more from my squirrelly brain..ROFL

Some more ideas of how to save...in all sorts of areas

* If you use coupons, save the money you saved on couponing, I am not a huge coupon user but if you see by my side bar, I saved 12.09 just in a week..that money will be put into a special place and saved and used for holiday shopping.

* For banking, if your bank is charging you fees to use their services it is time to shop around. There are many MANY banks who offer free checking, free savings and so forth. Why waste your money on fees that are not refundable.

* Keeping your vehicle serviced saves you money, short term and long term. Short term it causes your vehicle to get better gas mileage and gas aint cheap these days. Long term, a vehicle that is serviced regularly lasts longer and with regular servicing you can catch any troubles early on.

* Like movies?? Check out your local library, tons of libraries now have video check out. Some of the libraries I have been to, have recent videos. Also, as fast a movies come out on dvd, waiting to rent or borrow the dvd from the library isnt too bad compared to paying a huge amount to go to the theater, but if you just absolutely, positively must see a movie in a theater, shoot for seeing it at matinee prices. Eat before you go too, so you dont fall into the trap of buying their expensive snacks.

*Homeschooling?? Dont want to spend a fortune, there is a book called Homeschooling on a Shoestring Now I have never read that book, but I homescool (have for 8 years) inexpensively. I buy most of my books used, and also any software I use I try to buy it on ebay. Borrow books from friends, homeschool groups often have swap days or swap meets for curriculum. Check out freecycle, I often see people giving away homeschool items on free cycle. Use the internet, there are tons of free sites out there for all sorts of information. And I think this is the most cost saving homeschooling tip I have, realize that homeschooling doesnt have to use just text books or special homeschool books, your children can learn from regular books. In fact I would bet (if I were a betting person) that my kids have learned more from reading everyday or life books than they have from the curriculum we use.

* Websites..wanna build a website?? There are lots of places out there online where you can host free websites, yeah you have to deal with all the ads and pop ups, but it is a great place to practice, and you can perfect your site building skills. My favorite is www.freeservers.com I have built 4 or 5 websites with them, in fact I now pay to keep some of them ad free, and continue hosting because the service they provide is great.

* We have (as a family) pretty much gone to drinking water only with our meals, this is saving money with not making iced tea full of sugar (now when we drink tea, we drink it unsweet) and also not buying sodas. We dont drink much juice either, because most juices are full of sugar and none of us need that either. So when the water gets boring, I add a orange slice to mine, or a lemon wedge. The savings go beyond monetary savings on the budget, they extend to our health savings and dental savings too.

*Always look at items before you trash them to see if they can used for a different purpose than they were created for, it saves you money from having to buy something new, and it also helps with recycling..Example, my old crock pot died, the crock is now a good heavy water dish for my dogs. I cut the cord off the crock (it had copper in it, I will give it to a guy from my church who collects cords and melts them down).