I am a single mother of two kids. The income I have comes from what little I make from my full time job, my job working in my church's nursery on Sundays, and Child Support for my oldest. I am constantly learning new ways to stretch my meager dollars. This is what I do to stretch what I have:
- I do use the A/C constantly as it gets hot and humid where I live, but I hang clothes to dry. I turn off lights when not using them, raise the thermostat when no one is home so the AC isn't running and unplug things when not being used.
- I walk to work. When I need to go to the store for one or two items, I walk to the store if it's close by.
- I use fans as much as I can, too.
- I open the blinds during the day and use the light from the outside instead of turning on a light.
- I use sites like My Coke Rewards, and other places where I can enter codes, as well as survey sites where I can get points to get things like magazine subscriptions, household items, gift cards, money through PayPal, etc.
- I save aluminum cans to cash in for money. When I am taking a walk, or am at the store, I pick up any aluminum cans I see.
- I have food stamps and go to food pantries as well, as I am low income. I also stretch my food as long as I can. I save leftovers for the next day for lunch, or another dinner. I even save meats and vegetables for soups.
- I recently had some socks that had holes in them. Instead of throwing them away, I took the socks that no longer had mates and patched up the holes with them. I do any kind of simple mending I can.
- I pretty much try to make do with what I have and see what I can do to keep using the stuff I already have without having to go buy the same thing new.
- Instead of buying trash bags, I use the grocery store bags, bread bags, etc. I even use the big bags that my pet food comes in as trash bags.
