How a Young Lady can Save Her Family Over a Thousand Dollars a Year

Hanging Clothes On the Line
      According to my research it costs $0.50 to run the average dryer. Let's say we run 2 loads of laundry a day, that would save $30 a month! That would be $360 a year! That's a big chunk of change!
Summary
Month: $30
Year: $360

Washing Freezer Bags,
     Ok, this sounds a little weird, but hear me out. For the Great Value Cheapo Walmart Brand Bags it costs $5 a box. If we by 3 boxes a month between quart and gallon,. that's $15 a month, $180 a year! We wash our freezer bags, and a wonderful friend of mine showed me to hang them on a refrigerator magnet to dry. (Thanks Sarah!) Quick and easy, with a significant savings!
 Summary
Month: $15
Year: $180

Couponing
     I got REALLY into couponing a few years ago, and do you know what I found out? More often than not I ended up spending more money than I did without the coupons. Seeing good coupon deals made me buy things that I wouldn't have normally purchased, not to mention it gave me the desire to run to the store when we weren't going. I finally found a middle between becoming the next "extreme couponer" and not couponing at all. I started checking the coupon deals the day before I went to the store, but I didn't otherwise. I check Krazy Coupon Lady for the freebies, and I scroll through Swagbucks coupons (It shows the same coupons as coupons.com, but you get 10 Swagbucks for each coupon you use) for things my mom was going to buy anyway. We normally save about $10 a month. That would be $120 a year.
Summary
Month: $10
Year: $120

Teaching Lessons
     This is one my mom suggested. I think of this as applying specifically to music lessons. Do you play an instrument that your younger siblings are learning how to play? You could offer to teach them lessons and save your family a lot of money. It's good experience for you and you save some money while doing it. Win, win! There are other things this goes for too. Do you crochet, or sew? Are you good at math, history, spelling? While your parents may not normally pay for these other kinds of lessons, they would be extremely valuable skills for you to pass on. For all practical purposes, I am going to count lessons at $10 a week, which would be $40 a month and $480 a year!
Summary:
Month: $40
Year: $480

There are so many more things you can do to save your family money! My goal in this post was to only talk about things that were easily measurable, things that were easy to see how much money you are saving, and I tried to stick to that.
 The most important thing you can do to save your family money is controlling your desires and encouraging your siblings to do the same. Our parents want to buy the things that we want. By not expressing a desire to have the things we see we can take a load off of our parents. Other things you can do to save your family money include, gardening, baking, making cleaners and personal care products, thrift shopping, clearance shopping, making gifts, and SO many others!
 How do you save your family money? I would LOVE to hear about it!