Saving Money – Part 1

I know…it is easy for us all to say “Save money…this is how you do it.”…but we all go through tough times and as bad as we want to save money, we can’t always find the money to save.  So here’s a few ideas that will hopefully get you past those tough times and give you the chance to start saving some money…First, let me say…I am not going to tell you, “You have to put a certain amount of money in the bank each week.”  I was a single mom, no child support coming in and making just barely over minimum wage, so I know there are times in your life when there is no money to put away, so telling me I had to put away $25.00 each week was hard…especially when I barely had $.25 cents to my name most weeks.

What I want to do is show you different ways to save money, when you didn’t know you had any…

The next few posts will deal with different areas of your life and where to find some money to save out of each…

The first area: Laundry done in a laundromat

I worked in an office years ago, so I needed to keep my ‘good’ clothes looking good.  I washed my clothes in a laundromat…which costs money…so I had to learn ways to save.  I didn’t wash my ‘good’ clothes every week, instead I washed them every other week.  Since they had to be washed separately in a gentle cycle, this was an extra wash and dry that would add up if done each week.  I didn’t have a lot of ‘good’ clothes, so this meant that I had to wear some of the same things twice between washing.  I would dust a little baking soda on the inside of the clothes…like in the armpit areas to deodorize them.  Spritz the outside with a little water and hang up in front of a fan.  Don’t overdo it with the water, you just want enough to give it a little freshness.  You can put a little baking soda in the water for added freshness (Silk, Suede, and Leather are the only fabrics I would be careful doing any of this with)…

Or I would also hang the clothes up and hang them in the bathroom when I took a shower.  This helped to ’steam’ them.

So depending on how much it costs you to do your laundry, you could save as much as $3.00 or more every other week…for a savings of $78.00 or more a year.

Even when I did wash my ‘good’ clothes, I never dried them in the machine.  I shook them out and hung them up.  This will save you even more money.