Money-saving habits and tips

How is this related to running, you ask? More money leftover in the budget means more race fees!

1. Buy cheaper paper towel. Do you really need paper towel that can hold a bowling ball? Chance are, you don't. And if you are not using the paper towel for washing dishes, you don't need quintillion layered, super quilted, fairy dust coated paper towel.

But I do not recommend buying the cheapest, either. There is a nice midgrade range of paper towel (I personally love Aldi paper towel that comes in a three pack for $1.49). It will hold up to light counter scrubbing and cleans windows well, and functions as a great napkin, too.

2. Speaking of napkins.... Why not use your paper towel? Eliminate redundancies. Do you really need napkins? Two separate paper products when one can function for them both? I get it for special occasions. They look cute. But I would lean toward fabric reusable napkins for holidays anyway, which, if you buy (or make!!) in a solid color, can function well beyond a single holiday. Two sets of fabric napkins will work for every holiday- red for Valentine's Day, 4th of July, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, and green for St. Paddy's, Easter, Mardi Gras, and (since it often has the most) added to the red for Christmas.

Here's another bonus for paper towels: they don't blow away when you take the roll out to the patio for a cookout!

3. My personal favorite: buy in bulk.

My mom refuses to buy cheaper paper towel. Refuses. So what did I do today?

I showed her how she could save $14 by purchasing paper towel and toilet paper in large quantities- even with buying the expensive brands! By driving 10 minutes further to a big box store, she saved that much. Plus, as a bonus, there was an additional $5 coupon if you sent a text, so I showed her how to retrieve that, too. Yep, that means by purchasing in larger quantities she saved $19! Crazy. I have ran a few smaller 5ks for that price!

What is your favorite money-saving tip?

Cheapest race you've ran? Besides the free 5ks on base, I ran a race in Denver, Indiana for $12. That was with a soft cotton tee, too!