Tips and Tricks on Saving Money – Amanda’s Personal Saving Story

A big THANK YOU to everyone who has sent in their Personal Savings Stories and photographs.  I hope by sharing other people’s money savings tips here on One Hundred Dollars a Month we can all find new ways to save rock our budgets this year. ~Mavis

This week we are featuring Amanda from Iowa. Here’s what she has to say:

Hi Mavis! I’m Amanda. I’ve been reading your blog daily for a few years. I live in Iowa with my husband and my kids, ages 13 and 15. I have recently started blogging on personal finance over at centsiblyrich.com. I chose a few of the questions you put out there to share some of my money saving strategies.

Though I can’t claim to have every gotten my monthly food budget down to $100, I’ve always tried to keep it low. We are a family of four with two adult sized teenagers and of late our monthly food cost has been around $300. The $300 does not include beef, as we purchase a whole grass­fed steer from a local farmer each year and split it with my parents. Call me crazy, but I get excited every Tuesday when the new grocery store ads come out! Shopping the loss leaders at multiple stores (all very close together for me), along with filling in at Aldi and Costco is the main way I save on groceries.

Like you and many of your readers, I stock up when there is a good sale. I know prices on everything I buy, so I can spot a great deal when I see it. Fifteen years ago, I read a book that suggested creating a pricebook with a list of all of the items you typically purchase and track the lowest price you see it sell for, so you know when to stock up. I did this then, but don’t need to any more, as the pricebook is all in my head. I know my prices!

Two years ago we moved to a house on one acre, so last year I was able to dabble in gardening. I had four raised beds and planted 8 fruit trees. The garden is expanding to six raised beds this year, plus I will throw more edibles into the landscaping.

This past fall, I was able to freeze and can about 20 quarts of applesauce, as a neighbor down the road has apple trees and allows others to pick for FREE! The bike path near our home also has mulberry trees which yielded some tasty jam.

Lucky for me, an amazing consignment store is located in my small town. The owner only accepts up to date, clean clothing, arranges everything by size, and has a beautiful store. Every month, she has sale items from 50-­75% off and a $1 section. I consign what my family doesn’t need, so many times I shop for free with the proceeds from my consigned clothes.

When I cannot find what is needed at the consignment store, I shop local thrift stores, such as Goodwill, and yard/garage sales. If I still don’t have any luck, Target usually comes through for me. My teen son is the hardest person to buy for and many of his jeans come from Target.

Sometimes, my kids want clothes that I can’t find used or on sale. Call me a terrible, mean mother, but when they want an expensive hoodie or other item, they either need to ask for it for their birthday or buy it themselves.

No doubt about it, we are rehab/DIY addicts, which is our major downfall.

Initially, when we decide on projects, we think of all the money we will save doing the work ourselves. Yet, just doing the projects in the first place costs quite a bit, as materials certainly add up! In the last two years, we have finished a 1000 sq. foot room in our basement (complete with a pallet wood plank wall), landscaped our entire yard, planted 100+ small trees, built a fire ring, built floating shelves, a farmhouse table, and a bed, along with finishing the inside of a four season room we added on.

The madness needs to stop! We currently have had a case of DIY burnout, which is easier on the pocketbook.

To vacation or not to vacation?

Well, to vacation, of course! We have been known to take up to four per year, but are down to two now since the kids are older. Some may not consider our trips “real” vacations, since we frequently take our camper, but we love it.

Now that gas prices have dropped it is even more economical for us to tow our camper further distances. National parks are typically on our agenda, so we buy the park pass, pack our own lunches, and enjoy nature. Campsites are an average of $40 per night and we cook our own food, allowing us to travel on a budget.

When we take a “real” vacation, we use credit card rewards to subsidize the cost. This year we are going to Disneyworld, with free flights and five free nights in hotels. Although we will go out to eat more than when we go camping, we still buy a cooler and go grocery shopping to take care of most breakfast and lunches on the cheap.

Our family vacations have allowed us to create wonderful memories of the experiences we have with our kids. The quality time spent together in a relaxed atmosphere, along with the adventures we seek out are absolutely priceless.

What don’t we pay for?

As I was walking through a local home improvement store last week, a Dish Network representative asked what service we currently use for tv programming. You should have seen the look on her face when I replied that we use an antennae! “An antennae?” she says in disbelief. Apparently she doesn’t get that reply very often.

The tv is rarely on in our house. We do get local channels plus we have a DVD player and can stream though our laptop. Our daughter frequently watches movies and series through Amazon Prime on her ipad and our son loves the techie channels on youtube. Considering all of the online options, we see no need to pay for a satellite or cable tv.

Being avid DIYers, we rarely pay for services other than those that are essential, like water, gas and electricity. My husband is a very adept handyman, fixing anything that breaks around the house, plus he has enough knowledge of cars that we can take care of maintenance and many repairs ourselves. Of course, we do our own landscaping, mowing, snow removal, house cleaning, and cooking.

We don’t pay for fancy new cars. In the past, we would frequently trade vehicles and had payments, but this has all changed and really impacted the finances in a positive way. Our cars are newer, but paid for, and we intent to keep them long term.

No one in my family goes to a hair salon. I cut my husband and son’s hair with Wahl clippers. My mom, a former beauty school graduate (in the 70’s!), cuts my daughter’s and my hair. No highlights, no color, though the gray is starting to show!

We like to eat at restaurants occasionally, but we don’t do this on a regular basis.The food is typically better at home and it is more of a treat for everyone when we do decide to go out to eat.

Though it is sometimes a pain, we trim our Shih Poo’s fur ourselves with clippers/scissors, bathe her and trim her nails ourselves. She’s cute even with a bad haircut. 🙂 Thank you, Mavis, for all of your money saving and gardening tips! I look forward to reading every day!

~ Amanda in Iowa

If you would like to have your Personal Savings Story featured on One Hundred Dollars a Month, I would love to feature it on the blog. Just answer 5-7 {or all if you really want to} of the questions listed in the original Personal Savings Story post and submit 3-5 QUALITY photos to go along with them.

Send submissions via email to onehundreddollarsamonth @ gmail.com {remove the spaces} and be sure and put Personal Saving Stories in the subject line.

If I feature your pictures and the stories behind them on One Hundred Dollars a Month, I will send you a $20.00 gift card to the greatest store in the world: Amazon.com. It’s that easy.