25 ways to save money and bargain shop in small towns and rural areas: part 3
I read tons of great blogs that tell you how to save money and coupon at stores in big cities. These deals are great, but what if you live in a place where none of these deals exist? How do you save money and bargain shop when you DON’T live in a big city?
Even if you live in the middle of nowhere like we do (100+ miles from any “city” of 20,000 or more), it is possible to save money and bargain shop.
- This is part 3 in a series explaining super easy ways to save money and “coupon in the country”: (and yes, you can still use these tips if you live in a city, lol).
- You can read the rest of the series here.
11) Line dry (air dry) your laundry year round, even during winter. You can see pictures of how we do this here. We save at least $30 a month doing this, and some months more than that.
12) Shop at thrift stores and consignment stores. Many small towns have these. You can often find brand new merchandise in these stores. If you have an aversion to thrift stores, you need to overcome this! The savings you can get in these stores are unbelievable. Offer to volunteer in your local thrift store. Volunteers sometimes get first dibs on merchandise that comes in!
13) Buy meat at local meat markets or butchers. You can often get good deals on whole slabs of meat this way. You may have to do more cutting and/or cleaning, but the savings can be tremendous. Plus, the meat is not watered down like it often is at larger chain grocery stores. (Grocery stores have been known to add water to products like ground beef to increase the overall weight of the product, meaning you pay more, but get less meat!)
14) Plan ahead! Plan your meals, plan your activities, plan, plan, plan! You will be surprised at how much money you waste simply by failing to plan.
Example: If you are preparing supper and are missing an ingredient, and you have to run to the store at the last minute… not only will you NOT get a sale price on whatever you need, you will waste gas running to the store. And the farther you live from the store, the more expensive this gets!
Use your local grocery store ad to plan your future meals. Utilize sale items in your cooking whenever possible. Also, bulk cooking/once a month cooking can help you plan and organize your meals.
As part of your planning, look online for local free family activities. Plan them months ahead on your calendar so you won’t forget about them.
15) Sign up for all the free samples you can get. If you won’t use the free sample but know someone who can, sign up for it and give it to him or her. You will make that person’s day! We will keep you updated on the best free samples we find.
- Check out all our current freebie links here.
We have more great tips to share with you, and we will include the other 10 tips for saving money and bargain shopping in future articles in this series. Parts 1 and 2 of the series are here. If you like this series, please share it with your friends and family!
Be sure to subscribe to our free blog updates so you don’t miss the rest of this series!
- We would also love to hear from any of you that live in small towns or rural areas. How do YOU bargain shop and save money? Post a comment or send us an email at momma AT gmx DOT com to let us know!