Easy Money Saving tip

I wanted to write a series where I can share with you the different "little" things that we do to save money and you can do also.  If you are like me, you have researched this topic before and found all these cool and interesting ways to save money, only to try them all at once and fail.  Then I feel miserable because things didn't work out like I had wanted.  I am so blessed to have such a wondeful family and awesome husband who have "gone along for the ride" on several of my money saving adventures that just didn't work. 

I am going to post about one "little" thing that you and your family can do each week that can save you money and add up in the long run.

One of the first things we did when we were trying to save money is too look at all the things we buy and see if they were necessity.  Something that stuck out at me was CHIPS!!  We all liked different flavors, so we were buying 3 bags of chips a week.  We were buying the Walmart kind and thought we were saving money.  It wasn't until I ran the numbers and found out that even though we were only spending $3 a week at that time.  Walmart chips have now gone up to $1.50 a bag.  $3 a week didn't seem like much, then I multiplied that by 4 and we were spending $12 a month- still didn't seem like much.  But take that number and multiply that by 12- WOW!!  Were we really spending $144 a year just in chips?  Do you know what I can do with $144 extra dollars?

We decided to not buy chips but to buy bananas and whole unpeeled carrots.  Later we discovered homemade tortilla chips- YUMMY. Will share the recipe later this week.  At first, I thought the teens were not going to be thrilled.  I am so happy they welcomed the change.

So, my "little" money saving tip this week is to:
Check your receipts and see what you currently pay for chips.  Take that number and multiply it by 4 and see what we pay each month and then take that number and multiply it by 12 and see what you are really paying for chips over the course of a year- you may be surprised.  Then take that number and write it down in your budget notebook ( I encourage everyone to have a budget notebook, will blog on this in depth later).  Alot of times, when I write down the number, it becomes more real.  Take that number and think about what you want to do with it~ maybe you can use your chip money to pay off a bill, set it aside for an unexpected emergency or maybe set it aside for something you really want and cannot afford right now.

Until next week.....

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