I too would be interested in the suggestions offered in cutting down your living costs and alternative ways to make money. I've been considering doing child-care in home on and off for a few months now. I'm trying to get my house/life/etc in order first (FlyLady is helping! *lol*) before I even think of adding to the chaos. Have any of you had any experience doing this? I feel like it might be difficult to find parents who agree with my parenting style, and I would compromise my beliefs for any child left in my charge. I guess you would have to be really upfront and not leave anything unsaid to prospective parents?

One thing I've been able to do, which has saved up a bunch of money in the last year alone, has been to make virtually all of our gifts. I've found that I'm much more extravagent with gifts than I am with my own family (ie, I'd buy a $50 dollar outfit for my new neice/nephew, but not for my son, kwim?) ... I guess it depends on what you're good at, but it doesn't have to be elaborate. Everyone really seems to appreciate hand made gifts. For example: this past christmas, I made my parents-in-law a quilted christmas tree skirt, I embroidered pillowcases for my parents, I made a set of 4 stockings for my brother and his family, I gave my sister-in-law stationary made from paper I made, and for smaller gifts I gave little baskets filled with cookies and breads and tins of speciaty teas. Each thing seemed really elaborate and extravagent, but aside from the time put into them, were much less expensive than had I bought them equally special gifts. If you plan ahead it's not stressful. I really enjoy making things for people I care about, especially when it's sewing, knitting or crocheting. I imagine that with each stitch I'm filling the item with love to that person from me. Kinda corny, but I'd like to think that when the item is used or worn they can tell.

So, what are some other frugal tips?

THE RESPONSES:

• Frugal tips, where to start?

  I run a local food buying club co-op so buy a lot of dried goods in bulk. We always buy used vehicles, but care for them well. We built our own house. (We are are own best cheap labour.) We cotton diaper, breastfeed, family bed. We don't eat meat very often. We don't buy processed foods very often, we have a summer garden. We start the garden from seed as it is much cheaper than buying the plants. We buy "no-name" products. We buy clothes at good-will, salvation army, etc. We pass clothes down to the other kids. We buy shoes on sale. We home-school so the kids don't feel they HAVE to have "nike's."(Not the only reason we home-school. LOL.) We take good care of our "stuff." We have been married over 14 years and still have our first micro-wave oven, bath towels, furniture, etc. All still look new (yes we use them, not the micro-wave much). We don't let the kids eat in the living room!! We do vax our pets but at a "clinic" for $15.00 instead of $80.00. I bought clippers so I can groom our dog. (Clipper cost was the same as one grooming charge.) I try to hang the laundry out as much as I can. We ask for craft stuff as gifts. We use our own wood for our main fuel source. We make our "celebration" cards. We have found all the really cheap restaurants for the rare occasions we go out. We try to fix things before we call a repair man. (Helps to spend some money on a good "fix-it" book. I have replaced the bottom element in the oven and took apart and replaced the gasket in the dishwasher.) We only cut the grass every 2 weeks. We compost. We make our own seed holders for the garden with vegetable-dyed newsprint and a dowel and then transplant them into cardboard juice containers. DH built our TV stand and a plant stand for starting garden seeds. We are not embarrassed to say thank-you for offers of clothes, toys, books, etc. Often we will only take a few of the items and if we don't know someone who can use it we will take the stuff to good-will. (We make sure that is okay with the giver first.) We buy as much as we can on sale. If we don't need it we go without.

  We are easily entertained by renting a video, exploring our woods, going to the local provincial park to explore, going to friends, take lunch and snack with us when we go to town for the day. Try to NOT use credit cards!! Gas up at Canadian Tire, pay cash and get Canadian Tire Money!! (Our 12 passenger van costs over $80.00 to fill up.) I join book clubs, get my free books, order 4 more and use as gifts and then cancel the club. Then they call to ask me to join a year later and I do it again. We are energy conscious and designed the house to take advantage of passive solar heating and I "made" DH put in a cold room. In winter we wear warm PJ's and have lots of blankets and cook sometimes on the woodstove.

  We don't overdo Birthday or Christmas. The kids get one "big" thing and then their stockings. At Birthday one "big" thing and small gifts for each other from the dollar store or home-made.

  You know how one credit card will give 9% interest (vs 18-24%) for 3 months if you transfer, we transfer.

  I did home-day care for 10 years. I stopped just before the twins were born. It was the best way for us to have a little more money and me be home with the kids. We put money away into RRSP and RESP so that when it comes time for education & retirement that we have a little put away. We do our own taxes. Get books from the library. We make our own organic spelt bread (in bread machine), our own almond milk (saves a bundle), our own granola. We use baking soda, vinegar, organic cleaning lotion and good old hot water for all our cleaning (vs expensive cleaners). We use rags instead of paper towels (we do keep paper towels around for really gross stuff though.)

  We recycle so we save a ton of room in the garbage bags. Not only does it save the number of garbage bags (they are cheap, but buy good ones cause you can jump on top and stuff more in, a cheap bag rips) we have to pay $1.00 for each bag of garbage. We take the stuff to the dump ourselves instead of paying for pick-up. Big t-shirts make great nighties!! We buy organic shampoo, conditioner, soap and cleaning lotion in bulk. The kids have "grub" clothes and good clothes & "grub" shoes and good shoes.

  If you have any specific questions about doing day-care let me know. I did find a discrepancy in feelings as I really felt the mom should be at home with the child/ren. However, since she wasn't then I knew that by being with me they were getting the best care they could get!! I was very upfront and even had a section in our child-care contract that stated my philosophies on children, their care, their learning and "discipline" I would use. (All AP of course). By the time I claimed the percentage of my mortgage, heat, hydro, food costs, etc. I ended up showing on paper as making $0.00. Of course I really did make money as we had all those expenses whether or not I am home!!

• My ideas are mostly food related. Shop at farmer's markets and co-ops as much as you can, if you don't already. Food at your local farmer's market (if you're lucky enough to have one, of course) is likely to be fresher, local, cheaper, and very often organic. And you have a personal relationship with the person who grew or made your food. (Check here to see if there are any in your area: http://www.localharvest.org.)

  Co-ops are a good way to save money on prepared foods by buying in bulk. There's none near us, but my mom belongs to a really good one; before she visits, we usually place a $200 or so order that lasts us a loooong time. We buy things like bulk TVP, spices, canned goods, beans, rice, dried fruit, etc -- stuff that's expensive at the store, but much less so at the co-op. Oh, and toiletries, soaps, etc -- Dr. Bronner's in the gallon size for less than a half-gallon at the store, Weleda diaper cream for $5 instead of $10, stuff like that.

  Hmm, what else? Use cloth instead of paper wherever possible (napkins, dishtowels instead of paper towels, baby wipes, handkerchiefs, etc). Buy said cloth things at yard sales for .25 each instead of new for $5 each! Buy food in bulk when convenient and cheaper (but do pay attention to prices; sometimes they'll try to fool you). Eat vegetarian, or nearly so -- meat and dairy is SO costly. I'm starting to make my own tofu -- organic tofu can be expensive, and the plastic cartons it comes in just get thrown away. (We're on a waste-reducing kick here.) Cook from scratch whenever possible -- it takes a little planning but is definitely cheaper and almost always tastes better.

  Don't go to stores -- you won't spend as much money!

  I'm not sure what I think about doing in-home daycare. Well, I know I wouldn't want to do it, but I'm afraid that if I did I wouldn't be able to give Neil sufficient time/attention (and if I did spend enough time with him, it would be cheating the kids in my care). I'd almost prefer to work out-of-the-home for ten hours a week (assuming DH was with Neil, of course!) so I could still give Neil my full attention while I was at home -- but that's knowing my son and my family (and my own strengths and weaknesses!). Have you considered selling crafts you made? There's a thread at amitysworld today asking if WAHMs have made money with their businesses, and a surprising number seem to be doing QUITE well (well, surprising to me at least). I think I'd be looking for things I could do at home while Neil slept as my first choice, and work from there -- which is probably what you're doing!

• I've done childcare in the past. I still wantch my little cousin for part of the day, but she is 5 and I take her to school. I've done before and after school care for a few kids in the area. I really liked that, because the kids were older and it was easier to attend to my baby at the time. I then started watching a couple of babies. It was REALLY hard to AP my own and give the attention I felt all babies deserve to the others. In the end I decided it wasn't working for me, so I stoped after I got PG with my second. This is just my experience, but thought you might want to consider it.

• On the subject of cars, we buy cars that will appreciate rather than depreciate. This may not be for everyone. But we own a 1968 VW Bus. We do all the repairs ourselves and since it is collectible, we are slowly restoring it. It's now worth more than what we bought it for plus what we put into it. So we've actually made money while having reliable transportation. It is possible! The advantage of getting a much older car is they are old enough that you can do all the work on them yourself, or 90% of it anyway, because they are far more mechanically simple than newer cars.

  Other things we do in addition to some of the things mentioned above: I sew all our clothes and get coupons in the mail for Jo-Ann's and Hancock Fabrics so I get the fabric for half off. We got a front loading washer when ours died to save water and electricity. We take off work clothes immediately upon entering the house so they don't get stained or rumpled. We don't wear shoes in the house. We shower only two or three times a week each. We invested in a water softener because our water here is really hard, and it saves us a ton in shampoo and laundry soap. I also do buy high-quality personal care products like shampoo and soap because you tend to use less of them.

  And some other things we have in the works: doing a meal plan and cooking some items in bulk as well as being able to stock up on pantry items when they are on sale. Buying a share in a CSA farm at the beginning of the season and considering that our veggie allotment (comes to about $20 a week around here for a huge box of organic goodies).

  We are also planning to set up a budget and using Quicken to stick to it. Quicken is checkbook/financial software and if you use it, it can really help track where your money goes. You can pull reports on how much you spent in each category (and you define the categories and subcategories if you want) and you can set up a budget and with one click monitor how on-track you are for the current month or year in terms of your budgeted amounts.

  Finally, if you are in a lot of consumer debt, don't be afraid or ashamed to seek help and, if needed, relief. As I mentioned in my other post, we just declared bankruptcy because of crushing debt. It took a while to get over the stigma but I am completely over it now. There are also debt consolidation programs which are good if you are not in quite as deeply as we were (I have heard you do need to do your research with these and make sure they are nonprofit and reputable). I wish I hadn't waited so long to see what awful shape we were in, because we could have saved a lot of heartache and stress.

• Yes a budget is really important. DH & I have had one since we started living together and still have one. Way back then if we got a $5.00 parking ticket, we would have to take the money from our gas money, so would have to walk to work for a couple of days. In the nice weather we walked but in winter the wind off Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence river was awful!! I set up something in excel. We keep all our receipts so I can put in what we spent our "extra" money on.

  I love my front load washer. We use so much less water. (We have a well so "free" water, but it still takes hydro to pump the water into the house.) It also means less water going into the septic tank which is good. We use 1/4 of the laundry detergent compared to our regular machine and it is gentler on clothes. Also it holds more clothes and we can even fit in our sleeping bags and comforters and cotton carpets so we don't have to spend money at the laundry mat to do them.

  DH showers everyday, but he is fast and has very short hair (what is left of it). The babies are bathed together and if no mishaps then my middle two use the bath water for their bath. (Don't do the other way around as babies have yet to have soap or shampoo on them.) The older two save water by having showers. All our water fixtures have low flow. Shower and sinks. We also have low consumption toilets. We save money on water by having a pitcher by the sink (We all prefer room temperature water, we keep cold water in the fridge in case guests prefer it.) instead of running water while getting a cup, etc. We use liquid soap so the kids use less water there too and they are asked to not leave the water running while brushing their teeth. I put medical tape on the stem of the pump of the liquid soap so they don't use too much. The dispensers are designed to put out 4 times as much soap as you need so you will buy more. If we are going outside, everone uses the toilet and only one flush.

  We buy a lot of our kitchen stuff from a restaurant supply store. If something doesn't work, breaks, we bought too many of them, etc, then we return it to the store if the reason is reasonable. Kids tape and book sets are so expensive. It is much cheaper to tape yourself reading your child's story. Great for the age when kids like to have a book read to them ( we still read aloud to all of them) but would like to "hear" more books for quiettime before bed in their bed, but can't really read yet. Also helps as they can read along and help teach themselves!!

  It is great that you and DH can do repairs to your vehicles. I am afraid I am not very good at that. I can tell what part needs to be fixed (past experience from other old cars!) but can't fix it. DH can't program the VCR let alone do vehicles, but he admits it. We do make sure we check fluid levels and take the cars in for oil changes etc.

  It is fantastic that you sew your own clothes. WOW!! I am thinking of making some simple dresses for the twins and the other girls. The ones that you wear turtle-necks or t-shirts under. That is about as sewing able as I think I can get. I do repair any clothes that loose seams etc. I know of many families who simply throw things out instead of fixing them.

  The other idea I thought of is to "trade" things. My DH traded re-designing a golf course club house for a year membership at the club. (We are in Canada so it was really only a few months - the club got a REAL deal!). Our garden is partly shaded in one area so lettuce does well all summer. Our neighbours have full sun so are without lettuce for a few weeks. We trade our lettuce for some of their other crops. We also freeze our extra veggies too. If we had more room we would buy in season veggies such as broccoli and cauliflower and freeze them for winter when they are up to 4x as much and sometimes look so ugly you won't buy it anyways.

  We save a ton of money vs other families I know by having a "rule." Only one glass of juice at breakfast and the rest of the day we drink WATER!! (We have yeast problems and too much juice causes problems so that is part of the reason as well, so we tell them ). If we have fruit at breakfast, we have water instead of juice.

  I set up a grocery list on the computer too. It has the stuff we usually buy into categories. I put down the usual price we pay for the item so I know if something really is "on sale." I circle what we need. Taking a list saves so much time wandering the store, it saves money as we are much less tempted to buy "junk" when we know we have lots of good stuff on our list, we only buy what we need. We do a big shop every 2 weeks and a small one the week between. We spend less this way as well. NEVER go to the store hungry and better yet never take hungry kids to the grocery store either!!

  When we paint the house we use excellent quality paint. We don't have to paint again for years and it is more durable and scrubable. We use paint techniques such as sponging and stencilling to personalize each room. We have painted ply-wood floors we will eventually stencil until we are willing to give up the amount it will cost to put down hard-wood like the rest of the house. Gas and oil hot water tanks and furnaces are much more efficient if the burners are cleaned once a year.

  We have our own strawberry plants. We also have raspberries and use the leaves for tea as well as from our mint plants.

  Ah yes and last but not least!! We don't pay for birth control (ha, ha like you hadn't guessed). We breastfeed until the child indicates they no longer need/want to and we use a method that involves checking the cervical mucous. This has worked in not getting (helps that I only ovulate once or twice a year )and getting pregnant (I would have wasted a lot of money on ovulation predictor tests!!).

• How could I forget bartering! We love to trade here. It's wonderful! Since I love to craft and sew, I often trade handmade things for other handmade things. This way I have a few things that I make special and don't have to figure out how to make such a wide variety of clothes/et cetera. Or we trade handmade clothes for toys, that kind of thing.

  I personally am going to take your advice on grocery lists, and we are actually planning a garden for our one small spot of sun (and looking into hydroponics to get maximum yield there in the minimal space). But I am going to pass on your birth control advice! LOL! I was following FAM (as described in the book Taking Charge of Your Fertility) very closely and only took a very small chance when I got pregnant with my first, and was exclusively breastfeeding her when I got pregnant with my second. So we'll stick to barrier methods here for a while! :-)

• I notice "buy at Goodwill" or consignment shops, etc., but even here, in the land of MANY MANY MANY consignment shops, I've found the best deals at garage/yard sales. You can get clothes, shoes, household items, etc. much much cheaper at these sales than at any shops. Also - sewing clothing is much more expensive (even with the $1.99/yd fabric) than yard sales.

  It takes a while, but following the guidelines in "The Tighwad Gazette" you'll find good yard sales. Oh, and if you can get it, "The Tightwad Gazette" is the best idea collection for frugality I've found. Even better, if you can get it cheap/free.

• Garage & Yard sales are also a great idea. We have picked up some toys and some clothes too. Only thing is my DH HATES going to them. If I go to "good-will" or similar place I can take all the kids in, without my DH. We can find what we are looking for quickly since they are organized. They have limited toys so I don't have to hear the kids saying "can I have this." We also found that all the good gargage/yard sales were in the city so it would cost us $7.00 in gas (even more now with the bigger van) just to get to the city, not including going from sale to sale. We also found the odd occasion we did do sales (mostly when we had one child) that we tended to buy other stuff we didn't need because it was a "deal." I have occasionally stopped at a garage sale where I have seen an interesting item as I pass by. I can end up spending hours there with the kids!!

  A couple of times in the summer I will take them on a "garage sale" day when DH wants time alone to do work on the house that may be difficult with the kids around. A fun but long day!! I also have to keep a watchful eye out for 4 kids and have to put the babies in and out of the car and in & out of the slings. It takes a few minutes to get the second baby in the second sling when the first baby is bouncing and clapping and generally squirming all over the place!! Good-will is one stop.

• Here are some things we do to make yard sale shopping a little easier. We make a list of what we are looking for and stick to it, minimizing buying something we don't need just because it's a good deal. I agree that getting kids in and out is a pain. We go very early, and my kids sleep till about 9, so often they sleep through it. I drag dh, who hates it, but he just stays in the car with the kids and I run up and look quickly. He brings a book or music and occupies himself with that. For us, it works when it's focused, quick, and based on a list, as well as done regularly, like one or two Friday mornings a month.