How to save money

I got this in the email from a friend and thought I would share it.

How to Save Money PART 1 by Mrs. Paul Jett (Linda)

Often I hear, "How did our parents or grandparents ever do it having land and home and savings accounts to pass down?" Or, "I wish we could get out of debt!"? Or, "We both HAVE to work." Or, "We have to borrow money because we just can’t make it on our salary." Or, "We have so many children we just can’t stretch it."

Stay home! Going costs in fuels, tires, wear and tear on your vehicle, desires to spend, temptations from billboards and samples or displays from stores. Every time you go to town, or anywhere else, stop and add the fuel to the price of your purchases or to your outing. If you will actually keep a closer count of fuel expenditures, you will find it easier to reduce your going! If you are a person who runs for milk or bread, don’t forget to add the price of that fuel to your purchase. It will cause much better planning on your part. It is NEVER economical to buy small purchases or to have a small pantry. The well stocked pantry is money saved. If you can’t afford to start a well stocked pantry, then add one or two bulk items (or quantity purchases) per week until you finally have plenty to have whatever you need, when you need it!

Stay out of the store, or even thrift stores and garage sales unless there is a need and you have prayed and asked the Lord to help provide for a need in the family (and only then when HE says to go)! Stores are full of advertising to make you stop and want. Thrift stores and garage sales are wonderful for saving, but also addictive! You can’t stay away because of "the bargain" that you are afraid of missing and soon, because the prices are so cheap, you have spent MUCH money and your house is overflowing! When you go to the store and you are shopping around rather than following your list of needs, try looking at a bargain or item and then go on with your shopping. If you really couldn’t live without it you will be drawn back to it, but the impulse buying will have passed. REMEMBER, as I have stated so many times before: "pray over items and ask the Lord if you NEED it"!

Don’t subscribe to magazines! They cause you to want excessively, OR just want period. They keep you discontent with what you have! Seeing the "perfect" places makes you discontent with what you have. They also make us want to constantly change! Contentment is the way to live life and live it economically within our means. Magazines are full of things to order, places to send you to and yearly changes for your home and gardens!

Cancel catalogs! They create too many desires and wants! A catalog is made to get you to want and order. If you NEED something, then go where they have them, or ask for a catalog to make an order and then pass it back to the store or elsewhere. The more it sits there, the more you want from it! I have a method when I receive catalogs from places. I look at it, make a list of things that I want or "need". Then I put it away. If I really need the items I will be drawn back to get the item or items ordered, but never order right away. Most of our ordering is a "passing whim".

Don’t watch TV! They show people with wealth that the average person doesn’t have and the advertisements are designed to keep you discontent and wanting the newest, the latest, the sleekest, the yummiest, the easiest! TV will lower your standards for living the Godly life, they will eat away your time for productiveness, they will cheat you from time with family, and time with the Lord! TV also keeps you constantly hungry and coveting!

Don’t eat out! Feed your family! The woman’s two main responsibilities are to feed her family and to keep them in clean and neat clothes! How embarrassing it is to see men and children buying their meals, or getting them from others, when a primary responsibility of the woman is to feed her family! In times past, she would have been disgraced to have not provided their meals–to take with them or when they are home! Men never went to McDonald’s or Luby’s to get their meals with the money they were so carefully trying to accumulate for their families. Women did their part by being an asset to the family (their husband’s helpmeet) and by seeing all were adequately and healthfully fed. I don’t care how you figure it, you cannot eat out for less than 5-10 times anything you can make at home! Most things are actually 10-20 times higher than what you can do at home! You figure a $.99 hamburger isn’t too bad?? Well, I can make a wonderful big hamburger with $.79 lb ground turkey, my wonderful homemade bread (it costs me about $.40 a loaf, even for multi-grain or whole wheat!)(made into a bun if I choose), a bit of mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato, and pickle, all for about $.25 or so!! Now, does your special $.99 hamburger sound so good after all?? Plus, did you purchase only a $.99 hamburger or did you buy a coke, french fries and possibly more??

A dozen donuts cost more than a whole big breakfast for a big family. How about a $.05 cup of coffee (even with the cream and sugar and perhaps some cocoa mix in it!), that you will spend $.50 to $2.50 for if you go out. You can do better than that at home and keep the change for the future! You can even invite guests over and share your coffee for less than the cup of coffee you bought! For hubby, make sure you send him a big thermos of hot, steaming coffee (or tea), just the way he likes it. Men often pay quite a bit for their "coffee out" that you could have prepared at home for pennies! If your husband had to drive to get that coffee, or that lunch, you just added more of your hard earned cash into the price of the coffee or lunch with the gasoline involved! Use some of your creativity and let it PAY YOU! Make beautiful, creative lunches that will make him the envy of those at work! Make things from scratch and improve taste along with saving money!

Next time you go out, enter it into your cost journal (along with the gas!) and see what you missed out on, on a more permanent scale! It doesn’t take long until you have increased your savings, or your land, house, furniture or something else you can keep around, rather than enjoyment for a moment. Suggest to hubby he could have a new tool or what knot for the computer by saving gas and eat out money! Make the lunches so wonderful he doesn’t WANT to eat out!

Jill Cooper of "Living On A Dime"* writes in her article "Are We Depriving Our Kids?": "I often hear ladies complaining that they want to stay at home with their kids but that they "have to work since it is so expensive to raise kids these days". One of the main questions I get asked about frugal living is "won’t I be depriving my children if I live the frugal life?" Maybe I can answer that question with a few questions. How am I depriving my children by having them drink water for every meal instead of juice and soda? Isn’t one thing doctors are always complaining about is we don’t drink enough water? Cutting out just one glass of soda per person per day for a family of four would save $547.50 a year and make them healthier. How am I depriving my children by having them eat an apple or homemade granola bar for a snack instead of a bag of chips? Obesity is a major problem among children in the United States. If you cut out just one bag of chips a week you would save $104.00 a year and make them healthier."

Have home entertainment, not entertainment establishments! If you find it necessary to "play", then play at home! Play with husband or wife or children. Create things to play and do and this does not necessitate a lot of expensive equipment or games! Whatever happened to wonderful pitch, or jump rope, or bingo, or hide and go seek, or word games? Families have done it for centuries but now we must go to establishments that cost the families much of the fathers time and labor and the savings towards more lasting things for the future. You say "We just can’t afford any land or an addition to the house to fit the family into better." The reason? You ate it, bought lots of fuel, or "played" it away! For many families you "watched" it away on satellites and movies, or listened it away on music tapes, CD's, etc.