How to SAVE Money!

After going to Dani Johnson's First Steps to Success, I was intrigued by her series called War on Debt. Now anyone with debt can agree with me, when I say... IT SUCKS!!! One of her first assignments is to eat everything in your house before going grocery shopping. I thought we were almost out of food before I left for this weekend seminar, but came home and saw the amount of food we had in our pantry. We lasted TWO weeks before grocery shopping again. That just goes to show, we live in EXCESS and gluttony. Some people go 4 MONTHS WITHOUT SHOPPING! Imagine... all that food, and we have the audacity to throw it away!! Awful.

Then she talks about SAVING money by cutting the "fat" out  of your budget, meaning the unnecessary items, if it's not a necessity, it's a LUXURY.

Necessities: food, shelter, water, clothing (no not shopping!).
Luxuries: cable, multiple TVs, multiple cars, Netflix, Starbucks, going out to eat 1x a week or more, you get the idea.

So the fat we have cut out of our budget is:
-Direct TV (thank goodness, anyone else think TV is just a bunch of crappy ads?)
-Security system (I have three dogs and some weapons. do NOT mess with us)
-Cutting our grocery bill in HALF and trying to stick to $30 per person a week
-Only eating out 1x a month or less!
-NO unnecessary shopping (See ya TJ Maxx and Marshalls)

So then she talks about ways to SAVE....

This can be done in a multitude of ways.
-Selling a car, bikes, recreational toys that you hardly use, clothes, furniture, etc
-No longer using paper towels, napkins (go GREEN!), and replacing with rags
-Making your own cleaners
-Making your own detergents, my friend Amanda Allen told me about this one: http://beingcreativetokeepmysanity.blogspot.com/2010/11/homemade-laundry-soap.html
-Stop using paper plates (guilty!)
-Buy whole chickens, and use the stock for cooking
-Couponing
-Shopping on the outside of the aisles at the grocery store
-Hold a garage sale and go through EVERYTHING that doesn't get used or you haven't seen in 6mo! (that includes the Wii you said you would always play!)
-making your own shampoo
-only watering the lawn at certain times/days (I personally have dirt for a backyard, and my front yard...well we park in it!)
-farmers markets for fruits and veggies


So I decided to ask on FB what my fellow friends do to pinch pennies and here are the answers!

As you can see there are PLENTY of ways to save. Imagine all that savings and fat going towards your debt, or dream vacation. I seriously no longer look at clothes and luxuries the same. I'm not sure who I was trying to please when I was shopping for clothes non stop or thought I needed this and that to be happy. If anything I had buyers remorse and a closet full of clothes with price tags on them! You too? 

In just that seminar of 1,000 people, about 80 did War on Debt and paid off around 7 million dollars! AMAZING. I wonder what this great country has paid off this year in debt? Makes you wonder where things are headed! 

If you have ways to save money and want to share, please email me or post below. I love gathering ideas and learning new things!