Tips to save money

I'm an obsessesd savings shopper and here are a few practices I do to save and spend less on everything: For Groceries: I use coupons, yes i clip coupons and use them as soon as my local grocer holds a sale on a particular item that i have a coupon. the best thing about this is that my local grocery doubles the value of the coupons and i usually save about 40% off. For clothes/shoes/wardrobe shopping: I shop off season, i shop the spring/summer sales for use the following year and do the same thing for the fall/winter season. i only shop when my local stores hold at least 50% off their retail price. And I don't mind getting hand me downs specially from friends who like buying designer clothes just using them few times and they're done. For utilities: I do the basic savings here like turn-off any light/tv when not in use,. I use a glass when brushing teeth (i taught my kids to do the same too). I only use the dishwasher when it's full (i hand wash few dishes). I turn the temperature at 79 deg. during summer and 68 deg. during winter. For Gas: I schedule my errands and do everything in one day. I only go out of the house for errands 2 times a week. Other Savings: We never dine out, we buy take out foods twice a week. My husband brings lunch with him (something that I prepared).We rent dvds, videos in the library, rent books in the library, attend free shows & entertainment. For paying bills, we use the internet and we save on stamps doing this. We monitor our expenses by logging everything in ms excel/money. We only use rewards credit cards, something that gives us back a few $$ back for whatever amount we spent. To date, we have achieved the following by using those savings tips. -we have paid off our first car in year 2001 -we just paid off our minivan (december 2006) -we slashed off 2 years our mortgage from 15 years and we plan to pay it off ny year 2010 -no credit card debt There are still plenty of things I know and I'm sure there are still a lot from others. Hope this helps.

Simple. First list down yor daily expenditures.Then allocate 1/4 of the actual u spend on each item.Deposit the remaining in a bank becuase if it is easily accessible you would be tempted to get more.Slowly, weekly by weekly allocations should be reduce like from 1/4 to 1/3 and so on.You will till then realize where were yor useless expenses and allocate less to that item.

Cut down on buying name brands(clothes and food), use products in moderation as a way to make them last longer(that could also cut down on the cost of electricity.)

Keep it simple. Always think of the need and not the want; are there any alternatives? Keep track of your spending and eliminate unnecessary expenses.

Earn a lot.. or hope that someone leaves you a fortune

Eat all of your leftovers! If you make spaghetti tonight turn the leftover sauce into soup tomorrow. Don't waste money on dry cleaning and things you can do yourself. Use coupons and shop for deals. Two days ago I found yams on sale for 10 cents a pound. Can't beat that! Not in the mood for yams, but I am going to eat them and be happy! Find recipes that are good, healthy, and call for few ingredients.

The biggest one I have is eat at home whenever possible and try to make enough to provide leftovers for a couple of meals. I can make a pot of spaghetti for under $5 and it will feed me for 3 days.