Take it, Sweet T!
F-to the R-U-G-the A-the L… Frugalicious… It’s hot hot.
Thank you Fergie, for recording that song. It works so well for these Frugalicious Friday posts!
Thank you, Gillian, for being so candid about your budgeting/saving/not going insane method of being a penny pincher. Inspiring.
I’ve come up with a few little tidbits to share with you gals about saving money where you can. There’s no theme to these suggestions, so they are kind of random. Some of them may not be groundbreaking, but some of them might make ya’ go “hmmmmm…. I can do that!”
1) Eating at Chick-fil-a with your kiddos. It can be pricey when you add up all those kids meals and your meal. Since I’ve just got the one kid, I order the 8-count nugget meal, and we share it. It costs around $6. Face it, the kid is only going to eat about 3 of those nuggs, and we adults only need to eat about 4 to be satisfied. Share the fries and the drink (free refills!!!) If you’ve got more than one kid, get the 12 count meal and share it. Savings??? Nearly $4 by not purchasing a kids’ meal with overpriced milk and a book they don’t care about because all they really wanna do is play it up in the stinky-feet CFA playground.
2) Free entertainment. Live near a Bass Pro??? Take your kiddos there instead of that sweaty trip to the zoo. They’ll have just as much fun looking at the big fish tank and the stuffed moose, deer, and bears. Also, most zoos have websites your kids can look at showing live footage of some of their animals. Check it out.
3) Grocery shopping. NEVER go hungry. You WILL make impulse buys if you are hungry. Make a list before you go of everything you will need for the week and stick to that list. Also, it helps to carry a calculator with you to keep a running tab of your purchases. I kind of make it my personal version of supermarket sweep…let’s see how much money I have left over in my grocery budget. And this may not be a good thing, but if at the end of the week, we still have grocery money left, I move it to my restaurant envelope. YAY!!! It’s like my little reward! In my state we don’t have a grocery tax, so we don’t have to figure that. But if you do live in a state that has a tax on groceries, be sure to leave room in your budget for that.
4) KID-SWAP! Need a night out with your hubby-hubby??? Don’t have the budget for a sitter??? Swap services with close friends. They can watch your kids while you get some quality time in with your man. And when that couple wants a night out, you can watch their kids. I GUARANTEE you, your friend is secretly wishing for this scenario to go down. Just ask.
5) Do you or your husband get overtime pay??? My husband is a salary guy, but he also receives overtime pay (saaaaaweeeeet!). DO NOT DEPEND ON YOUR OVERTIME FUNDS!!! There may come a time when the overtime just isn’t there. Any money that you have over the base salary pay should go into savings. After your tithe, just transfer the overtime pay into your savings on payday…like it was never there to begin with. You’ll be glad you did this later, I promise. Now if you are still working your debt snowball, by all means, put your OT pay towards your debt.
Remember gals: Being on a budget can be fun. And YOU can be Fabulously Frugalicious!
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