So today I'm going to share with you 20 things I don't buy in order to save money.

Hi everybody, my name is Sarah.

Thank you so much for being here today.

If you don't know me, I am the owner of FrozenPennies.com.

I'm a financial coach and as a family we are debt free.

So here are my things.

Here's my list of 20 things that I don't buy in order to save us a little bit of money.

At this point they've become kind of habits for us.

And even though there are a few things on this list that my husband shakes his head at, we stick to our list.

Number one, paper napkins.

I never buy paper napkins.

I have some downstairs in the bin for picnics and stuff that somebody brought years ago that we still haven't finished up.

But we'd rather use cloth napkins.

I like them better.

I like that I can just throw them in the washing machine.

And they're super soft and not wasteful.

Number two, bottled water, soda and juice.

We don't buy any of those things.

We don't buy bottled water.

We have a Brita water filter that we like just fine for water.

As well as the water in our area really does taste pretty good.

We don't drink a lot of soda in our home.

We do actually still have some soda left over from last summer's anniversary party.

But we haven't, it's been almost a year and we still haven't used it up.

We also don't buy juice.

We just don't drink it.

I mean if it's here, my boys will drink it.

But if I don't buy it, they don't even ask for it.

It's just not worth the cost.

Number three, those meal kits.

Those meal kits that you get delivered to your house, everything is cold, they give you all of the ingredients to cook the meals.

We don't buy those.

I've tried them a couple of times and even though they're fun, I think that they're more expensive and more work.

A lot of steps, a lot of ingredients, and a lot of time.

There's no way that they actually take less than 30 minutes to cook.

There's no way.

It's not worth it.

Number four, new cars.

I bought a new car once.

One time in my 50 years of being alive, in my 34 years of being able to drive, I've purchased a new car one time when I was in college.

It was a Hyundai Accel when they first came out.

It was super cheap.

It didn't even have a radio.

Brand new.

We had to purchase the radio. $165 a month payment.

I was out of college.

I was working.

And it was the last time I bought a new car because I realized that it just wasn't worth the money.

Number five, lotto tickets.

I know people who buy lotto tickets every single week, sometimes multiple times a week.

It's their hobby.

But to me, what a gamble and a waste of money.

It's just not worth it.

In the same lines, also going to casinos.

I can't imagine dropping $100 or more into a machine hoping that maybe you might win it back.

It's just not my thing.

I'd rather take that $100 and go out to a nice dinner or buy a stack of books.

Number six, extended warranties.

Now the reason that I just don't normally purchase these extended warranties is because my husband is extremely talented.

I am pretty sure the man can fix or repair anything.

So for us to spend an extra percentage on an extended warranty on, say, the dryer or the washer or vehicles really just doesn't work for us.

He's pretty much able to fix it.

Number seven, single serve pretty much anything.

This comes down to single serve soups, single serve snacks and single serve drinks.

It's expensive to purchase those single serves.

We don't buy them on a regular basis.

We just don't buy them.

Now there have been times where we, for example, go on vacation or go camping and we need some snacks for the vehicle.

We may very well buy the single serves because they're just easier and they stay fresher longer.

But on the daily, no single serve anything.

Number eight, special care clothes.

Now I'm talking about the kind of clothes that need special care.

Dry cleaning, hand washing.

No, thank you.

It's too much maintenance for me.

I'm a very low maintenance kind of gal.

And when something needs to be dry cleaned, that means I have to take it to the dry cleaner, drop it off, pay for it to get cleaned, then go back, pick it up and bring it home.

And then you wear it another time and you have to do it all over again.

It's just too much work.

I'm not interested.

Number nine, haircuts, spa days, mani pedis, hair coloring, all of those things that are many times considered self care.

Those are things I just don't spend money on.

Now, maybe once a year I'll go get my haircut.

I'm actually considering cutting it short for the summer, but I'm not sure.

Most of the time I just trim my own and I'm OK with it.

And I know that sometimes it's just nice to treat yourself and I totally get that.

But to go and spend $40, $60, $80 every month, every six weeks to get all of those things done just doesn't interest me.

It's just too much money.

There are other things that I'd rather spend my money on.

Number ten, new clothes.

Rarely do I buy new clothes for myself.

I would so much rather spend the money at a thrift shop getting higher quality clothes for lower prices than, say, go to Kohl's and buy brand new clothes.

Rarely do I do that anymore.

There was a time when I was spending a lot of money on brand new clothes at Kohl's and JCPenney.

But honestly, once I discovered the really amazing thrift stores near my mom, gone are those days.

Gone are the days where I'm going to spend my money on new clothes.

I can actually get more clothes at the thrift store for the same budgeted amount as I could buy new clothes.

To me, it's a much bigger win.

Number eleven, plastic anything.

Plastic containers, plastic wrap, plastic toys.

Honestly, I don't buy the plastic containers and I don't buy plastic wrap.

I don't even own those.

For food storage, I rather store in glass.

Even sending food back and forth to my son's day program, I use glass or metal over and over and over again.

I've had these same containers for a very long time and they still work beautifully.

Plastic wrap, I don't use it.

I would rather get the container lids that go with the glass containers that I have instead of wrapping something with plastic.

If I need to wrap something that's different or odd, I'd rather use aluminum foil.

And the same goes for plastic toys.

We have two wonderfully gorgeous grandchildren and I would rather get them wooden toys than the plastic cheap throwaway type toys that are all over the internet.

Good quality toys that they can play for and pass down from generation to generation or siblings to siblings.

Even turn around and sell online for a better price than the cheap plastic toys.

It is definitely my favorite way to spend money on my grandkids.

Number 12, jewelry.

I'm a very low maintenance jewelry person.

I have a couple pair of earrings.

Normally you'll see my little gold hoops.

These are my little diamond earrings from QVC.

I have my ring, my wedding ring that I wear.

I have a necklace.

I have two different necklaces.

This one I got from my friend Lisa for my 50th birthday.

It's a little compass.

Isn't that super cute?

So I've been wearing that lately.

And that's about it.

That's all I have.

I don't have any other jewelry.

I have a couple of necklaces that I like to wear when I go out to eat.

I may, who am I kidding, I never change my earrings.

I'll probably put the gold hoops back in that you see me wearing most of the time.

I'll probably put those back in soon.

But that's it.

That's all I like to wear.

I don't buy costume jewelry.

I love a couple of really good quality pieces and that's all I need.

Number 13, purses.

There was a time in my life where I was really into designer purses.

Even if that means spending less by going to the outlet stores near me to get the designer Michael Kors or Coach or Kate Spade purses, I'm all done with that.

I have a couple of nice purses that I can use if I want to go out.

But really, that's it.

The purse that I wear now is like a sling bag, like a little messenger bag that I paid $15 for on Amazon.

And it works great.

Oh, I have another cute little black mini backpack purse that I use often, especially when we go on vacation.

And that's it.

Those are my purses.

I'm not into the entire pretty Coach Michael Kors handbags anymore.

They're really heavy.

Number 14, cable.

We haven't had cable in years.

There's absolutely positively no reason to spend that amount of money on entertainment every evening.

There are so many options for free or cheap ways to watch TV.

You don't need to spend money on cable.

We will never go back to cable.

Number 15, makeup or those subscription beauty boxes.

I am not a very makeup-y, girly girl.

I never have been.

Well, there was a time when I was wearing more makeup, but now as I get older, very minimal makeup, little lipstick, little eyeliner.

That's about it.

That's all I got, little concealer because I'm a woman of a certain age.

But really, that's just it.

There's no reason for me to spend hundreds of dollars on makeup anymore.

I like who I am, and I'm okay with what I look like.

And number 16, auto subscriptions.

Now, because we're Amazon Prime member, we're eligible for auto subscriptions.

This means that every single month on a specific time of the month, they will auto send you whatever it is you might need.

A lot of people do this with vitamins.

We were doing it for a while with my son's protein powder because every morning he has a protein powder at program to give him a little extra protein.

So this was happening every month, and I found that there are just some days when we weren't using the protein powder so we'd end up with an overabundance of protein powder, and we weren't using it fast enough.

So stopping the auto subscription on that protein powder has actually saved us some money because we didn't need to purchase it for a good stretch at a time so we could use that up.

Number 17, I don't buy decorations anymore.

I really like the way that our house looks.

I've got it decorated pretty nicely.

There may be a time in a few years down the road where my tastes have changed or the decorations that I have are just too dated and I'd like a nice update.

But for right now, I'm just not buying decorations for my home anymore.

Minimalism is the better option for me.

Number 18, alcohol.

I don't drink.

I'm not a drinker, so rarely am I buying alcohol.

We may purchase it for a gift.

We may purchase it if we run out of something in its summertime, but I don't buy alcohol.

Number 19, memberships.

Memberships to anything.

Memberships to zoos or clubs or gyms.

Any of those things.

We don't have memberships.

We don't have any memberships whatsoever.

We did for a short period of time have a membership to a camping site that could help you get into campsites when they've been booked.

It kind of is an AI, artificial intelligence type thing, that will scan the website of the campsite for you.

So if a cancellation happens, it books it automatically.

But that was a very short-term membership for a specific time period for travel, and we've canceled that.

We won't get that again unless we start traveling again next winter.

It's a possibility, but for the most part, I don't buy memberships.

And 20, oil changes.

We don't buy oil changes.

My husband, as I mentioned, is very smart and very talented and completely capable of changing our oil in our vehicles.

This actually goes for many other things when it comes to car care.

Brakes.

My husband changes the brakes.

If anything needs to be fixed, my husband more than likely will know how to fix that too.

It's kind of a hobby of his.

He and my youngest son are restoring a Trans Am that my aunt sold to my youngest.

It's a hobby.

It's a bonding thing that they have.

They work together, and they do a great job.

That way, we don't have to spend the money on them.

Thank you so much for being here, everybody.