Welcome to my page about Easy Ways to Save Money! My favorite way to shop is online. I do shop in-store when needed but it’s not my preferred method. I decided to put all my money saving tips together to share with you. Here you will find ways to save that don’t take much effort.
1) Make a Budget. One thing before you start shopping is to setup a budget. I love saving money but it’s not really saving if you’re going over your budget every month. I use a really great free budgeting app from Dave Ramsey. It’s called the EveryDollar Budget App. It’s so easy to set up and it’s so convenient because it’s on my phone. Once you set up your budget, you will have a better idea of what you should be saving. In addition to finding really great deals, Dave Ramsey has a great book about achieving financial peace. The Financial Peace Planner is available on Amazon. You can also see if they have a copy available at your local library.
2) Get Cash Back. Did you know you can earn cash back at most stores when you shop online? Earning cash back is very simple. The cash back site I’ve been using for years is Ebates. I’ve earned over $500 back with them. Once you decide what you will be purchasing online, visit Ebates, search the store you are shopping at and then you click through their link and make the purchase. You will start to accumulate money back from your purchases. You have the option to select how you will be paid back when you set up your account. I’m sure there are other cash back sites but this is my favorite.
4) Sign up to get Offers from your Favorite Stores and Restaurants. I definitely have my “go to” retail stores and restaurants. They send me all sorts of great coupons. For example, Mimi’s Cafe sends me a Buy One, Get One Free entree coupon at least once a week. Lots of retail stores and restaurants these days send one-time use coupons which means you can’t share them. If you don’t want to clog up your email, set up a different email specifically for offers. Check out my Restaurant Freebies for your Birthday post to sign up for some birthday freebies!
5) Stay Home instead of Going Out. I is really fun to go out with the family. You can go to a movie or to dinner but it can get really expensive. It can cost us up to $70 anytime we take our family of five out. Instead of going out, we have a movie night every Friday. The kids get really excited because sometimes we use a weekly meal service for dinner and make a yummy dessert (they love sugar). We’ve also challenged ourselves not to eat out of the house. So far, we are doing good with that. We are actually preferring our own meals over restaurant meals now.
6) Shop Daily Deal Sites. I’m sure you’ve seen lots of daily deal sites on the internet. It can get very overwhelming to visit several daily deal sites. Two of my favorites are Groupon and Zulily. They run really great deals every day. You can sign up for email notifications for your favorite brands and they will email you when a deal is available. Talk about easy shopping! I do recommend that you choose no more than two or three that work for you so that you don’t get overwhelmed.
7) Use the Coupon App from your Grocery Store. I shop at Vons which is a division of Safeway. They have a coupon app called “Just for U”. Your store probably has something similar. Each week coupons and free offers are loaded to my app. All I have to do is go on the app and add the coupons. The great thing is that mostly all the manufacturer coupons you print or clip are the same ones that are loaded on the coupon app. Over time the app will start adding deals on items you normally purchase. You’ll actually get coupons and offers for produce. That’s a rare savings because you can’t usually find produce coupons. If you aren’t using your coupon app from the stores you shop at, I highly recommend you get started.
8) Look for a Local Discount Card. I live in Big Bear Lake, CA and our Middle School offers a local discount card. It’s only $10 and it offers 10% off at many restaurants, stores, and services. The discount card is valid for a year so I’m sure you can imagine how much I’m saving with it. It pays for itself after a month or two. It’s one of my favorite saving tools because it allows me to get a discount on local services that don’t usually offer coupons or discounts.
9) Visit my Blog for Great Online Deals. My blog features great online deals, Amazon promo codes, Amazon coupons, freebies and more! I can’t post every great deal available because I don’t have the time available. However, I sort through many deals daily and post the best ones! You can follow my blog on social media but the best way to follow it is my RSS Feed or by email subscription (you’ll receive one email a day with a summary of all the deals I’ve posted). Don’t miss another deal!
If you’re interested in clipping coupons, check out my how to use manufacturer coupons.