Care to Share YOUR Frugal Tips?

I'd like to hear this too. I also have 5 children and I'm a SAHM. I shop at Stores that have good products for inexpensive. Fresh and Easy, Costco, and Super Target because I save 5% every time I shop with my Target debit card. I get points with my Fresh and Easy Friends card and convert them for cash. I also use Melaleuca and get cash back and loyalty dollars for free products. So that's how I get great products for inexpensive. I also have the cheaper cell phone without internet, get books and movies from the library for free, share meals when eating out, and only get desserts for date nights.

1. Paperless household, save for toilet paper. This includes using cloth diapers.
2. Cut up own chickens, use carcass to make stock and soup.
3. Buy a big spiral ham: freeze lunch and dinner size portions, make ham and pea soup with bone.
4. Make own dinner bread, puff pastry, pesto, mac and cheese, etc. from scratch
5. Utilize your freezer: buy in bulk when cheap
6. Never buy silly things like fast food, coffee, etc.
7. Skip going out for entertainment, invite people over instead.
8. Use vinegar to clean everything.
9. Coupon, coupon, and coupon.
10. Ebates
11. Cut dryer sheets in half
12. Compost: saves on leaf removal costs, creates compost for the garden, feeds friendly animals in yard
13. Plant a veggie garden and freeze food for winter
14.meal plan in a way that utilize everything bought at the store
15. freecycle and buy used (it's good for the pocket and great for the environment!)

no cable, keep ac warm but comfortable enough, keep heater cool but comfortable enough. We don't buy stuff we don't really NEED. New CD may be nice, but not needed. New phone may be nice, but mine works fine even after 3 years. The library has movies to rent, so no need to rent any or buy any. Stick to my list at the grocery store. Plan meals as to not waste any perishables. Thrift stores have perfectly good clothes, esp jeans. I may 'splurge' on an $8 shirt at Target for my son. My clothes from 2 years ago still fit, so why buy more? I don't honestly remember the last shirt I bought for myself - brand new. I did get one at a thrift store for $4. And STILL haven't worn it. Waiting for a 'nice night out.' That being said - we don't go out to eat, like EVER. And if/when we do, try to keep it simple with no sodas $1.99 each. Ice water with lemon is free. Hmm. We stock up when something's a great price. Last week 74cents/pound turkeys. We bought 4. (there's only two adults and one preschooler at our house). We will eat every last bite of it - we don't waste food. We freeze it and eat what we have - making turkey tacos, turkey soup, turkey sandwiches, turkey taquitos and so forth.

Hope some of this helps!

I did a budget after taking a Dave Ramsey Financial Peace class. I never thought I'd like a budget but I love it now. It's showed me where I was blowing money. I have x amount of money to spend for the month and when it's gone, it's gone. That's been preventing me from wasting money. Now when I go to the grocery store, I get very little "extras" because at the end of the month, there wouldn't be anything left. Anxious to see your answers....

We have one car and use bus tickets for the rest. (Which means my husband takes the car to work and I bus.) Bus tix cost less than a second car.

Phones: we have our landline, but both have pay-as-you-go cell phones. This runs us about a total of $60 dollars ($30 per phone will get us 90 days) and I don't text. My husband only texts for work, so that's pretty rare. Once a month, maybe. We don't 'do' cable or Netflix, but use the library a lot for our entertainment. (And PBS, too! Love PBS!)

We use cloth napkins, wipers (I made them), rags and towels. Saves on paper towel/napkin expenses. I'm looking into making cloth sanitary items for myself.

We buy most of our child's clothes from consignment stores (except shoes, underpants, etc) and shop sales/Goodwill for ourselves with the exception of bras, underpants, socks.

When I think to make a weekly menu, I try to buy ingredients that can double into two or more meals. I'm not as good at this, but it does save us money. Leftovers for lunch here too.

Instead of running our furnace, we buy cordwood and burn that. At the end of the evening, we open the door to our attic bedroom to let that heat up.

And in the summer, I garden. Food for practically free and flowers when I want, all I want.

Great question-- I'll be interested to see what other have suggested.

drink water or tea - take a look at your food budget, how much of it goes to beverages, juice, soda, milk, etc.

always bring a refillable bottle with you - whenever I'm out running errands, I always bring a water bottle with me, sometimes water, sometimes iced tea, but then I'm never tempted by a conveniece store or drive thru. Same goes for snacks if you'll be gone for awhile and especially if you have the kids with you

turn off the car - if your waiting at the drive up, or waiting for the kids, if it's more than 30 seconds, you'll save gas by turning off the car

hang up clothes to dry - the dryer uses quite a bit of electricity, and your clothes will last longer if the avoid the dryer

no school lunches (unless your on the reduced lunch program) - it's much cheaper and healthier to make your own lunches and send them with the kids

buy generic or store brands - we all have the brands that we love, but be willing to try some store brands. I've found that many store brand crackers, juices and dairy products are just as good or better

consider joining a warehouse club like BJ's or Costco - not everything is cheaper and depending on the types of items you eat it may not be benefical for you, but for us we save a ton. Some of the items that we save a lot on - bananas, chips, cheese, salsa, juice, bakery items

books - go to the library or buy used

movies - I bought a lot of vhs tapes for $1 or less, cheaper than renting, especially if the kids watch them 3 or 4 times. I rent dvd's thru redbox, you can also check them out for free at the library

I make my own washing powder from borax, laundry soap and washing soda. We cut our own firewood and burn that. We don't use air conditioning at all. We don't buy lunches, drinks etc, it's all made at home. I make a list of free entertainment available such as picnics at nice spots, playgrounds etc. My children wear hand-me-downs and share clothes, we work on a cash budget. I make my own general-purpose cleaning spray, and when we need new furniture etc, I buy second-hand or tender for it.

Lots of great answers here. I know others have said using vinegar and I do that too but there's a lot of recipes to go along with that vinegar, baking soda, salt, lemon just to name a few. Just google home made cleaner recipes. Not only will it save you a ton of money but they won't poison you or your family. Asthma and Cancer runs high in my extended family and I keep begging my cousins and aunts to switch but they just don't see it. "If it doesn't come from a store and made from chemicles, it's not going to clean." I've given up, watching my cousin die of cancer is making me sad, it started off in her breast, then went to brain and now in her liver. I've begged her to stop using the cleaning agents but people just seem to think "what does she know" Sorry I got a little off topic here :)

I do clip coupons. I don't go all crazy like on the tv shows, but using coupons with purchases does make a big savings over the long run. Just for fun, I kept a list of how much I saved in coupons, and it totaled about $150 over 6 weeks. That's a lot over the course of a year!
Get the Sunday paper. This where all the ads and coupons are. Do price comparisons.
Like the other poster, I buy whole chickens when they are on sale and cut them up.
I also buy discounted meats. Go to the grocery store first thing in the morning. This is when they mark down meats that are going out of date soon. I buy these mark downs and freeze.
Order what you can online and do price comparisons at sites like nextag.com. Utilize free shipping at places like Amazon. Saves time and money.
And meticulously go over all receipts and monthly bills. I find mistakes all the time. Nickel and diming can add up!
Hope this helps!

I'm an insurance agent in AZ. If you don't have an independent agent, find one, they can shop your home/auto and you don't have to wait until renewal. I have on average saved my clients $100 per month. Hubby and I also pay cash for everything. When we eat out, we never get a drink, they are too expensive. We also take gallon zip bags to the movies and buy the large drink/popcorn, both are free refill. So hubby and I share the drink, the kids each get their own bag of popcorn so there is no fights. We also go to the movies before noon and its only $5 per ticket. I get cleaning products at the dollar store and have had good luck with them cleaning really well. I also rip my dryer sheets into 4's, rip in half and half again. We don't pay full price for anything. I shop at thrift stores and the best deal I seem to always get is books for the kids. Sometimes they are buy one (for .10) get 2 free! I also got my daughters skirt for $4.99 for her xmas program and it still had the store tag on it...Liz Clairborne for $65. Whoo hoo! I also buy all our furniture and cooking dishes there. At the grocery store I look for "managers special" and load up on them. I'm just always concious to save money where I can. Good luck.

I do a lot of what others have already posted. Will add:

If you want cable, negotiate with them. They have special promotions. You'll have to do this every 6 months or so, but worth it. We just got a screaming deal on a new computer (the other one was a dinosaur) and it has the HDMI port. We can now stream our internet onto our tv (that I bought super cheap at Menards a few months ago).

Keep your eyes peeled at all places and know your prices.

A place I've saved some money is using vinegar (in a spray bottle for kitchen and everyday and in the washer for germ killer and fabric softener), a dryer ball instead of fabric softener/sheets, and refill foaming soap dispensers (like Dial) with regular hand soap with a 1:5 ratio (soap:water). I bought one gallon container for $4 a year ago and am only half way through it.

Check into things you aren't sure of....like cell phone packages at Walmart (we pay $82 a month for two phones unlimited text and talk AFTER tax --- no landline phone).

Buy seasonal supplies/items after the season. I bought Christmas shirts last year for my girls for 75 cents each at Walmart. Just got Halloween shirts for $2 at Walmart two weeks ago.

I don't buy new clothes unless they are seriously discounted.

Good luck!