21 Ways to Save $1800 Every Month

So what if I told you there was a way to slash your grocery shopping bill by at least 50%!? 

…maybe more?  

Money Crashers has a fantastic guide on “extreme couponing”. They were able to cut their spending by as much as 88.43%!?? 

Don’t get me wrong, to obtain the kind of savings achieved in his article you have to be committed, but the monetary rewards are most definitely worth it.

With a little planning you could save $385.00 per month, or more on your household purchases alone.

The Simple Dollar did a cost comparison for grabbing meals outside of the home vs. making them from scratch. I think you will be shocked by the difference in cost. 

Trent estimates that eating out costs approximately $13.00 per person, whereas eating at home costs only about $4.00. With a little planning he managed to get that figure down to a mere $2.00 per meal per person! 

It’s amazing to see how much of an impact eating out has on your bottom line. 

So, let’s say you eat out with a family of four once per week. That’s about $208.00 per month and this doesn’t count lunches when you’re at work. So cutting out restaurants could save you $144.00 per month if you were to use Trent’s average numbers.

If you use Rosemarie’s freezer plan alone (because you always make your own food) you could easily save $180.00 per month with little or no effort.  Wow! Just think what you could save with some real elbow grease. 

How many times have you been shopping, only to be lured into purchasing something you absolutely didn’t need? 

Come on! Be honest, it’s happened to us all and unfortunately the plastic in our wallets makes it all too easy to access things that we should not purchase. 

My solution?

Use cash instead of credit.

Yep! This is an awesome tip that will help you keep impulse spending at bay. 

A package of cookies here, some pastries there and maybe even some pre-made meals to make our lives “easier” can easily tack on $20.00 or more per weekly shopping trip.

Leaving the credit cards behind and using cash has saved Brenda and me about $80.00 per month since we implemented this policy.

The average American family throws away an incredible $2000 per year in spoiled food! This is about 20% of all the food you purchase or an shocking $166.00 per month!

Whaaaat? To say nothing about the moral implications of wasting food – you are basically burning cash each and every month.

So do you see a trend here? Planning is essential if you truly want to save money. Make sure that you schedule your meals before you leave the house to go shopping.

ABOVE ALL BE REALISTIC: We all think we can do more than is possible. I don’t know about you, but when I’m fuelled with caffeine I feel superhuman…then comes the crash. Ha!

If you are in doubt and think that cilantro won’t last three days until you make a curry – then put off the purchase until you really need it.

Adopt the European approach to food and go shopping every few days for fruit, vegetables, herbs, fish and meat. It’s a much better way to make sure that things don’t go off before you use them.

In conclusion, planning leads to more money in your pocket and less waste. 

Is your cell phone plan the cheapest for your needs? Are you watching your data and talk time? 

I think most people are unaware if they have the best deal available and this changes from time to time.

The average cell bill is $100.00 per month with 13% of customers paying up to $200.00 per month! 

So let’s say you eat through data and love using your cell phone.  A $150.00 bill per month would not be out of the question.

Crystal Stemberger of Budgeting in the Fun Stuff thinks you can probably reduce one or more of your monthly bills by the end of the week. She was able to reduce hers by $65.00!

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Brenda and I are pretty lucky to be living in sunny San Diego. Thankfully, cold blustery weather is pretty rare – but for those of you get all four seasons – this tip is for you! 

Did you know that you can save 3% on your heating bill for every degree you lower the thermostat?  Most people keep the temperature at a toasty 75 degrees. 

If you were to lower it to 72 degrees you would save 9% on your total heating bill!

Let’s go even further, if you pay $150.00 per month and you were to lower the thermostat to 68 degrees and wear a sweater it would save you $31.50 per month.

Now that’s a reason to layer up.

Brenda and I found out a long time ago that you can save 50% on your clothing and expenses and MORE if you learn to shop smart. 

So how do we personally save money on clothes?

First of all, we never buy clothing that is not on sale. Why pay top dollar when the sales racks have tons of bargains? It’s like giving your money away. 

Secondly, consignment/thrift stores hold a world of wonder for those willing to wear gently used clothes. 

Finally, hand me downs are the bomb. Yep with three girls we definitely learned to repurpose our clothes. 

All things considered, this is one of favorite ways to save money. 

Baby food, is costly too. Up to $100.00 per month depending in the quality of the food. 

We made our own baby food and were able to save money. Check out the Babyfoode Blog. This blog has some great ideas if you decide to go this route. 

Now you can take my word for it, or you can check out the calculations. Mint Life broke down the numbers to illustrate the savings. It appears that organic homemade baby food is about 45% cheaper than store bought organic baby food.

Click here for more information. 

That’s a savings of about $45!

An added bonus is, if you make your own organic baby food, you know exactly where the ingredients are coming from and you can source them wisely.  

Above all, our kids health is what’s important and there is no better food than wholesome homemade food. 

We’ve all seen the Christmas in July ads. 

The first time I became aware of them, I was like Whaaaat? It’s Summertime, can’t the marketers give us a break? 

But to be frank, my thoughts have changed quite substantially. You can save money if you go shopping before the big holiday push. 

In fact, we go even further. Brenda and I wait until the January sales to buy one another gifts. This saves us up to 50% on presents. We have found this can be done for the kids too with enough planning. 

Total monthly savings for us has been about $70.00 per month.

Consequently, our Christmas bills are substantially lighter 😉

Two years ago we ousted cable, opting instead for Netflix. Truth be told, we love it and will never look back.

Cable is a luxury not a necessity. Hey, I feel you. We miss HBO as much as the next family. 

But what is it REALLY worth to you?

Let’s look at the numbers. The average American pays $100.00 per month for cable and Netflix costs a meagre $9.99. 

That’s a savings of about $90.00 per month, which is a no brainer for the Huntley family.

Shibley Smiles has an awesome post about cutting the cord to save money. Click here to read more.

Yep you heard me right. Hair care products are expensive and many even contain some seriously scary chemicals that are known to be carcinogenic. 

This tip is obviously not for everyone, but I have a cousin who went from a hair product addict to no poo and swears by it. 

So what is no poo? 

Basically, you give up shampooing your hair with over the counter brands. My cousin uses baking soda to loosen dirt and apple cider vinegar to condition. 

This method costs only cents per month. So let’s see what you can potentially save. There’s a great article that works out the cost of no poo for a family. Click here for more information, but the author estimates it costs about $4.00 per month for her family. 

Let’s say you love luxury organic hair care and use a brand such as Davines for your shampoo conditioner it will set your family back about $60.00 per month (give or take your usage). 

In a nutshell, you could save $56.00 per month just by going no poo!

Brenda and I completely agree with Melissa Hagen about this. 

We just started to plan and freeze our meals for ease and savings. Check out Rosemarie Groner’s tip above, it’s gonna help us to save a bundle. 

Before we started this plan we would sit down on Sunday night with a list and plan out what we would have the coming week. Brenda would always scout the local deals and this would strongly influence what we made that week. 

If you know there is an incredible sale on pork chops – it makes perfect sense to incorporate them into your planning. 

We’ve saved a lot doing this. 

The Simple Dollar has a fantastic article about planning ahead to save money. Click here to read more. 

Finally, just to give you an idea of our savings, we average about $30.00 per month doing this. I am sure this figure could be much larger with the proper execution.