Your Favorite Frugal Tip?

[jacquelynrose]

What is your favorite frugal tip that you try to implement into your Daily Life?

Jacquelyn

[ducati]

I try and save money doing the simplest things that require very little effort. For example, turning off lights in a room I'm not in, renting books from a public library versus purchasing them unless it is reference material I know I'll look at multiple times. Honestly, how often do you pick up a book that your read more than a couple of times?

Recently, I've been going through my house and replacing light bulbs with the more power efficient bulbs. The intial cost is a lot more, but I suppose if the energy and replacement costs are as good as they say, it will more than make up the difference. I've also increased the amount of insulation in the crawl spaces in my house as well as wrap my water heater in a thermal blanket.

I think those are all the ones I can think of off the top of my head. :

[the4parkers]

use the dryer when it is already warm. meaning doing all the laundry at once. not here and there. we put some panty hose on the end of the dryer tube so it would heat the house ,so were efficiant there. i only dry towels and socks.
i given up napkins the only ones we have are what are leftover from restaraunts. we gave up on paper towels.
we can usually get free conditioner or cheap we use that instead of shaving cream.
use old blankets and clothes for swiffer pads.
freecycle our brains out.this is a biggie. we haven't had to buy any baby formula, food,cereal, clothes in almost 2 years
i make my own babyfood when needed
rechargable batteries
when i do get cheap or free cleaners i refill them with water when they are half way empty. work and smell just as good. if i can't get a deal on them i make my own.
i use olive oil on my skin the dry spots. works great. vasaline on my face at night to help keep it moisturized.
take vacations with more people to cut costs down.
buy out of season
use my library for everything
I take all the used books people are willing to give toys too.
we practice using scissors with the books that are in pretty rough shape and make pictures with them. grandma's love that. lol
save all the junk mail and let the kids draw on the back of it ,or i use it too print stuff on. like my coupons
only get my prescriptions filled at places that offer gift cards with prescriptions.. target target target... bought an entire new bathroom using my giftcards.. and i do mean paint, bathtub, sink, flooring. i had to sell a few of the gc on ebay to get the money for it, but by golley thats a free bathroom!!
save shipping supplies. i resuse them for art projects my kids do or repacking
save gift bags and reuse
got two of one gift =regift
shop all year round. we managed to have a christmas for 25 people for under 30 bucks.including our 2 kids!! look at goodwills for new items or even yardsales.
you can buy new things everywhere save them .. someone will have a baby shower or something. i have a box in the closet i throw it into until i need them!

[leewill72]

I do a lot of survey sites and mypoints-type sites and get free GCs and money that way. Even a check for $5.00 is worth it in my opinion, I'm on the internet anyway.
Freecycling is terrific, for both giving and receiving.
Make sure to actually eat the leftovers from dinner, either as dinner again or a snack for somebody.
I cook twice as much hamburger as i need and freeze half of it. This also saves me time in the kitchen.
i cut the feet off of blanket sleepers so they fit longer.
I rarely buy new clothes, for anybody except my DH as he is a very big guy and takes a hard to find size. between freecycle, goodwill and salvation army we make out great.

hth

Lee

[zakity]

-I don't waste food. I use it up, freeze it, add it to something else, or we have a "smorgaboard" dinner.
-I hang clothes outside when it isn't raining.
-buy in bulk (but keep in mind if you are going to be able to use it before it expires)
-accept all hand-me-downs and pass on what you can't use
-Make dinner from what I have on hand instead of what sounds good.