Trim Your Budget with These Free and Reduced Cost Items

In the middle of a recession people are trying to find any way they can to cut their budgets while still maintaining some measure of the lifestyle they enjoy. This means finding new places to get the things you need and want for less money. Fortunately, there are a number of places where you can do just that to get everything from food to movie rentals free or at a cost that is significantly less than your standard retail store.

Free or Reduced Cost Category #1: Food

For many families the monthly grocery bill is the second highest bill behind the mortgage. Many earn too much to qualify for government commodities programs but still struggle to keep up with rising grocery prices. There are a number of ways to reduce this expense with exploration of community resources and online offers.

Angel Food Ministries: Founded in 1994, Angel Food Ministries is a non-denominational organization that provides reduced cost food to families on a monthly basis. There is no income qualification to receive Angel Food, although they do participate in the food stamp program to provide low income people with a method to pay. A regular Angel Food Ministries box contains $50 to $75 worth of food for $30. The regular box contains approximately enough food to feed a family of four for one week. Multiple regular boxes may be purchased. Additionally, Angel Food Ministries offers a number of "specialty" boxes for purchase in addition to the regular box. These contain a variety of meats, vegetables, or sides and range from $20 to $40. The food is all good quality and tasty. To view the current menu and find a distribution point in your area, go to http://www.angelfoodministries.com.

Discount Grocers: Discount grocers like Aldi, United Grocery Outlet, and Big Lots purchase overstock or surplus food from manufacturers and sell it at a price that is drastically reduced. Often you can find the same name brand items that stock the shelves of Kroger or Publix but for much less. One drawback to these stores is that their stock is often limited to what they can get at a discount so it is difficult to depend on them to provide for all your grocery needs. Additionally, many of these stores are very "no frills", requiring customers to bag their own groceries or even charging them a refundable quarter to "check out" a grocery cart. But for many who struggle with high grocery bills, these are minor obstacles.

Free Samples: Many manufacturers of non-perishable foods have a place on their website to sign up for free samples. This is an excellent way to "try before you buy". There are a number of websites and blogs dedicated to finding and publishing links to manufacturers that offer free samples of their products. These include http://www.freesamplesblog.com and http://www.coolfreebielinks.com

Restaurant.com: Many families find eating out a luxury that they can't afford in a shrinking economy. The website http://www.restaurant.com offers help by giving $25 gift cards to select restaurants for $10. While most major restaurant chains do not participate with the site, this is sometimes a good thing as it allows you to explore local independent restaurants in your area that you may not have known about. One downside to this site is that most of the cards require a $35 purchase to use the $25 card but this still makes a $35 meal cost $20. Restaurant.com periodically runs sales with as much as 80% off, making a $25 gift card cost $2. Sign up for a membership on their website to receive e-mail notification of these offers.

Free or Reduced Cost Category #2: Entertainment

During a downturn in the economy, many families have to reduce or cut out their entertainment budget completely. This leads to boredom and unhappiness. Fortunately, there are a number of free or low cost entertainment options that are only a mouse click away.

Redbox: You've probably seen the big red movie boxes standing outside of McDonalds or Wal-Mart, but you might not have known that they are a prime source for free movies. If you have unlimited text messaging on your phone, you can sign up for Redbox's text message alerts on http://www.redbox.com. Every Monday, Redbox delivers a code good for a free movie rental on Monday nights. Be careful though. Redbox still requires a credit card to utilize the code and if you do not return the movie by the Tuesday due date, you will be charged for an additional day. But if you can move your weekly movie night to Monday and be responsible with your returns, Redbox is a good source of free entertainment.

Netflix: Netflix is the pioneer in online movie rentals. If you have a Netflix account, you may have noticed that some of your queue movies have a "watch instantly" button. These movies are a part of Netflix's growing instant watch queue. The cost of your Netflix membership covers being able to watch an unlimited number of these instant movies without affecting your rentals. Instant movies can be watched on your PC, through a set top box that can be ordered from Netflix, or by customers with an Xbox Live Gold account. Netflix plans start at $8.99 a month for the plans that allow free instant movies.

Emusic: http://www.emusic.com is the largest online retailer of independent music and has thousands of albums in stock. While Emusic's selection is not as large as retailers like Apple's Itunes, Emusic does offer two advantages. They are much lower in cost than Itunes, with monthly plans ranging from $11.99 a month for 30 songs to $19.99 for 75 songs. Also, Emusic's songs are all in high quality mp3 format and are completely free of digital rights management, meaning you can burn them, transfer them, or do with them what you will. Emusic has a trial that allows the user to download 50 free songs with no obligation to purchase.

Internet Archive: If you are a fan of live bootlegs, you may want to check out the Internet Archive's Live Music Archive at http://www.archive.org/details/etree. This site collects thousands of concerts by tape-friendly bands such as The Grateful Dead, My Morning Jacket, and Yonder Mountain String Band. These are typically audience recordings so the audio quality is sometimes hit or miss but if you didn't get to make it to that My Morning Jacket show in New York or want to hear The Grateful Dead play Vanderbilt in 1976, this site may be right up your alley. All downloads are completely free and The Internet Archive strives to only carry music by bands that allow or encourage live taping.