Penny Pincher

I have always been a penny pincher, and people always ask me what are some of the things I do to save money.  Well I have always been like this.  When I was little I would save up my piggy bank money for toys that I wanted.  When I was a teenager and got a car and a job I did the Dave Ramsey envelope saving strategy before I even new who he was.  I had my car insurance envelope, a car tax one, an oil change and gas one, clothing envelope, and dining out-fun envelope.  I would split my pay checks up this way. Now that I am an adult, I do easy things like open the windows and turn air or heat off when weather permits, if low on gas in car turn air/heat and radio off to save until you get to the gas station.  I also use tap water not bottled water because I drink a ton of water per day.  After Christmas I go the shopping a week or 2 after the holiday and shop for kids toys, I get male and female even though I only have a son. I spent $50.00 bucks this past January and got like 20 presents. I store them in a storage tote all year and whenever Jack gets invited to a birthday party, also for valentines and easter stuff I have instant presents.  My boss takes 6 weeks off a yr and I don't get paid when we are off (I get my 2 weeks paid vacation per yr, but not 6), so this comes in handy around those times.  I also look up in the local paper or online for free activities for kids in the town where I live. I take Jack to as many of those as possible, as long as he has been good, and I almost always will take picnic food there to avoid food costs.  I take my lunch to work everyday, most days anyway, sometimes I eat out but it's like once every other month or so.  I get cheap haircuts at great clips and I use coupons (my hair is so thin, can't do much with it anyway), my hubby and his dad cut Jack's hair.  I make crockpot meals in the summer to prevent the house from getting hot with the oven.  For summer time boredom never underestimate libraries, parks, feeding ducks, sidewalk chalk, kites, bubbles and cold smoothies on a hot day. Don't eat out as much, find free events for the kids, keep a storage tote of gifts for children and I keep stocking stuffers too. I also buy stuff up when they go on sale for future use. In the fall time you can get beach balls for .25 cents a piece and I have found bubbles for .10 cents a piece too. I always get 25 of each item if I can for end of school gifts for all the kids in my sons class.  Same for ornaments or Christmas decorations when they go on sale I use for the next yr for teacher gifts as well.  For clothes I love yard sales, consignment sales, Goodwill, Walmart and store sales.  It's not like I can't afford to buy clothes at department stores, but I refuse to pay 30 bucks for a pair of jeans my kid is only going to wear for 6 mo and probably stain up so bad you can't sell them.  I know a lot of this might sound extreme to some people but but doing all this allows me to pay extra principle on the mortgage every month (to hopefully pay it off sooner), and we were able to go on 3 vacations last year.  Don't know if this will help anybody or not, but I hope it does.