Guest Post – Have Fun While Saving in the Home

This is a featured guest post which revolves around saving money in the home, and how to go about it.  There are some fun elements involved, and getting the whole family to help seems to be a good way of helping everyone appreciate the value of money.

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Have Fun While Saving in the Home

Saving money doesn’t have to be a drag. There are lots of things you can do around the house that save money and are fun, too.

One of the easiest ways to save money is to use comparison websites to find the lowest prices on a whole host of things, including credit cards, mortgages, cable and phone rates and insurance. To make this saving activity fun, get the whole family involved.

For example, if you want to do a comparison on home and contents insurance, have each member of the family — assuming they are old enough — do a search using a comparison site. Award a prize to the person who comes up with the best deal on home and contents insurance.

You can do this same activity with just about anything on which you are trying to save money. You and your family can search price comparison sites for the best prices on other types of insurance, too, such as auto and life. If you are looking to refinance your mortgage, you can search price comparison sites to find the best rate and lowest fees. You can also use price comparison sites to find a top credit card balance transfer offer to consolidate your debt.

Another way to save in the home and still have fun is to have a family movie night. If you stay home and rent a movie or use a movie streaming service, you can save a lot of money compared to going to a movie at the theater. Renting a movie costs less than one ticket to the theater, and it’s much cheaper to make your own popcorn than to buy it at the movies.

If movies aren’t really your thing, you can have a family game night. Play cards or a board game, and then offer prizes for the champion.

To save money on family dinners, cook at home instead of going out to eat. You can make this fun by involving the whole family in preparing the meal. Experiment with new dishes and desserts, and let your kids make up their own. One way to do this is to have each member of the family choose one course of the meal and then help in preparing that meal.

You can get the whole family in the act to save money on your grocery budget as well. Have everyone get online and go to coupon sites to see how many coupons they can find for things you need. You also can assign family members to check out the websites of the supermarkets in your area to find the best deals. Again, make it a contest and award prizes to the winner to make things fun.