Looking to cut our budget again. Save more. Would love your ideas.

what about cell phone plans? Tmobile has a $30 a month plan for 100 minutes and unlimited data/text.. i mostly text or call on skype so its very convenient.

Watch TLC's extreme cheapskates. You will get all the ideas you need.

Conserve energy/water/gas

Cut TV out of your life. Drop cable. Spend time at the library or book store

If your husband eats out, make sure he doesnt order soda, coffee, drinks etc.

I try to eat my lunch before going out to lunch and just order a side of fries or something.

Produce at ethnic markets are generally cheaper than your Ralphs, safeway, vons

You can clean basically anything in your house with baking soda and vinegar. How much do you spend at Target/WalMart on household stuff like that?

We make 5 gallons of laundry soap for < $5 every 6 months.

With some investment in some quality essential oils, you can also make all your own toiletries for next to nothing with basically oils and food.

What about water? Do you buy bottled water? You can put together a kick ass filtration system for < $100 depending on the quality of the water coming into your home.

Most people balk at the idea of spending $250 on bulk items that will last years but then have no issue bleeding $$$ at Target every week. It takes an entire shift in consciousness to get there, not just "being cheap." Be a hippy!

Buy in bulk but only in amounts that will not spoil before you can get to it.

Also I found that buying meat directly from a farmer/butcher can be very cheap. For example a friend at work raises cattle (chickens, turkeys & etc) on the side - he can sell me 1/2 a cow for about half of what hamburger costs in the supermarket, dressed (dressed meaning not including hide, bones, etc). This also includes steaks - a cow is a cow and the butcher doesn't care how it's cut up, he just charges so much to butcher a certain amount of animal. It's LITERALLY half as much per lb. You can determine how you want it cut - if you want 100% hamburger, he'll do that. The downside is that it's a LOT of meat (and a lot of cash upfront), meaning you'd need a decent sized freezer. a nice bonus is that the meat tastes better.

review your insurance, and get new quotes.

My wife and I completely stop buying proccess food such as hot dogs, sausages, etc. Buying something that is already made or already cut or skinned cost money. We cut out pork, beef, and seafood unless it's on sale. Average chicken meat cost around 80 cents to a $1.00 per pound vs other meat. Just by doing that we save a lot. Since chicken is the cheapest meat, that is the main meat that we eat.

We prep and cook all our food. And we cook a lot of veggies. Veggies bought from Farmer's Market or Ethnic stores. Most veggies cost $1 a bundle or a bag. We buy our Veggies at 99 Cents Only store as well. The same brand name organic salad mix that cost $4-$5 at our local store only cost 99 cents at 99 Cents Stores (Just check your dates). Make sure to have good amount of fillers such as rice, beans, breads, potatoes in every meal.

If your husbands eats out. Know the type of restuarants he eats out at with his co workers. Check out to see if there are deals from Groupons or similar website for gift card deals. Sometimes, these gift cards can save as much as 50% or more such as spend $25 and get a $50 gift card...something like that.

Over this summer, I cut my electricity used down by avoiding using my central A/C completely. I have ceiling fans installed in all of my rooms. Bought thick curtains to keep the heat out. Installed Window Tinting to windows (some aren't perfectly installed, DIY), and used those 20" Box Window Fans in each room to cool off the house at night (usually have cool breeze once the sun set). In the Winter I have portable heater to heat the rooms that I or my wife is in, instead of turning on the furnace to heat the whole house.

We own a swimming pool so our water bill is through the roof. During showers, my wife and I turn on the water to get wet and then we turn it off during soaping/scrubbing and turn it back on when we rinse off. Yeah, kinda cheapskate move but hey, it saves money. Is your toilet using too much water? I put two water bottle in each of my toilet. (The water bottle is sink down by pebble rocks and water, so that it will stay in place). Limit watering your lawn and don't over water them. Don't set the timer too long. Water them at night, not in the morning or day because water will evaporate much faster.

As Attgig stated. Check your auto and homeowner's insurance. Might be dated and over priced. I price shop once a year just to make sure it's still competitive. Set your deductible as high as you can afford, especially homeowner's insurance. Homeowner's insurance is something you don't really want to file too often so IMHO there is no point of having low deductibles if it can save you money. Ask the carriers to price qoute you on different deductibles to see if it's worth the savings, most time it will, some times it won't. Also, bundling auto and homes gets you discounts most of the time.

My wife and I love thrift stores, flea markets, craigslist, and garage/yard sales (especially those huge community sales). We shop at Good Will, they have 50% off everything during holidays and we stock up on books, used clothes, DVDs, etc. This is something you might not want to do or have the time but my wife and I have been flipping some stuffs we buy over the months from all the above sellers. Once we collect enough items, we resell it when we do a garage/yard sale. I use to think it was a waste of time but after I after taking in about $300 profit on my last yard sale, it's not a bad idea. Now, I'm not quiting my job over this but hey....monies...money.

Quote from calnbs : Is your toilet using too much water? I put two water bottle in each of my toilet. (The water bottle is sink down by pebble rocks and water, so that it will stay in place).

How does this work? A toilet tank generally holds 2-4 flushes worth of water, so displacing some of that volume won't change how much is used in a flush - unless you displace more than 75% of it....

Where do you spend the most?

When you go out to eat, skip drinks and just have tap water.

calbns nailed it with the restaurant gift cards/groupons. You can often find deals, especially around the holidays, like "buy $50 in GC, get $10 bonus" etc etc. If you're going to eat at those restaurants anyway, might as well.

Have you bought CFLs? Dual-flush toilets? I dunno what your utility bills are like. How about insulation and heating?

Also, do you have a few different credit cards to max out rewards? You can find ones that give up to 5% back for restaurants, gas, groceries, movies, or rotating categories.

Wow this thread really has some thrifty people. Where do you guys draw the line at comfort lol? I would be in a bad mood if I turned off the water after I got wet to scrub then on to rinse. Showers wake me up every morning. Most of the suggestions I like, but around here it would be pretty miserable with no ac and no heat.

Quote from happyhunting : Wow this thread really has some thrifty people. Where do you guys draw the line at comfort lol? I would be in a bad mood if I turned off the water after I got wet to scrub then on to rinse. Showers wake me up every morning. Most of the suggestions I like, but around here it would be pretty miserable with no ac and no heat.

My wife and I shower every night so using the shower to wake us up isn't an issue. I live in CA so the humidity is not bad, just the heat from the summer sun. Using the ceiling fan pretty much makes the room comfortable. Sucking in the cool breeze at night with the box fan, along with using ceiling fan pretty much cancels the A/C for me in my 2nd floor bedrooms when I'm ready to go to sleep.

Quote from happyhunting : Wow this thread really has some thrifty people. Where do you guys draw the line at comfort lol? I would be in a bad mood if I turned off the water after I got wet to scrub then on to rinse. Showers wake me up every morning. Most of the suggestions I like, but around here it would be pretty miserable with no ac and no heat.

I agree on the water on/off thing, but low-flow showerheads and HE washers save a buttload of water.

Also, if your house has good insulation, a little bit of heat/AC goes a long way. Of course, this is very regional. I live in MA and almost never use AC, instead opening windows and using shade. My wife and I are comfortable keeping the temp of the house low (unless company comes over, of course) and can usually get by with blankets, electric blanket, or space heater. When we do use the furnace, we shut all the vents and registers that aren't in rooms we need to heat.

Honestly, we're never uncomfortable. We're just not "hotel room" comfortable (if you know what I mean) -- but when we get a $40 gas bill in the middle of winter, it's worth it.

Quote from StarNova : I'm back again looking for ideas to cut the budget. You guys have awesome tips/ideas. We have cut out the cable, we go to the library for movies and books. I'm cooking more. Actually getting pretty good on a few recipes. We go meatless twice a week. One chuck of change is hubby eats out for lunch at work. He can't really pack because they go out as a team or out with his boss and coworkers. They talk shop. He feels he can't brown bag it since he might miss something. It averages around 10 bucks a meal. He goes as cheap as he can but some of the places can get pricey. Any ideas? We started going to the thrift shop for clothes, especially for my preschooler. There are some things I won't buy used, like shoes. I still do a few things organic, like milk and meat. Mostly for taste. I've cut back on organic veggies and fruits. I'm shocked that an orange costs almost a dollar. Thanks for any advice. I'm really trying to make every dollar count.

Besides what I said above, you may want to check your mortgage rates. If you haven't refinanced in awhile/ever (if you own, of course), then you may be able to get a zero points/zero closing cost mortgage (where you'll only pay to fund your escrow account) which could save you a bunch of money monthly.

Oh -- you may also want to replace your water heater and/or turn down the temp on it. Some people crank it up and have a tank of water hotter than what they'll ever use, which just wastes energy. Some (many?) states/utility companies are giving rebates on new water heaters which are energy efficient.

Quote from bonkman : I agree on the water on/off thing, but low-flow showerheads and HE washers save a buttload of water. Also, if your house has good insulation, a little bit of heat/AC goes a long way. Of course, this is very regional. I live in MA and almost never use AC, instead opening windows and using shade. My wife and I are comfortable keeping the temp of the house low (unless company comes over, of course) and can usually get by with blankets, electric blanket, or space heater. When we do use the furnace, we shut all the vents and registers that aren't in rooms we need to heat. Honestly, we're never uncomfortable. We're just not "hotel room" comfortable (if you know what I mean) -- but when we get a $40 gas bill in the middle of winter, it's worth it. Besides what I said above, you may want to check your mortgage rates. If you haven't refinanced in awhile/ever (if you own, of course), then you may be able to get a zero points/zero closing cost mortgage (where you'll only pay to fund your escrow account) which could save you a bunch of money monthly.

I agree with this. I don't have to have anythingoverly hot or overly cold. Our temperature ranges are crazy here (oklahoma) we had something like 20+ days of 100+ degree weather last year. Even with the ac at 80-85 it seemed like the ac ran straight through that month. The unit is too big for the house too so its kind of a strange thing. The electric bill that month was something like 220. typically it is around 50-90 depending on the month.