You probably already do these, but...
1. Buy clothes cheap! I have 3 kids and always buy their clothes in the off-season. I bought school clothes at The Gap at all places last Spring and got pants and shirts for $2.99 a piece. Plus, I frequent the consignment stores.
2. I cancelled my long-distance and now buy rechargeable phone cards from Costco for $.03/minute. (Don't know if you have a Costco).
3. I bought a tracfone instead of having a cellular bill every month. This wouldn't work if you use your phone a lot since the minutes really add up, but I bought a double minute card so the minutes are $.15/minute and only use it when I really need to.
4. Garage Sales. I hate saving/organizing for them but the labor is worth it once you get a couple hundred bucks.
5. I use vinegar/baking soda/Borax to clean. MUCH cheaper and better for the environment.
6. Cutting your electricity bill. Turn off your computer when you aren't using it. Don't use lights during the day if you can help it. My kids ALWAYS turn the lights on in our basement during the day when all they have to do is open up the blinds (which I close every night to save on our heating bills - we live in Montana and got snow today!)
7. Stock up when items are on sale. I try not to buy snacks that have hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup so finding cheap snacks for the kids is hard, but when I do, I stock up. I just bought 10 boxes of granola bars for after school since they were half off.
8. That being said, also watch out for "deals".
I've been trying to stay out of the big box stores since I always see "good deals" and so end up spending money. (Exceptions are food, xmas presents, clothes for the next year).
9. We've stopped buying our kids videos and I've stopped buying my books. Now, we swap with friends/ family and go to the library or rent the $.99 videos once in awhile. It's funny - we used to go to Hastings every weekend to rent. At first when we started only going once per month if that, the kids really complained, but now when we go, it's a real treat.
10. We've started actually eating all our food we buy. By that, I mean, when the vegies start getting a little limp, instead of throwing them away, we put them in recipes/soups. When the apples start getting not so crisp, I cook them. This may sound idiotically simple to most of you, but we were throwing away a lot of food because I wasn't planning well enough.
Hope at least one thing helps you.
to help keep your momentum going.
)
I would but I am going with MIL and DD, we are going to visit SIL and driving to and from there. I already paid hotel and air fare. We are only going 3 nights, getting a fridge and eating from supermarket mostly. We are not doing a big deal with it. Just bare bones. Got SIL's van to get around in. Can't cancel on MIL mostly. That $$ is spent ... plus MIL is getting old and walking will be harder as the years go on and this is HER dream, she has never been.
The other thing we've done is started making HUGE cc payments, as much as we could and still have enough left over to get by. Pay as much as you can on them each month and before you know it, they'll be gone.
