Becoming a Tightwad

So, our country may go into a depression. A little scary, but it might not be such a bad thing. I think Americans as a rule are way over-indulgent anyway.

Fortunately for us, things have been tight for a while and we’re getting in some good practice. Don and I have both had our work hours cut recently, so we have already started our own little financial depression. To keep from becoming emotionally depressed as well, I’ve made a sort of game out of it, to see how far we can stretch the few dollars we do have. Here are some of our techniques:

Ways to Save Money on Food/Groceries

1) Skip the individually-wrapped serving sizes of food. You pay a lot just for wrapping.

2) I found out that "real" popcorn popped in oil on the stove or in a popper tastes MUCH better than microwaved anyway!

3) Never pass up free food. Don sometimes even brings home leftovers from the cafeteria at the school where he works.

4) If you see a neighbor with a tree loaded down with apples, pears, nuts, etc. that are going to go bad soon, don’t be ashamed to ask if you can have some of them.

5) Buying a whole chicken is cheaper than buying cut-up pieces, and we can usually get at least 2 meals out of one. If you cook them in the crock pot you can avoid having to cut them up; they just fall apart. Pretty tasty too. The leftovers are good in soup or casseroles.

6) Cook instead of eating out. It's cheaper, and you’ll probably eat healthier anyway!

7) Use any coupons you reasonably can. Yesterday I saved about 10% of my grocery bill with them. I think the Sunday paper is a good investment. It will usually more than pay for itself in coupon savings.

8) Watch for sales at grocery stores. I’m not above going in a store and buying only what’s on sale and then buying the rest of what I need at Wal-Mart. Of course, do this wisely so you don’t spend more on gas driving around from store to store than you actually save.

9) Buy store brands.

10) Buy toiletries and paper goods at Wal-Mart, not grocery stores (unless #8 above applies).

Other Ways to Save Money

1) Never go anywhere. Some days I don’t drive my car at all. Really. If that’s not an option, combine trips. Or walk. Really.

2) Turn off the air conditioning/heat when the weather is nice. Now is a great time, especially since NES is raising their rates by 15%! In more extreme temperatures, raising/lowering the thermostat by even a degree or 2 helps.

3) Enjoy cheap forms of entertainment: take a walk, work a puzzle, play a game, surf the net, catch up on your e-mailing and blog reading, finish that cross-stitch project you started 5 years ago, watch TV or a movie you checked out at the library, read (the library is wonderful if, of course, you can consolidate your trip there with something else. If you live in Davidson County, you can go to their website (http://www.library.nashville.org/) and have any item in their system brought to a location near you).

4) Don’t print things out when you can just read them on the computer screen. Printer ink is ridiculously expensive! I have found it’s just cheaper to get photos processed at Wal-Mart than to print them myself. Did you know if you have digital photos, you can go to walmart.com and send them the photos you want processed, choose sizes and quantities for each one and then go pick them up when they’re ready (when you happen to be going anyway, to buy your groceries and toiletries)?

5) Think before you throw things away. Could you use that piece of aluminum foil or ziplock bag again?

6) Don’t resort to credit cards if you can possibly avoid it. That is a big part of what got many of us into trouble in the first place.

7) Prioritize. What's really important to you? We don't have cable TV, but we do spring for high speed Internet (in this case, AT&T is much cheaper than Comcast).

8) Bargain shop. The Internet is a great resource for comparing prices without having to drive around from store to store. I have found Amazon.com often has the lowest prices on things, and you don’t have to pay postage on a lot of their items. This, of course, is assuming you have any money to spend to begin with.

So you see, saving money doesn’t have to be so bad. At least that's what I'm trying to convince myself of. What are some techniques you use to save money?