Stopping Waste in Our Home – Part 2

Wasting, wasting it’s been quite a few days talking about it.  So I don’t need to tell you, I feel waste should be avoided – by now you already are on that page.

Today I am going to tell you three real ways our family avoids wasting money.

Planning our spending:
It’s impossible in our house not to plan our spending, check out the best deals and then “layer” the deals.  What I mean by layering is to plan the purchase in a certain order where you can get a benefit from each layer.  Layering for us starts by deciding what we want to buy,  which can take time because we will want to compare value, costs and details.  We will want to know this particular product is one we really need or want before we move to the next step.  Once we do know ~ we go out to the internet to find sales on that particular make, model or brand.  We find and check out any coupons and or rebates and even print out the rebate forms.  We print the forms because not all vendors will have a link, note a rebate or even give you a hint there is one available ~ but if there is, we want to be able to take advantage of it.  Then we go to one of the sites that give back a percentage of the price, or points for your purchases. We will buy our item after we calculate if points or cash back is our best option.  Lastly, we pay for the items with a cash back credit card.  We use credit for ease of purchase, for the benefits the credit card provides, and for the cash back from using the card. (Note:  We have no annual fee cards  and we pay our credit card in full each month, and the cards give back $$ or points that can be changed into $$).

Finding new ways to cut costs:
Every month I try to find one more way to save.  Last month I ordered my prescription medicine from a Canadian pharmacy.  If you know me, you’d realize I didn’t do this lightly or without quite a considerable amount of thought.   With our income slashed to the bone, I just felt like I had to slash my prescription costs too.  So I first tried at my doctors’ office asking for a lower priced medicine.  When that didn’t work and my only options were the same medicine, or one that wasn’t asthma sparing – I had to stay with my old one.  The old one’s price is now  $128.40 for a 30 day supply (that’s over $4.00 each) – the Canadian pharmacy price is $1.21. Great right, but how do you chose one?  My in-laws currently use one they are happy with, so I went there, and took them up on their referral fee offer.  It gave my in-laws $25.00 off any $90 or more, and it gave me the same offer.  I wound up paying $0.916 per pill delivered for mine.  I chose non-generic pills because of my allergies, but generic would have been even less!  You are reading this correctly… I paid $50.00 less for 3 month supply, than I would have had to pay for a 1 month supply at the local Walmart Pharmacy.  So on my regular Rx, brand name pills, with the lower price, and the referral discount – I paid 72% less for my medicine.  I should have done this sooner!

Avoiding Debt:
Another of our ways to stop wasting our money has been to not carry any debt. I know that’s not easy, and it’s not for everyone.  When we purchased our third home – we paid cash for it.  We moved into a smaller place on a smaller piece of land, and a house that needed work.  But it meant no mortgage – and it also meant that my husband could now work anywhere and pay our bills because they were now that “reasonable”.   We just felt that any interest we had to pay to own or have anything wasn’t something we wanted to do.  We preferred to save for what we needed or wanted. Not having debt is very freeing.  And …all those dollars we would have paid?  We saved them by not having to spend them on interest.  Thousands and thousands on mortgage interest, thousands and thousands by not keeping a credit card balance, and we saved thousands and thousands by not having car payments, etc.

Others in the Waste Series
Stopping Waste in Our Home Part 1 ~ Click here‎
The Goverment Wastes Your Tax Dollars  ~ Click here
Stop Wasting Your Money ~ Click here