So as some people know, I'm currently looking to buy my first house. Since I'll be doing this by myself I've been trying to plan a budget. I want to know all your tips and tricks for keeping nice, tight budget. Was there anything that totally took you by surprise? What are things you learned to live without if you had to cut cost somewhere? How do you make sure you stick to your budget and don't go over?

I would check out anything Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University related.  I took the class and it really helped, and I believe you can get the budget forms and debt snowball forms online.  There might even be an app by now.

Also - In regards to home buying, if you have any questions or need any advice let me know!  Being a Mortgage processor has me looking at this stuff every day. ☺

1. Don't buy anything you don't need (seriously, every time you want to buy something, ask yourself, "can I live without this?")

2. Set a tightish budget on groceries (per month) and do not go over it (like if you usually buy $150 worth of groceries, budget to $100 or $120 instead)

  -Or if you don't want to set a monetary budget for groceries, only allow yourself to go to the store once per month (no matter what). This is becuase sometimes you'll run out of one thing (like bread or milk) and go to the store to only buy that one thing, but actually end up buying $50 of stuff. You do that once a week and it adds up quickly.

3. Look at the bills/services you're paying for every month and cancel the more unnecessary ones.

I also like to go one step further and always look for jobs or opportunities to make a little extra cash in my free time. It doesn't have to be much and it also doesn't have to go in you "money for house" account. It can just be enough extra money for you to splurge on yourself for doing such a good job for saving money ;)-

Like for example, recycling your bottles and cans. Probably after a month it'll be $5 but hey, that's a Starbucks coffee to treat yourself to! Or consigning things you don't want...maybe $30 but you can treat yourself to dinner or some new clothes :)

I think this is important becuase for some people saving money is a lot like dieting-- you want to do it, and you put a good effort in, but after a while it wears on you and the old habits come back. So, if you already spend money, it's good to allow yourself to splurge just a little so you don't get worn out from all the temptations. 

You will be amazed how much you spend on picking up quick things here and there. The oops I forgot my lunch. Or hey I would really like a coffee. Or lemme toss this candy on this grocery order. 

Also cooking bulk meals and making good friends with rice, pasta, and beans. And spices, to make leftovers more appetizing. I can feed my household of 4 for a dinner with leftovers for usually only a few bucks. 

Link Tree

I'm a pretty frugal person, and I save money obsessively, haha. I do like to shop, though, but I try to keep it to only things that are either super on sale, on clearance, or at thrift stores. I also spend WAY too much money on eating out, but that's a conversation for another time, haha.

Sorry in advance for the novel, haha. I love talking about saving money and being thrifty :P.

I'm obviously not the perfect money saver, and I don't really have anything revolutionary, BUT these are my best tips:

1. Don't spend money that you don't have. Which seems kind of obvious, but I set aside all of the money I need to pay my bills in a given month (including any "extras" for that month which I know I have to pay, like medical bills or taxes or whatever comes up), then based on what's left, I give myself an amount of money to spend. And that's it. That's all I spend and a lot of the time I don't even spend all of it. The rest goes into savings, or to pay off debt (if I have any, which I try not to besides my mortgage). But if I have $300 set to spend and I want something that is $350, I can't afford it. Period. Know what you can spend on big-ticket items (appliances). Either what you have available to pay in cash, or what you can afford as monthly payments. And then don't go over that.

2. Shop around, wait for sales. Pay attention to the prices of things that you want, and then watch them. This is especially relevant with homeownership. Right now our refridgerator is reaching the end of it's life, so I've been researching what I want, and I've been keeping an eye on the sales to see when and where the best price will come around. I do this for everything, though, even books. When I want to buy a book I look around to see where I can get it the absolute cheapest before I buy it. Or clothes, I hardly ever buy any clothes that aren't on clearance, which allows me to have way too many clothes but not feel weird about how much I'm spending.

3. I save a lot of money on groceries by going to different stores and knowing where the best prices are, and paying attention to sales. When roast drops to $2.99, I stock up because that's the cheapest it ever gets here. But I live in a medium-large city so I'm able to do this, if you're not then you might not be able to. But we grocery shop at Aldi's, Trader Joes, Costco, Hy-Vee, and Walmart. This takes a lot of time and I don't always do it, especially now that we live on the outskirts of the city, but I've successfully kept the grocery budget for the two of us at $60 for the two of us when I'm dilligent about it, and everyone who knows me knows how well I like to eat, haha.

4. I save for a rainy day, not to have spending money. Don't take money out of savings unless you absolutely have to. If you have a car repair coming up, and you can, put that in the monthly bill-paying fund, don't take it out of savings. Only touch the savings account when you have to. When the A/C goes out in the middle of August, when the roof caves in, when the house floods, when the cat eats 16 hair ties and needs to see an emergency vet - that's when it's time to touch the savings account! If I want to save for something specific (like vacation!) I do it separately of my regular savings fund, and I don't let it overly impede on the amount I'm saving to that one. But, in my opinion, it's better to not have extra money to save in a month than it is to remove any money from the savings account.

5. If you can, wait for clearance. This has been huge for us with the house. Things go on end-of-season clearance (I love Target's seasonal clearance, haha) and then you can stock up. I usually keep an eye on stuff I want, like patio furniture, or even just decor, and then I try to get it when it goes on 30% off or 50% off at the end of the season. Sometimes I have to go to a different Target to get the exact item I want, but since I live in a big-ish city, this is possible.

6. Do you have a Costco? COSTCO! Tron can also tell you about the benefits of costco and homeownership expenses, haha. Appliances, rugs, yard supplies, etc. All so much cheaper there! And honestly just stuff like toilet paper and dog food and non-perishable food will save a lot of money over time.

7. DIY! If you can. Joel is really handy, so that helps us out!

8. Don't buy something because it's cheap if it will fall apart. It's better to spend $500 for something that will last 10 years, than pay $100 for something you will have to replace every year.

All of this does take time and effort, and I'm really not above saying screw it and just buying something full price sometimes. But even if I only do these things half of the time, it still saves a lot, you know?

If I buy 20 grocery items at the "expensive store" (Hy-Vee here, haha) out of convenience and things are an average of $0.30 more expensive than Walmart or Aldi, then that's $6 that trip. No big deal. But if I do that every week? That's $312 for the whole year. Which is a lot of money when you think about it being 5 whole weeks worth of groceries.

I will also say that I don't not spend money, because I do. I like to buy new clothes, I like high-end kitchen stuff (Le Creuset -cough-), I like to eat out, I like to buy books. But if a tshirt is usually $10, and I buy it on clearance for $5, I can have two shirts for the same amount. I'm much more about value for the money than just straight up not spending it. If I'm going to spend $10, then I want to get as much as possible for that $10.

I also don't coupon because I really, really don't have time to be that obsessive. If I get a Barnes and Noble coupon, I use it, but I don't do the multiple ads to get 100 rolls of free toilet paper thing. My time is worth something to me, haha.

I hope this helps! Haha.

Sam has excellent, excellent tips there. I come from a thrifty farm family as some years my dad made good money and some years we really had to tighten our belts. It just depended upon the year, the weather, and the crops. The only thing I would add is something that a lot of people that don't do and it bugs the heck out of me when they complain they spend so much money on groceries...BUY GENERIC. Yeah, there's some things that you just HAVE to buy name brand...but things like napkins, cake mixes, canned goods, juice, sugar, syrup, ketchup...it tastes the same, people. It literally tastes the same. Buying name brand items adds up. #petpeeve #rantover xD

Also, having a garden is an excellent way to save money. Just requires a little more labor on your part lol. 

I work at a grocery store so I just kinda... Stray towards our store brand. That being said. Like... Meijer brand pop? Bottled by Faygo. Meijer brand water? Bottled by Aquafina. Meijer brand ice cream and milk? Produced by the local Purple Cow dairy. They're not usually made by sketchy overseas places. They're usually literally made by local companies or the actual "competitors".

I can also sing Costco praises. I just spent maybe 15 bucks on enough dish washer detergent for a year. We get the tabs. We only need to get laundry detergent a couple times a year (get the packs). Generally you need WAY LESS SOAP THAN YOU THINK. and one of those like 100 pack tubs? Like 12 bucks. One tub of hummus, even store brand, at the grocery store is usually 3 to 5 bucks. A 20 pack of single serve things of it is only 8. End up wasting a lot less, get more of it, and I can just chuck it in my lunch and go. 

Don't get produce there. 

Or baked goods. Except the cookies. 

You will not eat it fast enough. LMFAO

Getting meat there and freezing it though is great. 

Oh yeah and they have a lot of options for organic and clean eating non perishables! 

Link Tree

sadly we don't have a Costco anywhere close to me. For that stuff I'm looking at Walmart, Hyvee, or County Market. Now you guys are making me really jealous haha. We do have a Menards for the house stuff and they're constantly doing sales and rebates. 

i pretend to budget

no coffee (starbucks or local shop) for a week means i can buy lularoe. 
some of you know, im kinda obsessed and REALLY GOOD at finding unicorn prints for the most part.

so I'm fine drinking fresh ground texas pecan coffee (thank you HEB)

I generally only buy clearance clothes and nothing over 25$

i would love to budget more but thats kind of hard with an 18 wheeler.

luckily since both parents live with me i pretty much have a 0$ food/house needs bill

bascially we pay a mortgage, electric, utilities and a few personal bills. thats it.

really im no help

unless you want llr XD

We have no Costco where we live either, Trig, haha! It IS possible to live life thrifty without a Costco! ;) Walmart is our go-to. And for years when we were little kids, my mom went to Sam's Club which I'm pretty sure is basically pretty close to what a Costco is.

I do feel like Hy Vee, even though they have a store brand, is still expensive. 

I'm awful at keeping to a budget but using the website/app Mint really helped me stay accountable to my goals when I was living in Los Angeles. I was working a day job and going out on auditions / living the unpredictable life of a working actor.

There was a lot of self guilt involved (which got really negative and made me feel sad a lot) but it did help me stick to a budget. Mint also helps you visualize your income and spending in different categories, if that's helpful to you. (It was to me.) I realized I was being super frugal, making bulk meals, spending a lot of money on gas (out of necessity) and that I frankly needed to make more money to thrive in such an expensive city. 

I'm planning on putting myself on another budget soon, this summer. What I'm going to do differently is plan a more realistic budget in all my essential categories (food, public transportation, various home supplies). I built an ideal budget that looked good on paper and instead of adjusting the numbers when I repeatedly failed to keep it, I just felt guilty and kept trying to make it work. 

Good luck, trig!!