i have gone to thrift stores for years. especially when my daughter was young and growing out of clothes so fast. sometimes you can find some really really good deals like new clothes with the original tags on them. i got a nine west handbag at a goodwill for $1.99 last summer.

we also grocery shop at places like aldi and save a lot. you can get a trunkful of food for 80 dollars or less and they carry some name brands too. not to mention cleaning supplies, toiletries, etc.

our city offers free recycling, so we recycle everything we can (paper, plastic, glass, aluminum, etc) and have reduced our weekly garbage to one bag versus several bags. we have to use the city bags ($15 for a box of 10) or put tags on regular bags.

places like family dollar and big lots have a big selection of food items too. like egg noodles 2 for a dollar a bag. munchies and stuff like tuna and even off brand soda.

i have found that coupons are usually good for name brand items, and that it usually cheaper to go with the spartan or store brands even without a coupon and they are pretty much the same. if you check, some of the off brands come from the same companies the name brands come from. tricky, no?

for pet food, check the food brand sites and there are usually coupons for food and treats. i just got a FREE bag of friskies cat food from a promotion they were having. free rules!

both my husband and i are currently laid off. we've cut corners on everything from scaling back the cable tv channels and cancelling our land line that we never use (our cell phones are cheaper and offer free long distance). we got a cheap snowblower on craigslist and it's already paid for itself and winter just started.

i also am a huge fan of freecycle. http://www.freecycle.org/ everything is free. you can search for items you need or get rid of stuff you no longer want. i use it all the time.

~aki