The Big one is to Just stay home. Of course I hate doing that so I spend the gas money to go somewhere but I go to places that are Free or Cheep.
Walks, playdates with friends, Parkdates are all relitivly inexpencive
I have envited moms over for playdates too and do so alot during the winter.

Not Buy Junk food at all. If it is here we eat it. So we don't buy it.

Have a set meal plan for the week amazing enough if I plan my menu we don't eat out.

Start dinner Before DH is home. He can't say lets go out if you are already cooking.

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Kimberly Proud Mommy to Bethany Rose April 2006 &

Organizer of the Coupon Clippers of Tacoma

I agree with Ember, try to STAY HOME if you can! I just finished the school year and am off work for the summer so i am trying my best to at least stay home 3 days out of the week. I figure this will save me on gas, shopping, eating out, etc...

Also yes meal planning helps a lot and combine coupons whenever possible. Getting my coupons organized is actually my big project for the day! I find when I don't have a "plan" for dinner i tend to take the easy route and grab fast food.

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Love my little Ashley Lynn (12/14/06)!!!

Every Sunday is my "baking day." I bake a bunch of meals for the week that I can heat up in the microwave. This way I only heat up the house one day of the week. It is also great because by the time DH gets home from work, I'm too tired from the day to really want to cook. If I didn't do this, I'd be tempted to order in pizza or Chinese food.

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would you please loan a girl some chocolate?

What great tips! I love this thread!

We do a lot of the above.

We all have water bottles and never leave the house without them full of ice water. I even carry an extra one for refilling.

We always pack snacks, even a small bag of pretzels can keep us from stopping for fast food.

Meal planning is a big one...if I plan it, I will cook it...I don't know why I can't wing it, but that's just how it is.

Making grocery lists and sticking to them. I buy a Sunday paper each week and go through the flyers so that I know what's on sale. I plan ahead for things on sale that we use a lot or need. I stock-up on sale items as much as possible...this saves me a lot of money later.

Planning errands down to every single stop. I plan it like a loop...hitting everything needed without going out of the way. Our local park is usually on the way home, so I often let the girls play for a few minutes after errands.

We only plan to leave the house 3 days per week. Two of those days are visits with my parents (30 miles away), combined with an entertainment outing (bowling, skating, etc) and grocery shopping. The other one is a short trip to our small-local town (3 1/2 miles away) for the library, post office and feed store. Doctors tend to add to our outing days, but sometimes we can still combine them. Tball has us out more often right now but that ends tomorrow. We do occasionally leave the fourth day by visiting DH's family on the weekend.

I do one load of laundry per day, and I dry all of it on racks, hangers, or the porch rail (I don't have a clothesline yet). I have noticed a $25-35 difference on our electric bill each month since I started doing this and this is the only change we've made. I still dry my cloth diapers in the dryer every other day, and I still dry my bedding once a week. All other laundry is hung to dry. Our dryer is old though, so that's probably why there is such a big savings. LOL

Our Sno-cone machine! This is a great little thing...well worth the $15 it cost for DD's birthday. We freeze juice in ice cube trays and then make sno cones out of the frozen juice. I bought the juice on sale for $1 per large bottle, so we are getting a lot of refreshment for very little money. It's great for the entertainment value too. I have no plans to buy popsicles in our near future. LOL

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These ideas are great and we do quite a few of them already ourselves.

We do not go to the movies as a general rule -- instead we buy the movie the first week it comes out. WalMart or Best Buy will always have the new release of the week on sale for $15 (or so). If I buy the movie we do "Popcorn Movie Night" where we pop our own popcorn, drink sodas, have a bit of candy, and watch a movie together as a family. It costs less than $20 and we get to keep the movie!!

We go swimming at the County pool -- its around $10 for the family each time we go, but it is as nice as any waterpark around. There are waterslides, lazy rivers, and fountains galore!! I figure we may go 5 times during the summer so it stays a special treat.

I plan trips and shopping so I don't drive many places all over.

We bake our craft. I will let the kids help me make something and then we eat it for snack or dinner. My kids are little chefs!! (I only need so many art projects!!)

We make cards -- i have a large selection of scrapbooking supplies and we make cards with the scraps. I keep the cards for occasions when I need them. We also make our own gift bags -- I bought a selection of plain ones from Wal Mart. (I will reuse gift bags, but I always seem to need a different size than those I have on hand!!)

I will make a double portion of dinner and freeze half for another time. This is particularly helpful if you need odd ingredients you don't use all the time. It helps prevent waste if you wind up throwing it away. I will make my own soup in big pots and freeze small portions -- you can use the food saver bags if you freeze them open and then seal it works great!!

Stock up on sale items that I use. Shop wth coupons when possible.

We will also invite friends for dinner on a rotating basis (one week our house the next week theirs) instead of going out to resturants. Its still fun and more intimate than a restaurant.

Check out last minute specials if we want to go somewhere spur of the moment with no expectations that it will work out. (Somethings are planned way in advance -- but with travel last minute there are always way better deals!!)

Hit the clearance racks often and wait for the GOOD deals. I buy clothes a year ahead of time at a fraction of the price.

Consignment!! My stuff and the kids.

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Grace

Wife to Stoney

Mommy of Sarah (9), Hannah (7.5), and John(5)

Visit the library rather than buying books.

Plan needs ahead of time so that I can request items from Freecycle a few days before going out to buy them. (If you also offer a lot on Freecycle, offer good quality items, and pick up when you say you will, you'll find people to be much more receptive when you request an item.)

For those with a snack tooth, keep inexpensive microwave popcorn around, along with a few sprinkle-ons (cheddar cheese powder, parmesan cheese, cinnamon, whatever you like). Definitely less expensive than sitting down with a bag of chips and healthier too.

Carry your own water bottle. Make your own little drink mix pouches for your kids who won't drink water using those little zippered bags intended for baby formula.

Check out books, magazines, dvd's from the library
Take drinks/snacks when going to be gone for a while
Combine errands to conserve gas/shop closer to home
Look for mark down meats/grocery items - this has saved me so much money in the grocery area, this past week I found several packs of gr.beef marked down to $1.50/pd, and I found organic yogurt marked down to 99 cents!
Shop Goodwill/yard sales/consignment stores
Stay at home!
Cook more- eating out is very expensive!

Great tips!

I always get my books from the library or PB Swap
My neighbors and I and family have a magazine loop we share
I always take my coffee and water to go- having a nice container for each helps!
Bring my lunch and snacks to work at least 3x a week (i only work 4 days)
Make ahead meals and freeze for easy meal prep during the week.
stick to my meal plan menu ..we make a menu for 6 nights a week so we always have one night to wing it or eat at a friends or something.

How do you do this? Can you explain? It sounds to me like the "singles" of Kool Aid, lemonaide, etc. you can buy. My kids would love this - I am not sure of the bags you are using...TIA!

Save leftover veggies in the freezer and once a month make a vegetable soup out of them

Call your cable provider if you notice a promotion being offered to new customers. See if they'll match it to keep you as a customer. I did this last week and ended up with 3 months free and 12 months worth of $10 less per month. All from one phone call!!!