The Frugal Free Gal

As a frugal shopper, you likely weigh every purchase very carefully before you make a decision. You don’t just want to reduce your spending; you also want to stretch your dollars and get the most bang for your buck.

One way to get an incredible value on summer entertainment is to purchase a yearly membership to a place like a zoo, a pool or a museum. When you divide the price of a yearly pass by the number of times you’re allowed to go, the savings are amazing! But are they worth their high price tag? Here are four questions to ask yourself when deciding if a yearly membership is a good buy for you.

1. How Often Will You Go?

The first and most important question you should ask yourself when considering a membership is “How often will we go?” If you know for sure you plan to visit the zoo, pool, or museum several times over the course of the summer, then a pass is likely a great value. If you enjoy visiting, but probably won’t have a chance to visit often, it may be a waste of money.

2. What Would You Do Instead?

Next, consider the alternative to buying a yearly membership. You aren’t likely to sit at home all summer. If you don’t have a yearly membership, will you visit a new (and expensive) place every week? If so, a yearly membership might make sense to you, because it would save you the expense of doing other activities out of boredom.

3. Do You Have the Money to Purchase One Right Now?

While purchasing yearly memberships for everyone in your family can lead to great savings, they are often quite the investment up front. Do you have the money to pay for one now, or can you skimp and save so you do? If you seriously cannot find a way to come up with the funds, you may have to find a different activity to do this summer and keep saving until next year.

Related: Four Ways to Save on Gym Memberships

4. What Other Hidden Costs are Associated With This Purchase?

Whether you are visiting the zoo, the pool or the museum, the cost of your yearly membership likely isn’t the only expense you will have. How much will you also end up spending on gas, parking, snacks, sunscreen and all of the extras? Don’t forget to factor these costs into the equation when you are deciding if a yearly pass is right for you.

Yearly passes can be a great investment, but only if you use them frequently enough to get your money’s worth. Be honest with yourself. Would getting a yearly pass help you save money this year, or is it just another thing to spend more money on because it’s such a “great deal?” This is a question only you can answer.

Related: Skip the Gym Membership! 10 DVD Workouts to Do At Home

Do you ever buy yearly passes on entertainment? What activities and events do you buy them for?

Photo by Mathieu Turle on Unsplash

How are you doing with your savings goals for the year so far?  Are you working towards paying off debt or saving for your future? If you are working towards cutting costs in your life, health care is one area to take a look at. How much are you spending on health care every year? Below I’m going to share ways that you can save on health care.

Sign up for a FREE SingleCare Card – If you are looking for affordable care, check out SingleCare! SingleCare offers savings on prescriptions, dental, vision, and on-demand virtual doctor visits! You can save up to 80% on prescriptions, up to 55% on dental visits, access to 200,000 providers nationwide, price estimations tools, and a free account with no membership fees when you sign up for a SingleCare card. Take a look around SingleCare for yourself! Enter in your current prescriptions into the search fields and compare the prices around your area. See how much you can save when you use SingleCare! The website is easy to navigate and you can easily find what you are looking for. I was able to enter in my current prescriptions and compare prices around my area. Wow – the savings!

Practice Preventative Care – Take care of yourself by eating right, exercising, and practicing self care. Get regular checkups and listen to what your doctor says. Don’t wait until you get sick to make a visit to a doctor.

Photo by Jamie Street on Unsplash

Take Advantage of Free Screenings in Your Area – Check your local area for free screenings! This can include screenings for blood pressure, body mass index, cholesterol, glucose, and more. These screenings may be able to spot signs of more serious conditions like heart disease or diabetes.

Keep Copies of Health Records – Designate an area in your home for your health records. These records may come in handy for future doctor’s visits. For example, I had a health scare last March and needed treatment during a cross country move. I kept all of my health records on hand and took them with me to each doctor’s visit in case they needed them. Keeping track of your records is important because your records can show you what services or treatments you’ve in the past that you may not need for a while.

Choose the Right Type of Care – Determine what type of care that you need. If your condition is not life threatening or an emergency, skip the ER and call your primary doctor to see if there are any appointments available. If there are not any appointments available, consider going to an urgent care facility to get a proper diagnosis and treatment.

How do you save on health care costs? Leave a comment below with any tips that you have

My husband and I got serious about money in August of 2015. We’ve always been frugal for the most part and we’ve always been savers since graduating from college, but over the last few years, we were a little “arrogant” with our money and we spent whatever we wanted to. We were not being good stewards of God’s money and resources like we could have been, so we sat down and made changes. We are back to aggressive saving and we continue to be debt-free with the exception of a rental home. We also put extra money each month towards our kid’s college accounts and retirement. Romans 13:8 “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.” 

If you need any motivation on saving for retirement, I highly suggest reading Chris Hogan’s new book, Retire Inspired. If you are serious about simply saving more, I recommend Dave Ramsey’s book, The Total Money Makeover and following Dave’s Baby Steps.

Do you know how much you spend on groceries each month? If you are unsure of the amount you spend at the register on a monthly basis, I challenge you to sit down and dig through your finances and come up with a total for the last month. This will give you a good idea of what you are spending. Be warned though – this can be a very eye opening process for some. Your grocery expense might be one of your biggest monthly expenses!

After my husband and I went through our own finances for the month in August to determine what we were spending on groceries, our mouths dropped to the floor. We were a bit shocked and this opened our eyes to where our money was going each month. We also determined what we were spending on other food purchases. Not only were our hard earned dollars going towards groceries, our money was also going towards fast food purchases that occurred often during the week as well as fancy date night dinners. With my husband and I being big tippers as we are (Acts 20:35 “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”) sometimes our date night dinner would cost anywhere from $60-$100 for just two of us! Get this. One month, our grocery and restaurant purchases totaled $1,500. That, my friends, is foolish. We were being DUMB with our money and we were throwing most of it away each month on food. Not anymore.

Related: How to Create a Budget That Really Works

We set a strict food budget and watched what we spent on groceries for the next month. We were able to significantly reduce our food expenses from $1,500 to only $600, and we are still trying to find ways to cut that expense down even more. Our goal is to get our grocery budget down to $400 and cut out most of the fast food purchases. After looking at this month’s finances, we are right on track. Do you know that by watching what we spend on food purchases, we were able to give ourselves a $1,000 raise each month? $1,000!!! That’s a lot of money! While I know many of you come no where close to spending as much as we were, that was one area we really needed to improve.

Instead of throwing this money away each month, we are now smart with our money again. We invest for our retirement each month as well as put away for our kid’s college. We also continue to tithe 10% of our income each month. Malachi 3:10 “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.” 

Related: How to Cut Back on Eating Out

Do you know how much you are paying for groceries and food expenses each month? 

If you’re like most Americans, you’ll be firing up the grill this week to celebrate the Fourth of July in true patriotic fashion. And why not? A little backyard barbeque is not only delicious, it can also be rather economical … especially if you follow these six tips.

Spend a Little Extra on a Grill – How will spending more money on a grill help you save money? It’s simple. If you have a nice grill, you’ll be more likely to use it. And if you’re more likely to use your grill, you’re less likely to go out to eat (which can cost a lot more than grilling at home). You don’t have to buy a top-of-the-line grill, but don’t be afraid to spend $300-$400 to get a grill that gets the job done and won’t break down after six months of use.

Don’t Go Overboard on Accessories – Now that you’ve got yourself a nice grill, you might be tempted to run out and spend $150 on a fancy 12-piece set of grilling accessories. Don’t do that! All you really need are a simple set of tongs and a spatula. Maybe a grilling fork, too. But guess what? If you’ve got all three of those things in your kitchen already, you don’t need to buy more just for your grill.

Protect Your Grilling Investment – A nice grill will last seven to 10 years, but only if you take good care of it. That includes regular cleaning and keeping it covered and out of the weather when not in use.

Don’t Go Overboard on Meat – You don’t need a bunch of fancy accessories and you also don’t need a bunch of fancy meat. For many backyard grillers, meat is the biggest part of any barbeque budget, but you can trim the fat by skipping the steak and fish and opting instead for staples like hamburgers, hot dogs and chicken. If you really want steak, try some more affordable options. Even the cheaper cuts will taste great when cooked over an open flame.

The Butcher is Your Friend – Want to save money on meat? Of course you do. The easiest way to do that is to talk with your grocery store butcher on a regular basis. He or she will tell you when certain meats might go on sale and be able to suggest cheaper options.

Embrace Leftovers – Like any meal, making a little extra means more leftovers the next day. Sometimes that’s not cost effective, but barbeque leftovers taste great even three days later. Grilling extra is also a good idea because it allows you to get more from the fuel you’re burning (especially if you’ve got a charcoal grill). Check out deals on food storage containers.

I started blogging in 2008, and at first, it was just a hobby. I loved sharing money saving tips with others, and I also enjoyed using coupons to get deep discounts on everyday items to save money for my family.

It wasn’t until 2014 when I gained the confidence to turn my blog into a business. At first, I was fearful. I wasn’t really sure how to go about turning my blogs into a business, but I took the first steps necessary to make it a reality. BSC Media, LLC was formed and my business is very successful today! My confidence in starting my own business has spilled over into other areas of my life, especially with our finances. A few years ago, my husband and I didn’t even give our finances much thought, time, or attention, but that has all changed. It needed to.

Eight months ago, my husband and I worked together to come up with our very first budget. We had never budgeted before. Even though we carry no consumer debt, we still have one big debt to pay off – a rental home in North Carolina. Additionally, we have three children, and our financial future and our children’s financial future is important to us.  We have put several steps in place to save big over the next few years!

3 Ways We Are Saving for Our Future

1. Budget, budget, budget.

Without a budget, we can easily lose track of where our money is going.  At first we just started tracking our spending, and then we realized that we could be spending money more wisely.  A budget allows us to plan for events that we know are on the horizon.  Car care is just one example.  We recently made a cross country trip to visit relatives.  Before we left in our minivan, my husband made an appointment at our local repair shop for new tires, brakes, and alignment.  We knew that this would be a big expense, so we saved appropriately and we weren’t surprised when we had to pay a large bill.

2. Investing.

We contribute about 15% of my husband’s paycheck toward investing for the future. We are contributing to our Roth IRA’s and our kid’s college accounts.  As I mentioned earlier, we had to save for vehicle repair for a few months, but that is short term saving and budgeting.  It’s necessary to keep both eyes on the near term and long term goals.  Investing for the retired you and your kid’s college is not something that should be a surprise when the time arrives.  The good news is that consistency with investing really is quality investing! Sometimes, we are able to contribute more in some months versus others.  However, we make sure that we do contribute some toward these accounts each month.

3. Paying off our only debt.

100% of my earnings are going towards paying off our rental home in North Carolina. We also dip into some of my husband’s income to help pay down the mortgage quicker.  Our goal is to pay the house off and use the passive income for more savings. Eventually, the rental home will pay for our forever home after my husband retires from the military. With a plan in place, we feel like we will be able to meet our financial goals in 2-3 years. Then, we will be able to reassess our financial situation and come up with new goals once our final debt is paid off.

With these three tips above, you can save a lot of money!

What kinds of tips do you have for saving money for your future?