Thrifty Thursday: Planning Ahead

I don't often think about it anymore because I always do it but planning ahead is a big money saver.  It works for just about everything.  It is my best money saving advice and it also saves time!!

1. Stockpile-  If you plan ahead and buy things when they are at their cheapest, then you can plan to spend less.  Even if you don't coupon, if there are items that you use, it is always a great practice to have an extra one on hand and if you paid less for.  If you like rice, buy two bags when it is on sale and you know that you get to have the lower price all the time.  I keep a pantry in the basement with all of the canned and bottled good that I get for free or almost free so that I have somewhere to go to grab inexpensive ingredients to make dinner.  I would much rather have a cupboard of free hot sauce then have to go out and buy it at the shelf price.

I also buy chicken when I can get it on sale and cut it up and put them into bags based on what my family eats for a meal.  I use different marinades and stick them all in the freezer.  I make my meal plan based on what I have so I like to have a variety to make it through for a few months.  This was a little while ago and I have since reorganized but you can see that there are piles of chicken and other food packaged to be ready for meals.

2.  Bringing lunch or snacks-  If you leave the house, my father always told me that in the cold New York weather you should bring a sleeping bag in the trunk.  We always had blankets and other things because you never know when you are going to get stuck and the same holds true for snacks or drinks.

We bring snacks every where we go because if not any food purchased out is money coming out of our food budget that I could better spend at the store.  We use fun containers that make lunch more interesting but for the most part when you are hungry, it is just great to have something on hand that is quick and cheap.  We also try to have some healthy and sweet snacks just in case we need a little pick me up.  Always be prepared for being out of the house!!

I used to keep an empty water bottle in the trunk in case we needed water so that I could fill it at a water fountain.  I had to get rid of the last one after the last sickness and haven't replaced it but having to stop to buy a bottle of water would be something that would cause me to be super sad.  I also used to have some flavoring like lemon packets or Crystal Light which I don't use as much anymore but they are always good to carry to mix up a fun drink when you don't have any other drinks.

3.  Cook and Bake from Scratch- It is always healthier to cook meals at home but sometime it takes a little planning to make sure that you have everything that you need for a meal.  I like to make a monthly meal plan but it is also great to just plan the week ahead to make sure that you can get everything you need to make the meals.  It is also thrifty to make cookies, bread and cakes from scratch.

I also make a loaf of bread every week for sandwiches and make lots of homemade rolls so that I have some in the freezer for quick dinners.  I make our own pizza dough so that we can have fresh pizza every Friday.  I love my bread machine!!!

4. Shop Used- This used to sound strange to planning ahead but there are a ton of bargains out there to be had that you can save a ton of money on if you start early.  We started going to a consignment sale a few years ago to see what they had and I will never go back.  If you have kids, check these out because there are some great deals on things that you don't want to spend tons of money on so that the kid gets bored, you aren't nearly as sad because you didn't spend $100 on it at the store.  We purchased some toys only to find out that they were at collector prices on the internet and would have been really costly through eBay.

We went to yard sales and my son picked out tons of different toys and we came home with a whole trunk full of toys and we spent around $10 for a full day of entertainment with toys that have entertained him for over a year so far.  My son picked out the Sodor Mining Company playset which costs $50 on the internet and he got for $0.75.  The most expensive purchase of the day was the Fisher Price Ramps Around Garage which goes for over $40 on the internet and we got it for $5. He still plays with both and we will probably sell them when he is done and come out even with years of entertainment in the middle.

We have also shopped through the newspaper classified (back when the internet was just taking off), Craiglist, and Ebay to get other things that we want at great prices.  We bought a used dining room table, set of 6 chairs and a china hutch through a house sale and we use it every day and have for about 10 years.  We were able to get a much nicer set then we would have ever been able to afford because someone else was done with it and ready to move on to something different.

If you have kids, you have the chance to get clothes for them ahead of time.  I have gotten an entire wardrobe for my son through different sales and it just takes a little planning ahead.  If you don't, there are tons of other ways to save with a little planning and patience.

How do you plan ahead to save you time and money??  I know that I worked on a lot of things that would save time and money so that we could make ends meet on one income and most days, they seem like second nature now.  Hope that you can use them to save your family a little time and money too!!

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