Eight years. For eight years I was a teacher. In the South Bronx, Queens, and the suburbs of New Jersey. Middle school and high school. Then one day out of the blue my husband sits me down and tells me he is ready to start a family. So we talk about it and decide that with everything that was going on in our lives, it would make the most sense for me to stay at home with the baby for a little while.
But how on Earth were we going to afford giving up my salary? We had a pretty steep New Jersey mortgage, New Jersey taxes, bills, college debt… Plus, as everyone kept informing me, “Kids are expensive!” And it’s not like either of us were pulling triple figures.
1. Car Insurance
If you have the opportunity to use USAA, I highly recommend it. This literally cut our car insurance bill by almost 50%. To use USAA, you have to have a relative who served in the military. Any relative. And that relative has to have some sort of coverage with USAA–it could be as simple as a jewelry policy. But USAA has car insurance, home insurance, life insurance, banking… And it’s fantastic. Better coverage for much less! If you don’t have a connection that can help you get in with USAA, then you can call your company and renegotiate your premium. You can actually do this with a lot of things… your cable bill, phone bill, etc. If a company thinks you may go over to the competition, they may just give you a new price. My uncle is the master of this.
2. Grocery Store
I don’t have time to coupon. I also don’t have the patience. Plus, I lose things. I save coupons with the best intentions only to finally dig them out after they expire. So I needed something else. Hence, we switched to Aldi. If you have never been inside an Aldi, you are missing out. Seriously. Prices are amazing all the time. They cut costs in other ways–you return your own shopping cart, so there is a 25 cent deposit to take one. They don’t give you free bags, but you can get them for 10 cents or save the environment and bring your own. They don’t take credit cards, but you can pay with cash, debit, or EBT. And if you think it’s sketchy, note that Aldi is the largest grocery chain in Germany and they OWN Trader Joe’s. Yup. That’s right. I’m a super healthy eater, too, and this isn’t just a processed food haven. I buy ground turkey, shrimp, chicken, Alaskan salmon, organic veggies, quinoa, brown rice, coffee, seasonal items, cake mixes, baking essentials, beans, whole wheat pasta, low sugar pasta sauce, BABY WIPES!!!, agave, organic milk, Greek yogurt, cheese, oh the cheese–especially the specialty cheese for cheese platters… I mean, really I could go on and on and on. I love Aldi. LOVE. Aldi is in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, and lucky for us, the U.S.A. Learn More HERE!
3. The Library
4. Cable
We sat down and thought about our cable bill. Thousands of channels. How many do we actually watch? Turns out, most of our TV viewership comes from network stations. NBC, ABC, CBS. So we got rid of cable, bought a $40 antenna on Amazon, and subscribed to Hulu. With a little creativity and a HDMI wire, you can pretty much watch anything you want without paying the cable company an exorbitant amount of cash. Or, if cable is a non-negotiable, you can call and negotiate your bill. My uncle has done this numerous times and each time he ends up paying less than before.
5. Ebates.com
If you go through Ebates, you get extra cash back. I did all my Christmas shopping online through Ebates and got over $50 back in checks. That’s actual cash, not gift cards. You can shop through Amazon, Target, Walmart, Kohls, pretty much any store you can imagine and get extra cash back besides what the actual company is offering. For free.
6. Amazon Mom
I despise shopping. I know, weird. But when I have to buy something, I usually order it from Amazon Mom. Great deals and 2 day shipping. Subscribe and save really helps cut costs on supplementary formula, diapers, and other necessities.
7. ThePointsGuy.com
I haven’t tried this yet, but my brother swears by it. Want to get the best credit card for your lifestyle? Travel a lot? Dine out? Want cash back? Apparently, this website is the best for telling you how to make your credit card work for you. My brother uses it all the time, and by following the advice he found here, he was able to get enough points to take 11 of the cheaper domestic flights. Yes, 11. Right now he’s a big fan of the Avios points. Example: Basically you sign up for a British Airways credit card, spend $2000 in three months, and get 50,000 points. You can then cash in these points for flights all over. For me, this would be the equivalent of 11 flights from Cincinnati to the New York area where I would only pay tax–about $11 per flight. This is fantastic considering CVG is the most expensive airport ever! You would then cancel the credit card instead of paying the yearly fee, which is $89. Yes, your credit would take a hit, but my brother swears it’s a 6 point hit which would fix itself within a few months. I can’t recommend it from experience, but my brother has turned into quite the jet-setter lately. The webpage is worth visiting to check it out.
8. Dollar Tree
If you haven’t been inside a Dollar Tree, you are missing out. Tupperware, glassware, coffee mugs, great items for crafting with kids, holiday cards/birthday cards, wrapping paper, fun seasonal items, the list goes on and on. Plus, this is a great way to give back. On one excursion a dad was in there with his five year old son. They bought $40 worth of socks, which is pretty much 40 pairs of socks. They then went to another dollar store and did the same thing. So for approximately $80 (a little more because of tax), they had 80 pairs of socks. What did they do with these socks? They went off to donate them to a homeless shelter. What a great lesson to teach your kids, and 80 people received cozy, warm socks for the winter. EIGHTY. I love Dollar Tree.
9. Medication
Pharmacies can be expensive. To cut costs, we always buy the generic brand. Look at the ingredients. Pretty much the same thing, and cheaper. Allergy medicine, pain medicine, cough medicine, etc.
10. Mortgage
BONUS: Ok, this is kind of in the couponing realm, but I can pick and choose what I get: Groupon, LivingSocial, Restaurants.com, Liftopia, LocalFlavor.com, etc.
The Internet is full of ways to save on events, happenings, restaurants… Often I’ll google to see if there is a promo code for an event before I sign up, or I’ll check Groupon/LivingSocial/Restaurants.com for a deal before hitting a new restaurant. I was not willing to compromise on food. I love food and I wasn’t going to give up the luxury of a nice night out. Local mailers usually also have discounts, and with a baby now and no family in sight to babysit, our date nights have turned into romantic take-out nights. So I use those as well. Sometimes if you “like” a company on Facebook, they have special discounts and codes as well. And always google the company for free shipping codes before you check out when shopping on-line. It doesn’t always work, but more times than not I procure free shipping or an extra discount.
With these tricks in place, we were able to save enough where we knew we could survive on just one salary without compromising too much in one of the most expensive areas of the world. And no cutting out coupons!
Seriously! The public library is one of the greatest resources ever, and Cincinnati and Kenton County have an amazing network of libraries.
[…] yogurt, dried beans, shredded cheese, etc.) at Aldi (more details about why Aldi is so awesome here). This move alone saves me $10/trip, which is $30/month = […]
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