I save $1,000+ every year this way.

If you’ve ever had to Start Over, you know how challenging it can be. Whether you break up with a bestie roommate and need to move, decide to change schools or programs halfway through your coursework, or are left high and dry by a partner, it’s all basically the same. 

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what I would tell someone who had to Start Over and was freaking about money (this has been me, a few different times in my life!) So I wrote down ten things I personally have been doing that have made the biggest financial difference for me. 

Doing the following saves me over $1,000 and it more evenly distributes the financial pressure throughout the year:

1. Get a discount club card on sale. They have tons of discount codes and sales and offers for memberships <$25. Get gas here and only here. Use the app. Check your mailbox for flyers and use those codes. Their rewards add up quickly, stack them as much as possible. BJ’s is my preference. 
2. Use the discount club for things you eat a ton of, pet food and supplies, paper goods you run through, frozen stuff, etc. and remember that the less brand loyalty you insist on, the more savings you can enjoy. Cat litter is cat litter and it all ends up being shit on anyway, so like, just get the kind that’s gonna save $3 this week.
3. Starting in July, every grocery trip you do, add one holiday baking item you’ll use at the holidays. Chocolate chips, good flour, butter when it’s BOGO (butter freezes, you know this, yes?), flavor extracts, cupcake/muffin liners, parchment paper, all these things add up SO hard at the holidays when you’re already overloaded with costs. Stockpile this stuff throughout Q3 and you’ll be stress-free in a confection wonderland by December. I suggest a storage bin instead of keeping items in the pantry; they tend to get pilfered in a pinch, and that defeats the purpose of the stockpile for later. 
4. Order your holiday cards in September. This is the least busy month in terms of school breaks and holidays, plus you just took cute photos in the summer. Slap ‘em in a card and order your lot. Put the addresses in a spreadsheet, print labels, buy postage and put them on, and then put them up. Then add a calendar event to mail them on December 15 (pro tip: in the NOTES of the calendar event, remind yourself where the cards are!) 
5. Buy Christmas stocking stuffers in March/April/May. Deodorant, pens, candies, fidget toys, etc are all non-perishable and fun to shop for on the off-season. 
6. If you are starting over on your Christmas decor, it’s incredibly pricey to buy all new in one season. One trick I love is estate sales. You can take an entire home full of Christmas lights, garlands, wreaths, ribbons, and more. Just this week I bought a nutcracker at an estate sale to add to my collection. This one thing has saved me easily $1,000.
7. Look ahead at school calendar and set aside time for kids to scramble some shit together. Spirit Week? Figure that out. Pajama Day? Ditto. And be prepared to tell your kids that you will only have the bandwidth to help with or purchase things for one day a semester, so they should plan what they want to prioritize. If Crazy Hair Day is the most important one for them, plan to go hard on it…and then plan to sit the other shit out, or to phone it in, and let that be GREAT. 
8. If you’re into plants, host a plant party where friends come over and bring cuttings of their plants. Plants are astronomically priced at stores, so you will save a TON, plus you have the benefit of the energetic closeness of your friendos’ plants being all around you in your home.
9. Aldi really is That Girl. If you can’t stand being inside the store (me! it’s me. I hate the fucking place, it’s a sensory nightmare for me, but the prices cannot be beat) do an Instacart pickup; saves on time and energy as well as money, still allows you to keep a close eye on your spending and you never have to set foot in the fluorescent lighting or worry that you don’t have a quarter for the carts again.
1. Speaking of Instacart, they give tons of BIG discounts that come in clutch, like two codes for 30% off a $90 grocery haul. 
2. You can split a single Instacart Family Membership among four people, and they frequently do big sales of a year for $60, so if you do it right, for around $15 per person per year, you will receive no delivery fees and other perks. Community care ftw. 
3. Never used Instacart before? Sign up using this link and you'll receive a $10 credit for free (and so will I!) on your first order. 
10. Use the Magic Menu. The Magic Menu is a tool I’ve been using for years that I am going to give you in the next month or so, but basically it’s just taking a meal planning framework and putting it on steroids. Knowing that certain days are for certain types of meals makes shopping and leftovers more predictable which leads to easier financial planning. Big wins all around. 

These things save me a lot of money that really saves my ass. Here's hoping one or ore of these things helps you, too, when you need it.

And hey, if you have a friend or loved one who recently had to Start Over, please forward them this email. 

Love,

mmt.