Cutting Costs!

Walk/jog outside for excercise

Buy gifts off season or when on clearance

Go to consignment shops, when needed

Run appliances after 8, to save on electricity

Buy clothes at the end of the season, when on sale big time

Drink water, instead of juice, soda, etc...

Ask for practical gifts

I do not skimp on dog food or grooming ! I do not give my dogs table bones !

I just picked up a stack of books from a friend getting rid of them

I love Trader Joe's

About a year ago we cancelled our Verizon cell phone plans and went with Net10. 25 dollars a month beats the 60 plus dollars we were paying before. With Net10, you're not signing up for anything, just month to month. The reception is just fine, and we live in the country! When I ordered my phone online, all I had to do was pay the 25 bucks for my 30 day airtime card' and the phone was free. You can even send data and text messages. I totally recommend this. Good luck :)

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Good for you, we are following Dave Ramsey as well. Remember he says to focus on long term. The needle is moving and will continue to gain momentum as your balances get paid down and savings increase.
It sounds like your doing what you can, where you can.
Keep up the good work.

I haven't done Dave Ramsey, so please forgive redundancies.

If you have ANY outdoor space, grow some of your own food. Kids really enjoy this.

Find a thrift store or consignment store for clothes - one you LIKE so you don't feel "yucky" getting used clothes there. Consignment stores can be great, because you can leave your old things and get "credits" to buy new.

My kids are AMAZING about wanting to use empty food containers for arts and crafts. A little time on-line can give you some nifty ideas, but it can be as simple as cutting open a cereal box and letting them use the blank insides to paint or draw (it sounds sad, but my kids ASKED me to do it).

If you don't alread do so, make meal plans for each week.

Also, find places you and your family like that are free to go so your life feels "rich" - hiking, nice playgrounds, concerts in the park, art openings....

GOOD LUCK!

ETA: Your Public Library has movies you can borrow (plus books!!!) and free kids events too!

ETA 2: We use empty egg cartons for paint holders for the kids when they are creating art (and me when I use acrylics). Two of mine are little and the oldest is messy, so it keeps that somewhat contained. Plus, it's easy to save 3 so there's no fighting.

In the 90s I lived and died by the "The Tightwad Gazette"! I learned to cut my boys hair by it. I have a basic muffin recipe I use to this day For breakfasts. I have garage saled for years. Friends at church would all pass around clothes. I still see a shirt or two around from years ago! The Library was our window to the world. It caused me to be the most creative I could be. Turns out you don't need money to be creative, you need less of it! Note to Elyse- don't throw away the inside of the cereal box, the wax paper makes a great palate for paints! Oops house paints at home depot or Lowes. Hope it helps.
Ok, thought of more. I love fall! When I can I cook chicken in the crockpot on a bed of chopped onions. We eat the straight chicken the first night, chopped chicken for chicken salad or BBQ chick sandwiches the second night, then use the cooking juices and onions with some of the chicken for a starter for soup. Always have other recipes in mind and cook once for two or three meals. Theres a lot of great blogs to help with that.
As far as motivation, the first time you have an unexpected bill that is abled to be covered, you will be hooked! I just kepted my head down and plowed ahead. My H was very good at saving for the big things ahead of time. Appliances don't have eternal life. Tires are needed on a regular basis. Insurance gets higher all the time. If you save now for college, you won't have to borrow in the future. And all those fund raisers for school? Turn them down. They won't come get you! They also don't care whether you can pay for lunch next week either. Don't be stingy with your time or love but money is just a tool. Put it to work!

Try to buy everything you can second hand. I got a part time job at the YMCA so we would get a great discount on our family membership. Pay your bills in full and on time, so you never pay interest. Do all your laundry in cold water, and only wash clothes when they are dirty. Know your grocery prices, check the flyers, use coupons, use a deep freeze and never buy anything that isn't on sale. Drive less by consolidating all errands into one trip, walking more, or biking. Take advantage of free entertainment, such as parks and libraries, and get on email lists so you can get notifications of community events (such as local politicians hosting free bbq's etc). Sell your used clothes, toys and household items. Share with neighbours (ie we have a ladder and the neighbour has a rake). If you have a cell phone, get rid of it. Trade babysitting services with another mom. Use it up, wear it out, or do without.

I luv these questions! I too like to cut costs. For motivation I need to know what exactly I'm saving for. So I apply x dollars to a night out and x dollars towards a trip to Europe. So set goals for the savings if that works for you.

Ways to save:

*Freecycle.

*Cut back on meat.
Look at what you're cooking at home. Sometimes families can cut back on meat or try a different cut of meat. Steak is great but sometimes you can use another cut o' beef in the crockpot for ex.

*Stock up on great bargains
Also have a little flexibility in your budget for amazing bargains. Stocking up on food bargains may mean spending extra up front but saves money overall.

Don't know if you're a make-up person but I've been getting my eye-liner, eye-shadow and lipstick from the dollar store! Seriously!! I know a lot of people frown on dollar stores but I discovered a couple products that I absolutely love! I used to spend big bucks on the twist-up crayon type of eye-liner pencil; I spend $1.00 now!! The products are just as good, and last just as long as the more expensive products I used to buy. Occasionally they'll have the pressed powder and blush I like but lately I've had to get it from the more expensive store - Dollar General (lol!!) and spend about $2.50 - $4.00 for Cover Girl products.

AND, when my lipstick gets really low - I use a lipstick brush and get out the rest of it!! I don't like to waste!!

Good question!!

Call all your service providers and ask if you can get a better deal. Our triple play (phone internet and cable) had crept up. Took hubs about 2 hours speaking with the customer service rep, the supervisor, and ultimately the customer retention agent to get the monthly bill reduced from 159 a month to 99 a month. That's an extra 60 in our pocket for the next 12 months.

You can ask for lower interest rates on your credit cards, lower rates or capped average rates on your utilities, and on many other services. No harm in asking right? Just be prepared to persevere and don't accept the first "no" as an answer.

Good luck to you and yours,
F. B.

Drink water. It's so much better for you than juice, soda, coffee, etc.

Bring a refillable water bottle and snack with you - When I'm out and about, I always take my water bottle with me, and a small snack so I won't be tempted to stop somewhere and purchase it.

No school lunches - if the kids buy school lunches, skip those and pack your own. Our school also has breakfast. I saw the prices for reduced meals, it's still cheaper to make my own.

Gas - combine trips, when driving slowly on country roads or city streets roll down the windows instead of a/c, make sure your tires are properly filled with air, buy gas in the morning when it's colder out (less evaporation)

Electricity - no dryer, hang your clothes to dry - put the computer to sleep when not in use - unplug appliances when not in use

Clean out the closets - bring items to a consignment shop, have a yard sale, or even make a donation to claim a deduction on your taxes

I wish I could get eggs and veggies from a farmer for free ! ! ! Good for you ! !

Eliminate the prepared foods from you grocery shopping. Buy chicken breasts and cut the bone out if you have to have the boneless/skinless breasts and NEVER buy chicken breast filets. I get the chicken breasts, cut the meat off and put it in baggies in the freezer. I take the bones, and skin and boil them in a pot with a little water and make chicken noodle soup out of them. Take the bones out, take the meat off and give then to your dog or compost pile.

**ETA: I have been giving my dogs chicken bones since 1957. I've only had one dog that had a problem with one bone and that was a pork rib bone that got caught crossways in his mouth. From my half a century of giving dogs chicken bones, my experience is that the dog having a problem with chicken bones is a Household myth, an old wives tale.

Buy your groceries on sale. Make your weekly menus out based on what is on sale. I use spaghetti sauce and alfredo sauce. Ragu is normally $3 per jar. When it is on a real good sale, its $.99 per jar. When its on sale I buy a dozen jars. That way, I save $2 per jar, plus tax, if your state charges sales tax on food. Don't buy bottled water. Fill the bottles you have and use them over and over and over. Look in the discount section of your grocery store for discounted meat and dented cans and change your menu accordingly.

Mamapedia has lots of suggestions for this kind of things.

Don't buy at Costco or Sams for meat and vegetables. They are much higher than your local stores when they have stuff on sale.

Good luck to you and yours.

Great suggestions so far.

Cut out prepackaged snacks (e.g. 100 calorie snacks). It's very expensive to have someone divvy up food for you. In fact, get rid of processed foods entirely - lots of empty calories.

Frozen fruits and vegetables are just as nutritious as fresh, sometimes more so (because fresh food transported for 3 weeks across country loses nutrients, whereas foods frozen more or less at the time of picking retain their nutrients). Especially in winter, use frozen foods. I often throw frozen peas into casseroles, and now you can buy frozen green pepper and onions, great for Mexican food and Italian.

Use coupons but only if the brand name is cheaper with coupon than the generic brand. I leave coupons I'm not going to use in the grocery store in the aisles - a lot of people do that and it's great to find a bonus.

We make our own enchiladas with leftover chicken or hamburger or ground turkey, leftover veggies, a little cheese, and some tomato sauce that we season with our own cumin and coriander or cilantro. Leftover refried beans (since it's hard to use the whole can) can be frozen in small containers and defrosted the next time.

Don't use pre-bottled salad dressing - use oil & vinegar. Oil is good for you, vinegar is dirt cheap. Salad dressings have a lot of high fructose corn syrup.

Do the work yourself - don't buy shredded salad mix, buy the whole head and wash/rip it yourself.

Buy what's in season and go without stuff that comes from the other side of the world. You'll appreciate it more when it's in season, just like our grandparents did.

I read the comment about giving chicken bones to your dog - don't do it!! They splinter and are extremely dangerous. Beef bones, yes. Turkey/chicken, no. Sometimes butchers will give you their unused bones, and some say that dogs can eat raw bones but not those from cooked foods.

Don't buy in bulk if it's going to take you a year to use it - that's money sitting in your pantry totally unusable.

Sell stuff at consignment shops, and buy stuff their too.

Most things that say "dry clean only" can be hand washed or freshened in the dryer with dry cleaning kits.

Use white vinegar and water to clean floors, not fancy floor cleaners. Use baking soda to clean porcelain sinks and white casseroles such as Corningware. You can clean shower curtains with a scrub brush and a mild homemade cleanser.

Re-use plastic bags - I rinse them and drape them over a wooden spoon in the drainer, or from a magnetic hook on the side of the fridge. When dry, fold and store in a drawer.

Compost your veggie scraps, stale crackers & bread, fruit cores, coffee grounds, etc. in an outdoor compost bin and use it for gardening and outdoor pots. Add some regular soil (for the worms and other critters that eat the stuff) and grass clippings, shredded leaves, etc. Turn periodically with a shovel or pitchfork. Put it in the sun for faster decomposition.

I think it's great that you have found SO many ways to cut back! Keep it up!!!

Are you able to go with a power company that gives discount rates? In Texas, we have Stream Energy and it has saved us a bunch! We also cancelled our home phone -- but if you have small children and thing you might need to call 911, then you may not want to do that.
You might also look for a "buy, sell, trade" page on facebook to see if there is one in your area.

Hooray for Dave Ramsey! And hooray to you for committing to change.

All of your suggestions so far are great. One other thing we did is to change our car insurance to the lower mileage rate. The plan we were on was for higher annual mileage than we were using. Not a ton saved, but every little bit helped.

If you have two cars, go to one. This was a huge step for us. It took a while for us to wrap our heads around the idea of being a single car family with work and an active kiddo but once we took the plunge it turned out to be a lot easier than we thought. We sold one car (already paid off, but not as practical for the family) to pay off the other. We did it for two years until we were able to buy a second car outright. Not only did we save car payments, but also insurance and property taxes. Kind of hurts now that we are back to paying those! But to compensate, we cut in other areas again.

We get the majority of our groceries at Aldi and then Trader Joe's for some additional vegetarian items. Good for you with the score on produce! I feel like that is a big part of our budget, even with farmer's market shopping.

#1 thing - PAY CASH! You can't spend what you didn't bring. :)