Ackerman Version 1: Ways to Save Money

Dudes. Rough week. I am blasted with a hard core cold right now with a fussy baby (dear antibiotics, please kick in). But it IS Friday and I have lots to be thankful for (whilst crossing my fingers that he just might take a longer than 1 hour long nap, pleeeeaase?). I've basically spent my week inside with Brennan, blowing my nose and wrestling him down to the ground while I try to wipe his nose.

One thing I have been working on this week is our cash envelope system. As I mentioned before, Jon and I are facilitators for Financial Peace University at The Met this fall. Although we are debt free, it's such a good brush up for us. Moving kind of throws a wrench into ones financial planning and basically, we needed to get back on track. EVERYTHING is different when you move cross country. Some things cost more, some less, you have to rebudget, figure out additional expenses, pay movers, and security deposits, and change drivers licenses, and register cars, etc. etc. In order to help us get back on track, we've gone to the cash envelope system for areas in our budget that aren't automatically withdrawn from our bank account and the areas we always go over in each month. We chose our date night money, our personal blow money, our groceries and our gas to be in cash envelopes. I will let you know how this month goes! It's been MUCH more of a reality check than I thought it was going to be. Whew. Cash = accountability.

Here are some other ways we've recently saved money:

-Switch insurance companies. We were with Nationwide for our auto and renters insurance. I just switched us to Allstate and saved OVER $500.00 a year. (I sound like a commercial here, don't I?).

-Switched to a cash envelope system for areas we consistently spend over.

-Played the drug store game at CVS. I was doing it at Walgreens and wasn't seeing much result. CVS has MUCH better deals and it's easier than Walgreens. Why didn't I switch sooner?

-Have a garage sale! We're having one with our friends in a few weeks and I cannot wait to sell some crap we've had lying around.

-Netflix! We cut cable a while ago and switched to netflix for $9.00 a month. Not only can you request any movie/tv show or documentary you could ever want, you can also watch some things instantly. Awesome.

-Hulu.com is also a lifesaver if you don't have cable or DVR. You can watch shows the day after they air, which is awesome if you're like us because we rarely catch shows the actual night they're on! They only keep the previous 5 episodes so beware of that.

-Buy fruits and veggies in season. And if you're super cool (we're not), you can can or freeze those items. We don't have a second freezer (and we were afraid things would spoil anyways if a hurricane came through and we lost power), but we're thinking about buying one. Buying in season saves tons of money on fresh produce. We don't eat a lot of processed foods so this is an area we try to stick within. I'm so glad apple season is here!

Hope this helps!