Frugal Swaps That Save Us Over $1000 a Year

Añadido: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]Hello everyone. This is MoneyMom.

[00:00:02]Welcome to the channel. Today I want to chat with you guys about some frugal swaps that saves our family significant amounts of money. The first one I'm going to estimate, guesstimate, saves me at least $1,200 a year and I've mentioned it on so many videos, but I'm going to keep mentioning it. You all know that I love to read. I do have my other YouTube channel, Plot Chronicles.

[00:00:24]My favorite type of book is thrillers, mysteries, and historical fiction. But, I don't generally buy fiction books. I take them out from the library and I have the Libby app on my phone and I actually have more than one library on here. Now, I don't know how much a brand new book costs, okay? It's going to depend on the book and a lot of factors.

[00:00:44]But, on the average I read about 10 books a month. Half of them are audio, half of them I read. So, we'll say they cost $10 each. That would save me about $1,200 a year from buying books if I were going to buy them at the store.

[00:00:58]That's a significant savings. I generally don't buy books unless it's a keepsake book. The second thing I do to save money and I can't really show it is I've been getting into making mock recipes. I made some mock crumble cookies. Now, I'll be honest, the crumble cookies are better than my mock cookies. But, if you don't want to spend the money or it's not in your budget to buy maybe something that's kind of expensive, let's say it's a favorite dish at a restaurant, but you just don't have it in your budget to go to the restaurant, you can make a mock recipe.

[00:01:27]It might not be exactly the same, but it might be pretty good. So, why not try it? Look up mock recipes of your favorite foods. Okay, the number The third one is that I use water a lot and I put it in this jug and I keep it cold and that way I always have cold water on hand and you know, I don't I don't mind drinking tap water, but I do like it to be cooler, so I do keep it in the refrigerator, okay? The next thing that I use and most of them are in the car, by the way, so that they're there. We do we keep reusable bags in the car.

[00:02:00]They're better for the environment than plastic bags. Now, I do keep plastic bags at the house for a couple things if we need them, but [snorts] when we go grocery shopping, we generally use these and we keep a bunch of them in the back seat, so we always have them ready to go. Next thing, I've had these for years, dryer balls. I use these and it definitely it it I'll it really does help with less drying time. I used to have to run my dryer a couple times.

[00:02:25]Now, I just have to run them once, but using these dryer balls really help save on drying less time and also from buying dryer sheets. So, that really helps.

[00:02:36]Another thing, as you many of you know that have been with me for a minute, I meal prep. I use reusable containers.

[00:02:43]Wash them and reuse them. That really helps. I do eventually want to go to glass, but right now I'm not doing that.

[00:02:50]I'm just using what I have and so using these reusable containers helps. Okay, I do like candles, but one of the things I'm doing is I bought one of these rechargeable lighters that you just have to plug in and it lights and so I just have to make sure it's charged before I use the candle and so this really saves money rather than keep buying these lighters and I can it during the wintertime I could go through tons of those things.

[00:03:18]So, this really saves money having this.

[00:03:22]Another thing, buying store brand. I found these store brand pretzels at Aldi, honey mustard, and the national brand was $6.79.

[00:03:32]I don't remember the exact price of these. I think they were about 354. They taste identical to the national brand.

[00:03:39]So, that made a big difference right there. Another thing is I use reusable dust cloths and that really helps rather than using paper towels. That makes a difference. I also use LED light bulbs and I rarely ever have to change a light bulb. I keep these stocked up, so that really helps. And another thing, last but not least, this is probably one of my favorites. These are reusable cooking baking sheets. Rather than having to use tons of parchment paper and I would go through it a lot, I use these. All I have to do is wash them up. I've had these for years and I really love them and that has saved me quite a bit of money. Probably the one that saved me the most money is going to be the books. The Libby app has saved me more money than all of these. Oh, another thing, if I don't want to buy a drink when I'm out with a friend, I fill this with ice water and I might put some flavoring in it and I'll bring a thermos with me so that I have cold water with me cuz I get thirsty when I go out and when get together with friends and go shopping. So, these are some of the swaps I have. What are some swaps you use to save money? I want to hear from you in the comments below. That's all I have to say for now. Love you, appreciate you. Hope to see you on the next video. Bye everybody.