Originally I set out on this post to tell you how much more money you can save if you are organized.  If your home is organized you can find that birthday card you bought instead of buying another, you can use the foods in your freezer, fridge and pantry before they go bad.  But as I sat down and started I thought I am not one to preach on this subject.  Currently my pantry looks like 2 bombs exploded in there (not one but two LOL), my filing cabinet hasn’t been cleaned out in ages, my freezers are so full I just cram things in there (and am out of space).

So I decided I’d take a different approach and challenge myself and you if you are up for it to tighten the belt.  I see people doing no spend challenges all the time but I know that I can’t not spend any money each week, we eat too much bread and fresh veggies for that and as soon as I broke the challenge that would be it.  So instead I’m tightening the belt.  For the rest of this month we are tightening the belt around here and here’s how:

• Shopping less!!  If I can get it free you can bet I’m still going to buy it however if the price is over a dollar it will be very carefully analyzed before I buy it unless it’s on my list.  The list
• Bread I will look for the best deal but it’s needed almost daily here
• Milk Again it’s needed so will be bought
• Fresh Veggies  I will only buy at the Farmer’s Market where I can get the best prices
• Peanut Butter is a staple in this house and I know we are getting low so it’ll be purchased when needed unless it’s on sale first
• Newspapers I still will need my coupons to continue to get things for pennies or free
• Organizing so I can make sure we use everything we purchase without waste
• Driving as little as possible with gas up up up staying home will save us alot of money
• Reducing electricity use as much as possible even if I have to chase Shawn around and shut things off

I will also be posting daily (as allowed) to let you know the little things we are doing to tighten the belt and to report on my purchases, doing that will help hold me accountable.  In addition to not spending I’m going to be doing all things possible to make some money.  There are plenty of ways out there to make a little extra money (not getting rich here so don’t think that) but I will go over them in a separate post another day. 

So do you need to tighten the belt, stop the financial bleeding, or just save some money for something? I’d love for you to join me feel free to blog on this or just comment on these posts and let us know how you are doing each day too!!  I’m starting today and will be back this evening or tomorrow morning (I need to figure out when it will best fit into my schedule) and let you know how I’m doing.