Penny-Pinching Moms Share Money-Saving Secrets - East Idaho News
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Penny-Pinching Moms Share Money-Saving Secrets

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GETTY 11314 Wallet?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1389630047401pkstock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Meet Crystal Paine, an author, mother of three and blogger who became famous for saving lots of money.

“We lived on $17 to $35 dollars a week for our grocery bill and because of that we were able to pay cash for law school,” Paine said of husband Jesse’s law training.

“We were able to buy our first house with cash,” added Paine, whose penny-pinching methods have earned her a following on Pinterest.

She also shares her expertise on her blog moneysavingmom.com.

With a tight food budget, Paine said she has found ways to save big on time and money by using freezer cooking, preparing several meals in advance, freezing them and simply thawing them as needed.

“We save about $15 every single week from using freezer-cooking, and that adds up to $780 a year,” she said.

She also plans her meals using sites such as allrecipes.com “You can type in what ingredients you already have on hand and it will generate a list of recipes,” she said. “We found that this saves us twenty to thirty 30 dollars every single week. That’s like $1,300 every year.”

And to save on costly monthly gym membership, Paine gets fitness tips on Pinterest and tracks her progress on SparkPeople.com.

Another super-saving mom is Tracie Fobes, whose frugal ways got her family out of $37,000 in debt in about two years. She also uses Pinterest to get money-saving ideas, including swapping children’s clothing.

“It’s a great way to clean out your closet and come home with new clothes that cost you literally nothing,” Fobes, who runs the blog pennypinchinmom.com, told ABC’s Good Morning America.

She anticipates that she’ll save at least $1,000 this year.

Fobes also saves by purchasing through Swag Bucks. “When you purchase through Swag Bucks, you earn Swag Bucks for every dollar spent,” she said.

Fobes cashed in her Swag Bucks to get her daughter a bike, for free.

“Just from the tips of Pinterest we can save well over $2,000 a year just for our family of five,” she said.

Copyright 2014 ABC News Radio

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