I have five kids living in my house.  Three of them are teenagers.  The food consumption alone in this house is outrageous.  Our house is over one hundred years old.  The heating and cooling bill take a gigantic chunk of the pie every month.  And pie – well, if we want that, we can’t even share just one any longer – we need two!  This month my car needed a new oil sensor – whatever that really means.  Its gas guzzling capacity rivals that of my son’s cereal eating capacity.  Yesterday that car died in the parking lot of Wal-Mart.  It has since been revived but there are no guarantees it will keep running – it’s a rebel that way.

And.  I really like adventures.  I love trips.  Planning for them.  Driving across the country.  Visiting friends and family.  Trekking it north, west, south and east.  I like exploring and seeing new places and scratching off new states on the map hanging on our wall.

Do you see the problem, though?

Can you feel the tension?

I’ve written an earlier post about Ways to Afford Adventure When You’re Not Rich.  (Or something like that.)  There were (hopefully) helpful ways to cut the costs on the actual trips and to bring the prices down on the road and before you hit the road.

But even when you do all those things – take advantage of last minute deals, barter when you can, take car picnics, switch houses and use credit card points – at some point in time the deals don’t all apply and you need to come up with some extra cold hard cash.  (Why do we say that – cold? hard?)  Anyway, there comes a time when you need money.  Regular old money.

Here are a few tips and simple ways to save money.

1. Save all the cash you get.

Whenever I get ANY cash for ANYTHING, I save it.  I take it out of my wallet and I save it.  I put it in a different place where I don’t see it or come into contact with it and I don’t touch it or look at it until I need it.

For example, our community group ordered some books for a group book study recently.  We ordered six books at $5 each from Amazon.  I used my prime account to order the books so everyone paid their $5 to me.  I paid for the books right away but when the cash came into my hands at the next meeting, I saved it.  I put the $25 in its saving spot.

Since the bill for the books was already paid, this felt like an easy savings – it felt like “free” money even though it wasn’t.  It’s a little mind trick, I guess, but it’s one that works very well for me.

2. Sell stuff.

I don’t employ this method nearly as often as some people I know.  I probably should but I’ll confess, sometimes the hassle of meeting people to pick up and drop off the sold item is too tiresome to me and it’s just not worth the effort.  (Which is why I donate things to the local thrift store because I forget to ever actually get around to selling them.)

But YOU should try this.

If you have items with a bit of monetary value, sell those on a Facebook Yard Sale page or through IG or whatever works for you.  And when you get that cash – SAVE it.

3. Skip the grocery store trip one week.

I’m not advocating starving, obviously.  But you would be astounded at how much food is just sitting in your fridge and freezer and in your cabinets.  Food that just needs to be prepared and consumed.

Sometimes life circumstances cause us to miss our weekly grocery excursion and by mid-week, if we still somehow haven’t made the drive to the grocery store, it becomes a family challenge.  Can we make it to Sunday again without spending any money?  Without buying new food?

It’s pretty amazing actually at what can come out of your fridge when you thought you were out of groceries.  This works way better if you engage your kids in the process and draw them into the challenge – if you tell them why you are undertaking the No Grocery Trip choice and get them on board.  It becomes a game if you spin it right.  (Isn’t so much of parenting – and life – about perspective anyway?  The right sales pitch can make a huge difference here.)

When we know we are saving for a specific adventure, everyone can get on board with a lunch that looks like peanut butter and honey sandwiches served with half an apple, six grapes, a slice of cheese and two strawberries each!   Or a dinner of spaghetti with marinara and no meat sauce served with a side of green beans.  (Don’t we all have some extra pasta floating around in our cabinet?)

Whatever is in there, just make it work.  Again, I’m not talking about starving, but offering up a dinner of baked beans and cauliflower every once in a while never hurt anyone.

And that $100 plus grocery bill that you were spared that week?  Put that money into savings!

4.  Have your kids earn money to contribute.

A healthy team spirit goes a long way.  (And it’s worth creating and working for, because as a family you really are a team – winning and losing together.  Might as well keep that thought at the forefront.)

Over the years the kids have had various “businesses” and ideas to raise money.  Mosely has sold muffins.  London has baked scones.  Piper makes molasses cookies. There have been lemonade stands (one that was a wildly successful fluke!), hot cocoa stands, baby sitting, lawn mowing and even selling their own toys.

Too bad my dad doesn’t live at the family farm any longer.  He used to pay us a nickel for every rock we toted out of his fields.

5. Think about investing.

This money earned by kids can go both ways.  Sometimes it just goes into the big pot for a trip.  And sometimes it’s their own personal spending money on said adventure.  Often it’s a combination of both.

If you’re saving money for something farther into the future maybe some of that saved money can go into investing for a future larger return.

Now, this is not going to be for everyone, but it might be something that you want to consider. We’re sure that you have heard about the popularity of investing over the last couple of years, and it might be something that you want to try if you have a little bit of spare cash. It doesn’t have to be a lot to get started, but you can dip your toes in and see if it’s right for you. Do your research before you do this though, read articles by people like Daniel Lerner of David Lerner Associates and get yourself in the right mindspace. You could make quite a decent chunk of money from this if you keep focused!

What ideas have you found to save a little money for adventure?

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