Step 26 in saving $10,000 a year.

Skip the 3D.

At Columbus’ Arena Grand Theatre an adult ticket for a normal movie is $9.50, but an adult ticket for a movie in 3D is $13.50.  That’s an extra $4.00 and if you are taking a family of 4 it’s a $16.00 savings.  If you go to the movies 4 times that’s $64.00.  It doesn’t sound like much,  but why throw it away or spend that bit of extra cash on popcorn.

Step 25 in saving $10,000 a year.

Waste less food = buy less food

These numbers are all over the board.  The USDA have done studies as well as various universities about the food that gets wasted in America every year.  I was looking at household waste and the numbers were hard to find, because usable food gets wasted at every stage of production starting at the farm. 

The best figures I could find said Americans throw out between 12% and 25% of food they purchase every year.  Let’s take the high end and say a family who has a food budge of $400 a month can save $100 a month by planning.  This means planning meals, splitting meals at restaurants,  freezing unused portions, taking leftovers for lunch, etc.  This is a savings of $1,200 a year.

Step 24 to saving $10,000 a year.

Extreme couponing.

My wife has always been great at clipping coupons, but the show Extreme Couponing has really inspired her. 

Her grocery bill was $461, she saved $200 in coupons and got $32 in store credit for future purchase for other products.  That’s a savings of about 50%.

These pictures are her cash back items and free products.

In the past 12 months, as of this writing, she has saved $173.92 from their Foodperks program, $1245.67 from weekly specials and $921.76 from coupons  for a total of $2341.35 from just one store.  That’s enough for plane tickets to Aruba this fall for the 4 of us.

Step #23 to saving $10,000 in a year

Let’s talk batteries! I have a 2 year old and a 4 year old and their world runs on AA batteries. Trains, all of their talking toys and stuff I don’t even like takes these batteries. Not to mention our digital camera eats them for breakfast and every remote control in the house uses them.

The best price I can find for these is about $1 per battery. I can find rechargeable batteries at The Home Depot for about $2 per battery. So it would only take two recharges for these items to start paying for themselves.

I found a new charger for $30

If I save $30 a month that's $360 a year.