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I don't think of myself as a frugal person and a lot of you probably do/did this but I thought I would share:

1. I changed auto insurance companies. I checked the Moody's and A.M Best rating, was satisfied (NJ Skylands) and found a company that gave a significant discount for paying 1 year up front (many do).

I went from paying $3200/year ($1600 biannual) to one $2200 payment for the same exact coverage. Yeah, it was kind of a bummer pill to pay that in Nov., right before Christmas but it it's worth it.

In NJ, car insurance is a huge issue.

Savings: $1000.00 per year.

2. I neglected my long distance plan. I do make calls during the day sometimes, both toll and long distance so I switched to Verizon's Freedom Value package for about $52/month - all inclusive, similar to Vongage. I actually considered Vonage but I have heard of some service problems and for $5, I figured it wasn't worth it. I figure I was paying about $100/month between local and long distance.

Savings: $600/year

3. I switched to a TracFone for my cell phone. It's a prepaid cell phone. I bought about 360 minutes upfront and it costs me about $11/month. I don't use the phone very much - just for my work and wife to contact me and we have jobs where we can't chat all day so I know this may not work for most of you.

I will only use it about 30 minutes/month anyway. . .actually, after buying minutes last May, I still have about 180 minutes left to spend.

Don't sign up for those Sprint and Nextel plans.

Savings: $400/year

POTENTIAL SAVINGS FOR OUR FAMILY: Getting off of Digital Cable. But the 4 year old likes "On Demand" for Blues Clues so we keep paying it. Kinda dumb since we have old Blues Clues videos laying around. Oh well - there's another potential $300. My older son also likes NFL Blitz. . .ahhh. . .too much TV.