Saving Money on Food

Our family spends a lot of money on food. So I am willing to bet it’s the same for your family too. So how do we make our food budget go father? Even more important, how can we afford to buy some extra so if something big and unexpected comes up – would we (you) be able to deal with it because you know you can live off what food you already have?

The first thing I recommend is getting a stand alone freezer. And everyone CAN find room where they live for one. We live in a tiny apartment and we have the smallest freezer they make. But our tiny freezer has made a big difference in our food budget. I am able to buy a lot more when it’s on sale and just skip the meat department when things aren’t on sale. We also have a HUGE stock of frozen veggies, bottles of frozen juice and some frozen bread.

I cut coupons from the Sunday paper. I get coupons in the mail and email and print them out and use them. I shop the local farmers market for fresh fruits and veggies. We are lucky living in Southern California that we have farmers markets year round. And one other place we get extra money for our children’s food is WIC (Women Infants and Children) it’s a state run agency that give checks each month to families under certain incomes with children under 5 years of age. Look at your states web site or Google to see what your state offers. Many people may qualify and don’t know it. You can get up to $60 a month per child under 5 in California. It’s a HUGE help for us. And the larger your family is (total) the more money you can make and still qualify, but only the children under 5 years old will qualify for the checks. You pay taxes … see if you qualify and use every resource you can. They are there to HELP you, not look down on you.

And the last thing to spread your food budget farther … is learn to make a few more items from scratch. Now I am all about saving time but something’s you can do with your kids for fun and save money too. A simple example is making cookies. You can go out and buy the refrigerated cookie dough and just spoon them onto a cookies sheet and bake. Yes super easy, but for a whole lot less you can make cookies from scratch and have a lot more cookies! Do I suggest making your own bread every morning?? Not unless you love doing it! But once in awhile fresh baked bread is a nice treat!

A one Income family

Today’s economy is not geared to a one income family. In fact, as my mother tells it, back in the 60’s when women started working to earn a little extra cash to improve there family’s financial status, an interesting side effect occurred. The business realized that people had more money to spend so they started upping the prices, because now people wanted things more and could afford them. 40 years later – how many families can live on one income and have the middle class American Norman Rockwell family life of the 1950’s?

Not many people can afford to do that. In fact I was reading last night that when politicians talk about the “middle class” or “the back bone of America” for things like tax breaks … usually its $65,000 – to 200,000 a year. However when taxes payers were asked if they were middle class, people earning $45,000 – 200,000 considered themselves to be middle class.

Now how many people can earn 65,000 a year these days on one income? Not as many as you may think. And certainly the back bone of America is the working class, which is mostly UNDER those middle class numbers.

So now why should you make the decision to be a one income family? The best reason is you are the best person to raise your kids the way you want them raised. Kids need the love and attention of there parents, and always having a parent at the ready will help them grow up secure. Being with your children so much will also help you be more aware of there needs and any problems they may be having. You will be more alert to when your children need you the most. And at the end of your life, you can take nothing with you except the memories and love of the ones your shared your life with. Would you rather have memories of strangers at work? Or memories of watching your children and grandchildren grow up? I promise you if you make the decision to stay at home and raise your family, it will be worth it in the end.

Paying off your credit cards and other debt

In today’s economy we need to find ways to get financially stable as soon as possible. Credit cards generally have the highest APR’s and therefore take more of your money. You should try to get these paid off first. Start with the credit card with the highest interest rate and pay it off first. Once you pay that credit card off, use the money you were paying on the first credit card and add it to your monthly payment of your credit card with the second highest interest rate. You continue like that until all your debt is paid off.

To help this process along there are a few things you can do...
#1 Whenever you get extra money, don’t go out and spend it, put it towards what you have already bought!!! Extra money may be your tax refund, a bonus from work or birthday and Christmas money. I know it doesn’t sound like fun and you want to go out and spend it on you … but try thinking about it in a new way. You are spending it on you … you just bought the item already!

#2 With credit cards a good way to get ahead is to pay on it every week. We get paid once a week and started putting ¼ of the payment to the card each paycheck. To our surprise we found a difference within 3 months of paying this way. A lot of people don’t have enough money around to just start this up today, so maybe with your tax refund put it towards your bills to get one month ahead. Pay weekly on whatever you can …. This will help you pay off the debt sooner.

#3 A very good way to pay off your home sooner is, every tax refund you receive you put it towards your home. I have read studies that say if you do this you will pay off your home 7 YEARS earlier!!! But please check your contract and make sure there are no early pay-off penalties! You don’t want to get stuck paying penalties.