If you’re looking to save money or change your lifestyle, my advice is to take it in “baby-steps” because it won’t happen overnight. Here are some tips that helped me out.

1. Always pay more than the minimum on any credit card payments – if you don’t believe me you can calculate it for yourself (http://www.csgnetwork.com/creditcardmincalc.html)
2. Use coupons when grocery shopping
3. Try online shopping – it’s saves on gas & they have bigger markdowns (http://www.shoptivity.com)
4. Read a book – it’s cheaper than going to a movie (http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/)
5. Know your budget! (https://www.dl.ed.gov/borrower/BudgetCalculator.do)

Good luck and happy savings!

Pay your bills online (no more stamps, more time)

Brown bag it to work, the savings are huge.

Get serious about grocery shopping, the
savings are unbeliievable.

Turn off/down appliances wherever and whenever you can.

The little things we do that increase our quality of life without breaking the bank could be cut, but I feel that tends toward miserliness, which can lead to dissatisfaction.

For example, we do buy wine and liquor for home use – but we don’t go out to bars – so we save money by making drinks at home, but we could save more by not buying liquor at all.

But when my girlfriends and I want to get together – it’s much more frugal to make a few cocktails at home than to go buy a few cocktails for the price of a bottle of vodka!

So yeah, sure, we could save money by having tea, for example – but let’s be honest – sometimes mommies need a drink!

It’s tough to be at this point – where all the regular advice doesn’t apply, because you’re already there. It’s like a game, though! I’m always looking for more ways to save money!

Love the blog; thanks for what you do.

We brew our coffee at home every morning – coffee shop coffee is a treat.

We only get free magazine subscriptions through online offers or extra travel miles and we read the paper online.

We coupon and only buy what’s on sale at the store, and plan our meals according to the circulars.

We never buy cleaners (mostly ’cause we don’t want all those chemicals in our house and around our kids) and have been using vinegar and baking soda for years.

All of our bills than can be automated, are, and I do the books at least weekly. Our only debt is a car payment and we pay extra on that every month.

I don’t batch cook and freeze, because I think it’s gross, but I always have stuff around to make a quick meal when things get crazy – like sandwich makings and pasta and sauce.

Most of the activities we do are free already – living in San Francisco, we have a lot of great opportunities.

We also don’t have cable, we bundle our phone, wireless, and DSL, we watch Hulu and use Netflix, and check out books and CD’s from the library.

These ideas are great for people who can cut back to these, but what about those of us who already do? How can we help stretch those dollars?

I now get probably too many magazine subscriptions, though several of them are free due to my job, but i do plan on letting a few lapse.