Save money, not waste money!

We decided to go with new tires with the strut and shock repair. Gulp ($2200). Shock indeed. But I’d rather have the repairs now instead of risk being stranded. And we found out that someone ripped off our spare tire, ruining the carrier in the process. (Scowl.)

I stocked up on items that were on sale. And months ago I stopped buying the flavored coffee to use at home. I like regular coffee, so there’s no need to splurge on that. Last night I trimmed my hair again. Just a little. Gosh, it’s just how I wanted and only took me under 15 minutes! (Who knew?)

I hope to carve out more time to make a little notebook of what I pay for our staples. That will make comparison shopping more accurate. (I used to keep that in my head, but…my brain is full now.)

Disclaimer: My hair is somewhat in a short “shag” style with no precision lines. It’s an asymmetrical style where I wear it parted on the side.

Given that, I decided that I could risk trimming my own hair. What would be the worst that would happen? It would look funny so then I’d have someone fix it. The fix might result in my hair being a lot shorter than I’d like, but that would only be TEMPORARY.

So I trimmed it yesterday. I cut off between 1/4 and 1/2 inches of the bangs, the sides, the top and the back. All of it! (Mostly I tried to stay with about 1/4 inch.)

I love it! I saved, at the minimum cheap place, $20; and at the maximum, at the tony salon: I saved over $50.

It was fun to have a running total. But I lost track. I have continued to save money…and I’ve figured out a few things since my last recorded amount:

1. I stopped taking the extra fancy vitamins from the health club ($30/month) and switched to a one-a-day vitamin (about $5 or so/month).
2. I refrained from purchasing another set of sweatpants. The current ones get washed before the next trip to the gym, so why would I need another pair?
3. I used a coupon for the new bathroom scale that saved me $10. I’ve stopped trying to manage the little food coupons and am only focusing on the big coupons. Little-coupon management was taking too much of my time! Plus, I’m trying to cook more from scratch and there aren’t that many coupons for ingredients that I need.

Another recollection: For one our summer getaways, we used a coupon for $55 off the hotel, and we also downgraded from our usual room, saving another $50.

So, I’m tacking on another $105 saved.

Cumulative Savings: $746.94

Okay, another recollection of savings from the past summer:

I reattached the lining of my dressy sandals using super glue. So I figure I saved $33, since I would have spent up to $35 for a replacement pair of sandals. But I have to subtract the cost of the super glue ($2).

Cumulative Savings: $641.94

Last May my DH and I went to visit my family. My sister picked us up at the airport. She took us everywhere we wanted to go.

She saved us at least $250 in car rental expense. Thanks, Sis!

Recent Savings: $10.00

1. Used a coupon at the store: $1.00
2. Purchased used books using store credit from books I returned: $9.00

Today’s Savings: $80.16

1. Deposited bowl of coins = $48.55
2. Coupon at the grocery store = $0.55
3. Shopped at the discount grocer’s = $22.06
4. Buy one, get one free (and I truly needed the two free items) at the resale shop = $6.00
5. Didn’t purchase the plastic bottle for toting water because I remembered I had a similar one at home that would work just fine (!) = $3.00

I refused to buy a magazine at the airport, at either end of the trip, so I’m adding $10 to the saved column. Woo hoo!

Cumulative Savings: $268.78