Six Ways We Saved Money In December
Finding ways to save money here and there can be hard, and I think we can all use a little inspiration now and then in our lives, so every month this year, I plan to publish some of the things we did to stay within our budget during the previous month.Â
I hope you’ll find inspiration in some of these things, and know that there’s almost always a way to live below our means if we really take the time to think about it.
Sure, we’ll all have different methods. A non-negotiable for you, may be something another person doesn’t care anything about.Â
1. Bought out-of-date milk for $.99/gallon. My husband questions the legality of selling milk that’s out of date. I don’t know if it’s legal or not, but I was happy to buy milk that was two days too old, but still perfectly good and save money. When you find that kind of deal, you can freeze the milk for several months and use it in cooking!
2. Used Swagbucks to “buy” a restaurant gift card for a nearly free date night. I love being able to go out for dinner with my honey without feeling guilty about spending too much!
3. Foraged for Christmas decorations. Specifically, we found some grapevines and pretty red berries on the farm and made a wreath. 🙂
4. Curtained off the stair case to keep the heat downstairs. This was honestly more of a desperate attempt to keep all that heat from escaping to the unoccupied second story on a cold day, than it was to save money, but it accomplishes both ends. I don’t like the curtains, and I’ll be glad when they come down, but I’m so glad that I can sit here and be warm as I type now!
 5. Wrapped our gifts with newspaper and recycled materials. I wish I’d taken pictures. We made newspaper bows and everything – it was pretty cool!
6. Bought gifts at Goodwill. This may sound chinzy, but we found a BRAND NEW bicycle for Garrett for $6. No way we could pass that up, and he’s beyond excited!
 I know that saving money doesn’t always sound fun, but it can be, if you just decide to make it that way. We truly enjoyed coming up with interesting ways to saving money work for us this month.
How about you?
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I couldn’t do the outdated milk but I love the wrapping paper idea. I also wrap parcels in newspaper or magazine pages rather than buy brown paper but I never thought it do it for gifts. I’ll have to remember that for next year.
Good Ideas!! I’m always trying to save money! Thanks for sharing on My 2 Favorite Things!! I hope you come back next week!!
When we lived in Michigan the last 3 years, we curtained off the top floor of our farmhouse and only lived on the bottom floor every winter–people were always shocked at how little we paid for heat–it does make a big difference!
Saving money is what it is all about. We lose lots our heat to our upstairs and on a cold day I am freezing in our living room. Thanks for sharing over at the Snickerdoodle Sunday.
Great tips! I work at a very small health food/grocery store and I love getting things that are discounted or free because of the sell by date (and yeah, pretty sure they aren’t supposed to sell stuff past date, but it worked well for you!)
Thanks for sharing at the Weekend Win-Down party!
Nicole =)