Sue Kitten

Some of the ways I have saved pennies are a lot of the same tips you have already received from all of these wonderful people on this board. Not only do I make my only laundry soap but also my own fabric softener from inexpensive hair conditioner. Instead of shaving cream to shave your legs use just plain bar soap. Eat left overs instead of throwing food away. No more paper/plastic products. Wrap up in a cosy warm quilt instead of turning up the heat. Good luck in your schooling

ILoveToQuilt

If you can, turn down your thermostat. You will save big on fuel oil/heating costs. We keep our thermostat at 60 during the day and 58 at night. (We heat by oil and only used 450 gals of oil last year). To be fair, we also have a wood stove in our living room and I keep that going almost constantly during the winter. We live on 6+ acres of heavily wooded acres, so we have a constant supply of wood to burn. The wood stove takes the edge off, but snuggling in a quilt is still necessary. Make sure you keep enough heat on to keep your pipes from freezing! We learned the hard way years ago.

If you don't have to wear "school" uniforms, buy your scrubs at Salvation Army, Goodwill, etc. I just picked up 6 batik scrub tops for $6 at Goodwill. I don't wear scrubs anymore, but since they are 100% cotton, I will be using them as fabric.

Buy in bulk for things you use steadily - toilet paper, napkins, tissues, etc. Shop by unit price, not by shelf price. The unit price is usually per ounce, per pound, per 100, etc. Shelf price maybe higher, but unit price is what matters. Split the joining fee for a warehouse club (BJs, Costco, Sam's, etc.) with a friend (or two) to take advantage of bulk purchasing.

You already know about coupons...don't use them just because you have them. Only use them to reduce the price of items you use! Even with coupons, sometimes other brands are cheaper than the one that has a coupon. If you do use a coupon, use it on the smallest size possible - more bang for your buck. Take advantage of rebate/refund offers - these are the ones you have to mail away for (or do online). You get a form (on package, online or at the store), you send the qualifiers they ask for (UPC code, etc) and the cash register receipt and the company sends you money. Call companies to "praise" them on their products. Ask if they can send you some coupons. Often times they will send high cents off or even free product coupons. Do the same if you don't like the product. Companies will often refund your money or send free coupons for some of their other products to try.

Some things don't skimp on---I mentioned a stethoscope in my last post. Shoes are also a "buy the best you can afford" item. My daughter and I swear by Dansko shoes. Expensive, but they last years. Since you are already working as an LPN, you probably already have the "nursing" stuff you need. But these few things just popped into my head.

Again, congratulations and the program! BTW - have you looked into tuition reimbursement from your employer? Not that it's my business, but often times an employer will pay you back for education that benefits them in the long run. LPN to RN would certainly qualify for tuition reimbursement in my mind.

Take care and YOU CAN DO IT!

Anita

beckyboo1

I also love Dansko shoes and hope they are ok to wear by school guidelines. I think I have 3 pairs, maybe 4 lol. I realllly have got to look for a new stethoscope though, my old Littman finally wore a hole in the tubing. I didn't realize rebate offers were still around. I had done those 15+ years ago when my kids were little until they got harder and harder to find. Thank God for woodstoves! We use ours daily in the winter time but we really need to try turning the thermostat down too. I'm looking for ways to tighten the seals around our outside doors too. I hate being cold!

quiltingeileen

I agree simplify Christmas. I started that a few years back. The first year it felt really odd as it got closer to the holiday and there was advertising, decorations everywhere and holiday music. I was almost feeling guilty and not part of the holiday. Yet I stuck to my guns and did a lot of pep talking myself and made it thru. It's been 4 years now and I wouldn't have it any other way. I enjoy the holiday so much more, because it's not about spending big bucks, but more about enjoying family and friends. Also, come Jan. 1 you feel so good that you have not put yourself in credit card debt or spent bill money. Bake things, make a craft or sewn item, frame a photo of someone taken earlier in the year at a fun event etc.
Lots of good ideas from the other gals. Good luck in school!

BellaBoo

When I want to save money I just don't spend any. LOL. I pay the bills and buy food to supplement what I have already to eat to live, not live to eat. Buy gas for the car and that's all I spend. I do this two months out of the year just to see how much I can save a month if I had to. I think doing it every month would be depressing but every few months should lower your expenses enough to not feel broke all the time. You'll have that degree and all will be great!

yobrosew

How many do you cook for? Perhaps if we knew we could post our "cheapest" meal/s recipes. . . .
The Kroger in our area offers something we have really benefitted from. For every prescription you transfer to their pharmacy, you get $25 credit put on your Kroger customer card. We are sick, we go to the doc. We get the script filled near the doc. The second round (our doc always gives one refill) we take to Krogers. Boom! $25 dollars. For thyroid we ask for a six refills instead of the standard 12 so when we get the new script we can get another transfer for another $25. If sick and the doc is writing an antibiotic, ask, "Do I have to come back in if this stuff doesn't work or do I just refill the prescription?". Most likely the doc will automatically write the script then for a refill. Meijer Stores have a list of medications they provide FREE if you do not use insurance.

Check out care.com to keep an eye out for someone that needs someone to spend third shift (11pm-7am) sleeping at their home to babysit the sleeping children while parents working. Some even are willing to drop the kids off to sleep at your house.

Get rid of contract cell phone service if can and go to pre-paid.

Buy several rolls of cheap 'saran wrap'. Roll our about four feet, fold over and then twist. Using a butter knife, push into crack in windows and any door you can do without during the winter. The wrap will expand inside the crack and you have some pretty good weatherstipping. This works great, too, in those drafty outlets.

Senior coffee at McDonalds. Even if you are not a senior. They do not ask for ID as only giving to one age bracket is age discrimination so it really is available to everyone. I felt weird at first with this and only asked in the drive through. No one ever said anything, even when I started going inside. Then on my fiftieth birthday I was all dressed up and feeling really young and beautiful and I go in to a new McDonald's. I asked for coffee but neglected to say, "Senior". Well, the kid asks, "Would that be a senior coffee, Ma'am?" Did my first senior offer have to be on my fiftieth birthday where I just know I looked only forty!??

yobrosew

I posted further down about using saran wrap to block out the drafts. Also, it is pricey, but the STRIPPABLE/peelable weatherproofing caulk is wonderful. If fills in where nothing else can. Make sure it is the strippable kind (it is clear). We also only use one door in the winter, the one farthest from all the living space so not heating as big as draft. We heat with coalstove which is in middle of house on mainfloor. We discovered a couple of the furnace vents run through the walls of the diningroom (where stove is) and go upstairs. So, we cut a hole in the wall and vent at the top, close to the ceiling. The heat rises through the hole and exits out the vent upstairs. We also have a vent flappy thing on the dryer that makes it so we can use that dryer heat inside during the winter. It is not expensive. Will have to google for the name of it.

yobrosew

Another thing we have done is turn off the fridge at night. If the door is not opened the temp stays practically the same. We do have to put a sign on the coffee maker and on the milk jug to turn the fridge back on. Usually the sign on the coffee maker doesn't work but the ones hanging inside the fridge get the first person in there in the morning to turn it back on.

Turn down the flame a wee bit on gas water heater.

Recently I forgot to schedule more propane and was worried I was going to run out before truck got here so I washed everything in cold water (laundry) and discovered the clothes were cleaner in cold water. Go figure.

Instead of fabric softner, use a 1/4 cup of white vinegar. I promise the clothes will not smell like vinegar. A wad/ball of foil in the dryer eliminates static and one ball about the size halfway between a golf ball and a tennis ball will last a couple of months. Don't wad too compactly.

yobrosew

Disagree about conditioner on a regular basis without shampooing builds up on the hair. Conditioner on shampooed hair is different than on no-shampooed hair. In fact, if you shampoo and then put conditioner on your hair it feels after rinsing it off entirely different than if you don't use shampoo. Fine hair, after about five times of only conditioner (it takes that many times to repair the damage caused by the shampoo, which is very harsh and strips the hair) actually becomes less limp and static and is more volumous. Before conditioner was called conditioner it was shampoo. An ingredient was added to the shampoo(that we now call conditioner) for it to suds, which was a marketing gimmick. The side effect of the new sudsy hair cleaners was it dried out the hair too extensively, so the old shampoo was repackaged as conditioner. With shampoo, one lathers and swirls around to wash the hair. With conditioner, one needs to fingertip massage into the scalp (it does not leave the hair greasy). Then rub between thumb and fingers down the length of a clump of hair, section by section. Follow this with the 'strip', which is taking sections between thumb and fingers (pinchlike), only this time glide down the strand and send the stuff off the bottom. Sort of like a squeegee idea. This pulls the dirt, oil, and slime that has adhered to the conditioner completely out of the hair. It takes, initially, three or four times to transition from shampoo/conditioner to conditioner only because it takes time to fix the drying out effects of the shampoo. With shampoo and conditioner combo my head was a greaseball after a day and a half of washing. For the last four years of only conditioner washing, I can go three or even four days without rewashing.

jeaninmaine

There's a website that has a ton of ways to "make your own" stuff. http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/ There are also quite a few 'Thrifty' sites if you do a Google search.