4 Ways to Save Money

It’s a new year and everyone is looking looking for tips on ways to save money without having to sacrifice a lot of their time. For some reason people always think that to save money–especially on groceries–means that it takes up a lot of time, and that isn’t true at all.

Here are 4 Ways to Save Money this year that are easy to do and don’t take a lot of time.

1. A great way to save money is to do a Weekly Meal Plan.  First I print out the NEPA MOM Printable Weekly Meal Plan. I then check my fridge, freezer and pantry and see if there are any items that I need to use up soon.  I also take note of any items that I need to stock up on.  I then consult my calendar to see what nights I need to make quick meals and fill in those with our favorite standbys–like tacos.

2.  Check the Sales Fliers–I check the store fliers and see what items are on sale that week, print out my coupons, and plan my shopping trip to round out my meals for the week.  At this point I also make a note of what is on sale this week that would make a great meal for the following week.

That way you know that you are only buying what you need for that weeks menu and you don’t have food wasting away in your fridge or pantry.

3. Sign up for rewards cards at the stores you shop at frequently.  I have rewards cards for my local Giant store, where I earn reduced prices on gas and a rewards card for CVS–in fact, I recently got an email from CVS saying that I was in their top 6% of shoppers when it comes to saving money! I had saved over $300 last year just by using my rewards card….Woohoo!!

4. Don’t forget to use Ebates when shopping online.  I shop online all year long–not just at the holidays. Sometimes the best prices are found online and I can do it from the comfort of my own home.  In fact, just the other night I bought my husband a mini-fridge for his office. I checked out prices for a few stores online, found one I liked, got free shipping to the store and then used Ebates to make my purchase. By using Ebates I will get a rebate of .80, which doesn’t seem like much but it can really add up over the course of a few on months.

One final note: One super simple way to save is to participate in the 52 Week Savings Challenge.  With this plan you start off slow–week #1 is only $1–but as the weeks progress you save more until at the end of the year you have more than $1300!

Click here to print out the 52 Week Savings Challenge Worksheet.

As you can see none of these ideas take me a long time to do, but the savings they give me really add up over time.  Try them yourself and see how much you end up saving.

Want some more inspiration? Check out this Ways to Save Post for more tips!