Precious over at Frugal Makes Cents started a Money Saving Challenge a few months ago and I was excited and onboard from the get go.  She has some great ideas on how to save lots of money on a fixed budget.  Well for July I kinda slacked on the challenge.  We have been busy busy busy and I’ve done all right but not great.  So here we are, I’m renewed with ambition and drive to get my savings account full and get on the way to my goals.  Here’s a list of my resolutions:

1. I will “buy” anything that is free, especially if I can sell it in my upcoming yardsale.

2. I will not drive out of my way for a deal.  I’m blessed to have a CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Publix, WinnDixie, and Sweetbay all within 2 miles of my house and a Target about 5 miles away.  I’m also blessed in that my mother in law was able to add us on to her BJ’s membership for $10 and it’s about 15 miles away.  Gas there yesterday was 13 cents cheaper than the gas station across the street so we’ll make one trip a week to get what I need at BJ’s and gas with the perks of a whole shopping plaza right there.

3. I will keep my coupons better organized.  After all a gal can’t save as much when the coupons are a mess.

4. We will consolidate all our trips into 1 day or 2 at the most (for weeks Shawn builds at Home Depot) a week.  I will also pack snacks and drinks for those longer shopping trips to save that cost.

5. I will not sacrifice on food!!!  Dave and I would both like to lose a little weight so I will not buy crap food to eat every day just because it’s cheaper.  We used to eat Banquet meals and Ramen Noodles when trying to save money (before couponing) but not anymore.  We’ll still eat well and I’ll find the deals on the healthier options that we want.

6. I won’t spend money on it if I can make it or substitute  something else for it.  I’ve started making bread which is working out to  be relatively cheap since I can get my supplies at BJ’s

7. If there’s a free sample I’m getting it.  The more free samples we receive the more coupons I’ll get and the more products I’ll have for my next yard sale.

8. I’ll get my butt moving and start selling off some of the crap we have around here that I can on ebay or craiglist.

9. I’ll be blogging more.  Be on the look out for my Frugal Crafty Gifts series as well as posts about how to monetize your blog, making money at home, and some in depth looks into what is really cheaper.

I’ll probably have more goals and challenges to add to this but this is my start for the month.

Do you have a goal you are trying to save for?  Are you just looking for some saving support?  Please let me know, we can support each other through this.  If you’ve got a blog leave a link to it and I’ll get a sidebar up and add you to it, if you don’t have a blog drop by and let us know how you are doing.