Over the time we’ve been married, we’ve been forced, due to the high cost of living in the Okanagan, to be creative with how we spend our money. It’s been a stress, a challenge, and a game at times… depending on how we’re feeling at the particular point in time. But, as we said in our very first post, it REALLY IS a sport, and looking at it that way goes miles for helping you feel more positive about having to stretch (or trying to stretch) the most mileage out of every penny.
So here are 10 (+1) of the major ways that we’ve managed to squeeze extra out of our monthly budget:
Coupons/Point Programs/Group Coupon Buying
This one’s probably really obvious (of course, the rest of them may be as well), but clipping coupons is a great way to shave a little extra off your grocery bill, or other things as well. Gift cards, rebates, coupons, discounts, points, etc. are all phenomenal ways to stretch things just a little further.
While coupons aren’t generally as good (or as common) in Canada as in the States, you can still make a dent in your grocery bill by clipping the “Save Fifty Cents” coupons off the sides of things your normally buy, or out of flyers and magazines. The trick with coupons is this: don’t think you’re saving if you’re buying something you normally wouldn’t buy. If you normally wouldn’t buy it, you’re actually spending more, even with the coupon! So only use coupons for things you would normally purchase anyway.
Coupon books are another way that you can save a lot or stretch your dollar further, but it pays to make sure that you know generally what’s in the coupon book before you purchase it (most coupon books are not free). Try and find someone who has already purchased the book you are thinking of buying, or talk to the company to find out what kind of coupons are contained inside. You can net yourself some MAJOR savings if you use these coupons properly (i.e. use as many as you can, and only on things you would have done/purchased anyways). Use them well enough, and you could save yourself enough to actually do some of the things that you wouldn’t normally be able to afford to!
Many stores offer point programs (or rewards cards, air miles, memberships, etc.). The basic concept is that you gain points for every dollar you spend, or gain access to discounts that you wouldn’t normally have if you were just walking into the store off the street. It may seem ridiculous, but we sign up for point systems (as long as they’re free!) at most stores that offer. The reality is, for the cost of carrying around a few more cards in your wallet, you can save yourself lots of money in the long run. We get our thanksgiving turkey every year simply because we have a points card with Save-On-Foods that allows us to collect points at Chevron gas stations. We hardly ever shop at Save-On, but I can fill up at Chevron for the sake of Thanksgiving turkey. The reality is, it’s no extra work on your part to sign up for the points, and who knows? In the long run, you may end up with things you couldn’t have otherwise purchased.
One of the newer things in this category is the concept of “Group Coupons”… sites like Groupon and Twongo, Dealfinder.ca, etc. are all based on the idea of “Team Buying”—if we can get x-amount of people to purchase this product, the company can offer it for cheaper. These can be really awesome, and open up some really neat opportunities to purchase/do things you couldn’t normally do, as well as make some of your regular things more accessible financially. But, as with any other coupon, make sure you’re not buying coupons for things you wouldn’t normally do/don’t need/weren’t planning on. The reality is, when it comes to coupons, impulse buying can negate all the savings you would have otherwise made.
Garage Sales/Thrift Stores/Classifieds Websites/Buying Second-Hand
Who needs it new, anyway? We’ve come to love Garage-saleing (when we have cash available), because it’s a phenomenal way to save money on things that can sometimes otherwise cost you an arm and a leg. My wife has become somewhat of an expert at bargaining her way down to the lowest possible price (she once picked up a $200 tent that had only been used once, and two $20 camping chairs for $15…that’s $225 in savings!) The mentality that we’ve adopted with garage sales is this: it may take longer to find what we’re looking for, but in the end, it’ll cost less, and likely have more character than if we bought it brand-new. Plus, there’s the thrill of the hunt.
Thrift stores are another gold mine for pretty well anything you could need or want. The trick is finding the right ones. Often, places like Value Village are pretty marked up (who really wants to pay $15 for a pair of jeans at a second-hand store?), but if you can find places like The Salvation Army, Bibles For Missions, MCC Thrift Stores, Hospital Auxiliaries, etc, the prices are pretty well unbeatable. The other bonus about thrift store shopping is that it usually goes to a good cause, so not only are you saving money, but you’re helping someone else out as well.
Classifieds websites (such as Craig’s List, Kijiji, or Castanet [in Kelowna, Vernon, and Penticton]) are excellent as well for being able to pick up cheap (or free!) items that you’re looking for on a budget. Most sites will have a free section, where people are offering things that they just want to unload. They don’t always have what you’re looking for, but it pays to frequent these sites, because you never know what you’ll find.
And of course, you can’t beat just buying something second-hand (from a store, or a friend). Who cares if it’s been used already (well, there are some obvious exceptions to that rule)…if it’s got life left in it, and it’s something you were looking for, why not?
Tracking Grocery Costs/Paying with Cash
For the first year that we were married, I tracked what everything cost at each grocery store we visited (with the exception of meat and produce, since the prices fluctuate so much seasonally). While it might seem extreme, by the end of that first year, we had a VERY good idea of what was cheaper where, and were able to plan our grocery purchases accordingly (we even DID figure out which stores generally had better prices on meats and produce). While it means that some shopping trips we’re visiting five different stores, the savings are SIGNIFICANT. This has made one of the most noticeable dents in our grocery bill. While tracking for a year might not be for you, it may pay to take a list of the 50 most common things you purchase, and take a day to go around comparing prices at your local stores. You might be surprised what you find. Remember, fifty cents here and fifty cents there adds up FAST.
Along this same vein has been paying for things with cash whenever possible. With the exception of our bills, which are either paid online or by cheque, we try and pay cash for anything else we purchase. There is something about having the physical money in your hand that makes you more careful and more aware of what you are spending. Cards are great, sure. And they’re convenient, too. But I can guarantee you’ll keep closer tabs on what you’re spending if you’ve only got a limited amount of cash on hand.
Freecycle/Advertising
Yahoo! Groups has a group here in Kelowna called “Freecycle”. The basic premise is this: You join the group, and commit to giving as much as you receive. Everything must be given and received for free or trade—no cash deals. So you can post a “want” ad for something (literally ANYTHING) you are looking for, or an “offer” ad for something (again, literally ANYTHING… someone was giving away a house from their farm one time!) you don’t need anymore. It’s amazing what you can find. We’ve landed a couple of dressers, five boxes of glass mason jars, some misc. baby items, a sprinkler, and a few other odds and ends through this group. We’ve also managed to get rid of some baby items, roller blades, humidifiers, etc. that we had laying around and weren’t using. It’s a really neat setup, and apparently they have groups like this on Yahoo! For other cities, too.
Just placing a “want” ad online on a classifieds site, or in the paper (if you’re willing to pay for it) can land you some great connections for discounted things as well. Just remember not to spend more on your advertising than you were going to pay for the item in the first place!
Trades/Swaps
The good old fashioned bartering system is not dead. In fact, if you’re willing to dig a bit, you’ll find it alive and well in most communities. Examples of this might be what my wife used to do in high school, where she traded music lessons for math tutoring, or when she traded office/administrative work for voice lessons. Nowadays, she trades 2 hours of childcare per week at a women’s gym in town for a free gym membership. These kind of swaps, where you trade services, can be HUGELY beneficial and very rewarding to both parties involved, and can lead to some really neat connections as a byproduct. Of course, trading one item for another, or trading in items for cash is also a great way to set yourself up with what you’re looking for.
Buying In Bulk
Whether it’s at a place like Superstore, the Bulk Food Store, or Costco (which DOES cost a membership fee), buying in bulk (when practical) is a HUGE money saver. Obviously, it’s not practical to purchase 3 gallons of Mayonnaise unless you have a family of 12, but whenever it’s practical, purchase larger quantities of things you use often. We purchase our toilet paper from Costco on a regular basis, and get 36 rolls for $17. Compare that to 12 rolls of the same TP for $9.99, and you’ve got more than $10 in savings. Obviously, if it’s not something non-perishable (or if you don’t have the freezer space), it may be impractical to purchase 12 pounds of mushrooms…but you get the point.
Even the extra cost (about $55 a year) for the Costco membership can easily pay for itself. We save the cost of our membership by simply purchasing our printer ink once (and we have to replace it SEVERAL times each year)… so in the end, the savings really outweigh the cost, if it’s a practical thing for you to purchase in bulk. Do the math on things next time you’re in the store… see how much cheaper the larger packages of certain major items are. If it makes sense, and you can financially pull it off (obviously there are times where it won’t work money-wise), save yourself the cash in the long run by purchasing in bulk. You’re usually paying for packaging on smaller products anyway.
Let’s face it. If you can pay $10 for ten pounds of rice, or $4.99 for 2, someone’s getting majorly ripped off buying the smaller package. And rice keeps forever. So what’s there to lose?
Farmer’s Markets/Gardening/Produce Swaps
Farmer’s markets not only support the local economy incredibly well, but can be a wealth of inexpensive and high-quality food and household items. If you happen to be fortunate enough to live somewhere near a good farmer’s market, take advantage of it. Even beyond the initial savings, getting to know the farmer or grower or crafter can sometimes lead to even better bargains and deals than you’d have previously thought.
Gardening (growing your own vegetables) is super easy in most cases, VERY inexpensive, and can be extremely rewarding, or even therapeutic, to some. Plus, it's pretty awesome when you can tell people that you grew the stuff they're eating (not to mention, it ALWAYS tastes better!)
Also along these lines are things like produce swaps, where members come with surplus produce from their own gardens and swap it for surplus from others’ gardens. Everyone ends up with things that they were looking for, and less food goes to waste, because suddenly so-and-so didn’t need to find something to do with her bumper crop of tomatoes, because she could trade them for what’s-her-face’s extra cabbages. Any kind of trading is awesome, and a major money-saver.
Meal Planning
Simple concepts like planning meals around things that you already have in the house, or planning around what’s actually on sale at the stores that week, can save you a lot in the long run. The reality is, you’ve probably got lots of things kicking around in your cupboard that you haven’t touched since you bought them 6-12 months ago. Pull them out. Take stock of them. Incorporate them into your next week of meals, and see how much you save on groceries because you had all that extra supplemental food. Something like a big bag of rice can go MILES as far as feeding people… and all you’ll have to do is buy a couple simple things to go through or on or in the rice, and you’ve got your meal. Suddenly dinner gets a whole lot cheaper.
Meal planning also allows you to plan meals that contain similar ingredients, cutting down on the amount of individual items that you’ll need to purchase. If three meals you’re making call for chicken breasts, you’ll save a lot more than if you need chicken for one, beef for another, and lamb for the third. So learn to look for common denominators, and leverage them to your advantage.
Making Things From Scratch/DIY Projects And Repairs
Some of the main things that we do in this area are reconstituting beans (soaking them from dry, rather than canned), baking, homemade ice cream (in our champion juicer), homemade bread, homemade sushi/ ethnic foods (instead of take-out). But even simple things like buying the noodles and veggies for your spaghetti, rather than the canned sauce, can save you lots in the long run. Many of these things take some foresight and planning ahead, but if you can learn to incorporate them into your life, you will save yourself plenty to make it worth the hassle.
Example: A bag of flour (10 kg) costs $7. A big bag of yeast costs about the same. Add some water, a dash of salt, and some other few-odd small ingredients, and you’ve got bread. Do you have ANY CLUE how many loaves of bread 10kg of flour will make? There’s 7 cups of flour to a kg. you do the math. It’s WAY less than you’ll pay for the bread in the store. And the same principle applies to most other foods you can make at home, rather than buying premade or canned versions.
But the homemade principle applies to other things as well… it takes very little time to learn a lot of the basic repairs you need to do around the house, or even the basics of vehicle maintenance… learning to change your brakes and oil can save you hundreds of dollars every year. Sure, it takes some time. But if you’re saving money, it’s almost like you’re being paid to do the job… =)
Biking/Walking/Taking Public Transit
Even beyond the obvious health benefits of walking or biking, and the environmental savings of those or public transit, these methods of transportation can save you buckets in the long run. Yearly bus passes aren’t usually that expensive, and most major cities have fairly decent bus systems. Walking or biking to places that are close by (within a half-hour walk) can save you tons in no time are all, and really, just take a little more time and planning to get to. But we all need to slow down a little anyway. If you can plan to walk or bike to further off places, you’ll save yourself even more. But here’s our experience:
We drive a 2002 Mazda Protege5. This car is pretty good on gas (400km in town or 700km on the highway on 45L of gas…that’s like 33mpg in town, and 55mpg on the hwy). I live just over 2 km. away from work. By simply cutting out my driving to and from work every day (I bike most days, instead), we save ourselves a little over $50 in gas every month. That adds up FAST.
So take a look at where you can walk/bike/bus to in your life… you might enjoy the change of pace, you’ll benefit from the exercise, and the extra cashflow freedom won’t hurt your wallet, either.
Refusing To Pay For Extras
This one is perhaps the most challenging to most people, because it boils down to what you consider to be the essentials in life.
For us, this means we don’t pay for TV, because we don’t need it.
It means we don’t own two cars, because we don’t need them.
It means we bike or walk where we can, because we don’t need to drive.
It means we shop at thrift stores, because we don’t need to buy it brand new all the time.
It means we doctor up our $5 pepperoni pizzas with extra toppings at home, because there’s no way that it costs them $1.50 to put three mushrooms on our pizza.
It means we usually make meals at home, and rarely eat out, because it’s not necessary. Convenient? Yes. Needed? No.
It means that we go pick things up instead of having them delivered.
It means that we make some sacrifices.
But it means that we can live a life that ultimately feels more fulfilled. The extras only clutter. Being able to save where we can, stretch in other places, and land some free stuff here and there is really a much more enjoyable way to live than having everything immediately at your fingertips. And who knows… maybe it’ll work for you, too.
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