The Stuff We Do To Save A Dollar

I get asked all the time what exactly Marco and I save money on.  People love lists and I love to make them, so I thought I'd compile one big one here to showcase where we save and what that does to our yearly budget.

Things We Do to Save Dollars:

1.  Our own hair:  Marco cuts his own hair at home, and as of tonight I started doing my own too.  I learned a few things by watching youtube videos, particularly this one and this one, but otherwise I just wing it.  This saves us about $50 a year in cuts and tips.

2.  Dog care:  Marco cuts the dogs nails and I bathe them.  I also learned how to express their anal glands which is just as glamourous as it sounds- but all together, this saves us about $100 per year.  *Note: we still get their shots and flea/tick/heartworm regularly*

3.  Paper towels:  Last Christmas I traded some sewing for a few pairs of flannel boxers and made a whole pile of reusable not-paper-towels.  They're still going strong and every once in a while I will pick up an extra receiving blanket from Goodwill and make up a few more.  Total yearly savings: $20 or so.

4.  Entertainment:  We have the cheapest internet we could find, no cable, only Netflix on demand and love our library cards.  I think we have been to one movie in theaters this year- Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters.  So we're pretty low key.  Concerts really aren't my thing and Marco knows how to get us invited to the right parties.  All in all by not spending money on cable, DVDs, tickets to events or other similar things, I'd say we save about $250 a year.

5.  Heat and A/C:  We don't turn on the heat until November 1st, and don't turn on the A/C until June 1st.  In the winter we wear a lot of socks, drinks lots of hot tea and double up on sheets.  But in the summer we lose our comforter as soon as the heat starts to settle in, only run the dishwasher at night and rarely run the dryer or the oven.  This has given us 4 months a year where our total utility bills are less than $50 a month.  Compared to our other bills and average usage, that's about $200 in savings each year as well.

Cerulean wears his sweaters all winter

6.  Biking to work and for small errands:  We save about $40 dollars a month just by biking to work.  It added 10 whole minutes to our commutes and cut out any gym memberships we were considering.  Total yearly savings: $400.

7. Food:  When we decided to go veg 5 nights a week (sometimes even more) we immediately starting seeing savings differences.  Growing our own veggies, making our own tomato sauce, and meal planning out of our freezer/pantry all help too.  I am trying very hard to get back into meal planning and hopefully that will help us save even more and waste even less.  It's hard to say how much we actually save by doing this, but when I asked neighbors and friends how much they spend on food monthly, we're spending around $200 less each month.  That's $2,400 a year!

8.  Water:  Our rain barrels and inside water collection help us water our garden, pets and yard.  Savings: $60 a year.

9.  Body Care:  I gave up shampoo and neither one of us wears cologne.  I rarely use makeup and when I do it's not expensive.  I traded for a year's worth of soap for our family and I make my own body scrub from ingredients in our kitchen.  Yearly savings: $100.

10.  Buying Loved:  Our fancy new camera, almost all of our furniture, our books, grill, even our bed sheets, picture frames and about 50% of my wardrobe are all previously loved.  Yearly savings: A LOT

Of course all of these savings mean that we get to splurge in other areas- soy based ice creams for instance- and of course everyone's lifestyles are different, but these are how we feel comfortable cutting back.

Anyone else bartering for a year's supply of soap out there?  Or taking a longer commute to save on gas?  Anyone see any topics that we're just totally missing?  I'd love more suggestions!