Recently a Southern Savers reader posted the following question on our Facebook page: “How do you budget and save? Our bills are paid, but I want to cut back and start saving more. Can anyone share how they save or budget?” Of course, the whole point of Southern Savers revolves around this question, so I have a ton of answers, but I always like to see what you all have to say.

As usual, there were tons of helpful responses. I’m excited to share them with you in the hopes that the original reader who asked the question—as well as anyone else—can get some new inspiration.

How to Budget and Save Money

I’ve tried to divide up the responses into different categories. I continue to be amazed at the variety of answers!

Shop at certain stores

Several readers suggested loyalty to a certain store. This can be a great idea if you focus on how that store does sales and coupons and become an expert. There are also usually rewards associated with certain store credit or debit cards.

Lori J.: “Target offers the online shopping with pick up. They offer a debit card that, if you use it at Target, saves you 5% off of anything you buy. That’s on top of sales and coupons.”

Lori G.: “I save so much time and money ordering online and just pick up on my way home from work. Kroger’s website allows you to see any available digital coupons as you select your items, too. We use the Kroger credit card so every $100 purchased gets us an additional 10 cents off gas.”

Take a Close Look at Your Utilities

Examining the different parts of your budget is another way to save money. I recently shared 24 ways to save money on utilities.

Crista A.: “Check your cable, phone, and Internet plans. We switched carriers recently, made changes on our plans, and saved a good bit. We deleted channels that we no longer watched!”

Judy D.: “Some ways we cut our expenses was getting rid of home phone and cable. We were paying for a home phone we never used except when a telemarketer called. For cable, we use the Pluto app to cast to our tv. We also installed solar panels (we are in Florida), and though we still are paying off the loan for the panels, that payment is 100+ dollars less then what we were paying without them each month.”

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