Encouraging family to save money?

I live alonbe now so it`s up to me to save money. But when I had my family with me, I asked them to put off the lights when leaving a room and to have showers of reasonable lenght. No my savings are bigger. I only have on the light of the room where I am. I gave my dryier to my daughter and dry my clothes either in a line outside or, if the weather is not good, I hang them in the bathroom (if you use one hanger for each piece they will get dry overnight). I use all leftovers in the kitchen. You can encourage your children to like leftovers (done in a different way).

Hello Gemmar, I am also saving money for something very essential and important for my life. I keep a limited amount of money from my earnings for expenditure purpose. Rest all goes in the piggy bank. I am glad for whatever I have collected in these past months and I wish I could earn huge, spend huge and save huge in future. You need to keenly observe your house budget and cut off the unwanted things and reduce the consumption of certain items. Fuel consumption, phone bills and electricity bills are the ones that can be cut down. If your children are in their teenage you can share your problems with them. Tell them to be a little wiser with their expenses.

It's easier right now for me, because my son doesn't care. He's still too young to worry about things. I am trying to find a lot of ways to save money that I can just incorporate as habits now so that when he gets older, he won't even notice. We are trying to save up for a house, and with housing prices the way they are here, it will take us a minimum of 4 years to save up the down payment. So we are being frugal in a lot of different ways. Can you make it a challenge for your kids? Or ask them to help you think of ways to cut back? Sometimes if they are the ones to suggest it, they're more agreeable to actually doing it.

I would suggest trading items with friends and family. This way you feel like you have something new in your closet to wear. I traded bake goods with one of my neighbors, so my family could eat something different one evening. Also if you or any of your neighbors have fruit trees make jam, jelly or preserves to help reduce the cost of sandwiches. Also I enjoy making muffins and bread with the extra fruit. If your stores accept them use coupons, as that saves me a lot of money. I print coupons online and that is quick and easy for any of your friends and family to do. My daughter even prints coupons. She is amazed at how much she can save on movies.

I am trying and trying to get my husband to realize that his using his check card here and there and everywhere really adds up. He wants to know where all the money is going to and why there is never enough to pay the bills. I made him sign up for online banking and make him look. He see in front of his eyes days where he spent some times over 15 times a day...some of those being even less than $1. He didn't comment and I nag him all the time, but hopefully he realized! Otherwise we are pushing to not have lights on in rooms where we aren't. We are trying to open the windows in the evening rather than running the air conditioner. I should be hanging the laundry out to dry instead of using the dryer since the weather is still permissible. I am shopping with coupons, and my whole family knows that I'm really not going to buy anything without a coupon, including meats. Fortunately we have had an awesome sale at the store and our cupboards and deep freeze are fully stocked. Marsha

We've just made little changes in our lives that have made a difference in our family's spending. For example, my daughter has been through a huge growth spurt in this past year and she needed all new clothes. Well, we decided to try out shopping at the thrift store. It turns out that she loves the eclectic mix of clothing that she can find. So now when it comes to shopping for clothes, that is the first place that she wants to go.

Coupons, buying things only when you NEED to replace them, only buying things on sale/shopping ahead,taking good care of your stuff, practicing eco-friendly ways: recycling, turning lights off, turning off water, ect.

I'm always trying to save money! When my kids were at home we made a game of certain things. How long can we go without turning on the kitchen light? How many pennies does it take to fill a Coke bottle? Let's take a walk to the ____. Kids can be enthusiastic about things if they're presented in the right light. They knew we were trying to save money because we made it a family thing and asked for their ideas, too. I think that helped as much as anything.

Hi GemmaR,I am not sure,my daughter is a teenager,so everything that I say is wrong,according to the teenage mind. But,she came to me and wants to start "Extreme Couponing" to save some money. Maybe you can give each child a job according to their age.Like the younger one's keep an eye out for the coupon shelf dispensers in the stores.The older ones can help cut them out of the newspaper and magazines.

I can not remember the last time that I bought myself any clothes, well any thing really.I do feel that there are a lot of people out there that are trying to save money, yet even so they are still finding it really hard to manage as all the prices of things are forever going up no matter what. I try to turn things off as soon as I have finished with them and I also try to tell others to do the same as well.

It is really needed that we practice saving. I also have to remind my children about this thing every time. I would advise them to eat before leaving the house and to bring with them water. I also told them to bring food with them. This way they would not be spending too much for food when they are at school. My daughter is very thrifty and she can save much from her allowance. I myself bring food with me when I went to work. It would be very expensive if I have to eat at restaurants during lunch break. I also rented a place near my work place so as to save from transportation expenses.

I was a bit lavish. But I think now if dont try to save money I have to pay the potential consequences of not saving money. We must try to teach our kids to be frugal as to save money for hard times. Only money can be our friend in all our hard times.

Saving money now adays is a must. You never know when something comes up and you might need money. I try and save a few dollars every week here. Sometime sits kinda hard but has to be done.

saving money is really a hard work, and times now, normal people don't have enough money to save. We must sacrifice some things so as we can be able to save more .

Well right now we are having to pinch pennies as well and trying to figure out how to keep our head above water as well. Because of the hyperbaric oxygen treatment I am going thru it is making it hard financially as I am not working my whole 40 hrs a week.

I used to remind my kids to turn off the lights when they was not in that room and we always recycled pop cans also we used to have a small garden and that is how we saved and it kept my kids busy.

Honestly my financial management is a total wreck. I wished I had learned from young age how to save money for rainy days. My parents showered me with money and all I need was to open my mouth to ask. Now that i am no longer under my parents sponsorship I am always broke. My children are better off as they are a bit of a miser and have fat bank accounts..

Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without. That's what my grandma taught me and that's what I practice. I recently bought a new sweater--my other was 15 years old and in tatters. I found another brand new one and what with the clearance price and a coupon, I got an $80 sweater for $2.14! That's my other bit of advice, employ the first bit and then never pay full price. I even got a discount on the birth of my two children by my husband paying cash! Look up The Dollar Stretcher. It has volumes of great advice on how to save money, how to spend it more wisely and how to save. I get an extra couple of dollars each time I go to the grocery, usually $5 or so, then store it away. It's always good to have some cash and it's a great way to save money if you can forget you have it. I'm good at that. Make it a rule to save at least 1% of your income and never touch it.

hi, saving money and making it as a habit is always good, we can start a piggy bank ,one way of saving daily some amount as much as affordable, i think for children this works well, where as older people have to make up their mind , to do so.