If a picture is worth a thousand words. How much is ten pictures of us saving money worth? Like a million dollars or something?

What good is saving money if you don’t take pictures of yourself saving money and share them on the internet?

Here we go, ten pictures of us saving money!

 1) Muscle powered lawnmower & electric weed eater

Ask me how much $$ i’ve spent on gas and oil for my mower this year? Go ahead, ask. We’ve got an electric weed eater too (not pictured). Ask me how much $$ I’ve spent on gas and oil for my weed eater this year? Go ahead. 😉 Lawnmower was free. Weed eater was $25. 100 foot power cord for weed eater was $21.

2) Sewing buttons on old clothes

There was a time when I threw out or donated clothes that had a missing button. (Ridiculous!) After realizing how insane that is I changed my ways. Just last week I watched a YouTube video on how to sew on a button. I fixed two shirts, two pairs of pants, and one pair of shorts. Yes, I sewed my first button at the age of 37. This example is one of my favorites because sewing on a button is maybe the most basic skill you could possibly learn. But yet so many people don’t know how. (I didn’t!) I think this is an unfortunate result of our hyper-consumption “just get a new one” world that we live in. We’ve lost so many of these basic skills and we need to get them back.

3) Buy used stuff on Craigslist and DYI it back to amazingness

DIY projects are a thing I’m getting into more and more. In the past I would just tell myself I wasn’t good at stuff like this to cover for my laziness. But seriously Derek, (this is me talking to myself) how hard is it to watch a YouTube video on how to strip and spray paint dining room chairs. NOT HARD. Save tons of $$, learn something new, and have a personal invested connection between you and the things in your life. There’s a story behind these chairs now, not just a receipt from an over-priced store.

4) Aldi

I could go on and on about Aldi. It’s a magical money saving wonderland. We buy 80% of our food at Aldi then drive across the street to the other grocery store and get a few things they don’t have at Aldi like rice milk and hand made tortillas. I can’t even begin to guess how much $$ we’ve saved at Aldi.

5) Garth Brooks Olsen

The four of us share one car. (Me, Carrie, 2-year old, new baby on the way!) Carrie and I both work from home so having one car works great. I can’t think of a time when we were inconvenienced by having only one car. We paid cash. Bought it off Craigslist. (That’s our car out there, I was too lazy to go outside and get a real pic. Deal with it. We named our car Garth Brooks Olsen. No idea way, just thought it was funny.)

6) Monthly budget

This is me, doing our budget with my fav budgeting program called Tiller. You should totally sign up for my new budgeting class. You too can be this excited about your budget. We save boat-loads of cash just because we do a budget each month.

7) Home made cleaner

Vinegar, water, lemon/lime juice. Easy, works great and saves tons of $$.00!

8) Baby clothes, toys, diapers, furniture

Parents already know how expensive anything for newborns and babies can be. Seriously y’all… clothing for babies gets worn like twice before they out grow it. ITS STILL BRAND-FREAKING-NEW-PEOPLE!! Just ask around to see if anyone you know with kids older than yours still has old clothes. I can’t say enough how easy it is to avoid paying ridiculous amounts of money for baby and kid stuff. Between Carrie’s old co-workers and my niece and nephew, we were given more than enough clothing, toys, and even some furniture. We used cloth diapers from day one. We started potty training at 6 months. At two and a half, our lil girl is almost fully potty trained, even at night. Potty training early is a huge money saver. I scored big time at a local yard sale were I bought almost every piece of furniture in her room for $18.

9) Coffee, coffee, and more coffee

I am a proud coffee snob. Although I do buy coffee out often(coffee shops are my office away from the house), I make it at home more than half the time. Here’s my set up. I’d love to get a cheap espresso machine someday and make lattes at home. My life would be perfect then. Grab your coffee from Oddly Correct for a mind blowing cup!

10) Cell phone savings

Here’s one of my biggest $$ savers! I’ve been with Republic Wireless for over a year and a half and I’m obsessed with all the $$ I save. My bill last month was $19.69 (hence the $20 I’m talking into). I do everything you do with your phone with my phone except over pay. (OUCH!) Read my full review of Republic Wireless.

But it’s all so simple.

Exactly.

Everything I mentioned here is super easy and super simple. But just a few years ago I wasn’t doing any of these things. I think we get trained on how to do things a certain way and it’s not always the best way. And it’s not always easy to think of or remember that there are different ways of doing things. I learned all of these tips from others and I’m now passing it along to you fine folks.

How about you? How are you saving boat loads of CA$H??

I would loooooove to hear your ideas on any of the things mentioned here or any other money saving ideas you’ve got.

Give us your best $$ saving tips here in the comments or over in our Facebook group. 

-Derek