For some families, saving money is a big deal. When they save money, they are able to make sure their bills are paid and there is food on the table. If you have a big family, you may be wondering how to save money when you have a big family.

You may be wondering HOW you can save money when there are so many of you! These tips are for you.

Saving Money Tips for Large Families

 

Eat at Home

 

I think one of the best ways that you can save money as a big family is by eating at home. Sure, there are times when it’s fun to eat out, but for the most part, eating at home is going to save you the most money.

Eating at home can be simple or it can be fancy, whatever keeps you on the right track to saving money.

 

Meal Plan as Much as Possible

While meal planning may not be your first choice, it’s an important part of trying to save money. Meal planning gives you the power to plan your meals and stay on budget.

 

 

Although writing or planning out the meals may seem strange at first, doing this gets easier as time goes on. Plus, there is a lot less waste happening in your home.

You know what you are buying and what foods you are making, so it makes the most sense to help you save money.

 

Here’s how this Texas Mom feeds her family of 3 on less than $200 a month! And they eat organic food!

 

Take Turns Having Fun

When it comes to having a big family, outings can be super expensive. This is why you can take turns having fun!

 

 

Each week, take one of your kids on a date. They get to choose the date night idea and you both get to have fun.

This is a great way to bond closer one on one. This ensures you both still get to have fun, but at the same time, you aren’t spending a ton of money on extra stuff.

 

Do As Much DIY As You Can

When something breaks or you want something done, it’s so easy to call someone and have them come do it for you. When it comes to saving money as a big family, you have to get creative.

Learning some DIY home repair can save a lot of money!

 

 

Over the next few years, try learning to do things on your own. It’s freeing to know that you can install that toilet on your own or that you can fix a plumbing issue.

While some DIY issues are worth calling for help, there are some that you can do on your own and save a lot of money.

 

Let’s be honest, having a big family can be expensive.

 

These types of tips can help you save money and put cash towards things that really matter like keeping a roof over your head.

 

Learn How to Say No

Going out to eat and doing fun stuff can be exciting as a family. However, one of the best ways you can save money when you have a big family is by saying no to all the extras.

 

 

Do all the free stuff, eat at home, enjoy family nights – whatever it takes to save money. Because whether you want to believe it or not, all of this stuff adds up and can make you broke.

 

How do you like to save money when you have a big family? I’d love to hear all of your tips. What is one of the biggest ways you save money?

 

Thrifty type things you may want to read:

 

How being a Tightwad can save you thousands of dollars every single year.

The Top 5 Ways I save money in January – right when the Christmas bills arrive.

Even more Budget Stretching Ways to get through Lean Times

What to do when there is More Month than Money

 

Grocery shopping on a budget? Save over $300 a month!

Are you trying to slash your grocery bill? Finding you are spending an insane amount of money every month of food for your family? Trying to do your grocery shopping on a budget?

I want to tell you about this book I just finished reading. It’s all about using totally personalized (to you!) worksheets for cutting your grocery bill. And this system doesn’t use coupons!

 

 

Grocery Shopping on a Budget

This Texan mom developed this system because she wanted to stay at home with her new baby. This meant giving up her job.

It meant starting to live only on her husband’s income for the family. She knew she had to make some changes when it came to grocery shopping.

But what she didn’t realize at first was….she could still feed her family all the food they loved and STILL save hundreds of dollars each month at the grocery store!

 

How to Cut the Grocery Bill without using Coupons

Now her family eats an all organic diet (including meat!) for under $200 a month, for her family of 3. And that is without ever using coupons. That works out to about $21 per person per month. That is amazing.

 

Imagine how you will be able to cut your food bill by following her system.

 

Stop eating processed food because you don’t think you can afford healthy quality food. People think that buying all organic food is expensive…and it often is.

But Victoria has figured out a way around that. It takes a bit of work, but once you figure out how much money you will save, you will LOVE this system.

 

How to Save Money Buying in Bulk

Did you know that when you buy in bulk (think Costco or Sam’s Club), you are not always saving money?

But use one of the Grocery Money Saving Worksheets and you will easily realize where you CAN save money and where buying bulk is just not worth it.

Sample meal plans are included, but that is basically to give you the information that she uses for her grocery shopping.

Copy some of the meal plans if you like, or just use what you already know your family enjoys.

There are a few recipes included, but the whole idea of these worksheets is for you to personalize them to SUIT YOUR NEEDS. You know what your family likes to eat and you definitely know what they don’t like to eat!

 

How to Save on Groceries Every Month

Do you find yourself eating out often just because it is more convenient? And it is easier..and faster.

But you will learn the ONE thing you need to know in order to avoid going out for meals. Think of the money you can save.

A meal in a fast food restaurant for 4 people has easily got to be about $45, right. Don’t you have better things to do with $45? Of course you do.

 

 

 

When you buy the book, you get all the worksheets that you will need. There are only 3 different worksheets for different parts of the program.

Just print them off and get started. Once you get them set up and personalized, you are all set to start saving. You’re ready to start grocery shopping on a budget (that will still get you the food you love)

 

By using these 3 worksheets, she was able to save over $15,000.00 in one year

When she finished filling out (and using) only ONE of the worksheets, she saved her family more than $7,200.00

 

 

Spend about two hours figuring out your very own menu plans, do a bit of research (all laid out step-by-step for you) and then you are ready to start saving.

Just a bit of the information included in Money Saving Worksheets:

 

• How to use your freezer to save yourself hundreds of dollars. Every. Single. Month.
• 4 awesome tips for stretching that meat budget (and it’s organic meat!)
• Find out why you are overpaying for those containers of greens, like lettuce, spinach and chard. Then follow Victoria’s lead to get around and save money while still eating lots of healthy produce.

 

Every single dollar you can save is money that can be spent somewhere else or saved. So try to have the mindset of saving money every day and you will see the pennies and dollars adding up!

The bottom line? Amazing healthy food. Saving money. Knowing what you are eating!

Want to read more about this awesome money saving program? Just head over here to read more about these Grocery Money Saving Worksheets – then grab your own copy and get started.

 

 

 

 

How many of us are in this situation? We have month at the end of the money, instead of money at the end of the month.

It’s too bad schools don’t focus more on budget setting and financial awareness, which are two skills that should be learned when we are young.

These are skills we will need to use our whole lives long! Being out of debt and able to save money is so important.

 

 

If you have young children at home, do them a favor. Teach them how to live on a budget and how to save money for what they want.

It will help them throughout their life and it will show them the benefits of having money at the end of the month, instead of the other way around.

 

Having Money at the End of the Month

 

Tips to Save Money

 

Check your banking fees

Do you bank at one of the Big 5 here in Canada? Are you willing to spend an hour or two and explore the actual fees you are paying each month?

Do you write a fair number of cheques every month. If so, make sure you aren’t being charged a per cheque fee.

In addition, do you have more than one service through one bank (like a chequing account, plus a line of credit or a savings account)? Make sure you are entitled to be credited every month for your fees, since you have multiple accounts.

If your bank doesn’t offer that, maybe it’s time to look elsewhere to park your money.

 

 

There are also lots of online banks where you pay minimal if any fees at all. Just make sure your are FDIC covered (each bank should cover $100,000) worth of deposits.

Some of these online banks give you cash back on all your credit card purchases, which can really add up!

Use credit cards wisely and actually use their “money” for free if you are smart about it. Just never carry a balance and always pay on the due date.

Using credit cards in a smart way can really help you save money over the long term.

 

 

 

 

Look at your cell phone contracts to see if you can save money

Are you financially better off to have a three year contract and be able to use the phone as much as you want? Or, are you able to just buy a cheaper phone and have minutes put on, instead of signing a contract?

Take a good look at how much you use your phone and whether you can get away without the contract. Maybe you will find you can save money by NOT being on a contract.

 

 

 

Do you have a computer maintenance contract? 

This one is coming from a personal perspective. I pay every year to have preventative maintenance done on my computer. Another bonus is,  I get any problems fixed with one phone call.

Perhaps you are computer savvy enough to be able to do all the necessary fixes yourself. I am not; I don’t have the time for it. Therefore, I am willing to pay so that the problem becomes someone else’s headache.

That being said, on a recent phone call with the company, they tried talking me into a $99.00 charge so that they could install a particular program which would keep my system running problem free. I declined, saying I wanted to think about it.

Really, WHY would I pay this extra fee? I already pay them to look after the system. Also, if I go ahead and buy the other program, I am spending MY money in order to save THEM time. Ummm, no thanks!

More Tips for Saving Money

Check out all our posts on Spending Less to try and save money on all of your purchases, whether it is food, clothing, recreation, travel, house expenses or vehicles.

There are almost always extra deals to be had, if you are willing to take the time to find them! There are almost always ways to save yourself more money.

It is easy to get caught up in the daily living and end up spending more for convenience and saving time. If you have lots of money, do whatever you like.

But if you’re like most of us and need to watch your pennies, look into every part of your life where money is involved. Remember, the goal of business is to take money OUT of your pocket and put it into THEIR pocket.

Read More about Saving Money:

These Money Saving Worksheets will save you hundreds of dollars on groceries!

Want more budget stretching tips?

Here’s 5 Ways I Save Money Every January!

Here’s how being a Tightwad can save you Thousands!

Save Money Every Month!

 

We all know what it’s like to have to reduce expenses. Maybe it’s a job loss or an illness that causes us to tighten the belts.

When there is too much month left at the end of the money, we all need to find ways to reduce our costs and/or make more money.

Here are a few more ideas for budget stretching you can use!

 

Stretching the Budget: 5 ways to save money

 

 

 

Grow at least some of your own food

One of the hands down best ways we work at reducing expenses is growing our own food. We grow about 75 – 80% of all the food we eat.

It used to be a higher percentage, but I haven’t canned as much this year as I have other years.

 

 

However, we still have a cold room stocked with garden goodies from past years. This is what stocking up is all about!

Still having a surplus of food, even though I haven’t been on the other end of the canner is quite a wonderful feeling!

My hard work in years past is Still paying off.

I am quite in shock looking around the grocery store; I can’t believe how much prices have gone up in these last few years!

$5 for a loaf of bread, are you kidding me? That’s the going price here right now for multigrain bread at the grocery store.

 

 

If you can get a bread machine, you can save money over the long term, but you need to use the machine on a regular basis.

Paying $70 for a bread machine that gets used three times and then sits on a shelf collecting dust does nothing for you.

If you faithfully use it a few times a week, you will get your money back out of it and then some.

There’s also the convenience that comes from not having to run to the store to get that loaf of bread. Try and plan to go to the store once a week and then buy all the groceries you will need.

There’s nothing that blows through a wallet faster than repeated trips to the grocery or department store!

 

 

Buy things that are on sale

Buying that loaf of bread when it’s on sale for $3.50 (gasp) can be a help. It’s even more of a help to buy three loaves on sale, and put two of them in the freezer for later use.

If you can bring an extra $20 to the grocery store a week, you can take advantage of sales and begin to stock your pantry at home.

This is an excellent budget stretching idea! If sugar is on sale, buy an extra bag. Usually sales run in cycles.

Try to buy enough so you will have some on hand until the next time it comes back on sale, then stock up some more. Over time, you will be surprised at how quickly you are able to build up your pantry.

What are some other ways to reduce costs on a regular basis?

 

Turn off all the lights in rooms no one is in!

This is such a basic thing, yet so many people don’t do it. Every time you leave a light on in a vacant room, you are burning money; why would you do that?

Flip that light switch when you leave the room! Use a timer if it makes it easier to get those lights shut off!

 

Turn down the thermostat!

We heat our 3000 foot house using only our woodstove, except for in January. If the temperatures outside go down below -25C.

At that point, we need to turn on a couple of electric baseboards downstairs so that our pipes don’t freeze.

 

 

So, we hardly spend any money at all for heating, because we gather our own wood. We always make sure to have a good supply of wood close to the house.

We never get lazy about it and think we will just turn on the baseboard heaters; that never happens.

 

 

Use coupons to reduce other costs

There are often coupons for grocery store items, and these might be the ones that first come to mind. These days, though, there is often a coupon for almost anything you need to buy.

It’s worth your while to check that out; maybe you can save an extra 10 or 20%. That is money that stays right in your wallet.

And that’s the aim of anyone trying to stick to a budget!

So, how do you and your family stretch a dollar? What are your very best budget stretching tips? Leave a comment and let other readers know.

 

January and February – those two months right after the holidays. You know, those holidays where the majority of us spent too much money! Now it’s time to start saving money and pay off any holiday debt.

Come mid-January, any of the expenses that went onto a credit card are coming due soon. Of course it would be best to just not spend all that money on the holidays. But so many people (us included) tend to open the wallet a lot more.

Because of this, we purposely try to spend almost nothing in January or February!

So, we have been living quite “low to the ground” over the last several weeks and it is so nice to be able to do that. We’ve got heat, we’ve got food and we’ve got a list of things on the to do list.

Whether we are reducing our expenses to save money or paying off debt, there is always a good reason for us to try to spend less and save more. Read on to see how to save money this month.

5 ways I am saving money this month:

 

Keep the woodstove stoked

We’re running the woodstove every day and most nights as well. The odd night if the weather is warm enough, we let the stove go out overnight and don’t stoke it before bed.

This gives us a chance to clean out the ashes and lower box the next morning too. The ashes get sprinkled on our outside steps and walkways, saving us money on salt during the winter.

Don’t have a woodstove? Keep your heat at 68 especially at night. Too cool? Put a few layers on.

Every morning at this time of year,  I wear a toque while I get the woodstove cranking. A person loses a lot of their body heat out their head, so having a hat on really helps.

Why do you think people use to wear stocking caps to bed? This will definitely help you save money this month!

 

 

Eating out of the Pantry to Save Money

Food prices at the grocery store are at the highest levels of the year during the winter. Add to that all the weather related problems affecting crops still in the ground.

Food prices are going to go higher yet. We’re eating 98% out of our cold room and freezer right now.

If you are not yet storing home grown and canned food, let this be the year you start. You will be amazed with lower grocery store bills and you will be eating healthier too.

Plan to start a food garden this year. If you already have a garden, think about enlarging it this year to be able to store more food. Do it!

 

 

Declutter and make some money

I have been forcing myself to spend time on Ebay. We still have lots of boxes downstairs full of stuff. Stuff we don’t need.

It’s taking up a lot of room, so I am committed to getting things listed and gone. It’s putting a few dollars in the jeans which I can turn around and donate to local causes.

How much “stuff” do you have  laying around? Think again about whether you need it or not. No? Then sell it on Craigslist or Ebay.

Put the money towards whatever you are saving for.

Stop using the dryer and start saving money

We have a three story house and the woodstove is on the main floor. I bought a couple of these folding drying racks and I set them up when I need them.

I put them out of the way in our upstairs bedroom loft. The heat from the woodstove dries the clothes for free.

I’ve also unplugged one of our freezers. After harvest time (of food and animals) we do need to run two freezers. I keep an eye on when I can combine the contents into one, so I can unplug the other one.

This saves on our electric bill – you can check appliance costs per year here. Making sure your freezers are full (and you aren’t running two half empty freezers) will definitely help save money this month.

 

 

Stay home

This is a huge money saver for us. We live 20 minutes from the corner store and post office, so fuel costs and wear on vehicles become major savings for us.

Even if you live in town, simply staying home more saves a lot of money. Unless you are the type of person who can go to town and not spend a single cent. I know I’m not that woman!

We’re doing grocery shopping every couple of weeks, travelling 40 minutes one way to do it. The grocery bill is really low, but we do need things like coffee, sugar, milk.

We combine it with a trip to the library (give me two books a week to read and I am a happy girl) and pick up whatever other supplies we need.

Sometimes we enjoy a nice lunch in town, because treating ourselves is important too.

 

 

And here is our homemade granola – another big money saver as we love granola for breakfast! Want the recipe?

How do you save money? How do you reduce your monthly expenses? There are some great money saving tips on this other website.

Got a large family? Here’s how to save money with a large family.

More Budget Stretching Tips for your family.

Use these awesome Money Saving Worksheets to save big on groceries, while feeding your family their favorite foods!