Frugality at its Best!

Growing up, I was always the "saver". Our church would have a White Elephant sale every year and my dad would give my brother and I 5 bucks. My brother would know instantly what he wanted to buy, where I on the other hand would spend hours looking to get the most out of my money. My mom always hated taking me to the toy store when I got a gift certificate for this same reason. We would be there forever with me trying to figure out how to get the most bang for my buck. Some people might call it cheap but I call it smart!

This saving attitude has really paid off in adulthood. It is not cheap to be a stay at home mom. We live in a society where most households have 2 incomes and most things are priced according to this statistic. So I am constantly trying to save us money and I thought I would share some secrets of my trade : )

#1 Rule is FREE IS BEST! - Why spend money on something when you can get it for free? You would not believe how many free things are out there for the taking if you only just knew about it. Here are some places to get free stuff:

a. Freecycle.org is a website specifically designed for people to list stuff they are giving away for free or for people to post what they need for free. I love, love, love this site!

b. Craigslist.com also has an entire FREE section. It is a little more difficult to acquire the items because most of the people just put whatever it is out on the curb and it goes to whoever picks it up first, but sometimes you can find good stuff and people willing to hold it for you.

c. Bulk Trash Day - We have jokingly called it "white trash" shopping in our house but it totally rocks! You would not believe what people throw away. I have raised money for trips and fun outings by selling other people's trash! You can find the bulk trash schedule for Gilbert here: http://www.ci.gilbert.az.us/pw/maps.cfm#bulktrash
Try to go a day or two before because, believe me, I am not the only one who does this and you will want to get there before all the good stuff is gone!

Look what someone was throwing away last week-

Logan and Aila love this little table and chairs!

d. Survey websites - yes they may take some time to fill out but you can earn lots of neat free stuff! My favorite is www.bzzagent.com because you get to try out new products and then you earn points from your surveys at mypoints.com and can spend them however you'd like. I almost always use my points on restaurant gift cards and that is how we eat out : )

e. Free sample websites - That email I send out with "free stuff" almost always comes from these. My favorite is www.freeflys.com because they update it pretty frequently and they usually have the same stuff the other sites do and then some! There are also millions of blogs that have weekly or monthly giveawyas. Just google "blogs with giveaways" and check them all out!

f. Free events- find out where free events are in your area because they almost always give away other stuff for free when you go. Here are the sites I use to find free events in AZ:
http://www.arizonaguide.com/events-calendar

http://www.azcentral.com/thingstodo/events/search/?category=2%257C25&date%255Bfrom_day%255D=6&date%255Bfrom_month%255D=2&date%255Bto_day%255D=6&date%255Bto_month%255D=1&status=5&order=Default&limit=12

https://www.raisingarizonakids.com/index.php?page=calendar&cal_opt=list_day&date=2009-01-31

http://eventful.com/events/search?sort_order=Popularity&c=family_fun_kids&t=Future&from=from&to=to&page_number=5
When we went to the free day at the Hall of Flame Museum we got 4 free passes to bounce you and 4 free coupons for slushies from 711!

I hope you find this helpful! I am always looking for more ways to save so feel free to share your secrets with me ; )