My wife and I are always in a constant state of debate when it comes to purchasing things! Neither of us wants to spend a ton of money, but we both have our weaknesses!
I would say that I’m a foodie and don’t care how much we spend as long as the food tastes good (bad I know!). My wife would drain our bank account dry over craft supplies – she’s an aspiring paper craft blogger and self-proclaimed enthusiast.
Despite our quirks, there is something we both can agree upon. We both love quality products that last and will save us money. Here’s a list of our favorite purchases that save us a lot of money.
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Instant Pot
I thought my wife was crazy the first time she told me she wanted an instant pot. Pressure cookers have a bad reputation for exploding! It’s like putting a bomb in your house and who wants to pay money for that?
Apparently, my wife, that’s who. I dreaded the thought of scrapping dinner off the ceiling when my wife finally got one, but it ended up saving us about $100 a month on groceries. You can even get pressure cooker accessories, which makes cooking more enjoyable.
I still think she’s crazy, but there are a ton of great instant pot recipes, and it can make a fair share of leftovers. I would say it was worth the money we paid for it.
Crock Pot
Just like the instant pot, crock pots are another great way to cook in bulk. I prefer the instant pot over our crock pot primarily because the instant pot cooks food much faster.
The crock pot does come in handy, and I feel that both the crock pot and instant pot are great tools in any batch cookers arsenal. There’s always a good cookbook to find on slow cookers and not to mention all the recipes on Pinterest.
Vacuum Sealer
With batch cooking, there is always a ton of food left over. I don’t know about you, but my wife and I can’t eat the same meal for dinner five days a week. Well, we could, but one of us gets a little cranky if there isn’t any variety in our diet – hint: it’s not me!
To keep the peace, my wife and I decided a vacuum sealer would be a great investment. After we cook a large meal, part of it goes in the fridge to eat within a week, and the other part will get vacuum sealed and stored in our garage freezer for a rainy day.
Vacuum sealers are great at keeping food from spoiling for extended periods of time. My favorite part about vacuum sealing our food is that it saves us from going over our grocery budget.
Some months we spend more on groceries than others. If it looks like we might spend more money than we have saved, we can pull out an already cooked meal and live off of our supplies until we have more money saved up in groceries.
Financial Peace University
Early on in our relationship, my wife dragged me to a class our church was having on money management. I must say I wasn’t all that interested because I felt that I knew everything (I’m arrogant).
Attending the class was probably one of the best decisions of my life. My wife and I learned a lot about properly managing our money, setting aside money for emergencies, and investing.
Taking the course literally gives you financial peace. When my wife’s car had issues that cost about $700 to fix, we didn’t have to worry because the course got our budget into shape and we already had the money set aside knowing the cars would break down sooner or later.
Financial Peace University is a large part of how my wife and I were able to pay off 40% of our mortgage in 2 years. I would highly recommend every person take the course. It’s the stuff we should have learned in school but learned third order polynomials instead.
Stainless Steel Straws
My wife and I have a lot of smoothies. She’s a little bit of a health nut, and it’s a healthy blast of nutrition to start the day off right.
Every morning I would stroll into the kitchen, see my smoothie with a plastic straw and proclaim, “The fishies!” because of a recent conversation we had about plastic filling the ocean and killing the fish. I think she had enough of it (shall I say… the last straw – *giggles*) because two days later a package appeared from Amazon containing a stainless steel straw variety pack
The straws are great quality and are easily cleaned if rinsed after use. Now I don’t have to buy straws again, and I get to save the fishies!
People who want to save the fishies will click this..Click To TweetGreen Tea
I’m not normally a morning person despite having to wake up at 5 a.m. every morning for work. I love coffee, but green tea does have caffeine and has way better health benefits, especially the sugared down stuff you get from coffee shops. I usually get a 100 pack from Costco, and it’s relatively inexpensive.
Programmable Thermostat
Life is busy and remembering to turn down the thermostat every time you leave for work is a hassle. I can’t rely on myself to do something that can easily be automated and that is the beauty of a programmable thermostat.
You can make sure your house isn’t heated when you leave for work, have it kick on the heat a half hour before you leave from work, and have it adjust the temperature lower at bedtime if you’re like me and like it cool when you sleep. I like the idea of not wasting all that energy for the eight or more hours you’re at work.
Stainless Steel Water Bottle
Plastic water bottles are taking over! They get in the ocean (see stainless straws), they fall off the dump trucks, and leach toxins from the plastic into the water when heated. Not only does my stainless steel water bottle reduce my environmental impact, but allows me to save money by not buying plastic water bottles.
What’s your favorite purchase that ended up saving you money? I would love to hear about it in the comments below.
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TightFist Finance
John is the founder of TightFist Finance and an expert in the field of personal finance. John has studied personal finance for over 10 years and has used his knowledge to pay down debt, grow his investment portfolio, and launch a financial based business. He is committed to sharing content related to personal finance based on his experience in his career, investing, and path towards reaching financial independence.