This post brought to you by Kmart Share the Word. All opinions are 100% mine.
Do you ever feel like you are in a financial pitfall? Maybe you just can’t seem to get control of your finances and there seems to be no solution in sight? If you would like a little help getting your financial situation under control, Kmart has something you are going to love. In honor of Black History Month, Kmart has teamed up with Glinda Bridgforth, author of “Girl, Get Your Money Straight,” to share some key money saving tips, insight on how to set up a family budget and useful templates that can help you make your budget work for you instead of against you. All of this useful information is conveniently available in a free downloadable guide.
Is There Anything Worse Than Financial Stress?
I think that one of the absolute worst feelings in the world is the one you get when you look at the bills piling up and know there is no way that you can pay them. I mean, what can you do? It can be really hard to budget your finances to cover every thing necessary to make life work. I think we have all been there at some time or another.
Free Money Saving Tips From Glinda Bridgforth
Glinda Bridgforth can help you learn how to take your budget by the reigns by teaching you how to make and stick to a budget and sharing valuable money saving tips that you can utilize in your everyday life. She can also teach you how you can take these money saving tips and use them to stretch your dollar as far as it will go with Kmart’s Layaway program and Shop Your Way Rewards.
The Share the Word Financial Empowerment platform was created to provide resources that can help enhance the lives of Kmart customers. These money saving tips are a free and useful way to help you get on your way to financial freedom.
My favorite money saving tip is cooking at home. I make breakfast, lunch, dinner at home almost everyday. I always pack my husband a lunch so he doesn’t have to waste money too.
I try and not eat lunch out everyday If i calculate that savings on a monthly basis it is huge..
My only tip is that we try not to spend what we don’t have. We don’t have credit cards or anything, so we pay for everything with cash.
Meal planning is my favorite way to save money. I make a plan for the week and only buy the things on my list. It helps us eat healthy and save money too.
I agree with the others and I try to eat home as much as possible to save money, not to mention help keep the extra pounds off!
I would like to read her book and get some new ideas on how to manage my budget. I am paycheck to paycheck with disasters in between and it is stressful. I think that Kmart Layaway would be a great thing to take my 11 year old to do so he could see a concrete example of saving to buy something!
I love shopping layaway. It’s such a great tool to help with budgeting.
We’ve been doing the 52 weeks savings challenge this year to save money.
I wanted to try that and haven’t. That is a great plan!
oh gosh, I had huge financial stress years ago when I met my husband . it was awful. hard work helped me get out of debt and i’ll do anything to NEVER be in it again.
Congrats to you for getting out of that mess! I have had some rough times, too, but I am doing pretty well now. I am like you, I would do anything to stay away from that again. It’s so stressful to have financial problems.
I definitely try to pay cash for everything – anything that we possibly can. This way, I can’t spend what I don’t have. I also limit eating out (especially lunch.) It’s so ridiculously expensive.
Financial stress is definitely the worst kind of stress! I’ve been working on learning more about my finances to get ahead and have some money saved!
Financial stress ends a lot of marriages. Good tips and sticking to a budget can really make a difference. The big thing is overspending and not planning for those emergencies!
My favorite money saving tip is to use coupons on items you use regularly. Oh and to pay with cash as much as possible. I definitely spend less money that way.
One big tip we’re working on this year is to make better plans for using the food we buy. Sometimes we don’t account for business trips and other events and we end up wasting food!
Meal planning is my favorite way to save money. I make a plan for the week and only buy the things on my list. We also have lowered the heater thermostat when we’re not home and cut our dining out meals, which helped us eat healthier and save!
We lower our thermostat, too. I think that is one of the absolute best ways to save money.
Thank you for the amazing resource. What don’t I do to save money? Lol. I meal plan based on the sale paper and coupons, freezer cook when I get amazing deals on things, can and freeze seasonal foods, save coke cans and every kind of loyalty program codes I can find, shop at consignment sales. . . I could keep going, but I’m always looking for something else to help save money 🙂
I am not in a financial pitfall and haven’t been for 5 years now. The 25 years before that are however a different story! It took me along time to pay off debt and learn how to save. But slowly I learn!
Thankfully our bad financial days are behind us. It took many, many years for me to learn to manage money!
Mitch
Glad you were able to learn how to manage your money. It can be really tough. I feel bad for those who never learn and go through one loss {bankruptcy, foreclosure, repossession} after another, never realizing that at least some of it is usually within in their control.
Meal planning is a great way to save money. Also, not spending extra money at gas stations.
Best money saving tips: eat at home, take your own lunch to work, coupon, and plan ahead for things!
When it comes to saving money, I always remember an old saying I read many moons ago, “It is better to sleep supperless, than to wake up in debt”. This is certainly true when you want to control your finances. It is not good to spend money that you don’t have at the first place. This is the main reason I stopped using credit cards last year.
Bravo to you for taking control of your debt and quitting credit cards!
It is great to take care to save money. For most people money is a limited resource that we must carefully steward.
My favorite money saving tip is to separate the want from the need. Many things in life you don’t really need. Do I NEED that $4 latte from Starbucks or do I WANT it?
My best money saving tip is to avoid impulse purchases. When you are shopping don’t buy something that catches your idea that you suddenly think you need. If you still think you need it a month later, THEN go ahead and buy it. It may no longer be on sale, but it’s even more likely you will realize you didn’t really need it.
Oh man, we are in our third year of dental school and being frugal is a talent I have been forced into! My best tips are don’t spend money you don’t have, eat out as little as possible, make an effort to find cheap or free entertainment, and figure out your favorite stores sale cycles. We also have saved for a few bigger items that help us save money throughout the year, like our zoo pass, my kids are toddlers and they never get sick of going. We use it all the time and pack food when we go so it is like a free fun day. Also, our amazon prime membership, by getting necessities like paper towels, soap, laundry detergent this way I save myself a trip to the store and eliminate the impulse buying.
I have an Amazon Prime Membership and love using it to buy paper goods and other household necessities. We sometimes buy pantry items in bulk, too. 🙂
I really wish I was better at saving money. I need help!
Cash or Crash is the budget tip my husband (not always his wife 😉 ) lives by, w/the exception of his car and house. He will not charge, even though he has a charge card just in case. It’s admirable, and he never falls short on paying the bills or having something left to save or invest.
Financial stress is the worst! Not only is it frustrating and puts you in a terrible position when you simply can’t pay your bills, but it also robs you of your self esteem and any pride you may have had. It’s truly terrible. I can totally get behind the Share the Word Financial Empowerment platform.
We are really working on paying off our last bit of debt (minus student loans and home mortgage) this year. A few years ago we really had struggle due to job loss but thankfully, we came back from it and now we try to only get what we need when we need it.
Your story sounds very similar to ours. If we could just pay off those pesky school loans and the mortgage… We don’t even currently have a car payment. 🙂
I’m still working on my money saving skills, it seems I am not used to live on a budget but life doesn’t give me much choices so I’ve got to improve.
To me the most stressful is my daughter sickness we’ve been battling for over a month now.
That is awful that your daughter has been sick that long. I hope she feels better soon.
I love an tips to help my family save money and get ahead financially. Right now we only have a mortgage debt.
I have started to save money by brown bagging it for lunch instead of buying.
My biggest money saving tip is actually to use CASH ONLY. We had our credit card compromised five times last year, so I am really paranoid about using plastic now. Since I’ve started using cash, I find that I only buy the necessities, never indulgences – because it’s hard to see that cash be handed over! LOL! Oh – and use coupons!
Yeah, I am big into using cash whenever possible. I hate to put stuff on credit.
Saving money is really important to accommodate all necessities in the family. My mother is very frugal in terms of buying something. This sounds great for as far as i know kmart (in our place) foods are really mahal (expensive)
Financial stress is the worst. My biggest money saving tip is buy things when they’re on sale. As in, when my favorite brand of toilet paper is on sale, I’ll stock up then instead of waiting until we’re running out.
Meal planning and only having cash save a ton
I’ve definitely been deep, deep, DEEP in the hole before, but I pulled out without filing bankruptcy or losing any homes and I’m never going back in debt!
wow that is awesome, thank you for sharing!
My money saving tip? Don’t spend money you don’t have. It’s that simple. BUT I am also not a shopper type, I enjoy very simple things in life, the necessities. With that being said, we have a HUGE family so our cost of living alone gets expensive. I like to do frozen crock pot meals to save money on feeding the tribe!
My favorite money saving tips are: making as many things as you can “homemade” vs. store bought. Like laundry detergent. I also use half/half vinegar and water as a household cleaner. For every room. I rarely ever buy store bought cleaners. Using coupons ontop of sale prices. Buying produce in season. Buying clothes on clearance (out of season) and getting the next up size for next year. I love seeing all these other ideas too!!!
I always manage to save money when I spend a few minutes to compare prices on different online retailers. Oh, and I almost never buy clothing at full price. I always hit the clearance racks, or just go through my local thrift shops with a fine toothed comb, lol.
I love shopping at thrift shops, yard sales and fleamarkets. Not only do you find great prices, you also find really cool, rare and unusual items. 🙂
Glinda Bridgforth, is AWESOME! I love her.
I save money by shopping clearance racks, buying off season, thrift stores, yard sales, packing the kid’s lunches. Also, clipping coupons helps a lot!
I like to shop second hand stores. Using coupons at the grocers help a lot too!
Money stress is the worst!! I cook a lot and shop and discount stores to save money!
To be financially secure you have to stop spending. That’s what most people just won’t do. You have to be willing to sacrifice, scrape, save and be out of debt. Then, save before you buy.
My money saving tip? AVOID TARGET AT ALL COSTS. 😉
I don’t use any credit cards. That forces me to only buy what I have the money for.
Financial stress also is tough on relationships! I’m actually building a website where my readers can shop looks that I post for affordable prices! I am definitely trying to keep smaller budgets in mind 🙂
I definitely need more money saving tips! We try to meal plan to save money, and we eat out very rarely.
My money saving tip is to start meal planning, create a grocery list for your plan, and DON’T deviate from the list! Oh – and eat before you head to the grocery store. 🙂
My money saving tips:
Use coupons. Only shop sale items. Don’t indulge. For groceries if you don’t want to use coupons then stick specifically to buy items only when they go on sale. Creating a list and sticking to it. Meal planning is a huge and a great way to save money on meals. Get into the habit of only shopping the sales vs I need this item now.
I cook at home, but consignment, and save save save! I stash a lot in my ;01K for later. Retirement comes quicker than we think!
I contribute as much as I can to my 401K, shop sales and use coupons, cook at home, and buy consignment! I try to save for retirement because it will be here before we know it!
We’re pretty frugal, but I’m not really a couponer. I don’t know if I have any tips since everyone spends differently, but this is a great post.
We keep a change jar…you’d be surprised how fast you can save some money that way!
Food, food, food. Whether it’s eating out or grocery shopping without a plan, anytime my budget has been off it was because of food. My favorite tip is to pay attention to food spending.
I try not to do any sudden and emotional decisions when I’m doing shopping. It sounds simple but is very hard to do. When I really feel that I need to buy something, I don’t. I think about it for few days and try to reflex on if I really need it or just really want it.
Meal planning and actually eating at home are my biggest money saving tips.
Thank you for all the awesome tips! I also love reading all the comments to hear what has really worked for people. We started the binder system where we take money out and it goes in the designated binders. It has helped a lot!
That sounds like an interesting plan! I might have to try it. 🙂