Saving While Spending

Use it up, wear it out, make do or do without!

Those are wise words, especially in these “tough economic times” that we keep hearing about. And to be honest, I’m trying to at least partially incorporate them into my life. For example, the hat that I made last week. Instead of going out and buying the perfect fabric for the project, I raided my fabric stock pile that has just grown and grown for the last several years. And I have a goal not to buy new fabric until I’ve at least put a dent into the stock pile. And for example, my fridge, freezer, and pantry. I’m trying to actually use food that I have before it goes bad instead of buying groceries and letting them all rot. (Can anyone tell me what uses lemons, blue cheese, spinach, and bananas?)

But sometimes there are things that we need to buy. And sometimes there are things that we want to buy. And I’m no economist, but my understanding is that we’re not going to get out of this crisis by hoarding all our money under our beds. So here are some of my smart spending tips!

1) Shop at Target. Haha. You don’t have to ask me twice! I bought my first shirt at Target about four years ago, and to tell you the truth, it felt weird. Like, you can actually buy clothing from a store like this? And then I went back and bought the same shirt in three more colors because it became my favorite summer shirt, and at only $12, I could afford to buy a few. Since then I have become a Target addict. And I’m telling you, I used to buy all my clothes at Banana Republic! (And now I wonder where I ever had the money to do that!) I would say that 80% of my wardrobe is from Target. Sure, it still feels funny to put my clothes on the conveyor belt beside my ground beef and yogurt, but it feels good to get five shirts for under $100, too. Recently I saw an outfit that I absolutely coveted at Making It Lovely (one of my favorite blogs). The skirt was from Old Navy, which is within my budget these days, but the shirt was from JCrew. And to tell you the truth, I almost got in my car and drove 45 minutes to the nearest JCrew to buy one. And then I told myself to try Target just in case. Target had the shirt in about 6 different colors and it was close enough to the JCrew shirt to make me happy. And I paid $13 instead of $40. (And to tell you the truth, I’m reaaaaaally tempted to go back today and buy it in at least one other color.)

2) Shop at Amazon.com. Mike has taught me that Amazon.com is not just for books. It seems that we can get the best prices on electronics at Amazon.com. For example, before Little O was born, we were looking for a video camera. We found the one that we wanted, and bought it from Amazon for $250. The next week, I was in at Costco and the same camera was on sale for $340. At Costco!! So from now on, I search for electronics at Amazon.com.

3) Shop around. Sometimes I tend to go for the easiest, fastest solution. To be honest, I prefer the instant gratification of shopping in person. (Hence the reason I’d drive 45 minutes to JCrew to get the shirt I want instead of ordering it online.) Mike has no problems shopping online. This means that at least twice a week, I’m dashing to put on a bra, shirt and/or pants when the UPS guy knocks at my door. (You’d think I’d learn my lesson and actually put on those items first thing in the morning, but nooooooo!) When it was time for us to buy a stroller for Little O, we knew that we wanted a MacLaren. At Babies R Us, the stroller we wanted was $180. But a little shopping around online, and we found a brand new one on Ebay selling for $110 with free shipping. I don’t know if you can do the math, but that’s 5.3 Target shirts that I could buy with the money I’m saving! Or, you know. I could buy food to put on our table.

4) Buy store brand. Now that I’m limiting the family food budget, I’ve actually started paying attention to the prices of food. I know, terrible, huh? So I’ve started searching for the things that are cheapest. Sure, there are certain things that I buy brand name. For example, I don’t trust any laundry detergent other than Tide. But there are certain things that don’t have to be brand name. Mike and I eat at least 2 yogurts a day each. It seems like I’m always stocking up on yogurt. And yogurts are generally 50 cents each. So we’ve been eating at least $2 worth of yogurt every day. Well, I recently switched over to my store brand, which is 37 cents per yogurt. And I can’t tell the difference in quality. (I can tell the difference in packaging, and as a designer it kills me to go for the worse packaging, but I can get over it.) There are other things, too, like heavy cream, that are the same no matter what brand you buy. So I buy store brand.

5) Get rid of your iPhones. Nope. Sorry. Mike and I will never ever do this to cut down on costs! I’d rather start selling plasma to be able to keep the iPhone!

What are you doing these days to help cut down on your expenses?

Alma