Just Don't Call Us Cheap.

I always get a little excited when I see a news story teaser for budgeting friendly tips, or when the Parade newspaper insert headlines an article about how to save your family money. You could be pocketing hundreds of dollars more a year with these easy steps! When recent figures show that it costs more $225,00 to raise ONE child from birth to age 18, what's not to like about learning how to save as much cash as possible? Especially when those projections don't even include college costs. Woof.

Then I read or see those stories and I'm almost always let down - Dan and I usually are already doing 90%  of the things they mention. We always joke that if that's the best they've got, then WE should be writing the tips.
So here you go; how the Schwartzs can help you save money:

1. Loyalty Programs - Are they a pain? Yes. Are they worth it? Every stinkin' keyring, slide card and username. Definitely sign up for your grocery store's program, whatever it is. Roundy's runs three or four promos a year through their FreshPerks program that can score you free food and store credits. Dan is also a huge fan of the program at CVS Drugstore where you get CVS ExtraCare Bucks after certain purchases, then use the Bucks to buy other items with Bucks offers and eventually you're not even spending actual money there! At Panera you just slide your card each time and randomly free items will pop up for that day. Solos Pizza has their similar PEP Club for free pizza. I feel like every store has one of these loyalty programs lately (not to be confused with credit/debit card offers, which can be equally awesome), and if you shop there with any sort of regularity then why not? I mean, just by plugging in the codes from all our packs of Pampers diapers I've gotten a free photobook, address labels, a toy for Henry and about $50 in free diapers. Definitely worth the 2 seconds it takes to type in the codes once a month. Dan uses his credit card rewards program to "buy" discounted gift cards, and I use my credit card to do the same as well as to get 15% off at Target and up to 30% off at Kohl's.

2. Review Your Bills - Our city bill came the other day and I thought, "Man, this seems high." Turns out that I forgot that I bumped up our garbage can size when Uncle Andy lived here and I haven't switched it back to the smaller size yet. Did you know that your city probably offers different sized garbage cans? Our city defaults to the larger size but if you request a smaller one you can save about $5/month or $60/year. Next, look at your energy bills. If they seem high (and you can often compare them to your prices from the previous year), then think about how to cut back on your energy usage (see #10). Lastly, review your phone/internet bill: I get a $10/month discount on my internet simply because I figured out that I could "bundle" my Verizon and Century Link bill into one. I still have the two providers but I get one sheet of paper each month and I save money :: win win. Speaking of paper, a lot of companies will offer incentives for going paperless. I got a 0.5% discount on my student loans by going electronically and a one-time $15 store credit at Kohl's by going electronic.

3. Shop Clearances - I'm addicted to clearances in a bad way. Most of my friends know my loyalty to Kohl's Vera Wang line, and I never buy any of it unless it's on a clearance rack. All of my holiday decorations were bought for pennies on the dollar during seasonal clearances. And there are whole blogs dedicated to Target clearance shopping. My basic observations are that items go 30% off, then 50% then 70% (seasonal or holiday are the only things that seem to go 90% off). New toys are added to clearance racks on Thursdays, as are baby items. The best spots to find items are on back end caps (the back sides of aisles that you can't see from the main walkway). Sometimes Dan and I go to Target just to walk the back end caps! I keep an eye on clearances all year and will buy Christmas presents in April because it's a great deal and then I can buy more for someone (see #6).

4. How are You Connected? - Someone told me the other day that they spend $100/month on cable/dish TV.  Say wha?? That's ridiculous. We chose to have internet over cable at our house, and it clearly saves us a bunch of money. Do I miss not being able to watch Cupcake Wars, Design on a Dime and the football games broadcasted on ESPN? Yes. Do I wish I could chime in on discussions about Mad Men, Project Runway and Miley Cyrus's VMAs fiasco? Sometimes. But let's be honest, if I had all those channels I would just watch more TV. Instead, I have what I need: PBS for Downtown Abbey and Sesame Street, the Networks (CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox) for nightly news and awesomeness like HIMYM, Big Bang, Parenthood, Sunday Night Football, and the occasional reality TV indulgences. Plus, I can just use our internet to stream anything else I would want (which, btw, I call our ISP about twice a year to make sure we're getting the best rate - have the rates of competitors on hand and you can usually knock 5 or 10 dollars a month off your bill). On the same thread, there's no reason for Netflix, in my opinion. If we have time to watch a movie, we can usually find what we want at a Redbox. That way we spend maybe 3 bucks a month instead of 10 (or whatever). Better yet, check out DVDs from the library for free. Little savings add up!

5. Couponing/Planning - So I should really have Dan do a guest post on couponing since he's the one that actually does it for our family. I think people associate couponing with the crazies on Extreme Couponing, and while I wouldn't know for sure since we don't have cable to watch that show (see #4), I don't think we're anywhere near that. Basically, I make a list of all the possible meals I might make in a particular week/two week chunk (if I have extra time, I'll actually organize the list by day so that if I have to buy something out of the ordinary like cilantro, I'll make sure there are a couple meals within a few days that will use it all up). Even if making this list was all we did, that little bit of planning can save you literally HUNDREDS of dollars a year because you don't end up running into the store multiple times a week for one-off ingredients. 
But anyway, after I make my "menu", I give the list to Dan and he collects the necessary coupons. We get two Sunday papers to collect our coupons. There are also coupons in a few of my magazine subscriptions and we often get some in the mail as well. We pick them up from those little dispensers in the store aisles, from taste sample tables when available, and sometimes can peel them off food packaging too. We use our printer for the rest by following an online blog. Now, there are a million resources you can use to grocery shop on the cheap, but Dan uses Pocket Your Dollars. She does all the hard work each week for a variety of stores and you just have to do what she says. The idea is you stack a sale price with a store coupon with a manufacture's coupon on Double Coupon Day at the grocery store. Example: Skippy Peanut Butter is usually around $3-$4/jar, but at Rainbow it's on sale this week for $1.78 when you use their flyer's coupon. Then, you use a $.55 off 1 coupon that's listed on PYD which will be doubled to $1.10. That will make the peanut butter $.68 for a jar. Often, Dan walks away with 60% overall savings, which means instead of spending $100/week on groceries we're only spending $40 or so. 
Coupons aren't just for groceries. If we go out to eat, I almost always Google the restaurant before we leave to see if there's a coupon on their website and there almost always is (which can save us anywhere between $5-$10 a meal or score us a free appetizer or dessert). I don't think we've ever bought diapers without coupons :: normally diaper are about $.35/diaper, but we spend about $.15/diaper, or at LEAST half off. I use coupons for services like dry cleaning or carpet cleaning.We also use coupons for gas: Tuesdays is double coupon day at both Holiday and SuperAmerica stations, and they take competitor coupons. That means we always plan to fill up on Tuesdays because we can often get $.20-$.30 off per gallon. It doesn't seem like much, but trust me, it adds up.

6. The Schwartz Pantry, Schwartz Toy Store & Schwartz Gift Shop - Couponing can be a problem if you don't have anywhere to store your goods. Luckily, we have a huge basement with nothing but space to fill. Because here's the thing :: obviously you can't stock up on everything, but when you can find toilet paper for pennies a roll, you buy all you can. It doesn't go bad, and you're going to use it. Right now in our basement, we have 23 rolls of paper towels, near 50 rolls of TP, well over 500 diapers and enough Kleenex for four flu seasons. We've got boxes of pasta, at least a dozen boxes of cereal, and flour/sugar/baking supplies to easily get me through the holidays this year. Just be sure to watch your expiration dates and if you are getting close, donate to a food shelf - it was near free anyway so who cares if you can't use it fast enough. It took us a while to get the hang of stockpiling though - at one point we had 5 bottles of A1 (we have steak maybe twice a year), enough toilet bowl cleaner for literally a decade and waaay too many canned goods. We've figured it out though! 
The other half of our basement is our "Toy Store & Gift Shop". When things go on sale that would make good gifts for Henry, family or a friend's future baby, we buy it and add it to the inventory. I almost have this Christmas's shopping done, Henry has toys for many occasions to come (classics like water guns and kites...be careful with trendy stuff because it might not be "cool" by the time you actually give the gift). I like doing it this way because we budget a per person gift allowance for birthdays and Christmas and by getting things on sale we can get people multiple inexpensive presents, but that have a high VALUE. 

7. Secondhand is GOOD - There is nothing wrong with shopping Goodwill/Savers, Once Upon a Child, garage sales and even Craigslist. Dan got our beautiful crib on Craigslist and it was hardly used and even after we brought a new mattress it was still a fraction of the original price. I got a multi-piece child gate for $30 that retails for $80 :: it had been used once. My china hutch was a $5 find (!!) at Goodwill. My sewing machine was free at a winding-down garage sale, and Dan's lawn mower was free on the side of the road. Many of Henry's clothes are from garage sales for a dollar or less an item (some things have still had the tags on!). I'm fond of Goodwill on Thursdays because it's Toddler Thursdays which means all the toys and kid's clothes are 1/2 half their already low prices. If you buy toys secondhand, just wash with a bleach solution or run them through the dishwasher and then scrub with a Magic Eraser to get rid of any scruff marks and I swear they'll look brand new.

8. Do It Yourself - We save so much money by doing things ourselves. Dan changes the oil in our cars saving us about $15 a time (more when he coupons the oil). He also installed our Andersen windows upstairs and our new porch windows saving us thousands of dollars. He changes our bike tires when they blow instead of taking them to the bike shop. He installed our water heater and toilet, and fixes our appliances when they go on the fritz. (Geez, maybe I should rename this "Marry a Handyman"). I do stuff too though, I swear! I wash and vacuum the cars instead of going to the car wash. I do any of our tailoring. I make a lot of decor on the cheap (pillow shams, centerpieces, holiday decorations, etc.). I make a lot of birthday cards and presents.  And with the exception of this year, I usually tend a garden so we can have free produce in the summer. I can tomatoes and applesauce to have for the winter so we don't have to buy any.

9. Pay More Up Front - I know, I know. How is paying MORE going to save money? But often you end up saving in the long run.  For example, I often take Henry to this indoor arena/park. It costs $6/visit or I could buy 20 visits for $100. We're going to go anyway and now we just saved $1 each visit. Likewise, the beach near our house is $6/day, but I bought our summer passes for $15/person and we got two free guest passes. so basically I paid the daily fee five times and the rest of the summer was free just by paying up front. It works for groceries too. It's more expensive to buy the jumbo packs of chicken pieces, obviously, but after we split the big pack into smaller portions and freeze them for future use, it's way cheaper per pound. At the grocery store, you should always compare the different sized containers and look at the price label :: they spell out the price per ounce/unit and usually, but not always, the bigger package is the better deal even if it costs more. If you're going to eat it anyway, why not just save? 

10. Energy Sucks - Have you ever thought of getting a home energy audit? Some cities and utilities will do them for free at certain points during the year, otherwise they're very affordable. They basically assess your house to figure out what's not energy efficient or where you could save money. We found out that our shower vent was essentially a direct hole to outside :: until we can replace it, we keep the bathroom door closed when we have the A/C on and our upstairs becomes instantly cooler. They figured out which windows sucked the most (literally) and we replaced them. You can save on your energy bills in other ways by following advice from websites like this and this. Just by doing little things like actually programming your thermostat and knowing how to optimize your ceiling fans (they have a winter setting, who knew?) can save you lots of money over the course of a year.

11. Cheap Thrills - We don't go to the movies very often anymore, but when we do we almost always go to the second run theater down the street. The movies are a few weeks older but the admission is, like, $3 instead of the $10 we'd pay at the big theater. When I see live theatre, I will do Educator/Student Rush for cheap tickets. For other inexpensive or free activities you should check out this post i did a few weeks ago.

12. Can I have a Discount? - It never hurts to ask for a discount on certain things. I do it a lot on clothes that might have a minor flaw that I know I can either quickly sew or wash to fix. Usually stores offer 10-15% off for flawed merchandise if you just ask. I've asked for discounts when I'm buying a lot of the same item (like a volume discount). I've asked for a discount when I pay in cash at a store that I know prefers it. Depending on your city of residency, occupation or other characteristics, you can get discounts too. Teachers get discounts on all kinds of things. I get 15% off at Michael's Craft Store, and my membership to Sea Life Aquarium is discounted so much with my staff badge that it barely costs more than one regularly priced daily admission.

13. Cut the Fat - Just for a month, or even just a week, save every receipt from every purchase you make. Go through them and look for patterns, money suckers, or over indulgences. Better yet, check out mint.com which does all the tracking and organizing for you. Are you going to Starbucks five days a week? Cut to three. Can't do it? Get a small instead of a medium. I realized that I was stopping for a soda between teaching and tutoring more often than I thought, so I stopped that in a quick hurry and starting bringing a beverage from home with me. We've done this to evaluate how much we're spending going out to eat, or are making random stops at Target. Cutting out the extras can save you hundreds or even thousands of dollars a year.

14. Extra Income -  While I can't exactly babysit for cash anymore, there are other ways to bring home a little bit of extra money here and there. Both Dan and I are food testers through FPI and for about an hour every couple months, we can bring home around $300/year or more. And it's fun. And awesome. At one point, Dan looked at being a Mystery Shopper where you can make about $20 a shopping trip plus keep whatever the merchandise is. My credit union is running a program right now where if I visit a branch once a month I get $5 each time. Again, these can be small things but they'll add up over time.

15. E-mail Clubs - Ugh. Yeah, they fill up my inbox. But the deals! Join Noodles & Co. "Noodlegram" club and you get a free dinner during your birthday month. My sister sends me the e-mails from Einsteins Bagels for free bagels a couple times a year. Dan gets Famous Dave's e-mails that always have discounts or free food. Join the Fab mailing list and you get free stuff about once a month. Victoria's Secret does free underwear every now and then. We haven't paid full price for a pizza in over a year because of Papa John's e-mails and mailings from Davanni's. We buy CrowdCuts, LivingSocials, Groupons, Deal Chickens and others for places that we will already be going to to save money. A lot of clubs have moved away from the free stuff and just do coupons for money off or free appetizers or desserts, but if you're going anyway... :-)

I've heard about "trading" too, but I've never done it. The idea is that you trade something you have or something you can do for what you want :: maybe you babysit your friend's kids and in return she splits off her hostas or tulips for your yard so you don't have to buy them. Your husband paints your neighbor's garage and she sews your curtains.You can check out Thrifty Tiff for other ideas for trading and for saving money in general. 

That's all I got! Ideally you already knew all about these things, and you're thinking that YOU should be writing the tips. So share! Leave a comment about how you and your family help save a dollar here and there...