To save money, I buy 3/8 inch rebar in 10 foot lengths. I cut them in half to make 5 foot stakes. In the spring I use them to tie up my old fashioned peonies, then I move them to support tall phlox David, gladioli, and dahlias. They rust and blend in nicely to the garden. (I, like some others here, spare no expense on my hosta) I second a mowing edge for making it easy, and mulch for keeping weeds down and making everything look nice. I buy 3 cu. foot bags pine bark mulch from Lowes when its on sale in the spring. It's a local special, not available at all stores. Whatch your local big box stores for specials. We (I mean my husband) chops leaves, collected the fall before for our raised beds so I don't have to buy as much mulch. I reuse potting soil from the previous summer. I fill all but the top 10 inches of my containers with old potting soil enriched with free compost from the community compost sight. I top it off with fresh potting soil I purchased on a half price sale the year before. Save the bags that mulch and potting soil comes in to reuse for yard work and saving soil over winter. Reusing plastic bags is cheep and environmentally friendly. Plus these bags are really strong. Complement friends and relatives with nice gardens and plants. They may give you cuttings and divisions.

saftgeek I love the name so I must reply. These were things we did that saved us big bucks (a lot of this we learned from the GW posts - so that is tip Number 1 - use the GW forums): - Shopped locally for appliances. Seemed counter intuitive until we actually went shopping and bought from a local dealer - not the applinace person recommended by the builder. - Installed my own home automation (light controls), home security system, whole house audio. Also installed the recessed lighting. Home automation is cool - but very expensive if you sub it out. If you know how to wire up a toy train set you can do most of this stuff. The recessed is also expensive - but really nice to have (was a must have for me). Installing the recessed requires some basic knowledge of electrical and I worked with my electrician to make sure it was done right and to code. - Re-designed the original house plan (purchased on line) to remove what my architect called "ginger bread". Lot's of fancy railings, ornate pieces - these cost big bucks. Also re-designed the roof pitch and floor plan so that standard trusses could be used - removed the fancy roof taper that was in the original design. By doing these thinsg we actually gained more square footage but reduce the overall cost to built the structure. - Went with the first grade of architectural shingle but not the better grads that I wanted initially. It was a lot of money that was better spent in other areas. - Purchased some of the plumbing supplies on line (like stainless sinks) - but only the items where we found the savings to be worth it. - Did our own landscaping which was basically bed prep and mulching. We will do our own planting next year. - Installed my own water softener and whole house water filter. We have a well - hard water and iron. Contractor wanted 8000 dollars to treat it. Read a bunch of posts on the Plumbing Forum and did my own system for 1100 dollars - and it works! - Spent ZERO dollars on interior designers. DW used the GW to learn about colors and posted questions on various design issues. They saved us a bundle - and the advise was really good! - In general, made sure that every price we got from the vendors used by the builder were reasonable. In many cases - we paid a little more for goods but we received design services rhat we felt were worth it. If we found an item that we felt was too high - we bought it ourselves. In a few cases (like our granite) we were very unhappy with the pricing from the prefered vendor so we shopped and found our own - now our builder uses them instead. - Made as few changes as possible after construction started. All of the chnages we made after construction started were very minor - in the cosmetic category. - Got a construction loan that converted to the mortgage - same rate for both phases. Typically they charge more for the construction phase. - Did the double move (sold house - moved to rental - then moved to new house). If we had attempted a single move, we would have been in deep dodo (probably would be paying 2 motgages right now). For the first move, we packed ourselves but had the movers take everything. In the second move, we packed everything, but we moved a lot of the bulky but light stuff ourselves using a rental truck. Second move was about 30% cheaper than the first. - When clearing our very dense tree'd lot, we decided to hide the root matt and brush on the lot to let it rot over time. The cut trees were stacked neatly in 2 places. This was cost avoidance - the cost to take all that bulky mess will be a lot less after it rots for a few years. - I maintained the silt fence myself after I realized I was getting charged a lot of money each time it had to be repaired. - Installed my own humdidifiers and a hot water recirculting system. The combo of these 2 things saved us about 2 grand. That's about all I can think of. Best of luck with your project.

Well, after reading your further posts I think it's sorta a cute idea but certainly not useful in the long haul. My personal suggestion would be to say stop trying to find cheaper TP & concentrate on building wealth. A good place to start that process is by getting more education; no matter your current level...get more. Also, a music degree is lovely but unlikely to be useful in creating wealth. :) Learn how to grow your wealth (probably will mean even more education for many people), learn to diversify your money yourself (mutual funds only create wealth for those who sell them to you & the fund managers), pound into your brain the difference between earned income, dividends, & capital gains then set goals to reduce your dependence on earned income, learn to use leverage properly with acceptable risk (yes, that's not only possible, it's necessary build real wealth), set an annual budget & strive to fund that budget annually - not monthly (an annual budget was the single most important thing we taught our kids to strive for after their education...again, this may require even more education so choose your classes wisely), learn to think like a CFO not the CEO, & I could go on but I think you get the idea. You can't save your way to true wealth. It's created by a combination of education, putting forth effort to make good networking connections, and then learning how to make your money work for you. We tried the saving your way to financial freedom thing...it didn't work. Yep, we had a savings account. Good for us. But, it wasn't wealth. It just meant the wolf wasn't yapping at our door every month. DH went back to school (started life as a math high school teacher) & got his Juris Doctorate. We had kids & he went to night school - took 5 years. We incurred student loans that took many years to pay off. So what? The income that degree provided unlocked doors that would have been paddlelocked before getting that education. It didn't stop there either...he's retired now & still taking courses. Just getting the education though isn't enough to create wealth - there are millions of non-wealthy liberal arts degree owners in America. Choose wisely. Don't forget to make networking contacts while in school. Many of America's mega-wealthy met while in school. This is less in the technology field but the concept is still likely to yield powerful results 20 years later. I know, I know...we're supposed to be offering ideas about how to stretch a dime. But, I'm giving an alternative. Rather than saving a dime...earn another dime. It's easier & works better if your goal is to create true wealth. It may even mean postponing (not giving up) your desire to live in a rural area away from cities, crowds, yada yada. You will have to go where there are jobs available in your chosen field until you're no longer relying on earned income. /tricia (who is recovering from a tough couple days of doctor's appointments & crabby, but honest)

I'm not sure I'll be much help on this subject since I'm just now decluttering and reorganizing my home. Here's a few little things I'm doing: Since I don't have a regular pantry (I'm going to make one somewhere, someday--lol) I keep all breakfast items in one drawer, like instant oatmeal, grits, hot chocolate, etc. So, I know in a glance what I need and don't buy extras. I just tear off the top of the pkg. and set the whole thing in the drawer. I also keep my ironing supplies on one drawer---irons, spray starch, etc. I actually had to buy a second iron because I couldn't find the first one---before I organized! I took all on my junky paper and cut it into note size, put it in my desk drawer. If I have pretty junky mail, or envelopes, I cut them up to use as gift tags or small note cards. I hate frying bacon, so I bake it now on a rack. It's healthier and I don't have to spend so much time at the stove. I actually baked a pkg. this morning, used it all at once---now, we have bacon for tomorrow. I don't have very many closets, so I'm using decorative tins and hatboxes (I went thru a hatbox-making phase a few years back) for storage of sewing and craft supplies, and anything else that I can't find a place for!!! LOL These things hold a lot, so I may not have to buy any shelves. In my foyer area, I have a narrow table with a mirrow above it. I just cleaned out that drawer in the table----I have a place for car keys (his & hers), gloves, hairbrush, and glasses. Since I wash my hands a zillion times a day, I keep either an old dish detergent bottle or shampoo bottle with soap, water (*and now hand lotion or baby oil mixed in) under the sink to wash hands with. I just saw a Dr. on Tv say that if you wash your hands too much and they're dried out, germs can enter your body thru the cracked dry skin EASIER!! They were talking about the flu viruses. He actually said that rubbing your hands back and forth, creating friction, would kill germs on your hands!! Rub your hands, rub your hands!!!!!!