I wish I could say we are models of economy and money management but we most certainly are not. Even so I think there are some things we do to save money that are noteworthy. Here is a list of some of those things. If you have some good ideas for saving money to share, please add a comment.

– Michele cuts everyone’s hair (she is very good at it even though she hates doing it!)
– I have started to take the train to work instead of driving
– We get a lot of our groceries from Aldi
– We save a bit of money on postage by paying almost all bills online
– We shop at Goodwill especially for clothes for the kids but also for me
– We pay attention to special deals that we read about on the Internet (e.g. Craigslist)
– Michele subscribes to email from Freecycle and we’ve managed to get quite a few things that way including a dryer, couch, and even a popup camper
– Michele always has an eye for closeout bargains at stores we shop at such as Target
– Michele is very talented when it comes to making things and many times that is how we come up with presents for birthdays and such for family and friends
– We decided long ago to get rid of our land line telephone service and use our cell phone service exclusively
– Within our family there are many children at different stages of growth and so we frequently benefit from hand-me-downs from others
– I absolutely despise doing it but I iron all of my clothes that need it rather than spend money at the dry cleaners
– We are trying to limit the number of times we eat out at a restaurant (mainly by not eating fast food takeout from places like McDonald’s)
– Michele enjoys going to garage sales when she has a chance
– We heavily rely upon local libraries for books and movies
– When feasible we buy things in bulk from Costco or Sam’s Club
– IKEA is one of our favorite stores and we always check their “as is” section and get needed furniture for hundreds of dollars less than regular prices
– We rarely go to see movies in the theater
– I make use of Gasbuddy and other similar services to find the cheapest gas possible
– We make heavy use of the option provided by my employer for a flexible spending account (FSA) for pre tax savings on medical expenses

Last but not least, we simply don’t go anywhere if money is tight so that we won’t be tempted to spend money that we don’t have.