[inyourhonor]

[yes, it's money tuesday haha]

How do you save money? IE: Making things for your use, couponing, ignoring that ping in you that wants to buy something, etc, etc.

[Irish_Wristwatch]

we have a budget and do our best to stick to it, within the budget we have about 100$ a month that is supposed to go into our savings/emergency fun. Sometimes we end up over budget and the full amount doesnt end up in savings but we do try to ignore the urge to buy things we dont need

[inyourhonor]

We pretty much cloth diaper to save money. I bought a good portion of our stash when I was pregnant with Dane. Then I bought a bunch of Kawaii's to finish up our stash when we got our tax money back and then when I sold my camera lens.

We make our own laundry detergent now.

We don't buy anything that isn't an absolute necessity.

[mommydiva]

I shop sales for things we need like toilet paper, dog food, laundry detergent things like that. Very rarely do I pay full price for those items.

I coupon as much as I can (willing to do that is)

For gas I use my rewards from Safeway so on average we are saving 30 cents off a gallon. Helps out a lot.

We budget. I shop around when contracts are about to be up (like tv and things like that) I will look and see if I can get a better deal elsewhere.

If we want to do something fun its preplanned and budgeted in. Unless its Christmas time or birthdays. We discuss every purchase over a certain dollar amount depending on what it is. And we weigh it out to is it a true need vs want type thing.

I have found I really like a lot of Target's Up & Up stuff I have switched to their laundry soap and dishwasher detergent. I do however wish they made the bigger bottles of dishwasher soap. I do buy off brand when possible but certain items well will always be name brand.

I meal plan if and shop around that based off of coupons and sales.

If I know an event is coming up I will start setting money aside for it so we won't be oh crap what happened type thing.

[inyourhonor]

Oh and we shop at Sams Club. We buy our meat there and then portion it off and I base meal plans off that. We just went at the start of this month and got like 20 dinners worth of meat and only bought 4 different things haha. I also buy lunch stuff for school in bulk.

I buy store brand or on sale, plus coupons whenever I have them (they're hard to find here because people steal the circulars)

We used to discuss purchases that were extra, but we don't have any extras right now. I'd love a new computer and or monitor but I'll be dreaming for awhile

[Celine]

I drive a really old car (paid off) and DHs car is paid off as well. For Sophias' birth we hardly bought anything new but received a lot of hand-me-downs from friends and family. Same w/ toys- I have only bought 3 teething rings and 3 puppets (from the $ Store) in the entire year since Sophia has been w/ us- but she has so many toys you wouldn't believe I didn't buy her any. We also borrow a lot of clothes and other baby stuff (like the exersaucer) from a friend of ours that I give back when we are done w/ it. And neighbors give me clothes/toys sometimes to keep.

I am so bad at couponing. I try to use coupons and when I see a woman in front of me lower her bill by a hundred dollar I am so in awe. I forget the coupons or can't find them and then they are expired. We need a couponing how to thread!

I color my own hair and go to the cheap hair cutting place (Haircuttery).

We sometimes do carry-out but not often. We haven't gone to restaurants in a while but we do go out sometimes (that's not really saving money ).

I don't buy clothes often either and when I do I go to the cheap places like Ross or Old Navy sale racks.

My cell phone is old- nothing fancy- and we have a pay as you go plan. No monthly fees. We also don't have cable but love the internet- can't be w/o it.

I think we are saving money from me breastfeeding (at least a little bit), too.

[Luvgreen19]

I know we could be doing better than we are. I coupon like crazy and by store brand. I am on my MIL's Sam's Club membership so we don't have to pay the fee but I get the deals, which is fantastic.
Brendan is part of an in-home day care, which around here is significantly cheaper than a center. She is fantastic! If she wasn't, we'd be eating Ramen noodles, cause of course Brendan's safety comes first.
What else? Both cars are older and paid off and we do have cable/internet but no home phone.
We don't buy a lot of extras and we talk about them before we purchase for the most part.

[krislati]

I use coupons a lot. Especially clothing, I hate buying stuff with at a percentage off, then I usually buy on sale with the coupon. We don't have cable (dh has been trying to get me to cave and get it back again for football). We buy in bulk.

[Jeanie915]

I've been couponing a lot, I make my own laundry and dish detergents, I shop only consignments for the most part (unless there's an awesome sale). And I really try my best to stay away from wal-mart....

[Celine]

Originally Posted by Jeanie915

I make my own laundry and dish detergents

Somebody else mentioned they make their own laundry detergent, too. How do you make those? Does the laundry and dishes come out as clean as w/ the bought stuff? And how much $ do you save?