What is your BEST one piece of frugal advice? Say you had a non-frugal friend who you could only give ONE tip to. If you could only give one piece of advice on how to be frugal, what would it be?

Think before you buy!!! Is it something that you really need? Will it actually be used?

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~Happiness is a large family~

look at the discount bin first, but only buy it its something you really will use.

Always keep your kitchen clean. Even if the rest of the house is in disarray strive to keep the dishes caught up and the counters clear.

When you have a clean kitchen, its so much easier to eat at home instead of out!

Switch to no fee banking. It should not cost money to order checks, write checks, deposit money, withdrawal money, pay bills, or do online banking. Banks should be paying us to put our money in rather than us paying them. (In Canada I have accounts with both ING direct and PC financial both free and high interest rates. ) I have saved hundreds of dollars a year by switching and it feels really good not to be paying service fees anymore.

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Don't buy anything at regular price! Shop sales, use coupons, whatever you have to but don't buy ANYTHING at full price.

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Better to give your kids the values you have
than the valuables you can't afford.

I think my advice would be: you can get by with much less than you think you can. Most people have too many clothes, books, magazines, dvds, knick-knacks, etc.

Have a long term goal in mind at all times. So the next time you pick up a cute little "extra something", literally think, this could be a few extra dollars toward buying my own home or the newer car I really want. Or even better, this could mean the difference between borrowing the money to fix the car when its pooped out or paying cash for it. That always helps motivate me to pinch every penny!

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Mommy to Dakota, Wife to James
Proud Air Force Family

Never pay full price for clothing-shop clearance racks, consignment stores, thrift stores, and garage sales.

Think about wether you really need this item or not.

Will you be able to survive if you dont buy out Target after the christmas sales. Life will go on, there will be other sales, you dont need to stock up on everything and anything, to later sell it at garage sales or ebay becasue you have too much stuff in the house.

Dont get too caught up in the sales and the living like the Joneses.

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We buy things we dont need,
with money we dont have,
in order to impress people
we dont like?
(Ramsey, D)