Do you know about Amazon’s Subscribe & Save program?  It is a really great way to save money on items you’re always using like diapers, wipes, toilet paper, face wash, snacks, etc.  This program is on many, if not all, of their grocery store items sold at Amazon.

The program works like this: search for your products, and look to see if it’s in the Subscribe and Save program.  This information should be right under all of the pricing information.  It’s usually in a box that tells you how you can save 15% more and get free shipping when you sign up.  Then you can choose how often you want to receive it.  And, you can cancel at any time.

I currently have a subscription for wipes and my favorite brand of facewash.  I save quite a few bucks by purchasing this way.  I’m thinking about buying our diapers throught the Subscribe and Save program too.  I love that the item comes straight to my door, with free shipping!  

If you’re worried that you’d run out of your product before the next shipment arrives, never fear!  When I notice that we only have a couple of packages of wipes left I just check my subscription to see when the next one is coming.  You can make your next order ship immediately, and my orders have always arrived in a couple of days. Amazon always sends an email when they’re about to ship your item too.  So if you’re not ready for it when they send the email, just go to your subscription page and skip the next shipment.

I really like this program, and since we live in a small town, many of the items on the Subscribe and Save are not available here.  I love that I can buy them through this with an additional savings and free shipping!  It’s great for us!

We’ve been using our monthly budget system for so long now, I can’t even remember when we started.  I know we didn’t have it right after we got married because I can remember spending money with reckless abandon and stupidity.  And, I can remember the reality and restriction of moving to the budget.  Yikes!  We had to learn some self control!  It was painful in the beginning, but now I would feel lost without it.

We have all sorts of different categories in our budget.  You may think it’s too crazy or strict, but it’s really very helpful for keeping things under control.  We, of course, have categories for gas, groceries, housing, and normal things that you might think of.  But, we also have categories for personal money, clothing, gifts, and entertainment.  Seem weird?  Our dollar amounts are by no means a certain magical formula, they’re just what works for us.  So here are some examples.  We (Johnny and I), each have $65 per month in “personal money” to spend on whatever in the world we want or need to buy.  I can use mine for clothing, accessories, make up, books, Starbucks, whatever.  Johnny usually buys books with his.  We just started a clothing category, and probably won’t keep it forever.  We both need some new clothes, so right now we’ve got the clothing category set at $50 each per month.  In entertainment money, we’ve got $80 a month.  That is used mainly for dining out, and if we ever went to the movies, it would be used for that too.  (For some reason I hate going to the movies now, and prefer to watch videos in the comfort of my own home, in my own clean chair, with a pause button for bathroom breaks in a clean bathroom.)  Basically any type of entertainment.  I know $80 isn’t much, but we only eat out maybe once a week, so it’s enough for us.

For gifts, we’ve got set amounts for the kids for their birthdays and holidays.  It really helps set boundaries so you don’t go crazy at the store.  We’ve even got set amounts for each other for birthdays, Valentines, anniversary, and Christmas.  And if you want to spend more, you can just save up your personal money to add in.  It is hard to budget for wedding and baby gifts, but we have some money set aside for that too.  And we actually do have a whole Christmas budget with everyone we buy for with a dollar amount next to their name.

I know I’ve talked a lot about how much this helps us and make us feel more secure, but it really also saves a ton of money because we’ve got boundaries.  It also helps us be more creative and really stretch our dollar.  I buy all of our kids clothing off season at the end of season sales and get GREAT prices.  I saved nearly $100 on Gabriel’s clothing for next summer by purchasing it in August of this year.

Hope this gives you some ideas.  I’d love to hear your budgeting thoughts!

Making your own baby food saves money! So if you’re short on money, but not on time, then go for it! I made some large purchases in the beginning, but you may already have everything you need to get started.  Let me tell you how I did it.


I purchased this food processor, food steamer, baby food trays, and organic fruits and vegetables, and a baby food book.  If I did it all over again, I think I would probably buy this book as I wasn’t very impressed with the one I got.  And I might even try this cool kit.

It’s pretty painless to do.  I would just wash my fruits or veggies, cut them up into chunks, and throw them in the steamer.  Baby carrots don’t have to be cut at all, so they’re super easy.  The steamer I bought came with a divider bowl so you can steam two different things at once.  Most fruits and veggies steam in under twenty minutes, so after you’re done steaming, pop them into the food processor and give ‘em a whirl.  I saved a little of the steaming water to add into the food processor to get that really smooth and creamy texture.  After you get it right, then you can put it into the ice trays and freeze.  After the cubes were frozen solid, I liked to pop them into plastic baggies, or another container so I could freeze some more.  You can either plan ahead and get what you need out of the freezer to thaw, or soak the baggie in warm water to thaw.

Another trick I learned when I didn’t have time to make applesauce was to buy the big jar of unsweetened applesauce instead of the little baby jars. It’s much cheaper.  And when it comes to baby yogurt, mix up your own! The baby yogurt that is prepackaged is more expensive and it has added sugar in it.  I just buy a big container of plain organic yogurt and mix whatever pureed fruit I want in about equal parts.

So, go for it! Now you know how to do it, and it’s not that hard at all! But, if just can’t find the time to make your own baby food, then check out my previous posts about buying baby food here and here.

OK, so everybody likes a good deal, right?  Well, I get uber excited about them!  My last online shopping venture at The Children’s Place would have cost me over $200 and my total was $130!  I want to share with you some of my good deal, money saving tips.

Almost two years ago we found Ebates.  This is a really cool site!  You just sign up, and then anytime you shop online, you just go through them first.  Search for the store you’ll be shopping at, follow the link, and then do all of your shopping on the page that opens up for you.  Or, if you forget to go through Ebates first, you can go later, and follow your store’s link.  Just make sure that your final checkout is through the new page that opens up through Ebates.  We have gotten many checks from Ebates, I believe they send them quarterly.  It’s always nice to get FREE money!!

On top of your Ebates savings, you always need to search for coupon codes before your final checkout as well!  Some of my favorites are RetailMeNot and MomsView.  At Retail Me Not, you enter the site you’re looking for at the top of the page and then a list of coupon codes will come up.  The codes are rated by how many people have had success using them.  At MomsView, the stores are listed on the left hand side of the page.  Find the one you want and see if they have any current coupon codes.  I usually just copy and paste coupon codes into the promo/coupon code box on my checkout page.

My last favorite method for saving money is to shop off-season!  I’ve started watching for The Children’s Place Monster Sales through Baby Cheapskate.  I bought all of my big guy’s clothes for this fall and winter, at the end of last winter.  And, I’ve already got next summer’s clothes too.  These are GREAT prices!  Plus, you can usually find a coupon code too!  The Children’s Place is not available through Ebates, but at these prices, it doesn’t matter.  I’ve gotten several pairs of shoes for $4-6 dollars!  These are great shoes too!  Even at Payless you can pay $18+ for kids shoes.  You can do this at any store; I even do it for myself.  But currently, The Children’s Place is my fave for the kids.

If you find some great deals using these tips, don’t forget to let me know by leaving a comment.

A few years ago my husband started telling me all about “The Grocery Game”.  I looked into it a little, and if you’re not familiar with it, let me give you an idea.  You can go to www.thegrocerygame.com and find out all you need to know.  They’ll tell you what’s on sale at your local grocery store, you cut coupons, and they give you a detailed list of what you can get for a good price, stockpile price, and even for free.  Sounds great, right? And their site makes it very easy.  Of course, their services are not free, but you can get a 4-week trial for only $1.

The problem for me is, I wouldn’t normally buy most of the products that they can find great deals on in the first place.   Looking at an example list from their site, let me see, out of the 19 items on the list, I would actually buy five.  And four of those are produce.   I can look at my grocer’s weekly add easily enough to see what I need to buy on sale in the produce section without playing The Grocery Game.   The majority of the items on the list are frozen foods, or processed foods that my family doesn’t eat.  We like to eat fresh foods that I prepare and that are mostly organic.  I remember talking to my neighbor one time about her friend who was playing The Grocery Game.  She was telling me about all of the smoked sausage they had gotten that week at some amazing price.  My main thought during that conversation was, I don’t even know what with all of that smoked sausage.

I’m sure there are lots of happy people playing, and here is an interesting article about several different “players”.  Maybe you’ve never heard of The Grocery Game before and it looks like a great idea to you.   Well, go for it.  I’d love to hear from you about your experience! But as for me, saving money on things I wouldn’t buy in the first place is more of a Losing Game.