Leftovers- (make sure you use them) Simplify- (Get rid of stuff you don't use) Ebay (or) Craigslist- (Where to sell your stuff) Seeds- (Instead of plants) Refinance- (If you can to a lower rate) Unplug- (If you unplug electronics, it will lower your utilities- sometimes by 1/3!) Reconnect- (With family, friends and nature to find free entertainment) Barter (always a good option when possible) Bike (instead of driving where possible)

Car with standard transmission uses about 5 - possibly 10% less fuel. Skilfully done, car drivers can save even more. When you see a traffic signal turn yellow ahead - there's no law that says that you have to keep your foot continuing to push on the throttle! Then hit the brake, about a hundred feet from the intersection. Foot off of the throttle: coast toward the light. If you know it fairly well, you may be able to arrange to arrive close to the last car in the line just as it starts to move forward, and it takes less fuel to increase the speed while rolling that to start rolling from a standing stop. I often push in the clutch and turn off the ignition when I see a light go yellow ahead ... and can often manage to keep the car rolling as I approach a red light when it turns to green. Some say that coasting with the engine off is illegal in their jurisdiction, so best check with the legal people before you try that: the police here say that I am to be in charge of my vehicle at all times. No jack-rabbit starts when the light turns green, either. Try to arrange to travel with a friend driving a car that tells immediate fuel economy levels, get him to make a jack-rabbit start from a light that just turned green - and see your jaw drop as you see what mileage per gallon is being obtained at that point. Try to drive as closely as possible to the same speed, and a few miles/kms. per hour under the speed limit ... but not so far under as to be a hazard to the free flow of traffic. That's made easier by leaving a cushion of space between you and the car ahead ... and try not to get too incensed when other drivers pull into that hole in your lane, stealing your cushion. ole joyful

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)

Hey, I've known people on both sides of this spectrum. You have to know how the person who is to receive your gift feels, and then examine how you really feel about them. Hubs' sisters were always insulted at the thought of a used item as a gift. But I think it's because they were raised so poor, they never got anything that wasn't used. Some of them, I like well enough to respect their wishes, so I try to buy them something new that I think they would like. Some of the other sisters are so "snotty" about everything that I kind of delight in giving them something I've gotten at a Thrift Shop. One time, I bought an old Christmas sweater, wrapped it up and gave it to Hubs' youngest snotty sister. Oh, the look on her face was hilarious. Then I followed it up with something really nice. She was pretty ugly to me immediately after the first gift, so much so that I almost didn't hand her "real" gift to her at all. But that was worth it, too, because she was embarrassed then about what she said to me. Hubs' sisters also didn't appreciate a home-made gift, either. I think the difference is this.... Some people measure everything by dollar value, and for them what was purchased speaks for you as to how much you think your relationship with that person is worth. If you go to a garage sale and get something for a dollar and give that to one person, but then, go to a department store and buy the same thing for another, that person who gets the one that only cost a dollar feels like you don't value them. On the other hand, buy a gold necklace for $10 at a garage sale and give it to one person. Take that same $10 to a department store and buy a little bitty bottle of perfume to give to your person who has to have "something new". (make sure you include the tag, they say they want it so they can exchange it if they want but actually they also want it as proof that you did buy it "new". Somebody's sure to get insulted because they only got a bottle of perfume while someone else got a gold necklace. I wonder who? I think gift-giving for specific holidays is just something cooked up by the marketing community, to force us to buy something we ordinarily wouldn't. I see things, still in their packages, at garage sales and this is testament to that fact. So I don't go in much for that at holidays, and everyone who knows me, knows that. I much prefer to give something to someone I care for because I know they want or need it, and WHEN they want or need it. Most of my friends are tickled pink with their presents. Recently, I gave a Squeeze-O to a gardening friend that, when new, costs a couple of hundred dollars. I was able to find it for much less at an estate sale. She was thrilled. I also gave a Marcato pasta maker to another friend. It sells for more than $50 when new. That friend didn't give a rip about what I paid for it. She had wanted one for a long time and couldn't justify spending the money. For my friends to whom it is so important to receive something "new", I just don't buy them gifts very often, because I can't afford to. Usually when I receive something from them, it's something I don't need, don't want. Usually some kind of fancy lotion that came from a shop at the Mall. This is, in a way, insulting to me, if you want to get right down to it, because here I've got something I won't use now, and I'm obligated by this gift to go out and buy something for full price that I think my "gift giver" will want, so that now I won't insult HER. (I guess I COULD take it to the same store where she bought it, and exchange it for something else, and then give that to HER. Except that usually you're expected to have a gift ready to hand over when they give you yours. *sigh.....* Sooo complicated.