To try to get us closer to our goal of buying land to build on, I am looking into many ways to make as well as save money. I’m going to focus on this list of 10 things to do to save money in 2013.
1. Cancel the Cable T.V. Yep, as much as Jeremy will hate to miss his fishing shows, this is a big waste of money! I find that we use Netflix more than cable television anyhow – in fact, I’m even considering getting a vpn for netflix to see if that will unlock more content from other countries that we don’t have on Netflix over here. Plus, we could always add in Hulu and still not pay anywhere close to what the cable expense is. I’m not sure if we can run Hulu Plus through the Wii as we do with Netflix, so we may need to make a small investment into the Roku LT Streaming Player
2. Cancel our Land Line. What a waste of money this is monthly! Why have I let it go on this long? Stupidity I guess. We mainly use our cell phones. We do need some sort of number to use for other business, but I am looking into magicJack Plus
3. Find a smaller house to rent. If I could get Jeremy to agree, I would totally ditch all of our stuff and move in to an RV while we save for and build our home. Better yet, if I could get him to build me a Tiny Home
4. Practice monthly no spending challenges. This is a task on my 101 in 1001 list and I hope to get started in January! Basically…you only spend money on your monthly necessities. This would include rent, utilities, groceries, toiletries, medicine if you need it and nothing else. No water bottle from the gas station, no snack while on the go, no eating out, no makeup, no extras! I don’t think this will be hard at all.
5. Food Co-op. Get back into using Bountiful Baskets. This is a great resource and a fun way to create new recipes. I have had great luck with Bountiful Baskets and it can really save you some money. I am thinking I need to step it up to 2 orders though to cover my family.
6. Preserve. This goes along with the food co-op. I need to be sure to preserve some of the food so it doesn’t get wasted. I have a great Excalibur Dehydrator
7. Stay home more often. The more you leave the house, the more you are at risk of spending. Stay home and don’t spend.
8. Barter more often. This is something I have done often, but I could totally step my bartering up.
9. Buy a deep freezer. Yes, I know that is spending money. However, buying a deep freeze will save us money. Maybe I can barter for one?
10. Buy a Vacuum Sealer
So that is my starting point! I’m going into this new year with a mission! I intend to stick to it. If you have any ideas to share, please leave them in the comments below.
Girl on Fire
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I wasn’t aware that you ever even left your house now? lol
Oh……how would you know? Hmmm??? Right before Christmas I was BARELY home. You haven’t been around me in almost a year. HATER
LOL!
Hey. About cutting the cable…80% of Americans didn’t know you could get free TV using an antenna last year. I don’t know what the statistic is now, but just in case anyone still doesn’t know, if you live in a metropolitan area you might be able to pick up enough channels just by sticking a paper clip in your TV’s antenna port. If you need / want to pull in more channels, WallTenna tested WAY better than the “#1 rated indoor antenna” (ah hem – Leaf – uh err). It costs $35 – less than most people’s monthly cable bill. If the indoor antenna doesn’t pull in enough channels in your area, you’ll need a rooftop antenna. Check out 3rd party reviews and customer feedback on Amazon and the website. I apologize if you’ve already discussed this. My shameless plug is because so many people don’t know it’s an option and we really have the best antenna. 98% of homes can get ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS and FOX over the air, and most get a lot more.
Thanks! I will check into it as well 🙂
We cancelled cable about six months ago, and we barely miss it. It was too much money for too few shows we liked. We use netflix, hulu plus and R has found live streams from England for F1 races, and lots of things are streamed live on the ‘net.
We had Magic Jack for about two years, and then the service went to (heck). Customer service couldn’t/wouldn’t help. If you need a second line, why not just get a trackphone? Cheap and easy, you can “refill” on the ‘net and they often have surprise sales on minutes (buy 30, get 10 zillion free).
Good luck, hope you can get your land soon.
Yes, I don’t think we will miss it all that much. We rarely watch anything on it. We use Netflix more often than anything else.
Thanks so much for the info on Magic Jack. It was suggested in a book I read by another blogger. With Trackphone do the minutes expire monthly if not used?
As I recall, with Trackphone, when you buy minutes, you’re also buying X number of days of service. As long as your days of service don’t run out, your minutes don’t expire.
I would never survive #4 LOL
I need a deep freezer big time. I’d love to make double meals and freeze a portion – we just dont have room in our freezer for it.
My cousin SWEARS by her food vacuum thingie.
Great list!
Yea, it will be hard. I will just try to pack snacks and water bottles for when I have to leave the house.
Excellent tips-I’ve given up on cable & a land line also-it’s just not needed. Thank you for the other ideas-as a single mom of 2 teens we have to stretch every dollar!
These are some great ways to save money. I would love to implement some of these ideas in our own home.