Are you tired of feeling like your wallet is constantly on life support? With prices growing so fast, it’s no wonder your bank account is shrinking. But fear not! We’ve got some tips up our sleeves to help you save money and fight inflation without breaking open the piggy bank. Learn 20 money-saving ideas for families that will stretch your dollar and keep more money in your bank account.
Be sure to read to the end for our best money-saving idea for families.
1. Laundry Flashback
You can save as much as 10-20% on your total electric bill by always hanging your laundry out to dry. Yep, it is a bit old school but according to the folks over at the Almanac, there are also several other great reasons to hang out your laundry.
- Prolongs the life of your clothing
- Protects the environment by conserving energy
- Lower the risk of a home fire in your dryer vents
- Sunlight is a good bleach disinfectant
- You can’t beat the smell of laundry that is line-dried.
2. Brown Bag It
It’s everyone’s go-to money-saving idea for families for a reason. It saves money! The fastest way to save the most money is in the food category. Hands down. Do the math. Every time you brown bag your lunch vs. eating out will save you at least $8 on the conservative side. That is $160 a month! And that is just for lunch for one person.
3. Hit Up the Yard Sales
Need a new lawnmower or hedge trimmer? Items like this and more can be bought at a garage sale for 1/4 the cost of new. Anything you need for your home can often be found at a garage sale where you can find big savings. Hint: Hit up the nicer neighborhoods in your community. Often times those homeowners are upgrading from something that is barely used or is already nicer than what you would buy new anyway. Do you live anywhere from Alabama to Michigan? US 127 runs the entire way and is the location of America’s longest yard sale once a year. Travel that road for more than a couple of miles near any town and you’ll find dozens of yard sales and vendors.
4. Have Your Own Yard Sale
Clean out those closets and unload the shed! Get that yard sale scheduled and make some money. It is a great way to get the kids involved and teach them some skills in the process. According to the folks at Money Under 30 you can make anywhere from $500 to $1,000 on average by holding your own garage sale. Just be sure to check your local regulations for permits if needed.
5. Sell on eBay
If you want to maximize the value of your stuff sell it on eBay. It is literally an auction in front of the entire country or even internationally if you want to ship across the border. Selling on eBay is not hard and you’ll get the actual value for your items since the platform is competitive. I’ve sold dozens of items on eBay including old phones and electronics, games, and more. Take a look around your house. If it doesn’t bring you joy, sell it. Unless it’s the cat. Check with the kids first.
6. Power Down or Unplug Unused Appliances & Devices
Unused appliances and electronics plugged in but not in use are called energy vampires. They still draw some electricity and keep your meter running. According to folks at Shiply Energy you can save as much as $100 to $200 per year using this strategy. Hey, it all adds up!
7. Take the Heat Setting Off of Your Dishwasher
Almost all dishwashers use heat to dry dishes, which decreases drying times and helps kill any bacteria that may be left over after the cycle has run. If you don’t need to use your dishes right away or don’t require items to be extra sanitized (e.g. baby bottles), set your dishwasher to use air-dry instead.
This option turns off the dishwasher heater so the fan circulates room-temperature air inside the appliance to dry the dishes. Using the air-dry option can reduce your dishwasher’s energy consumption by 15 percent. If your machine doesn’t have this feature, simply crack the dishwasher door open a little at the end of the cycle to let air inside or manually dry the dishes with a kitchen towel. Source: Appliance Repair Solutions
8. Turn Down the Temp on Your Water Heather
Although some manufacturers set water heater thermostats at 140ºF, most households usually only require them to be set at 120ºF, which also slows mineral buildup and corrosion in your water heater and pipes. Water heated at 140ºF also poses a safety hazard—scalding.
Savings resulting from turning down your water heater temperature are based on reducing standby losses (heat lost from the water heater into the surrounding area). Set too high, or at 140ºF, your water heater can waste anywhere from $36 to $61 annually in standby heat losses. Additional savings will be realized by the lower temperature for consumption (from water demand or use in your home, such as clothes washing, showers, and dishwashing). These may amount to more than $400.
9. Double Check Those Subscriptions
It seems like every business these days is looking to get you into a subscription. From Walmart to Amazon Prime to music, subscriptions are the new profit center for many businesses. If you have not taken a fresh look at your subscription commitments you should. Just checking your streaming subscriptions might uncover some services you haven’t used in a while. Grab your last 3 bank statements and audit them carefully. Look for all of your subscriptions and make a list. Then decide which ones you can let go of. While you are at it, get on a zero-based budget so you have your current month’s expenses named and accounted for. That way you can always know what you are making, and spending, and where your money is going.
10. Drive Past the Coffee Drive Thru
I know. Say it ain’t so. But do the math. Fufu coffee 5 days a week at $6 a pop comes out to $120 a month or $1,440 a year! Cut that in half and you’ll save $720 per year. Not much more to say here except, “choose what you want most, over what you want now.”
11. Family Game Night Instead of Going Out
My wife and I regularly took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese because the kids played while we ate and talked. It seemed like a win-win for us and the kids (and it kind of was) but in the end, we spent a bunch of money but didn’t really spend any time together. The old saying the best things in life are free really applies here. Save yourself $100 and stay in for a family game night. The kids will actually like it more because they have the one thing that means the most to them paying attention to them, you! By the way, did you know that the founder of Chuck E. Cheese was also the inventor of Atari gaming systems? Weird but true.
12. S’Mores Anyone?
I’ve got a soft spot for camping, especially as a family. If you want some money-saving ideas for your family consider camping for your next vacation. The savings are very substantial over a hotel and theme park and the views are a lot better. Waking up to loons calling over a lake and a cup of coffee in the cool morning air is priceless. And so will the quality time you spend with the kids or your loved ones. Even if you don’t have a tent or any supplies you can get the basics and camp for a lot less than hotels, restaurants, and theme parks. Our family camped every year together and saw all the same sites in a traditional vacation such as Niagra falls, the mall in DC, finger lakes in NY and so much more. We just did it from a tent and the evening s’mores were just the cap to a perfect day. And we save a lot of cash in the process.
13. I Know if Sounds Weird, But it Saves Money
Okay, don’t judge. But remember, food is your biggest opportunity for savings the fastest. Buy whole milk and add some water when it gets to about 3/4 full. Skim is just whole milk with more water content. Since whole milk is the same or almost the same price as skim or 2%, just buy whole and stretch it by adding some water. It will turn a gallon into 1 and 1/4 gallons easily. If you have kids you might be going thru a lot of milk so this money-saving idea for your family can generate some real savings by the end of the year.
14. Buy Generic
I only have a couple of guilty pleasures and they are too much tv sometimes and definitely too much diet soda. We made the switch the other day from the big-name diet soda brand to the Kroger house brand. It saves 66% over the name brand at regular prices and to be honest, we haven’t missed a thing in terms of taste. And that is just soda. Buy a store brand and you can save a ton of cash over the course of a year.
15. Grab a Sweatshirt
According to energy.gov, you can save as much as 10% a year on heating and cooling by simply turning your thermostat back 7°-10°F for 8 hours a day from its normal setting. The percentage of savings from setback is greater for buildings in milder climates than for those in more severe climates.
16. Be Smart at the Grocery with These Tips
I’ll say it again. Food choice is the best money-saving idea for families. Hands down. No contest. Unless you are talking about dumping a car payment or something major, food is the first place to turn for easy money-saving ideas. Here are some Budget Coach USA grocery shopping tips and tricks and they don’t even require coupons!
17. It’s Free at the Library
Book worm? The best thing about the public library is that it is free. The second best thing is that you don’t even have to go in many cases. You can use their app and borrow the book virtually. Why ever buy another book again? Unless it is a first edition of To Kill a Mocking Bird. That might be worth a spot on your shelf if you are a collector. But hey, for everyday reading you can’t beat free. And your local library is free!
18. Can You Hear Me Now?
Big-name brand carriers have to pay for all of that advertising and those fancy stores on prime real estate somehow. And they do that by selling you an image more than delivering a discernable difference in service. The facts are that cut-rate carriers are way less expensive and provide the same cell towers and coverage. So what is the difference? A little less speed sometimes, but not always. And if you want them to provide you with a phone, it won’t be the latest version. I ran an entire business across my state on a Chromebook and a second-generation android phone while using the Cricket mobile network. The network and my phone provided directions for 15 stops a day and were used for each customer to sign. Never suffered a bit. I currently get 5 lines with unlimited data (including 5G) for $125 per month. That will drop to $50 a month soon when my grown kids go on their own plan. Choose what you want most, over what you want now.
19. Raise Your Auto Insurance Deductible
According to Forbes you can save from 7% to 28% per year by raising your auto deductible. Be careful here. Just be sure that you have an adequate emergency fund in place in case you have to pay your deductible. If you do, raising your deductible is a great way to leverage your emergency fund so you can fight inflation.
20. Get on a Budget
Our best money-saving idea for families is to get yourself on a zero-based budget. I know it doesn’t sound as fun as other things and you are probably looking for fixes that you feel are quicker. But that is the thing about a zero-based budget, it fixes things faster than all of the other ideas we have listed combined. When you tell every single dollar you earn where to go your savings will pile up fast. Check out this article on why a zero-based budget is important then start one today.
Final Thoughts
There are many money-saving ideas for families that you can combine to stack up a bunch of savings. We’ve listed enough here to generate more than $2,000 a year. However, the best money-saving idea for families is to live on a zero-based budget that aims your money toward your goals. A zero-based budget assures you that none of your money is being wasted in areas that you have not predetermined for it to go.
