One of the biggest money saving ideas you can implement is buying and selling used items.
Buying and selling used items are huge money savers! Whether is a used car, items around your house, clothes, tools, or whatever you can think of, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure!
I’ve mentioned previously that I was selling things around my home that we simply were not using or no longer had interest in. While it may not make an absolute ton of money, it helped us declutter and we put that money toward a goal fund. Something we know we’ll likely need to spend money on in the future, but we don’t want to spend tons of money on right away.
Another idea is to sell/buy used clothing items. I know some people find this idea strange, but we have SO MANY items in the world, do we really need new? Besides, that’s what a washing machine is for.
If you have children, you know how crazy fast they grow. Finding second hand items for them through Facebook Marketplace or Once Upon A Child, you can sell gently used items that are too small or your child doesn’t care for and make some of your money back or use those items to trade for things that currently fit your kids.
Just this weekend, someone posted on our community page that they had clothes that my daughter will be growing into in the next few months and she was offering to give them away! Two diaper boxes and a trash bag full of clothes and shoes. Now granted, I will admit we went through the items and will only be keeping one diaper box full, but that’s still a lot of clothes for zero dollars! Some of the pieces were even name brand (like Columbia)! You can also find unique pieces this way! Social media groups are a great way to share/trade/sell items.
Another idea that may be obvious to some people, but not to others, is to be a used car. This sometimes makes more sense than other times (depending on the market), but a car is to get you from point A to point B. I still have my first car from about 16 years ago. We use it as a back up and will likely get rid of it eventually, as maintaining it with our daily vehicles is no longer making a lot of sense, but it’s lasted a long time! Part of that is the make and model of the vehicle, but I’ve had that car maintained well over the last 16 years.
Some families can do with only one car or no car at all! That depends on jobs and your location. For our family, my husband and I work in opposite directions (him about 25 minutes north, me about 45 minutes south) so we need two vehicles.
With the holidays right around the corner, you can look into thrifted gifts too! They can be so unique and personable. Even if you’re not super comfortable with that, check around anyway. I had found new (in box) items on marketplace and in antique/thrift stores multiple times. And at a fraction of the price! My nephew got a Lego watch from us last year. It was new in the box, but we bought it for way less money because we found it on marketplace. And he LOVES it! It was so fun to watch him open that gift.
These are just a couple of ideas to get you going. Do what works for you and your family.
Let me know in the comments what other ideas you have or you regularly do to save money!