UPDATE: Saving $$$ plan

For the past couple of weeks, I've been trying hard to focus on ways to save money.

Here's a few minor changes:

-Rather than driving our suburban, I am driving the car to work. If we keep that up, that's a savings of $60 a month in gas. A savings of about $720 a year.

-Taking a lunch to work. If I were to eat at work, or eat out, I estimate roughly $10 a week (that's actually low balling it). Roughly $480 a year.

-Making my own jam. Now sure how much that's saving me, but have you noticed the price of jam lately? This summer I'm going to tackle canning.

-Couponing. I really should calculate my savings, but not that organized yet. I do know it's saved us a lot of money. Shopping with coupons has made me familiar with the 'best/or lowest price' for items with or without coupons.

What's next on the list:

-Kid's lunches. I don't know why I haven't done this earlier. I guess because I just paid for their lunches and never really thought about how much I was paying out. For the 3 elementary kids I have - it's approximately $84 a month for all three just to eat hot lunch only. For my junior high kids, it's about $64 a month. That means we spend close to $150 a month just for lunches. I sometimes wish they had reduced or even free lunch. But that's not the case and they do have to eat. What do I have in mind? Alternating hot and cold lunch - maybe every other week. That would help cut how much we spend on hot lunch in half.

-Fundraiser. For what you ask? For football. The twins are old enough to play little league football this summer. Soni our oldest wants to play too. As for Nohe'a, he wants to play, but that would interfere with scouts. So he's going to sit out for the next year until he gets his Eagle (hopefully next year). The registration fee for football is $205 a kid. Take $205 times 3 = $615. That's just the registration fee. That does not include cleats and other items needed. I suggested doing a fundraiser selling plates. Haloti would prefer just paying for it. (I think it's a pride thing.) He wasn't all for this idea. I told him, "hey, what's to be embarrassed about?...it's not like we're robbing a bank or something...we'll be working for it". We'll see how this goes.

-Utilities. I am surprised we have cable. I guess because we got a great deal last summer and that's why. I can't wait until July. Our contract is up then. I am going to cancel the cable and home phone. We will keep the internet. I'm not much of a t.v. person and I think my kids sometimes watch TOO MUCH t.v.

-Paying the bills. I am such a procrasinator. If I paid the bills on time, we would avoid late fees. This is definitely something I need to work on. The ultimate plan is to get EVERYTHING on automated bill pay. Wish me luck.

-Yard Sale. This is not my idea. I would rather send everything to my family in Tonga. But the twins have this idea of selling some of their items. I'm not exactly sure what they want to buy, but they've been busy preparing/gathering items for the yard sale we are going to have. Brydan suggested we have one tomorrow since the weathers been nice. I told him we need to be a little bit more organized and plan it out a little bit more. One item I know they have in mind to sell -- their sisters' bike. Yeah, not theirs, but hers. The starting price was going to be $10, but then Brydan felt like they needed to raise the price to $15 or $20. All I can say is, this is going to be an interesting yard sale when we do have it.

-Fix things ourselves. (Thanks Marie for this idea!) I read on Marie's blog how they have taken steps to fix things themselves. It has been a moneysaver for them. I hope it will be for us. One thing we currently need fixed in our home? Our microwave. It doesn't help that it's the built in one. I think the kids or maybe even Haloti microwaved something with foil and caused it break -- it no longers heats up. I'm going to do a little research online and see if I can fix it...yeah, to be continued....LOL!

-Clothes line. I know - why? With summer coming up, I figure I can hang dry some items outside. I want Haloti to install a clothes line in our back yard. Thinking of a clothes line reminds me of my childhood. We had a clothesline in our backyard, but with 7 kids, that clothesline could not hold all the laundry. So what did my mom do? She hung our laundry in the front yard on the wire fence all around the house. A few times people would stop and ask how much we were selling things for. Yeah, some people really thought we were having a yard sale. This is the plan for this summer.

So there you go...just a few ideas! A little crazy, but hey, every little bit of savings adds up.