The Ways We Save

A couple of weeks ago I asked for your best ideas on saving money. I got lots of great responses – thank you – and over the coming weeks I'll share the ideas with y'all under the title The Ways We Save. Congrats to the winners of the books, and here's to all the great ideas we can now share.

Saving starts wherever you want it to start and builds from there. It's amazing how changing just one thing you do can lead to so much more money for the things that are really, really important to you. Here's what Mel said:

When it comes to saving money I believe it's all about the little things. At first it seemed like nothing in our budget could be trimmed – no one wanted to give up their favourite channels, lunch dates or Friday dinners out so I thought I would make a small change and sacrifice some time.

Our second vehicle is used to: drop off our kid at daycare, drive to the train station where it's parked all day and drive back home again. I sacrificed just 10 minutes to leave earlier for the daycare drop and park back at home in time to take the bus, which is just steps away. I save on parking, gas, and on insurance because the vehicle is classified as "pleasure use only". Over the last 4 months I have saved at least $500, which has been put towards a vehicle maintenance fund and a gas fund for an upcoming road trip in the summer.

This change in attitude has sparked savings in other areas of our budget like making use of the crockpot to make homemade soups for work lunches instead of spending $10 a day.  Homemade food is SO good and so easy – and making a big batch saves both time and money. We only have 1-2 dinners out a month and we monitor our spending on an iPhone app called Mind Your Money. I carry $20 cash for emergencies in my wallet and have never used it. I rarely use my credit cards unless it's for a reimbursable work expense. There's so much more…

Amazing what happens when you keep track of your money. It's actually kinda fun to input items and see "how we stack up" against ourselves, month to month.

Some people believe that it's impossible to save. And some believe it isn't about how much you make, but how you spend it… or NOT, like Rose:

Motivation for my husband and I was to build a life that we didn't have to wake up in the morning and worry but continue to work together as a couple to sustain the love and marriage we entered in and not let money rule it.

"Our" best saving strategy started with being attentive to what we spent and prices. Then came using coupons and wow did our world change. We were able to save thousands of dollars on everyday items, which we continue to do. Although educating is one of the best ways I still can't stress more to friends and family how making a budget and tracking monthly expenses *deal or no deal" has helped us to save, save, save.

Both my husband and I have been savers since we were young although I look back and can see I would have so much more if I was educated in finances and savings. In the past 4 years using the above strategy and with our past savings we have paid off 2 new vehicles, maxed out TFSA, put 100,000 down on our house and have over 100,000 in savings ( I know still trying to figure out what to do with it). We owe only the mortgage.

Our house was furnished from Kijiji and we don't own a flatscreen. We both have RRSPs, TFSA, life insurance and looking into critical illness life insurance. We are in our 30's, and my husband went back to school 3 years ago and is now a trade apprentice and I went back to school 2 years ago and finished. I always say, "It's not how much money you make, it's how you spend it".  I read your books all of them and love them although I took them out from the library. I always love to share with friends but in the end, it's up to the individual to want to make the changes or else they will learn the hard way.

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