothing, doing up the home, kitchen items and a whole lot more. Shop at thrift shops, or use websites such as eBay to really pick out the best deals. You can even make money from finding items at car boot sales, then selling them on eBay…Just an idea. 🙂
Marie at Family Money Values
All good suggestions, the only one I don’t do is make my own cleaning products – although I do use common things like vinegar and baking soda to clean some things.