Savings Fails - things you've tried or considered

[christyd2]

Which savings tips have you tried or considered trying, but realized it wasn't a good fit for you?

One I tried was making my own laundry detergent. Our family is messy, so by the time you add in enough stain removers like Oxi clean, it really didn't save us any $. When Target runs their GC specials on Tide, homemade actually cost more.

One I was going to try, but didn't was using cloth diapers. We were fortunate to receive a lot of disposal diapers at our shower and when we started running low, the thought of having to clean dirty diapers made me sign up for an Amazon subscription of Pampers real quick. I'd much rather pay the 10 to 25 cents a diaper.

 

[QueenIsabella]

Gardening. I start with the best of intentions, never follow through. I content myself with shopping sales, farmer's markets, etc.

BTW, on those cloth diapers--I only used them for burp cloths, but my oldest is now 22, and I still use them as cleaning rags. Of course, I bought them at yard sales and stuff, not new, but don't throw them out or give them away!

 

[osopecoso]

We grow our own herbs, tomatoes and a few other veggies. It takes time but saves money over buying fresh herbs in store plus mine have no pesticides.

 

[christyd2]

Gardening. I start with the best of intentions, never follow through. I content myself with shopping sales, farmer's markets, etc.

BTW, on those cloth diapers--I only used them for burp cloths, but my oldest is now 22, and I still use them as cleaning rags. Of course, I bought them at yard sales and stuff, not new, but don't throw them out or give them away!

We were given quite a few cloth diaper linens, but not the covers. We hung on to the cloth diapers & yes, they are amazing for cleaning!!

 

[marcyleecorgan]

Things I have tried that did NOT work:

-switching the laundry soaps over to all-natural ingredients (baking soda, vinegar, borax)... uh terrible idea. Praise those scientists and their chemistry in commercial laboratories!

-hanging laundry instead of running the dryer... DH refused to wear his undies until I ran them through a tumble dry cycle. Guess those stiff corners are only a good thing in bedsheets! LOL

-brewing our own ciders/wine/beer instead of purchasing alcohol. Good plan in theory - in reality, it takes a LONG time to brew, plus then you have storage to consider and an inventory of equipment to buy first. After buying beer aplenty waiting for the cider to finish and having more than one cleanup when something collapsed or broke... yeah we now only make cider from our fruit trees if we WANT to. And not this year!

-going bulk. I just cleaned out a cabinet that I didn't even know HAD things stored in it. What'd I find? Oh just mac & cheese powder from 2008! And enough freeze dried seafood products to open a restaurant, thanks to the DH loving his Asian snacks! Nobody likes this generic cheese powder, I've tried!

of course... I am thinking of trying to keep to a very specific list of items IF we go bulk-shopping again but I fear what will happen when I walk in the store... will I walk out with $100 of candy corn? LOL

 

[christyd2]

-hanging laundry instead of running the dryer... DH refused to wear his undies until I ran them through a tumble dry cycle. Guess those stiff corners are only a good thing in bedsheets! LOL

I know some people swear by line dried laundry, but unless it's hung up inside, I can't do it. I absolutely HATE how stiff hanging them outside makes clothes (even with a vinegar rinse), I don't have time to worry about if it's going to rain, and frankly, no one else needs to be seeing my unmentionables!

 

[1st*toright]

I am not good at doing coupons. I will be motivated for a couple of weeks and clip stuff from the paper, weekly circulars etc., but then I fall off the wagon and forget to look for coupons. Some people really make good use of them, I know, but I often fall for buying random stuff we don't really need just 'cause I have a coupon...

-going bulk. I just cleaned out a cabinet that I didn't even know HAD things stored in it. What'd I find? Oh just mac & cheese powder from 2008! And enough freeze dried seafood products to open a restaurant, thanks to the DH loving his Asian snacks! Nobody likes this generic cheese powder, I've tried!

I've been more successful at saving on groceries by tracking what I have on hand in the pantry and freezer and actively working to use up what I already have (so that I don't find 9 year old macaroni and cheese in my cabinet )

 

[sksjasams]

Buying big boxes of granola bars and the like from Costco and keeping them in the regular cupboard. Big fail.

There is no savings when a big box is gone in a week. If I do buy the big boxes now, I ration them out a week at a time and keep the big box hidden away.

 

[DizMe]

The Budget Board. I learn about so many great deals that I spend way more than I did before

Couponing (just ugh) and gardening--spent so much trying to make it work in our bad soil. DH finally accepted that we live in the middle of ag heaven, where produce is cheap and delicious and you don't have to do the work.

 

[christyd2]

I am not good at doing coupons. I will be motivated for a couple of weeks and clip stuff from the paper, weekly circulars etc., but then I fall off the wagon and forget to look for coupons. Some people really make good use of them, I know, but I often fall for buying random stuff we don't really need just 'cause I have a coupon...

It seems like the coupons in our paper are 10 cents off or but 4 get 75 cents off. None of our grocery stores double coupons, so it's really not worth it for us. I try to stock up when the things we normally buy go on sale.

 

[QueenIsabella]

I've never been much of a couponer--another example of good intentions gone wrong! I'd rather buy generic and in bulk (it works for me, but I've got 4 kids--my pantry needs restocking pretty much every week). But, it may be worth my while to attempt the coupon thing again. A new Aldi's just opened up near us--I'm a huge fan--and the other stores are trying to compete. In a few months, I will have 4--4!!!--grocery stores within walking distance to my house. I do cherry-pick specials, but last week, I couldn't bring myself to spend $30 at Publix. I love their stores, but not their prices (does that make sense?). They've been sending $5 off $30 coupons to compete with Aldi's.

 

[DLgal]

Using an actual "budget." Just doesn't work for me. Nothing about our life is predictable enough to be able to decide in advance how much we will spend on any given category or in any given week.

 

[Narnia_girl]

I decided to be an in-home sales consultant. I was so excited to sell these amazing lotion bars and other great products so I bought a bunch, and got trained, and scheduled my parties. My very first in-home party was on 9/11/2001.

After a few parties I discovered that I hated trying to sell stuff to friends/family/strangers. The products were great, but I was a bad salesperson.
I lost a lot of money on that adventure to save money.

 

[fifthdimensiondweller]

Making homemade laundry detergent was one that didn't work for me either. It started out great, and I'll give myself credit, I stuck with it for two years even when it wasn't ideal because we needed the money for our wedding and honeymoon, but now I use Biokleen brand off Amazon. Cost effective, doesn't make me break out, clothes look great, and I can use it on my baby's clothes and cloth diapers as well as mine and hub's clothing.

Another thing that didn't work for me was swagbucks. Seemed like I couldn't get anything out of it (or st least not enough to make it anywhere close to worth it). Shopkicks, ibotta, and checkout 51 worked much better for me.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I know some people swear by line dried laundry, but unless it's hung up inside, I can't do it. I absolutely HATE how stiff hanging them outside makes clothes (even with a vinegar rinse), I don't have time to worry about if it's going to rain, and frankly, no one else needs to be seeing my unmentionables!

I hang dry (inside but with a good enough airflow) almost all my clothes (aside from pjs and underwear) but I also use fabric softner. Other than jeans nothing else gets even remotely stiff. With jeans I just pop in the dryer for just a few minutes on a low seating when they are done drying (from hang drying that is).

A decent enough of my clothes say hang dry or line dry or even hand wash.

Now with bedding and towels those go in the dryer (though towels don't get fabric softner).

 

[loves to dive]

Another one who can't make coupons work well. I will save the ones I get from Kroger in the mail and do the download thing but they tend to expire before I need whatever I've got a coupon for.

Ebates. I shop on Amazon all the time, I book Disney through Orbitz sometimes, I shop on QVC every once in awhile, can I remember to go through Ebates to get to those sites. Nope. I think I've made a grand total of $4.00 in over 3 years. I don't have the little icon on my toolbar because honey is an IT consultant and downloading things to computers is cause for separation in our house. I have a feeling even if I had it I wouldn't remember to use it.

I tried doing the fresh veggie and fruit membership thing, I don't even remember the name of it but it's a co-op thing. It was every other week where I live but it was way too much stuff for me (honey wouldn't eat a veggie or fruit if he was on an island and hadn't eaten for 30 days) and everything would go bad. Plus you had to be there to pick it up at something like 9 am on a Saturday, the place to pick it up was a least 30 min. away from where we live so I had to get up and get dressed way to early on a Saturday for that.

 

[MimiOfTwo]

Cooking. I didn't save money and it wasn't worth the hassle.

 

[jen7233]

Buying things in bulk or family size. It seems as though as soon an item is cursed when I buy in bulk or get the family size boxes that the family loved so much, all of a sudden nobody likes it anymore and the novelty of things is worn off. Strange coincidence, lol!

Online ordering from stores that cost me money to return an item to ship back if it doesn't fit or wasn't how it looked on the website (we live really far from a mall).

 

[Alesia]

Online ordering from stores that cost me money to return an item to ship back if it doesn't fit or wasn't how it looked on the website (we live really far from a mall).

Amazon has free returns on most clothing and shoes. It may require prime, though.

 

[smiths02]

Buying big boxes of granola bars and the like from Costco and keeping them in the regular cupboard. Big fail.

There is no savings when a big box is gone in a week. If I do buy the big boxes now, I ration them out a week at a time and keep the big box hidden away.

Buying things in bulk or family size. It seems as though as soon an item is cursed when I buy in bulk or get the family size boxes that the family loved so much, all of a sudden nobody likes it anymore and the novelty of things is worn off. Strange coincidence, lol!

Online ordering from stores that cost me money to return an item to ship back if it doesn't fit or wasn't how it looked on the website (we live really far from a mall).

I think we have the double curse. I'll buy more of something to buy in bulk or when it is on sale. This will be something DH eats every day for breakfast for 3 months, for example, and then as soon as I buy 90 of them, he will decide he's going on a different diet/food thing and he can no longer eat whatever it is in that stuff.

Or the opposite is that I buy in bulk and then it's gone. Like instead of buying prepackaged goldfish, I'll buy that giant box. Before I can portion it out for snacks in the car (always have to have snacks in the car), most of the goldfish will be gone. So now I just buy the prepackaged, but those stay in the car.