“There are two ways to get enough. One is to continue to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less.”
– G.K. Chesterton
I realized that as we get promotions and hikes at work and earn more, the expenses keep increasing exponentially too.
And even my kids don’t realize that buying toys, video games and so on does not bring happiness and peace.
Happiness is something very internal and just buying new house, furniture, clothes, fine china does make you happy for some time but the hollow feeling comes right back to me in my face.
So I made it a point that I will not spend money on my wants and will try to focus on saving on my needs like groceries.
I am always on a lookout to save money in every way possible. Call it the way I am brought up with dad being a professor and mom being a teacher, or may be hereditary or it’s just my attitude! But I feel very accomplished whenever I’m able to save anywhere for anything.
So here are few ways I make every buck work for me:
1. Save on Groceries:
Now you can do it in few ways. First is buy JIT (Just in time).
I noticed that I did not have an estimate of how many vegetables should I be buying over weekends. And I ended up throwing away the veggies and fruits which were going bad by the end of week.
So I decided to make sure that I have stock for common vegetables like onion, tomatoes and potato and on top of that I buy 2/3 other vegetables which can be combined with these to make full meals.
Second is that always buy vegetables in season and/or on deals. This can be challenging sometimes to cook with vegetables on deal but you can google or Instagram the vegetable and find so many Indian recipes for that vegetable.
For example asparagus was on sale few weeks back and I got a huge bunch. After coming home I searched for Indian curry for Asparagus on internet and at end of the day everyone in my family loved it. I’m going to try zucchini sambhar today.
You will have to do some research for the vegetables in season and which store near you has the best deals. Also farmers markets get cheap and fresh produce every week, try to find one near you.
2. Save on Kids Clothes and Shoes:
Kids grow so quick that we have to buy new clothes every 2-3 months sometimes!! And new children clothes are so expensive.
I found this cute consignment store near my house which carry tons of children clothes according to the current season. I find it especially good for the shoes!
My daughter has 6 pairs of shoes (we bought these many thinking that the one we already have does not fit her properly) right now but she likes and wants to wear only one out of all of them.
So for growing kids its best to buy clothes and shoes from consignment stores.
3. Save the Lunch Money:
If you do that math cooking and packing your lunch is so much more cost effective for your wallet and health too. And this is something I still struggle with almost every day.
Since I am the only one who cooks in my house I get very bored cooking all the meals and sometimes by the end of the day I am too tired too to cook for next day lunch.
I tried cooking for dinner and next day lunch but that hasn’t been working out. I need to try something in this area which works for me, but for sure this is a huge area where you can save some bucks.
So these are some techniques I follow to save some moolah and use the savings for my retirement plan or kids educations funds etc
Do you have proven methods you swear by to save money? I will love to hear and make them a part of my life, please free to add in comments.
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