Pain free saving

I thought I'd join all those at Biblical Womanhood with my two cents worth on this topic: Five Painless ways we saved $100 last year.

1. We cooked oatmeal for breakfast. Between the 9 of us we normally eat 1 1/2 boxes of cereal a day. This would easily cost $3.00 or more. However a canister of oatmeal at $1.29 will last us 3 days (and be more filling, too). When we substitute oatmeal for cereal 3 days a week we save around $7.75. Multiply that out for the year and we saved around $400 last year. Not bad.

2. We shopped for new home owners insurance and then combined it with our car insurance. This was so easy and saved us around $400.

3. We committed to only put 1,000 miles or less on our 15 passenger van a month. (Not including vacation travel). This meant that we planned to combine errands and appointments or waited until evening to drive the minivan. Don't know how much we saved exactly, but I have no doubt that it was well over $100.

4. We found a more frugal way to eat at our favorite Mexican restaurant. Everyone gets their own order of 3 torilla shells ($.85), we order one Fajita combo- steak and chicken ($12.99), a side order of shredded cheese ($.95), a side order of lettuce ($.95) and a large plate of refried beans ($.95) . Everyone makes their own tacos. Of course there is limitless chips and salsa as well. We are able to eat out for around $30.00 (tip included-we try to tip well because there is always a big mess to clean up). We would be spending double that or more otherwise. This has saved us a bundle.

5. Until CVS, we made our own baby wipes. The cost for a 2 month supply was approximately $12.00. ($10 of Bounty paper towel and $2 for baby bath and oil) I know over the years that we have saved several hundred dollars.