In a lot of families dad makes the money and it is Mom’s duty to ensure that his pay goes a long way.
Mom is at home, so she has time to pay all the bills, to do most of the purchases of food, household items and to buy the necessary clothing. Does it sounds familiar?
When the family relies on one income, it is quite a task to provide all that necessary without the use of a credit card, and going into debt.
Here are my top three ways to easily save a considerable amount of money:
- When I’m planning to buy electronics, furniture or pricier items, and I have an exact product in mind, I do a search on the internet and find at least three different retailers and compare their prices. Instead of just walking into Harvey Norman, first I check out their website and the website of Goodguys and any other local retailers. Than I know which sells item I want for the best price and it often can be a huge difference.Depending on the item, I check out Ebay and if the item is not too large and heavy and the postage is not too high, I buy it online. I found it to be cheaper to get my beauty products from Ebay. (Set up your Ebay search to show the listings by price lower to higher.)
- Many times I buy used items. I ask myself: do I need this item to be brand new or a used one will do the job? I needed a cloths dryer. My son was 2,5 years old and going through toilet training = lots of dirty pants and undies. It’s winter with lots of rainy days and it took long time for the cloths to dry. I realized that I do need a dryer now even if it won’t be very frequently used in the rest of the year. I have been able to pick up a dryer in perfect working condition from Gumtree for ¼ of the price of a new one. Gumtree is a great place to get bargains. I got a brand new bread-maker a few years ago for half price, the lady who sold it, got it as a present and she already had one. She sold it as she did not needed it.I used to pick up kids clothes new or used from Gumtree or Ebay for bargain price as well. Kids needs lots of clothes but they are growing them out quickly and more often than not, the second hand clothes are still in pretty good nick.
- I have started to pay off a little bit more than the minimum payments each time I’m paying our car loan. How does it saves me money? By having to pay less interest. I have calculated that by doing this I’m saving around $500 this year. If you have a loan, you can save on interest payable just by paying off 20% more each time than your minimum payments. That 20% extra will lessens your principal and can save you hundreds or thousands in compounding interest over the years.
There are many more ways to save and I will share a few more ideas in my next post.
