21 Things We Stopped Buying To Save Money
Stopped Buying To Save Money
When you are cutting your spending to save money you truly have to look at what you are buying! Initially, before our debt reduction we would be brand specific. We would eat out several times a week. Learn what we stopped buying to save money.
I would hit up the coffee shop for a latté two or three times a week. We simply just weren’t watching what we were buying.
Family Finance And Saving Money
As a family we took a serious look at our finances and assessed where we wanted to be in the future. Our lives changed when we bought The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey.
Cutting Spending Learning To Budget
As a couple we attended Financial Peace University and learned where we were faulting in our budgeting and our spending.
If you need to get your finances, money and budgeting in check Financial Peace University is a great place to start.
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Overspending Money
We took a long hard look at what we were spending money on and I was surprised at the change it made in our budget and how much we were saving with just a few changes.
How To Save Money
You can save huge amounts of money by making simple frugal choices in what you spend your money on. Below we list off 21 things we stopped buying to save money. Now 21 things is a lot, you could stop buying 7 things and you will start saving more money.
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Being Smart With Money
Budgeting, couponing, living well on less, meal planning will all help you save money. Essentially being smart with your money and choosing the best option to make your money work the hardest is how you will save more cash.
Practical Ways To Save Money
Simple ways to save money are frugal tips you can incorporate into your daily life that aren’t hard. Simple choices that make a big impact.
Example Of Easy Ways To Cut Spending And Save Money
Some examples of practical ways to save money might be grocery shopping on a budget at a discount retailer, meal planning to include a few meatless meals, learning to cut back and choose cheaper entertainment or packing your coffee, water or lunch to go. Brown bagging and home cooking are by far the most practical money savers yet.
Things I No Longer Buy
Below you are going to see a great list of things we as a family stopped buying. But here is a glimpse of things I no longer buy:
Things You Can Live Without
When you really look at where you are spending all your money you can easily come up with a list of things you can live without.
Saving Money On Coffee
I have a Keurig coffee machine and I don’t buy single use Keurig pods? I am hands down a coffee drinker, so is my husband but we get more coffee for our dollar if we buy a pound of our favorite coffee and use reusable Keurig pods. This is one way we save a ton of money each month.
Things You Don’t Need To Buy
As humans we like things, we like food, we like stuff. If you need to save money I am sure you can think of things you don’t need to buy.
Back to my coffee note above. We drink a lot of it in our house. And yes we do the occasional coffee shop run. But we really don’t “need” to we have the coffee at home and here are 21 amazing Starbucks copycat recipes that help save us the money.
21 Things We Stopped Buying To Save Money
1. We stopped being brand specific with most of our groceries and relied on store sales and coupons to guide our purchases.
We also stopped impulse shopping, or last minute “let’s have this for dinner” shopping. Now we meal plan and it is life saver and an amazing money saver.
2. I will say we are brand specific to a few things. Such as TRESemme hair care products, I have naturally curly hair and I find their hair care products work great.
I have also bought the same moisturizer for all of my adult life. Fruit of the Earth Aloe Vera Gel is multi-faceted in uses such as body lotion, sunburn cream, shave gel, hair gel and first aid gel. I simply love the stuff.
We are a Celiac household so we are brand specific to a few gluten free companies such as Udi’s and Skinny Pop Popcorn.
3. We stopped eating out so much. When you add up eating out for a family of three, two or three times a week the bill could be somewhere close to $150 to $200 for a week. This is when I started meal planning.
4. I stopped buying deli meat and sandwich supplies for my husbands lunch for a few reasons. One they weren’t being eaten so the food was going to waste.
Two we purchased him an oven lunch box and this thing rocks. I can send leftovers or soups or chili and he can have a toasty warm lunch on the road. No more cold wasted sandwiches, just warm yummy lunches.
This helps use up the leftovers and decrease the food waste, which essentially is money wasted.
5. I stopped buying my coffee to go in the morning so did my husband. We invested in a great coffee maker, reusable filters and stainless steel coffee mugs. We are now saving $10+ a day.
6. We stopped buying reusable plastic containers and switched over to glass food storage, jars and stainless steel lunch containers. We switched to long term reusable lunch and food storage and we love it.
I stopped buying individual meat portions and food portions. I started buying bulk, farm to table portions. I invested in creating relationships with our local farmers markets, bulk buy locations and invested in food division and storage.
7. We stopped impulse shopping and learned to say “NO”. We planned, wrote lists and stuck to our budget.
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8. We decreased our mainstream big box shopping for appliances, books, toys and etc. We learned to look for sales, shopping online on Amazon, Craigslist, ebay and at local thrift stores.
9. We stopped buying stuff to impress people and started buying the things we need.
10. I stopped purchasing paper napkins and limited our other paper cleaning supplies. We switched to cloth napkins and cloth cleaning cloths.
11. I stopped buying small bottles of things we use regularly like shampoo, conditioner, ketchup and hand soap. We buy these in bulk and refill our current containers. This saves money and waste.
12. We stopped over buying food, there was so much food waste. Even though we were composting our food waste, we were basically throwing out money in the food we weren’t eating. Now we meal plan, we eat or freeze our leftovers and we freeze soup stock related foods.
13. I stopped buying smoothie additives. I was buying protein powder, greens powder, maca powder and much more. I researched a dairy free protein powder that met my needs and I now purchase Vega One for my early morning smoothie.
14. We stopped buying store bought cleaners, a little bit of vinegar and water will go a long way. You can learn more about frugal cleaners here.
15. In general we stopped buying “stuff”. We learned to live with less.
16. I stopped buying dryer sheets and invested in dryer balls.
17. The whole family stopped buying stuff at full price when we could. We shopped sales, thrift stores, bulk buys and used coupons.
18. I stopped my magazine subscriptions which was a huge savings.
19 & 20. I stopped buying store bought dried fruit, applesauce and canned pears. Instead we dried our own fruit in season and canned vanilla pears and fresh applesauce during harvest season.
21. We decreased our entertainment spending, instead opting for No Spend Weekends.
Cutting back on your regular spending. Shopping sales, using coupons, truly looking at what you are spending money on. Using a budget, shopping wisely with a frugal mindset will help you save money.
⭐Amazing Products We Think Everyone Should Try:
- The Total Money Makeover
- TRESemme Hair Care Products
- Fruit of the Earth Aloe Vera Gel
- Skinny Pop Popcorn
- Oven Lunch Box
- Stainless Steel Coffee Mugs
- Reusable Filters
- Stainless Steel Lunch Containers
- Cloth Napkins
- Dryer Balls
All these amazing products help us save money on a daily basis.
Why Cut Spending To Save Money
Simple answer so you can do more with what you have. Saving money will also help you pay down debt, save for your future, invest, buy a home and so much more.
Why Do We Buy Things We Don’t Need
There are a million and one answers to this question and honestly most times we buy things we don’t need because we thought it would make our life easier or make us feel better.
Ways To Save More Money
Saving money will give you more options. You can buy the name brand instead of the generic. Or you can take the family on a vacation knowing you won’t go into debt.
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Smart Money Shopping Choices
Saving money is about planning and making smart money choices. Like living well on less. Shopping generic discount grocery stores and sales to save money.
Simple Money Saving Tips
Simple things you can do today to save money. Start by asking yourself do you really need it? Can you do without it.
If you brown bagged your lunch this week how much would you save? If you turned down the thermostat how much would you lower your utility costs? Simple easy changes with big results.
Frugal Tips That Will Help You Save Money
Frugal living is about making smart choices with your money and learning to live well on less. Discover what frugal tips will help you save more money. Here are 75 super frugal tips that are guaranteed to help you lower your household expenses.
How To Start Budgeting And Saving Money
Setting up a budget and saving money is super easy. You can enroll in our 21 Days of Saving Challenge to help get you started. Dave Ramsey is another great resource on debt, budgeting and saving money.
Setting aside some time today can help you save a ton of money for tomorrow.
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♥ More About Saving & Simplicity
Welcome! I am so glad you are here I am Cynthia, primary frugal mom blogger at Saving & Simplicity.
Where you will find frugal, money saving posts and articles along with DIY projects, Cheap & Easy Recipes and so much more.
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Updated: June 14, 2022
My family has been transitioning into more buget conscious mode of living. I have always made meal plan and grocery list and tried to be as savvy with using sale versus brand.
Now that I’m living with my adult daughter and her daughter and we are sharing custody of her nephew and niece we are really working hard to become more financially stable. We are doing meal planning to include secondary meals, making grocery lists, checking sales and I have finally convinced my daughter to start looking to see if there are any coupons and sales we can use. We are getting ready to start a large garden this spring for not only immediate use but we are hoping to be able to get enough for canning, freezing, and dehydrating. What we can’t get from our own garden we are using local farmer market and also pick your own sites. We are looking into local meat to freeze. A coworker who didnt have much luck with chickens is giving us all the materials to make our own coop.
Carol it sounds like you are doing a great job. Keep me posted on the gardening (I love harvest season) and your frugal living. Have an amazing day.
Enjoyed your article. What face moisturizer do you use?
Hi Wanda, Thank you for your comment. As far as facial moisturizer I love Aloe Vera lotion. It’s simple and it works. Have a great day.
Where do you buy Fruit of the Earth products?
Hi Sharon,I get them through Amazon and Walmart. I love Fruit of the Earth. Have a great day.
Hi
I’m just starting out on my frugal living journey. I live in the UK and unfortunately we don’t have Farmers Markets over here that I know of however some of your other ideas I am going to have a try at. I’ve always wanted to try to grow my own fruit and veg. I have a pet rabbit called Harry who I am sure would love “home grown” veg as well as his mummy. I have started to compile a budget and have been scouring the internet for hints and tips for making ends meet. I look forward to seeing more of your posts and hope to gain inspiration from your blog.
Best wishes
Edith