Things I can do to save my family money:

Here are some things I can do to save my family money. A couple of them we have not implemented yet but are seriously considering them.

1. Line dry laundry. I grew up with my mom often hanging things out to dry. I don't have a clothes line but I have a nifty little thingy that I can set up on the deck and dry many items of clothing at one time. Electricity savings!

2. Wash only full loads of clothing. I read this everywhere. Normally, this is what I do. But sometimes I do turn the knob to small or medium for smaller loads. Also, I wash nearly everything in cold water. Electricity, water, and gas savings! Oh, and I always use less detergent. Do not fill your cups to the top!

3. Run dishwasher only when full. Well, duh, we do this anyway! Electricity and water savings! I also do not use as much dish washing detergent as called for. Makes your detergent go twice as far!

4. In the winter, we kept our furnace turned down. Sometimes as low at 65. We supplemented with fireplace heat in the evenings. We hung blankets over the two doors to the den. One leads to the foyer and the other to the kitchen. Kept our den nice a cozy. We have loads of afghans and throws and I love to wear sweats in the wintertime.

5. In the warmer weather, I always hold off as long as possible in turning on the AC. I love to open the windows and let the fresh breezes blow through my home. But of course, this time of year I get the dreaded pollen too. Oh, well. We also take advantage of our ceiling fans and a couple osclilating fans than we own.

6. Work out at home-no gym fees! We own a nice treadmill. We all use it. Maybe not as often as we should. No, we DON'T use it as often as we should!! We have some hand weights and great DVD's/Tapes as well. Nice walks in the neighborhood and park is nice too!

7. We are eating meatless meals at least once a week, sometimes more. Beans, beans, the musical fruit!

8. We are going to plant a vegetable garden. This should be fun and yummy too!

9. Use coupons, shop loss leaders, utilize rebates.

10. Shop our new Aldi's when their price beats Krogers, Ingles and Food City.

11. Drink more water and Iced Tea. Buy less sodas.

12. Shop thrift stores and yard sales. This can be fun!

13. Do our own yard work. We have hired this out for a long time. This may prove to be back breaking and our yard may not look as good. But the cost savings is substantial! Plus more exercise!

14. Eliminate our Verizon phones or at the very least, drop down to a cheaper alternative with them. Or better yet, get a Trac Phone and buy some minutes. Use it only when necessary!

15. Use the library more often! They even have movies, did you know that?

16. Attend free summer movies at Regal Cinemas. Robyn enjoys this. Don't buy concessions.

17. Color my own hair. I pay $85.00 every six weeks to have my hair cut, colored and eyebrows waxed. I am eliminating the color. I will do this myself. May eliminate more down the road. I may just do a better job at plucking my eyebrows (ouch!) and stretch the haircuts out to eight weeks apart.

18. Eliminate cable and dsl and phone extras. This could save us over $175.00 a month! Whew! That's a lot of money. We can go to the local bookstore with our laptops to get on line or a million other places around town. We would miss this convenience, but come on, $175.00!

19. Oh, cook from scratch! This is a big grocery cost savings. I found a recipe for Hot Cross Buns that I want to try. If they turn out well, I will make these for Easter breakfast. I bet they will taste much better than store bought that are full of icky chemicals!

20. Make homemade gifts. I have a ton of scrapbooking supplies. Everyone loves photo albums. I am learning to crochet and have sewing on my list of things I need to learn more about. Who doesn't like this sort of gift? I know I love them. How about a nice loaf of homemade bread, yummy cookies and candies, and the like. These all make great gifts.

21. Rarely attend the regular cinemas. We have a discount cinema that is $4 including drink and popcorn. We often wait for the movies to come there.

If you have any more ideas you would like to share with me, please respond and post your thoughts.

Pam