My Family Of 4 Has Been Living Off Of Only $150 A Month For The Last Year And We Couldn’t Be Happier

A little over a year ago my husband and I decided to go extremely frugal. It all started out of necessity but has slowly turned into a game for us. We have managed to bring our grocery bill down to $150 a month for our family of 4. I’m not perfect at this frugal thing and I admit we slip up from time to time but it’s all worth it in the long run.<br><br>I thought maybe others out there would benefit from what we do and the ways we have managed to save. <br><br>The first thing we did was purge. Like everyone else, we had accumulated a ton of crap over the years. We sold a lot, donated, and trashed a lot too. By doing this we managed to free up a lot of space and money. We sold items we no longer needed, received a tax write off for items donated, and we have even received many free items from people who found out we donate. Plus our house is cleaner and more organized. <br><br>I used toloth for my kids but when the price of buying them skyrocketed I switched to disposable. My husband and I give up buying toloth for our kids so we could afford to buy it for ourselves. It’s a game changer. We make our own wipes and have managed to get our monthly spend on wipes and diapers combined down to $16.25.<br><br>Next I sat down and did our budget. I made a list of all the ways we were wasting money. Identified our biggest money waster and made a new budget that cut back in areas we didn’t need to spend as much. We were spending way to much on eating out and ordering take out. I put a ban on ordering take out/delivery and just by doing that we have saved so much. We were spending about $150 a week just on ordering food so that’s $600 a month we were blowing just on ordering food.<br><br>When I first sat down to do our budget I thought I was gonna cry. I had no idea we were spending so much on stupid shit. After doing our budget I realized that with a few changes we could live more comfortably and not spend so much. <br><br>I started small by making changes like making sure all lights are turned off, turning off the tv in the middle of the day, and making sure our cars are turned off when not being used. The little things make the biggest difference. <br><br>I started meal planning and grocery shopping more efficiently. I found cheaper alternatives for things we needed. I made a lot of things that we use on a daily basis. Laundry detergent, lotion, toothpaste, shampoo, etc. This has saved us a ton of money. <br><br>We only buy second hand. We used to buy expensive brands because we thought they were better. We used to shop at expensive stores. Now we only go to second hand stores and we have saved thousands a year by doing this. Plus it’s better for the environment. <br><br>We have a very small yard but we still manage to grow a lot. We use rainwater, compost, and reuse butter tubs to grow whatever we can. Its not only saved us money but it’s great to teach the kids about sustainability and how to make the most use out of things. One butter tub can grow an entire tomato plant and will produce multiple tomatoes. <br><br>We use cashback apps, Ibotta, Fetch Rewards, and digital coupons. We barely buy anything now a days but when we do it’s usually something we have a coupon for. <br><br>Overall we have managed to save a lot of money just by making some minor adjustments. <br><br>I get a lot of grief from people when they find out how frugal we are. A lot of people have commented that they could never live like this but for us it’s been a huge blessing. <br><br>Edit: Because I see this question getting asked a lot, I am a stay at home mom but my husband works a very well paying job. Without getting too personal he is very blessed to have such an amazing career. The money we are saving is going towards our children and a possible house upgrade in the future. Its not that we can’t afford to spend more it’s that we see no point. <br><br>Edit 2: I realize now I should have taken down the prices of the items we buy. I did this to show others how cheap some items can be when you find the right places to buy them. Thank you for your feedback and I will try to avoid this in the future