Here's a site that you can sign up with to get rebates on what you buy. They have a lot of places to choose from.

www.rebateshare.com

I just ordered gift certificates from using the points off of my credit card. I got 2-$50 certificates from Bed, Bath, and Beyond, 2-$100 gift certificates from Lowe's, and a $75 gift certificate from Sears. My husband is getting the Sears one and my older kids are getting the other gift certificates for Christmas. I'm really pleased.

JC Penney's is starting a reward program too. I'm not sure exactly what it involves but here's the site for it. It's a free membership.

www.jcprewards.com

I just got inet back up at home and feel like a little kid on sugar! I'll need to mellow out and look at all these ideas tomorrow (at work).

i also replaced all my light bulbs with the energy ones, i replaced all my storm doors and screen doors with Pella doors, ( plus i'm getting a tax credit for that thise year also) got a new stove and fridge, cause mine were just too old.. and i do mean very old...
Put Micah in daycare! This was very hard for me to do, but he needed to be around other children i found a very nice one with only 6 kids, i at least now will get some of this money back in my taxes this year... cause i couldn't claim private care..

Sounds like everyone is working to save!!

Haley, things aren't too bad around here. The housing market is down due to the credit mess, and folks were pinched when the gas prices were so high. Lots of people are conserving because they don't know what the future may hold. Overall, not too many businesses closing. There are still help wanted signs around. Other than the construction industry, I think overall we are still in pretty good shape down here. Everyone is talking about their 401K's and IRA's and hoping for a future recovery.

Diana, I've noticed the grain storage people have in their fields (the big white plastic bags that look like huge catepillars) are still mostly full. I saw one that had been partially emptied on the way to work yesterday. I'll have to ask the farmer's wife I work with what is happening in the grain market around here.

We've thought of putting up storm windows or hurricane shutters to conserve energy.

We are shopping grocery sales and stocking up on meats that are on sale in value packs and repackaging using our Food Saver. I've been disappointed in the pork chops though. The ones on top look nice, meaty and lean, the ones under them are all bone. Disgusting how deceptive grocers have become. The manufacturers are putting less in the packaging also hoping we won't notice that 12 oz has become 10 oz, but the box the same size, just a bit thinner.

start a college fund for your kids
make sure you have a will
extra life insurance on hubby
extra disability insurance on both of us
pack lunches everyday for work
when we go out to eat i always have coupons
coupons for grocery shopping
sticking to the list only.
shop at gabs for work clothes or wait for sales
pay extra interest on the house payment.
pay off credit cards
dont use credit cards, make a budget and stick to it.. (very hard)
start a savings account for emergency money
color my own hair now (that one hurt) took me two times to find my color my stylist uses!!

i also donate our old clothes and baby clothes to a church, this is another tax write off at the end of the year.

Diana be careful, jc penney's just put a charge on my credit card for some kind of reward program - the only reason i caught it cause the card was paid off and there was this charge on it... i made them take it off... read the fine print...

THANKS for all the good ideas.

Check your power provider. Mine (www.reliantenergy.com) has several helpful hints and even a place to key in to see what each appliance costs you. My rate is at $.14/kWh.

Hubby and I agreed that we can not go to the grocery store without a list and we must try to shop only from the list. We have a bad habit of stopping on the way home from work to grab a few things and ending up getting extras. We need to get better about thawing something out for supper. We literally have 4 freezers (1 on the side-by-side in the house, 2 big ones in the garage, and 1 on the extra refrigerator in the garage). I figured that it costs $25/month for each, so we are going to consolidate and hopefully sell one of the freezers. We re-inherited the extra refrigerator and a compact refrigerator from kids college days. Since the storm, we haven't plugged the compact in and will try to sell it. With such a big family, the extra frig comes in handy, so we'll probably keep it.

ps. i ordered something from jc penneys online and when i went to check out that's when they signed me up for something, and that's where this charge came from, so be careful when you buy something from them online... it was around 10.00 if i remember right.. i was pissed.....

Sandy i bet if i leave my husband home when i go grocery shopping i will save 100.00 everytime he goes he gets big steaks and junk food.... :mad:

Well, be thankful that he cares to go with you and remember the way to a man's heart... I'm so glad to hear that your marriage is better!

There are several things I can cut and/or do without to save money, but I'm not ready to give them up and feel that we must REWARD OURSELVES for our hard work. I'm a quality time kinda girl!

I wouldn't say better and i wouldn't say its worse, were just trying to survive right now... The only reason he goes, cause he gets stuff for his lunches now, i don't have the time to shop for the house, baby, cleaning stuff and worry about what he wants for his lunch ... so i told him to get his butt off the couch and go with us. :p

You drive a hard bargain!