9 Ways to Save Money: RIGHT NOW — Mom in the Middle (2024)

It is no secret that prices are skyrocketing right now on everything. Food, clothes, gas, even the Dollar Store as gone up in price.

I look at our budget and the numbers just quickly go away when I fill in our expenses, which if your anything like me gets my anxiety going real fast.

Saving money takes creativity and definitely effort to find the best prices, deals, and savings. But who has that time? Especially if you are a parent sometimes it’s easier to just find what you and suck up the cost factor.

I have found a few ways that I myself use to save money even if it is just a few dollars here or there.

Mind you I am no hardcore coupon savvy gal. I have watched the show where people devote hours and hours into clipping coupons and stacking, and honestly I do not have the bandwidth to do that. If you do-rock on!

1.Use Apps

Ibotta: I use this app frequently as it is simple to use, has visuals for fast shopping, and gives you a decent percentage back. The way they function is to basically give you a rebate back on whatever you are purchasing.

You simply select the store you want to go to and select the rebates or offers you want saved to your account. The nice thing about this is that with many of the stores you can connect your store rewards to the app and it automatically sends your purchases to the Ibotta app and adds the funds to your account.

There are a few stores you may have to manually add the receipt but it is pretty simple.

Ibotta also offers other bonuses- for example right now they have if you redeem 16 offers (which is easy to do when doing a full grocery shop) then you receive $10.00.

You can redeem in gift card and funnel it directly back into your weekly grocery spending.

2.Cut on subscriptions.

I saw this suggestion once in a post from someone and at first thought to myself that it wasn’t really a helpful suggestion.

But then when I went into my Amazon Prime subscription center I was shocked at how many subscriptions I was paying either $9.00 a month or $4.99 a month for, and had no idea they were even there. I guess at some point I decided to enroll in a free subscription and forgot it was there. Hook line and sinker they got me.

By doing this I saved well over $50.00 a month taking off the things that I did not need or was not using.

3.Gas

Prices are close to $5.00 a gallon where I live which seems absolutely insane. In some areas that cost is even higher due to demand. No thank you, sign me up for my electric scooter- and can you add car seats to that?

I save money on gas by using Kroger rewards along with the Upstart app. Two of my favorite ways to save and get money back from my typical weekly grocery shop. You simply either shop and earn rewards or submit your receipt to the app and they will send you money back.

4. Stack your efforts

Again time is of the essence and sometimes we don’t have a ton of it. So save your time and use all of these things together.

I generally grocery shop once a week and can get gas around twice a week. Before I shop I will check my Ibotta app, then Kroger app, and clip any digital rewards or coupons. I shop and save-while getting money back from Ibotta, then when it is time to get gas I typically save around 20 cent to the gallon if not more.

If you’re like my husband you may be thinking- that’s a lot of work for minimal savings. But I can’t say this enough. IT ADDS UP.

5. Check your phone bill or service provider

This one surprised me. I have Verizon and to be honest forget all about that since I have automatic withdrawal from the account.

I randomly logged in one day and saw several deals that were available to me that ended up taking over 10 off of my monthly bill. For example, I was paying for Disney + and Hulu separately, and Verizon packaged that and ESPN + for a cheaper price than I was paying for the individual streaming services.

They will also had random deals sporadically that if we do not regularly check our account or app-we would have no idea the existed.

6.Surveys

This doesn’t count as saving money-but more so making- but still in the same wheel house.

When I get bored and want to aimlessly play a phone game or search social media I pull up one of my survey apps and take a few here and there. I love the app Swagbucks, Survey Junkie, and Branded surveys.

Shorter surveys are around .10 cent a survey and others over $1.00.

Taking a few here and there can really add up. I cashed out approximately $40.00 from a months worth of taking surveys in my downtime.

7. Re-sell your kids clothes

I do this on a monthly basis. Honestly.

Kids grow SO FAST. I feel like I put a shirt in and take one out that does fit. So each month I go through their clothes and pull what does fit, and I also create a pile as I am doing laundry and about once a month I take their clothes up to a consigner and sell them. Sometimes I walk away with 10 dollars and other 75 it just depends on how much and what I am selling.

The awesome thing about this is that you can turn that money around to purchase items they need or budget it towards something else that month.

8. Prepare

This is my absolute biggest flaw when it comes to these items. I am horrible at meal prep and prepping my grocery list. But it really does save you not only time but money. Since prices starting hiking up I have really been looking ahead at my apps and trying to clip a few deals or coupons and prep my trip a little bit so I am not just buying with my heart.

Again-not a hardcore couponer here, but this takes me only a few minutes to do and I typically only do it about once a week because I know where my standard grocery store or stops are.

9.Pets

Yes you can save on pets and I LOVE IT!

Seriously a hidden gem. If you had pets they can be expensive to feed.

So we have the Petsmart app and on the app there is a link for their “treat trail.” There you can play a game and earn up to a %25 off coupon that you can stack with either your rewards or other discounts. I seriously save $20.00 on my dog food each time with this app.