10 Out-of-the-box tips to stop living paycheck to paycheck

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It can be hard to break the habit of spending what you get, but I hope that these 20 tips to stop living paycheck to paycheck will help you to get started!   Whether you are saving money as a stay at home mom or as a working mom, sometimes it seems like a few dollars are the only thing between keeping your head above financial water, and getting ahead.

10 Out-of-the-box tips to stop living paycheck to paycheck

1. For one week, try not to buy anything that you don’t need.  This includes snacks, clothing, etc…  If you can live without it, you don’t need to buy it.   In the meantime, save your money! Take that money that you would have spent and put it into a jar.
   For example:  If I were at the store and would normally buy a case of soda, I will take that $5 and put it into a jar when I get home.   See how much money you have at the end of the week.
2. Get things for free!  You would not believe how many websites are giving away freebies! 
3. Add one dollar a day to a jar.   You will be surprised how quickly it adds up.  When it DOES add up, you need to take that money and put it into the bank.
4. Don’t eat your money!   What does that mean?  It means stop running thru the drive-thru just because you didn’t plan out some snacks ahead of time.  Keep a few simple snacks in your purse for moments like this.
5. Build up your savings and start today!  Dave Ramsey said that we need to have at least $1,000 in the bank, but to aim for $10,000.    You can only do this buy building up your savings, one day at a time. You can easily become discouraged when you don’t see your savings adding up, so give it a full effort.
6. When you go grocery shopping, you need to follow these tips to save money at the store.  Shop only for what you need (which means going with a list!), buy early in the morning or late at night when the food is marked down to the lowest price, and don’t be afraid to buy off of the day-old shelf.
7. Use coupons.  If you are new to couponing, there are a lot of websites that walk you through how to coupon and why you need to.  When I used to coupon, I would save about $200 on my grocery order (which reminds me… I need to do it again!) 
8. Make your own food!  You can make baby food for pennies a jar and it is so much easier than you might imagine.  The same goes for making dinner for your family.  It is a great way to save money.
9. Save money on clothing for your kids by thinking about your options.   Maybe it is getting hand-me-downs or shopping clearance racks… whatever it is, think about what you really need and remember that everything goes on sale at some point.
10. Stop buying diapers by potty training your kids in three days!
    I potty trained each of our kids in a weekend and they were all under the age of two.  This saved our family so much money in that following year (we have four kids, so we saved a LOT of money on diapers!).  I won’t say that it is easy, but I will say that it is worth it and our kids were SO proud of themselves!
    Ps- if you have children that are too young to train, try using cloth diapers to save money.

If you need more advice, these budget hacks are another great way to stretch your dollar and save more money.   We also love this book for ways to help your family save money:

Thanks for reading this!  I hope that these tips will help to save your family money!  They have worked for us!

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