7 Ways I Save Money on Household Expenses & Groceries

1. Switching ingredients

Oftentimes, if you set your mind to it, you can find innovative ways to save money. One option is giving your favorite recipes a twist by replacing one of the ingredients with something cheaper.

For instance, during the holiday season, sweet potatoes are often cheaper than white potatoes, going for $0.5 a pound as opposed to at least $0.7 a pound for white potatoes.

This year, I decided to switch to making beef stew with sweet potatoes, and it was a game changer. The beef and sweet potatoes go together so well that we may never go back to using plain old white potatoes.

3. Clearance

Instead of buying beef tips which can cost about $7 a pound, this year I decided to use thin beef steak that I found on sale in the clearance section for $5.28 a pound. I brought it home, cut it up into little pieces, froze it, and then made a beef stew out of it.

I cooked it in a crockpot, the same as I would with beef tips, and no one could tell the difference. This is yet another example of how stepping away from a pattern of how we have always done it can save us money and sometimes even create a better final product.

4. Reusing

In our efforts to save time or save from cleaning up a mess, a lot of times we will spend more money. For instance, we tend to buy plastic cups, plates, and silverware when we are hosting, and we just assume those are single-use only.

However, nowhere on the bag does it say that these are disposable and that you can wash and reuse them. Of course, if people throw them out, I will not go digging in the trash for them, but if they leave them sitting around, I will wash them and use them again.

I love the red solo cups around the Christmas season. I have some leftovers from my middle daughter’s wedding, and that was eight or nine years ago. They are still perfectly fine, and not buying new ones each time has saved me so much money over the years.

5. Combining household and grocery budgets

Many people separate their household and food budgets, but I have found that putting them together makes me more mindful of what is actually going into the household budget.

Our household budget is usually just toilet paper, toothpaste, bar soap, and dish soap. By combining the budget for those with my grocery budget, I know that if I only spend five dollars a month on household items, I will have that much more grocery money left.

I believe that a household budget can get you caught up in spending a lot of money, buying things like soft soap, paper towels, and expensive laundry detergent, which are truly unnecessary and cost a lot of money. I do buy laundry soap, but I buy a very inexpensive brand that is Hispanic, which costs me about $2 for six months.

By making household items such a tiny fraction of my budget, I have more money to spend on things that are more important.

6. Paying for electricity according to usage

Some people tell me that using a balanced plan with the same amount every month for their electricity bill helps them budget. However, in my experience, this just leads to unused credit, and it takes them months to budget. When my son moved out, I had to wait another year for them to refigure my spending and allow me to use any of my $1,500 credit.

Getting billed per usage makes me more mindful about how I use electricity. I watch what is plugged in and what I am using and do not keep things turned on unnecessarily. I keep those things in mind to lower my spending, and this helps me make sure I have more money to spend somewhere else.

Using extra electricity is definitely not at the top of my priority list, and I would rather pay attention to my gadgets than have to cut back on my groceries or my fun. Right now there is no electricity in my room, and I tend to function with no electricity most of the day.

7. Giving things a new purpose

Fight the urge to just throw away things that you have no immediate use for. Think creatively and give those things a new life. I saved all the unused or unfinished notebooks my kids brought from school. My youngest has been out of the house for six years now, and I still use those to this day for my notes.

While decluttering, I found an entire brand-new package of cloth diapers that I never even opened. Obviously, I do not have a baby now, but instead of throwing those out, I am going to use those as dust rags, and they will work great.

Saving on household expenses

I hope that you have found my advice helpful. Did any of these tips surprise you? What are some of the unusual things that you do to save money around your house? Let me know in the comment section!