misseva

I just put a small line up on my back porch. Hang sheets, towels, jeans. To make them soft put them in the dryer on fluff for 15-20 min. Beats runing the dryer 45 min - to 1 hr and the sheets smell sooooooo good.

Set my thermostat on 78 during day when I'm at work & usually don't lower it until it's time for bed.

JanetM

I do several things to economize.

I cook "real food" from scratch nightly, so we don't spend $$$ for fast food or restaurants. My husband takes the leftovers for lunch.

I shop carefully, and stock up on staples when they are on sale. I regularly save 50% or more on things like pasta, chicken broth, capers, olives, oil, bacon, nuts, butter, etc.

I run all my errands in one day to save on gas. Or if I have a Dr. appt. that will be the day I run my errands.

I use coupons whenever possible, and I check online to find out which store has the best price on things.

I use Hotwire to book travel. I have saved lots of money doing this. If you book a hotel, flight, and car, you can designate which hotel you want. Priceline doesn't allow you to choose the hotel.

JADE D

O.K. My middle daughter and I read all the articles about coupoing abd the people who use so many coupons they get a refund. Problem is we don't use the products that coupons are available for - mostly preapred foods and snack items.
I've yet to find coupons for bread, milk, fresh produce. There are no store in our area that double coupons.
The coupon section of last Sunday's newspaper was mainly pet food, cosmetics, hair dye and diapers none of which we use.
We do watch for sales but as far as coupons go - my yongest daughter says that coupons are no good if you eat healthy.
Anyone agree?

scrappy happy

I make my own laundry soap, I use my plastic walmart bags for my kitchen trash can liner, so dont have to buy trash bags.Recycle all my tin cans , newspapper, cardboard , glass, and plastic. So I have less money going out for the trash. wash out my plasctic bread bags and reuse them, same on baggies.Save the plasctic butter tubs to put food in to freeze , pick my own berries. Sometimes do a garden. Buy my meat in bulk. Stop useing dryer sheets and found out my skin condation is better. Shop thrift sale or thrift stores. use old warn out towels for dust coth and rewash them. Guess I could go on for quit awhile. Lots of good ideas on here.

iwillquilt

I use the cheapest hair conditioner I can find for shave lotion. You can also wipe it on your body just before you get out of the shower to condition your skin. Works great.

CBuckley

DH gave me an E-Reader for Christmas a couple of years ago. I discovered I can get e-books from the local library. Free and saves a trip there to check out books and another to return them.

alapetitechaise

We've done all this and more. Homemade gifts, car pooling, and we make our own dog food. Our siberian husky started having seizures. The vet thought it might be additives in the dog food. It ended up costing less than the store brand we were buying. We make her dog treats too and no more seizures

:thumbup:

alapetitechaise

Oh....forgot about the bread store. Every Monday is .65cent day for bread.

yonnikka

Look around your home for sources of income; such as, sell your books on AmazonMarketplace. Sell some of your stash. Clean out the Attic, Garage, basement, kitchen cupboards, and have a yard sale. Eat down the excess amounts of foodstuffs that you are storing, cereals, frozen foods, cans. Clean out your wardrobe. Value the empty space more than you value the items you don't currently use. Every time you put one idea to work; more ideas will flow in to you. Try the "half" strategy: use half as much laundry soap per load; cut each dryer sheet in half. Use one drop of dish soap on your sponge/dishrag at a time. Hair conditioner? Half as much. And your water bill? Monitor your family activities to see where you can reduce. Do a handwash once a week, rather than use the machine.

JanetM

I do agree. About the only coupons for food that I use are ones for mayonnaise, butter, and canned soup. I also do use Joanns for notions.