So please share all your frugal living tips from cheap foods to decorations, cleaning products, and etc.

Thanks!

Good Luck on your promo…..I’ll go to the site when I get home

Examine your record and see if costs can be cut or adjusted. You both need to be trying to cut costs or it won’t work very well.

Plan out and simplify your holiday spending and stick to the plan. Can you give fewer gifts? If not, where can you cut down the amount you spend. Family gifts instead of individual? Give certificate for baby-sitting or 2 hours of cleaning help or car-wash, etc(and you will do the work)?

Talk over the cost cutting with family. Many of them are trying to cut costs, too. If you entertain, can you cut down on alcohol and switch to the less expensive tea or coffee?
Switch from chips to popcorn.
Play games or work puzzles instead of renting half a dozen movies

Clean with baking soda, vinegar, water where you can instead of more expensive cleaning products.
Use damp dustcloth instead of expensive wipes.

Talk to some old folks who lived during the Great Depression and see how they managed? They will probably be late 70s or older, but they know things.

I have read several finance books, but most of them do not cover coping with todays economy and tailored to 24 year olds.

What are your savings and frugal living tips?
Note: I am already contributing 15% to 401K

Cancel internet, cellphones and pay tv. Instead use the public library, a regular home phone and watch regular major stations on free tv.

Ride a bike or walk whenever possible. If you live in a city, sell your car and use public transportatino or walk/ride a bike.

Grow some of your own produce if you have access to a gardening plot or even if you have space for some containers. You can grow herbs, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, blueberries, etc….

Pick and freeze your own produce at local farms. Get yourself a chest freezer and when certain items go on sale, buy in bulk. Even things like shredded cheese, meat and yogurt can be bought on sale and frozen.

Use more fruits, veggies, rice and pasta as the bulk of your foods, and use the meats and more expensive foods as an accent, not as the main portion. It’s healthier this way too.

Shop at second hand stores. There is NOTHING wrong with a lot of what you can find at a Salvation Army or Goodwill store. Most people are just too proud to do so. Same goes for household items, furniture, etc…

Keep Christmas and birthday gift-giving to a minimum. MOST people go WAYYYYY overboard and then year after year promise to “scale things back”, but that rarely happens. No one really needs more than one or at the most two gifts if you really think about it.

Do not eat at restaurants, pretty much ever if you really want to be frugal. *I* personally love to do it, but it is a major extravagance when money is tight and the first thing we forego if we know we are going to be short on money.

For entertainment, choose free things, visit the beach, parks, library, window shop at malls, take up hiking, bird watching, etc…. there are plenty of truly entertaining things that are completely free….sunrises and sunsets for example

Also anyone have a link to a furniture check list where you can tick off what u have
Well I have rough estimates of what it costs like electric gas things like that.