Tips for Saving Money While Living on a Fixed Income

Surviving…living on a fixed income can be tough, especially when it is not adjusted for the rising cost of living, and the prices in the stores are rising faster than your income. This is a common problem for senior citizens in the United States. For those on a fixed income, there are strategies that can lower your cost of living, only sacrificing a small amount of time and energy for significant monetary savings.

Save on Food

One thing that we cannot live without is food, but it is one area where a great deal of money can be saved if one is willing to spend a small amount of time and effort. In most stores, a price tag on the shelf below the product shows both the price of the product, and also a price per ounce. Value brands or store brands as some people call them are products that are exclusive to one store, and a vast majority of the time are less per ounce than national name brands. Most are also available in economy size, and on products that do not spoil quickly, are a great way to save on a product that you are going to buy anyway. Toilet tissue, paper towels, cooking oil, canned coffee, flour, corn meal, mashed potato flakes, and sugar are great examples of products where comparing the price per ounce can save money.

As far as saving on canned food, a large number of stores will have special sales on flats of canned goods such as corn and green beans. In most of these sales, the flats will be sold for five dollars, which puts the cost of a can at around fifty cents, compared to most canned goods being between eighty cents and a dollar in my area. While most of the time it is a store brand that is sold this way, I have learned from experience that the taste is the same as the national brand, and if you are willing to eat a store brand, you can save quite a bit of money each month.

View Your Local Ads & Circulars

Circulars or sale papers as they are sometimes called are a great way to get a good deal. In my local area, sale papers are delivered through the mail every Tuesday, and most stores will price match the other store’s sales. Ten-pound bags of chicken leg quarters are a popular item to go on sale. Regular price is around seven dollars a bag, but on sale, they can be had for as little as three dollars a bag. This is a great way to add meat to your diet for very little money. Also, uncooked pork ribs are often on sale for the same price as ground hamburger meat, giving you a way to treat yourself for no extra expense.

Potatoes are often available in a ten-pound bag for under five dollars and will keep fresh for a good amount of time. Also, many stores will have a sale on sweet potatoes during the fall season, only raising the prices during the holiday cooking times. I have personally seen the price as low as ten cents a pound when bought by the box.

Buy in Bulk

If you have a large family to feed, most stores have an aisle devoted to institutional-sized containers of food, and this is a great way to save money. It is significantly cheaper to open one gallon sized can instead of several smaller cans if there are enough people to eat it all. Beans of all types, canned fruit, mayonnaise, salad dressing, ketchup, BBQ sauce, and pancake mix are commonly available in this isle. Also in the fruit section of the store, you can get prepackaged bags of fruit such as oranges and apples which will end up being cheaper than picking out individual pieces of fruit from the bins.

If you are planning to eat the product on the same day you buy it, a lot of stores will have a rack of items such as baked goods that are near expiration, but still good for another day or two. These are a great way to get a product at about half price. For the most part, it is baked goods like French bread, cookies, cakes, and pies that end up on this rack. Also, some stores will mark down deli items like prepared salads, deli sandwiches, and baked chickens near the end of the day rather than throwing them away. While these items may have been sitting for a few hours, they are all still good and safe to eat, otherwise the stores would not be allowed to sell them.

Save on Fuel

Gasoline is another significant expense in the lives of everyday people but is also an expense that is easily reduced. Placing a notepad near your refrigerator and writing down a shopping list instead of driving to the store every few days is an excellent way to save on gasoline. I try to only go to the store twice a month, which significantly reduces the amount of gas I have to purchase. Also, with the fluctuating cost of gasoline, some people are buying several 5-gallon gas containers, and filling them up while gas prices are low. This allows you to take from this supply when gas prices are high, and refill them when prices are low. Gas containers will quickly pay for themselves in savings at the pump, but all proper safety and storage precautions must be obeyed.

Save on Your Heating & Air Conditioning

For those who live in a larger home with unused rooms, a great way to save on heating and cooling costs is to block off the rooms that you are not using. Taking even one room and using it for the storage of items that are not temperature sensitive can save you a bundle. Closing off the vents to the room, and placing a rolled up towel at the bottom of the door will save you from having to heat and cool the room. Even one room sealed in this manner will leave a noticeable impact on your monthly heating a cooling bill, just as long as you do not seal off the room that has the thermostat.

Bundle Your Utilities & Save

Internet, phone, and subscription television services are another place where money can be saved. Most telecom companies start you off with promotional pricing, and will later raise your rates to the standard price after the promotional period. Very few people know that at the end of this promotional period, you can call and get enrolled in a new discount if you are willing to commit for another year. These are not the only discounts you can receive. You can also bundle these services, and the price of each will go down. Some companies will even offer a further discount if you sign up for automatic payments and allow them to automatically draft the amount due from your bank account on a set day, instead of you sending them a check each month. Just signing up for automatic payments can lead to a savings of over one hundred dollars a year.

If a person is willing to think, read the fine print, spend a little bit of time, and apply some elbow grease, a lot of money can be saved, and your monthly expenses can be drastically reduced.