Saying no saves money

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Thirteen easy ways to save money includes saying no to some things.

In 1999, a fierce storm came and blew our satellite dish away, along with over 30 huge trees in our once-wooded lot. Months before the storm, my husband quipped that if God wanted him to give up satellite television, He’d let him know. Following the storm, we thought He told us, “No more.” Once our electricity was restored and the results of the storm were cleaned up, we discussed the necessity of such a bill. We have watched free programming since. Since we don’t watch much television, this suits us just fine. With the gift of a new television recently, we now, however use Amazon Prime for programming. Still, that is almost 24 years of going without paid television.

You’ll notice tip #1 reflects this. Here are more ways that my family and I save money. These are simple everyday things everyone can do.

1. Say no to subscribing to satellite and cable. Do you really need all those stations?
2. Rather than color your hair every month, let it go gray.
3. Use powdered milk or water your milk down in recipes that call for milk.
4. Don’t worry about the latest fashions. Wear your clothes out.
5. Only buy what you need. Splurge for something only occasionally as a reward you’ve earned or for a birthday.
6. Many of us have overflowing closets. If you have clothes that don’t fit or you don’t want anymore, share them with someone else. While cleaning out your closet and drawers, you may find outfits you still want to wear. Since you forgot about it, it is like a new find, and you didn’t have to spend more money.
7. Hang your clothes out on the clothes line instead of using your dryer.
8. Wash your clothes only when they are dirty or stinky. Sometimes we just toss clothes in the laundry basket when they don’t really need washing. This also helps you by having less laundry.
9. Shovel snow rather than buy a snow blower. (Ours died several years ago. Once the kids all grew up and got busy, I missed my husband snow blowing or them shoveling, but I guess I get some needed exercise this way too. It’s a bonus: a workout and a cost savings.)
10. Say no to using the AC except on high humidity, hot days. As we age, we’ve used the AC more, but we didn’t have AC at our first house, and we managed just fine without it by using fans. When we bought our current home, we didn’t use AC often at all. Now, we only use it on super hot days. I hear the hum of the neighbors’ ACs, but I like to have my windows open so I can feel the fresh breeze and hear the sounds outside.
11. Set your thermostat at 66 during the day and wear layers and lower it at night when you are sleeping.
12. Share newspaper subscriptions.
13. Cut open the lotion tubes. A lot of lotion is still in the tube that gets wasted if you just throw it out. Before I discovered this, I wasted a lot of lotion. Several more applications stick to the insides.

What tips will you add to our list? What do you say no to?

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash.