Then there was the time I promised myself I wouldn’t buy any more lattes before work. Instead, I would put that $5 in my savings account. “If I do this before work each day, I’ll save $1,300 over the course of a year!” I said to myself sagely. Unfortunately, I ended up replacing my morning latte with a morning smoothie that actually cost me slightly more (since I had to get the energy booster shot, too).
More recently, I’ve realized how much money we waste on food in my home. I have a 1-year-old and a 3-year-old, and meal times are literally a recipe for disaster between the mess, the whining and the fact that neither of my adorable children will even touch a vegetable without having a complete meltdown. So I figured, why even bother making dinner for my husband and myself? We can just eat their leftover chicken nuggets and carrot sticks and half-chewed French fries! Anything tastes good with a glass of wine! Unfortunately, my husband values a balanced diet, so I’m back to brainstorming other creative ways for my family to pinch pennies.
If you’re a prospective homebuyer trying to think of new ways to save money, I feel your pain. Luckily for you, I just happen to have some tried-and-true tips that are much more effective than my previous attempts at frugality. When we bought our home, we took advantage of numbers 1, 4, 5 and 8 in the following list — and we were able to get the house we wanted much sooner than expected.
