Here are several things we have done to save money:
(1) Only wash FULL loads of clothes and dishes ( I seen someone else is doing this too)
(2) Only run the central when needed. Which is not a lot right now, its nice out so were leaving our windows open and it helps freshen up the house too.
(3) We use steam to clean. We purchased a Shark Steamer and now are saving at least $10 a week on cleaners alone. Our steamer has many attachments and we can not only mop with it, but can also clean ANYTHING! And its sanitary.
(4) We joined our local FreeCycle Group on yahoo and give and recive many useable items. People are forever giving away clothes and you can recycle clothing for all kinds of sewing needs. Jeans make cute purses, rag quilts, placemats, you name it. Old shirts made great scraps.
(5) We use our crockpot a lot ( seen someone else is doing this too! )
(6) We use a pressure cooker to cook beans. You can have a great pot of beans in no time. Pressure cooking saves a ton of energy.
(7) We print postage at home so we do not have to drive to the post office. The post office will pick up your mail and packages upon request.
(8) We grow our own veggies and can and freeze a lot of food items.
(9) We purchase meat in bulk and slice it at home with the help of a slicer we purchased at Cabela's we vacuum seal them and label them with thermal labels
(10) We make our own cold cuts in the smoker.
(11) We use a thermal printer as to not spend money on ink.
(12) There are many factories here that make furniture and one that makes clothing, they throw their scraps out, I ask for them and they give them to me for free. They were just going to throw them away to start with. So they dont mind calling you and letting you have them.
(13) We only grocery shop once a month. We still have to go once a week for bread and milk locally, but when we go we only get whats in bulk, on sale or we have coupons for.
(14) We do not purchase soda's unless in 2 liter bottles so we can use them to start seeds.
(15) We do not purchase snack type foods, we make our own snacks.