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Infants, Toddlers, & Preschoolers
What is the number one (or two) thing you do to save money?
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Anonymous
| Bought far less house than what we qualified for. |
Anonymous
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Make weekly menus for DD's lunch and family dinners. Eat dinner for left overs.
Biggest and weirdest thing- called service providers. Told AT &T we were going to bite the bullet, pay the termination fee because the rates were ridiculous- magically found a family plan that has sufficient data, voice, etc. features for about $75 less than our current family plan - even got credit for unused time from our old ridiculously bloated plan. Talked to new cable co- a year of bundled service phone/internet/cable for about $50 less a month than now paying for internet and cable alone. Talked to credit card co - lower rate. It is not something I love doing, and honestly would have never thought it would work, but it's amazing (and a bit disconcerting) how much companies will just charge because you don't have time/patience to ask. |
Anonymous
LOL! My DH dooes this if I am out of town or even have a girls' night out. Amazing what he will come up with to eat. As our son gets older, he is starting to try to feed him some of his crazy concoctions, too! |
Anonymous
| We actually do opposite of what one PP said- we shop at Whole Foods for veggies and fruit. While we pay more upfront for their unbelievably beautiful produce, we also eat it more b/c it's so nice and fresh. Unlike at, say, Giant or Safeway, where the produce is anemic-looking and it sits and goes to waste in the fridge b/c people are not inspired to eat it. |
Anonymous
Us too. Best choice we've made. |
Anonymous
| I but almost all kid clothes and toys used...consignment sales, yard sales, etc. |
Anonymous
Should say, I buy... |
Anonymous
This. We've stayed in our townhouse that we bought in 2001. We now have 2 kids and it's starting to get cramped, but we can afford the mortgage on 1 salary and will have it paid off in about 10 years. We also can't buy a lot of stuff because we don't have a lot of storage space. I've pared way down on toys/clothes and don't miss it at all. After all, most of us tend to wear the same favorite outfits over and over again out of habit. We also bought a used minivan instead of a new one. My husband drives my 1995 Honda Accord with over 200K miles to the commuter lot where he usually slugs. |
Anonymous
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We both work.
No Starbucks. Yes - it is true we make our own coffee. No vacation this year. |
Anonymous
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OP here. The WF thing is interesting. We actually shopped at three different grocery stores three times each to compare our food costs. We found that we spend MORE at Harris Teeter than at WF and we saved about $18 at Safeway, but the food was far worse. It seemed worth our $75 a month.
It is very interesting to know that others have saved so much by not buying at WF. We thought for sure we'd be saving a bundle, but - same lists and everything - we just didn't. |
Anonymous
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Eat dinner at home/pack lunch as much as possible.
Shop at Costco for anything we can buy there (diapers and formula are SO much cheaper there) Do my own nails and color my own hair Plan meals based around what is on sale or what I have coupons for We never go to the movies--I'll wait for it on Netflix Clean my own house (but that may have to change soon--that is one thing that I think it worth the money) I WISH I could convince my husband to eliminate or, at the very least, cut down on our cable plan. His reasoning that having Showtime "only" adds $25 each month is ridiculous!! |
Anonymous
I agree with this completely. For the types of food I buy, WF is cheaper than HT and about the same as Giant but the Giant food is completely inferior in quality. We do nearly 100% of our shopping at WF (except meat, which we buy at Costco). I have compared the exact same product at the three stores (e.g. a specific brand of organic milk) and found my WF consistently had the same or better price than the other stores. Produce is the same story - same or better price for in season produce at WF but much better quality. Sometimes I think my WF must be an anomaly with their pricing. |
Anonymous
NP here. Same here. We never did. We even tried Wegmans, and spent more! My husband and I have gone back and forth on WF versus Safeway/Giant, and have found that we still spend a lot at Giant/Safeway, because we eat a lot of vegetables and we prefer organic. We don't eat processed foods, if we can avoid it. Also, factory farm meats and dairy terrify me. We also make our own baby food so it is even more important to get good quality veggies. |
Anonymous
| I have started making desserts/cookies instead of buying - it's not huge, but it saves us $10 or so a week (which adds up) - like the others, taking lunches. |
Anonymous
| I use rechargable batteries in my rabbit |