As I'm sure you have probably realized, I love to try and help my family to save money when I can. Here are 15 things I don't buy right now that saves us money. I know that everyone has different things that they would like to cut from their budget and different things that they would definitely like to keep in their budget. Each family is unique and can bring different ideas of frugality into their homes.
I thought it would be fun to share a list of items I am not buying and hope you will share some of yours too. Some items we used to buy and some we have never bought. We may again in the future but for now we are saving the money that we would have been spending on them. Cha-ching!!
- Home items
- Food and beverage items
- Miscellaneous items
Home items
1. Indoor plants
I do find plants to be pretty but I do not have a green thumb. As for fake plants, I am holding off on having those extra items to dust right now.
2. Travel size items
I do think these come in handy. But there have been several times I have bought them and thought to myself, I can pay for a much larger size of this product for not much more than I'm paying for the travel size.
Something I will do sometimes is go to the dollar store and buy a pack of empty travel size bottles. I will then fill them with what we already have and them reuse them again in the future.
3.Toys
Our children have outgrown toys. So this one is an easy one for us. Although from time to time we do buy toys for birthday gifts for our younger nieces and nephews.
4. Records
I know that records made a comeback not too long ago. We have a record player and did buy some records. But with all of the technology that we have to be able to listen to music on we are saving money by not buying records.
5. CDs
We have definitely racked up a very nice collection of CDs from throughout the years. But we do not buy any more at this time. As mentioned in number four all of the technology we have to be able to listen to music on we do not purchase anymore records.
Although some of these items we may purchase again one day, we are saving money now by not.

Food and beverage items
6. Precut fruits and vegetables..
At this time I am not purchasing pre-cut fruits and vegetables. I do realize that it can be a time saver but I am choosing to buy whole pieces of fruit and cutting it up myself
7. Coffee
I do not drink coffee. I have never been a coffee drinker nor has husband, so this is an easy one for us as well. Although from time to time we do treat the girls and my husband to a fancy type of coffee. I am perfectly content with a lemonade.
8. Multiple items from multiple grocery trips per week.
The majority of the time I go to the grocery store one time per week. In the past I would go multiple times even for just one item sometimes. But more times than not I would walk out with several things. I realized I was wasting so much money by doing that.
9. Lunches out
I am not buying lunch out right now. I am eating leftovers and packing other simple lunches each day. Not only has it been saving some money but also has been healthier as well.
10. My pop in the morning.
I no longer stop and buy a pop at a gas station or fast food restaurant in the morning. This simple thing I enjoyed but wanted to stop to not only save some money but switched to water.
11. Prepackaged chips
I definitely think prepackage chips is convenient. But it is a money saver when I buy a couple of bags and portions them out.
12. Premade dips
I actually have found that I enjoy making some dips such as spinach dip for example, much better than buying them pre-made.
Miscellaneous items
13. Newspapers
I used to love love getting newspaper. To me there is just something about having it to read and look through the ads. That's our monthly subscription continue to rise we opted to stop subscribing to it.
it is definitely nice that we can look plus things up online such as the grocery store circulars.
14. Magazine subscriptions
I do enjoy reading some magazines. But I do not by subscriptions at this time. I was gifted a subscription for a Christmas gift and that is nice to enjoy.
15. Majority of name brand items
I no longer buy the majority of things all name brand. For some reason I got into a habit of purchasing lots of name brands. Now there are some that I still prefer for example jeans. Because I like the way they fit as opposed to some other brands. But I have found that so many things that are non name brand items are just as good of quality as the name brand items.
Conclusion
By cutting back on these items it has been actually kind of exciting to see the extra money we have saved. I know that I have personally thought before that just cutting out a couple things wouldn't save much money until I actually started trying it. Knowing that it was not something I was permanently cutting out helped it not to be too hard to stop buying them.
These are items that our family has chosen to stop buying for the time being. Yours may be different and I would love to hear some of your ideas as well. Please share with us in the comment section.
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