Things I did to save money last year THAT WORKED!

I am a 68 yr old retired nurse with grown kids. I just love your channel. You are so upbeat and encouraging. You have such great ideas. Thank you for doing this channel!!

I've started doing everything with Money one day a week. I pay bills, make deposits, buy groceries, order things, etc. It forces me to wait to purchase anything, and it has been a game changer. We started this awhile ago, and strangely, it has taken so much stress off. I loved this video, I'm learning to give myself grace. Thank you for being so positive ❤

Love this. We've ben avoiding the thrift because my husband and I have "collecting" hobby tendacies, but I like that a "Thrift First" house rule could let us thrift with purpose! The one thing we did last year that helped a lot was always keeping two frozen pizzas in the fridge. Sure, they are not "cheap" but they are cheaper than pizza delivery/takeout on nights that I have to tapout on cooking. I just budget them into part of my weekly staples grocery list like coffee and creamer. Saves us at least $20 each time we choose that over take out or delivery!

Lydia, autism in my oldest has really impacted our family. My son is 13 and doing really well now. I could write you a novel right about all that we have been through as a family now but i wont. The therapy is very necessary but also very hard to make work. If it wasn't for my retired mom-- we would not be here today. My husband and I work full time. Im a teacher so i have summers to take over the appointments but it was HARD. From age 2-8yrs old he went to weekly one hour private speech therapy. From 5-9yrs old he went to ABA for 2-4 hours a week. From 3-4yrs he went to vision therapy 2 hours a week. From 3-7yrs old he went to OT/PT for one hour a week. From 3-6yrs old he went to preschool 6 hours a week. I look back and i can not believe how amazing my mom was. I took him when i could. Scheduled evening appointments and did summers. This was also very hard emotionally and financially. We recovered financially but we had quite a bit of debt for a long time. It was all worth it because hes made amazing progress. He could not answer a question or speak in full sentences until about age 7. Like no verbs. Nouns only until about 5. Now hes 13 and is writing a novel for fun. He scores high school level in use of vocabulary and sentence structure according to tests at school.

In the last couple of years, I’ve realized that I’ve become a compulsive shopper. I wasn’t always this way. I can trace it back to my Mom’s terminal breast cancer diagnosis. It was during that time that I discovered that I could buy something cute and I would have several days to be happy for a little while, waiting for the purchase to arrive. I finally let my husband in on what was going on - For the most part I had stayed within our budget and we had an emergency fund. I now read to him everything I spend each paycheck. He is very encouraging and thoughtful. I have deleted websites that tempted me to overspend. I now stick to thrift stores. I love bits of seasonal decor and books at a fraction I used to spend!

Hi! I'm a mom to an autistic/ADHD child. I went part time last year because I became ill and burned out working full time. God was good to us and my hubby had started a job that gave us enough income for me to be able to go part time. I wasn't okay working full time, it was horrible 😟 unfortunately we don't have any good thrift stores around here (we live in Scotland and the charity shops are sometimes more expensive than buying things new). But going to try and find other ways to save money this year ☺️

I recently learned that Our library has a ‘library of things’!!!! You can check out tools, dishes, baking appliances, projectors, musical instruments…thousands of items! I cannot believe what a BRILLIANT idea that was ❤️🥰❤️

This was so good Lydia. I have to say you hit home with the business part and having a special needs kiddo. I have had my design business since 2008 (full time 2014). When I had my fourth child in 2018 and everything we went through to understand what was going on with her . (I was living at Children’s Hospital with her for 5weeks) then 3 weeks. Just on and on. Took a year to get her diagnosis (rare genetic disorder) causes low tone, autism spectrum in there, seizures. And so much more. It was a devastating blow for our family. My business took a major hit, but I had faithful clients and God’s Grace. Zoie is 5 now, still non-speaking, cannot walk and is gtube fed. But my business is thriving, homeschooling the 3 older kids was a choice (seemed crazy) but Covid forced my hand couldn’t risk Zoie . Turned out to be the right one for us. But all that to say… it is HARD. But I love my business and my babies. I cry a lot , but that’s expected. I finally have a small team for my business. I really take it one day at a time. Plan but leave room for whatever May come. And (did I say I cry lol?) yeah I let out all that emotion. Because it’s so much but I am grateful. Sorry this is long. I really love your channel and what you share. Sending hugs to everyone reading this also.

Back around Thanksgiving I had a bunch of wrinkly apples so I decided to make applesauce. I didn’t have an immersion blender, so I borrowed one from my mother-in-law. Worked perfectly and I loved the homemade applesauce. Fast forward a month to Christmas and she gifted me a new one. Now I can make more applesauce with the new batch of wrinkly apples!

"Pray for your short friends because we are not ok." 🙋‍♀ 🤣

Thank you for saying we can make mistakes. I’m 53 and still make mistakes. One about made me sick this year but I’m brushing it off and 2024 is a new year.

My child has childhood apraxia of speech we have weekly therapies, and I do work full time. Thankfully I am a nurse so I get a full weeks of hours in three days. I work mostly weekends which sucks for church and time with the hubby but it saves us on childcare and more flexibility for his therapies he was going to OT too at one point but has graduated from that. Not sure how other people do it. We buy our bread from a discount bakery. A whole months worth for $10. It’s been helping us save in the grocery budget.

We spend $20 a year for a membership to a library about 20 mins away, over state lines. Our little town library is seriously underfunded and frankly sad. It's dingy and tiny and dark, with few materials and activities compared to others. I wanted my kids (now teens) to love libraries as much as I do so to another town (and even state!) we went. It's basically on my husband's route home from work so we can order materials online and he drops in to turn in used stuff and get new. Worth every penny and thensome! I am a total library junkie!

Thrifting too. I like that it has less environmental impact too. Another tip with using products up before buying more is cutting them open - toothpaste, lotion, etc- usually you can get another 3-5 days by really scraping out a bottle.

Thanks for being my encouraging, YouTube big sis. You speak calm into our regular chaos and I’m always grateful for a new video (pep talk).

Lydia, my hat's off to you. Having been a very young mom raising a child alone after a bitter divorce, I look back and see that I did some things right and some wrong; I often worked 2, sometimes 3 jobs and missed time with my boy. My conscientious efforts this past year have included making sure I don't let unused or little-used subscriptions linger, keeping power usage down when the weather is mild, and really being mindful of how much I use of favorite cleaning products. I wish you every success, and salute you as being what I'd call a great Mom!

I can’t believe you said that “I don’t come to your job and by work equipment for Christmas!” 😂😂😂 Priceless. I agree with thrift first always. I’m not quite there with borrowing yet but the LIBRARY is one of the best places on earth. Also I have put water into every single soap, lotion, cleaner, beauty product and made it last for several more days or weeks!!!! Great video as always thank you

My husband bought me a new house phone for our first married Christmas. I was devastated. I can laugh now but I almost cried!

I love these tips! My family and I live in Hawaii and we are part of a Buy Nothing group on our island where people post stuff to give away or ask for things. It's amazing and has saved us from buying the items ourselves. Highly recommend checking to see if you have a local group in your area. Our son is also on the spectrum and dear god the therapy costs. Our insurance isn't the best and we spent a lot of the year fighting to get his therapies covered. For any who are in a similar boat my son's OT recommended looking into a supplementary insurance, like getting a private plan that's just for them. If you're already paying out of pocket it can save you hundreds. And yeah props to any working parents who are working and trying to take care of their special needs child. I'm a SAHM and I think it's a lot.

If you are open to it, a video on baby gear would be amazing! There is so much in the market, but babies need very little “stuff” to thrive. I’m always interested to hear minimalist and frugal mom’s perspectives on this topic! ❤