Have you found certain stores that have the best deals if you have a certain hobby like scrapbooking, crafts, sewing, etc? Do you get together with friends and share supplies?

If I'm buying crafts, i use the coupons in the Sunday paper for places like Michael's and JoAnn Fabrics. I also check for supplies on Ebay.

For scrapbooking, I work for an online scrapbook store an hour or so a week and I get a great discount on everything. I do share some supplies with my sisters in law, like rarely used tools, or a bulk packaged of something.
I also sew and I've gotten hand-me-down patterns and only buy fabric with the 40% off coupons.

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It's not what you make; it's what you spend.

Gardening is my hobby, a lot of my family and neighbors share the same hobby. We divide and share seeds, perennials and bulbs. I'm to the point I can give away much more than I can plant. I'll spend about $10 on seeds and $30 on some annuals and tomato plants this year, and that's it. Otherwise, I just keep dividing what I've already got.

We go to ski swaps to find used snow ski gear.

I've found great deals on wetsuits for the kids for waterskiing on ebay.

My hobby is scrapbooking. I decided to sell the product from the company I bought from. I get a 30% discount. So when I sell products to my customers, I make 30% of their sales. I just use that to pay for my stuff. I haven't had to pay for my own stuff in years.

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Loving wife to Matthew 6/26/04
SAHM to Jacob Matthew 4/19/03 & Evelyn Grace 2/15/06
Baby #3 due 3/14/09

I learned with scrapbooking a few tricks to save money. first, I never buy paper anymore just for the sake of buyng it because it's pretty.
I only buy what I need for that particular layout. I take the pictures with me to the store and only buy the exact amount I need.

also, years ago when I first started scrapbooking, I took a class, and one big lesson was the fact you shouldn't put very many pictures on a page. Maximum 3. Well I soon realized, the less pictures you put on a page, the more pages it takes to display your event. It used to take 6 pages to showcase dd's birthday!! silly, the scrapbook stores giving these classes tell you that because they want you to buy more paper, more books, more supplies, all of which you need when you only put 3 pics on a 12x12 page. Now I've got 5-7 pics per page.

Don't read scrapbook magazines. Ever. They will convince you after only one issue that you need to capture every single memeory ever, They show doezens of laoyouts with only one picture on a page, and about 30.00 worth of rivets, buttons, ribbons with layers of vellum, paper and shred on it.Do not get sucked in by this marketing.

of course, all the other usual things, look for sales, use the sunday coupons for your craft store, check wal-mart prices , use up all your scraps, ect. ect.

I will check out thrift stores, dollar stores, garage sales, swap with friends. If I need to go to a specialty store I will check out their clearence first and will also use coupons from that place.

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Definitely using craft store coupons, I get other people to save them for me and just try to use up what I have on hand and not buy so many supplies (which is very easy to do). Plus check out yard sales. My local scrapbooking store even has a yard sale twice a year. I got a lot of great stuff for cheap.

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Laura

My hobby is endurance sports. Most of the expenses are upfront like a bike and its accessories and running shoes. To save on race fees, I limit the number of races I do per year and try to pick local races to support to save on gases. The only thing that remains costly is that I have to buy running shoes every 2.5 month because I do so much damage to them.