Small changes can mean big savings

At some point most of us have all come to a place where we found ourselves needing to watch our spending.  So we find little tricks to help us trim the fat off our budget.  Have you ever stopped to think about how much those tricks help you save?  You might surprise yourself as to how much you are helping yourself out in the long run.  What may seem like only fifty cents in savings can end up being so much more at the end of the year.

This year I aggressively took on our grocery budget to try and reduce what felt had become a very unnecessarily large spending hole for us.  While there were some big changes I made there were smaller changes that had just as big of an impact.  One of the big budget killers that I started to notice was buying drinks.  You don't really think about it because it doesn't seem like much; buying a drink at the gas station for a road trip or Chris buying a drink at work, but I think if I actually figured out the total cost it would be embarrassing.  I think if people actually sat themselves down and totaled it up they would find that the few dollars here and few dollars there adds up to a whole lot more then they bargained for.  So one of my small change was to start making our own take away drinks.

Now Chris and I don't drink much soda however we do enjoy drinks like Snapple's Ice Tea and other juices. So I started saving our bottles so that I could make my own brews.  I like to  alternate my drink choices between an assortment of teas and juices, like Ribena or some homemade black ice tea with a splash of peach juice or my favorite White Ginger Pear.  My savings varies on the type of beverage but it works out to cost me an average of .05 cents a bottle to make.  Saving $2 a bottle might seem like a small amount saved but over time I have estimated that we are saving at least $50 dollars a month, which works out to be $600 a year.  Not too shabby if I do say so myself.

So I want to know, what small change have you made in your budget that is saving you a more in the end?  Share with me some of your saving tricks have made an impact for you and maybe it can help others.