What is the number one (or two) thing you do to save money?

[Anonymous]

I follow the rule my husband laid out for me many years ago:

"Stop trying to save money."

Instead of loading up on sale items, I buy exactly what we need, no more. It works. It always cracks me up when I hear "you'll save more if you spend more." That was totally me a few years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We actually do opposite of what one PP said- we shop at Whole Foods for veggies and fruit. While we pay more upfront for their unbelievably beautiful produce, we also eat it more b/c it's so nice and fresh. Unlike at, say, Giant or Safeway, where the produce is anemic-looking and it sits and goes to waste in the fridge b/c people are not inspired to eat it.

I'm PP and you are absolutely right about the quality of produce of WF vs Safeway. WF is superior in every way. This is going to sound bad, but once I stopped going into WF, Safeway produce started looking not so bad and actually tastes good. Today I bought 2 large packs of strawberries for $2. If i went to WF it would have cost at least $8. Same thing with Hass Avocados 2 for $3. WF it would have cost double. The items are not organic so if that is important then I get sticking with WF all the way. I've saved money from not setting foot in WF b/c I am not tempted to buy delicious and expensive cheese or that extra bottle of wine or even a really expensive salad dressing for those beautiful greens.

[Anonymous]

1) Charter school
2) Paid way less for our house than most of our peers (and mortgage rate < 4%).
3) Only own one car.
4) pack lunch and make our own coffee.
5) no cable.
6) shop at whole foods, but always MAKE our food, rarely get take out.

Lets me be home mostly full time with the kids.

[Anonymous]

Removed myself from the email lists for a whole bunch of stores. That the constant "SALE" emails from Loft, Macys, Childrens Place, Gymboree etc. were motivating me to spend more, even with the 20% off etc. When I stopped the emails, my spending dropped, too.

[Anonymous]

Shop at Giant for all the stuff I normally buy, other than produce and meat. With their rewards card you can save on gas at Shell. I usually save about $.30/gallon, which helps a lot right now.
No leisure shopping and only buy clothes and other items on sale, or check prices online before buying in-store.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Removed myself from the email lists for a whole bunch of stores. That the constant "SALE" emails from Loft, Macys, Childrens Place, Gymboree etc. were motivating me to spend more, even with the 20% off etc. When I stopped the emails, my spending dropped, too.

You know, this is interesting. I was just thinking that this might be the case with me. Might try this out!

[Anonymous]

1) biggest savings was buying a home in a lower income neighborhood. Mortgage is much less, and also keeping up with the Joneses costs less. Classes, day camps, events, birthday parties all cost less. This was the biggest way to save money.

2) second biggest savings is probably living with just one car ( a small one at that). About 6 times a year it is inconvenient, but we manage to survive somehow. Gas costs less, insurance costs less, registration is less, cost for repairs is less. We also walk or bike a lot (because someone has the car) or we just stay home.

[Anonymous]

I over-withhold. I never have to worry about paying a tax bill (did it once, and I hated it!), and I generally have an extra 10k or so that goes straight into savings at refund time. Yes, I understand the time-value of money, but I also understand that money in my pocket is spent more than money that doesn't make it there.

[Anonymous]

We almost never hire people to do work in or around our house. (housecleaning, yard work, painting, handyman stuff, gutters, shoveling). I do most of this and I'm learning minor plumbing

[Anonymous]

buy car (honda/toyota) pay cash and keep for 10 years.
pay extra on mortgage to pay of in 20 yrs

[Anonymous]

no cable
VoIP for home phone
home haircuts for our boys

[Anonymous]

Don't buy random crap you don't need, like Easter egg themed door wreaths.

[Anonymous]

1) Switched to a prepaid cell phone (pagepluscellular.com) and saved at least $50/month;
2) Started 'no spend' days on Wednesdays and Sundays. Can't spend any money on those days (paying bills and weekly grocery shopping allowed, but nothing beyond basics). Helps cut down on the frivolous spending;
3) Embraced brand loyalty, and stopped searching the shelves of Target for new, different, 'cheaper' brands that I ended up not liking and not using. Now I order night diapers, detergent, etc. through Amazon's scheduling service and save myself the $100+ toilet paper run to Target.

[Anonymous]

No cable, although technically not a reduction in costs because we've never had it.

Try to control impulse purchases - with catalog shopping I would wait a day before buying something. More than half the time I would end up not getting it. It's a little harder to do that with online purchases but I still try to use the 24 hour rule.

Cut out our lawn mowing service and do it ourselves now (still have the weekly house cleaning though - not giving that up)

Moved a kid from private to public school - not specifically to save money but that part sure is nice

[Anonymous]

Refinanced the mortgage when the rates went down (2x).
Bring lunch to work
Generally eat at dinner at home with the kids
Pay cash for car and drive till it dies.
Paid off all the student loans as soon as we possibly could (even though everyone kept telling us we were "throwing money away" because we "could be investing it and making more). The piece of mind of having only 1 immovable consumer debt (the mortgage) was totally worth it.

Wish I could convince husband to quit cable - but he wants his ESPN.