Money Saving Mom®

I loved this money-saving idea from Alice of Farewell, Office:

While I realize that not everyone has the space to do this, we save a lot of money (and earn a little, too!) by owning four laying hens.

Initially, we didn’t know how well this would work and so we went for minimal investment. We bought four chicks for $2 each and set them up in an unused dog kennel and an old dog house with straw inside for a nest. Now that they are full-grown, each hen lays an average of one egg per day and, because we have mild winters, they lay year-round. We get an average of two dozen eggs per week from our hens. We keep a dozen for our family and sell a dozen to friends or family for $2 per dozen.

This gives us $8 per month to pay for feed to supplement their diet, in addition to the scraps we feed them. This means that we pay essentially nothing for having free-range eggs year-round, saving us a good $100 per year.

This has worked so well that we just bought four new chicks, and next year we are going to add four more. Taking care of 8 – or 12! – isn’t any harder than taking care of four. You just throw them a cup of feed every day and collect the eggs. This is a perfect chore for my 7-year-old and we’ve decided this is going to be his job and business, with his savings portion going to his college savings account. -Alice

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Lisa submitted the following tip:

We recently switched to a “Time of Use” plan with our energy company. Rather than a flat rate for electricity, our rate now varies depending on the time of day. The rates for off-peak times are one-third of what they used to be, while the rates for peak times are twice as much. Programs vary, but our peak times are Monday through Friday from 10AM to 9PM. Everything else (plus designated holidays) is considered off-peak.

If you can shift 65% of your electricity usage to off-peak times, you will start to save. We now only do our big ticket energy activities (laundry and dishwasher) during off-peak hours. We’ve also shifted many other activities like charging the laptop and baking to help the savings grow. Note that this program is for electricity only, so our gas rates (which is how we heat our home) remain the same.

We also find that we’re more likely to play a family game rather than watch a movie or go for a walk rather than waste time on the computer. Regardless of the dollar savings, our family has definitely benefited from this program.

After three months, we have already saved 25% off last year’s electric bills. At this rate, the savings will be saving over $200 this year. -Lisa

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Felicia from Mommy Excursions emailed in this tip:

The national average cost for a gallon of milk is $3.79, or $0.24 a cup. To make this stretch farther, we simply add four cups of water to half a gallon of whole milk. This will make an extra eight cups of milk per gallon resulting in the cost being $0.16 a cup. We use, on average, two gallons of milk each week so this method saves us around $133 a year!

If you are interested in trying this, I recommend that you always buy whole milk and always add the water before first drinking any milk from the container. Lastly, it can be hard to get used to. I recommend starting out slow by adding a half cup to one cup water per half gallon milk for a week or two, then go to two cups and gradually work up to adding four cups of water per half gallon. -Felicia

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Shauna sent in this interesting tip:

My husband wears a dress shirt every day of the work week, and after we married, I quickly realized how much he was spending on dry cleaning each month. After some online research (argostarch.com was helpful), I found that I could starch his shirts at home using this method:

1. Wash dress shirts in hot water. Do not dry.
2. Boil some water in the teapot.
3. Meanwhile, mix a half cup cornstarch with one cup cold water.
4. Mix the boiling water with the cornstarch mixture in a large bowl,
and then pour the whole thing in the washing machine (turned on to a
rinse and spin cycle only).
5. Add the freshly-washed shirts.
6. After the rinse and spin cycle is complete, hang the shirts up until
they are slightly damp and then iron.

Not only are we saving hundreds of dollars a year (We save approximately $2 per shirt and he wears five shirts per week which equals $10/week in savings or $520 in savings each year), this method seems to keep his shirts in better shape than dry cleaning does. Corn starch is also a safer, more natural choice over the chemicals used in dry cleaning.

I purchase my corn starch in a 35 oz. container at Sam’s Club for less than $3, and this lasts me several months.

-Shauna

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Guest Post by Sarah Jones from Delivering Grace

The UK has been hit, like many other countries by the economic downturn. Here are some ways I’ve found to save:

1. Generic brands

Many of these are just as good as the more expensive names. Even the store economy brands are frequently reasonable quality. Look out for value chocolate digestives and canned tomatoes. There may be some that your family don’t appreciate but it is worth a try.

2. Late shopping

There are reductions through the day on products with “sell by” dates for that day. The percentage reduction increases as the day goes on. The reductions are marked with special labels, usually yellow.

3. Economy stores

Aldi, Lidls, Netto. I only regularly use Lidls. Lidls are good for cleaning products, bread mixes and chocolate. I find that the economy stores don’t sell everything I need, especially for baking, so I tend to go to them about once a month and do a big shop of the items with the greatest saving.

4. Store reward cards and points

Many stores have these. Tesco Clubcard has points which are usually worth four times the face value mainly for treats. Zoos and other days out have queues of people clutching their Tesco vouchers. The points have to be redeemed for specific vouchers in advance. Nectar points (Sainsburys plus a few other stores) are similar although generally less good value for days out.

There are said to be thousands of pounds in various reward card points that are never spent. The best coupons often come with mailings from store reward cards, often money off or more points off basic items such as dairy products or fruit and vegetables. Stores tend to be strict about only accepting in-date coupons for precise items.

5. Store clubs

Both Tescos and Boots have baby clubs. These clubs send mailings with coupons off nappies and wipes. They have particularly good introductory offers. Tescos also have a group of parents testing baby products and completing surveys again for Clubcard points. The baby products tested are sent out free.

6. Farm shops

In my experience, the further from the main road and the more tatty the shop the better the reductions! The other advantage of farm shops is that the money goes straight to the farmer not to some middle man.

7. Markets

They can have value fruit and vegetables.

8. Cloth nappies (diapers in the US)

Councils have a big push on cloth nappies as they have targets for reducing the volume going to landfill. Many councils offer substantial discounts on cloth nappies. My local council gave us a coupon to the value of £40 off cloth nappies.

9. Using the washing line

A very British habit!

Sarah Jones is a wife and mother of five who lives in England. She blogs at Delivering Grace.

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