Saving Money Other Ways-part 2

Saving Money Other Ways...

     Would you ever give up cable?  NO!  Not us, never.  Because we are big fans of our TV time.  But circumstances this past two years led us to the conclusion that we could save a LOT of money by getting rid of our huge cable bill each month-our largest utitity bill.  So, we did the unthinkable (at least unthinkable to us) and cancelled the HD channels, the DVR player (I thought I might cry at this one), all the movie channels, Disney-Cartoon Network (Gasp is heard for miles from our kids), and yes ESPN (my sports fanatic hubby very nearly cried at this one).  We took it down to basic cable and by basic, I mean CBS, ABC, NBC, and the local govt channel and only because they (cable co) begged us to keep that at a much reduced rate for 12 months (insert smile here). 
     I thought it would be terrible, NO DVR??  My kids thought the world ended, no cartoon channels??  No ESPN??  But guess what?  We have all survived it, found new outlets to fuel our TV time, and even bonded more as a family! 
     Do go on-you say...I have found that almost all of my favorite shows can be viewed for free online, we already had an ipad (also free thanks to my hubby winning multiple sales contests at work) and on the ipad we downloaded the cartoon network app and it allows the kids to see cartoons that we don't already have on the tons of DVD's that they already have.  My husband has watched his beloved UK Cats on the internet via live streaming ESPN or whatever channel they are being shown on and we found netflixs!  Netflixs is cheap (9.00 a month for streaming internet movies via the wii and wi-fi) and mailed DVD's which come super fast.  So we cut our cable/internet bill from 200+ dollars a month down to less than $60 including the cost of internet/local channels/netflixs.  Thats a lot of moolah over the course of a year! 

     So, think outside the box...what can you change in your daily life that will make a big difference?  Brown bagging your lunch, limiting your eating out to once every few weeks (and only with coupons!), cutting a cable or telephone bill?  Every little change can really add up!

Saving money other ways- Series One

Just a few thoughts this RAINY morning (thank you Lord for the rain, our grass and flowers need it!)
Saving serious money has to be a train of thought...a constant thought process before buying ANYTHING!  There is savings to be had in so many venues that before this train of thought, you wouldn't think of...

For instance, my hubby and Brandi's hubby take care of the car needs and maint.  For years my husband has gotten up, drove to the local oil change place and local car parts place and bought what he needed.  He would complain about the high costs of some of this stuff...but we never really did more than complain about it.  Until I started couponing and pouring over blogs in my spare time (which isn't much with 3 active kiddos!)
and now we both know to search the web for coupons, coupon codes, ect.  My husband has figured out that he can save us a ton of money the following ways:
1.  Order our motor oil online in bulk from the supplier (big, big savings!)
2.  Order the car parts online site to store using discount codes...saves him at least 20% a part and at $200 for the part, that is $40.00!!!  And in most cases, he can pick up the part in an HOUR at our local Auto Advance...wow!
3.  Coupons for oil changes...they are everywhere, but you probably ignore them...on discount cards the school sells, in the newspaper, in the coupon mint...in your junk mail!  And if your oil change is normally $50-70 dollars, and you get it for $20-30, another $20-30.00 savings!  Adds up with 2-4 vehicles in a family!
4.  Car washes...yeah, we all love good quick run thrus at these local places...but most of them are costly.  I bought Butch a carwash set from Target that ended up being a moneymaker last christmas.  So, we only pay the cost of water to wash the cars...the car set came with soap, towels, brushes, wax, ect! 
5.  Rebates...did you know there is rebates on car parts?  Frequently there is, you have to look around the store for signs, search the sites, ect.  Windshield wipers are an item that I see rebates for on quite a bit. 

So, that is series one of  "Saving money on Other Items" and remember-saving money opens up doors to allow you to give more time and money!  And the more you bless others, and the more you take care of your finances in a way that is pleasing to God, the more he will truly BLESS you and your family!