#58 Dollar stores

Check out the "everything for a dollar" type stores. They sell many things, that cost as much as $3 to $5 at other stores, for a dollar each.

#57 Bird Feeder Kit

I bought a bird feeder kit at the hardware store for a little over $2. It amounted to a handle and a cap that fastened to a 2 liter bottle with a place for the birds to land, a small saucer for the birds to feed out of and small openings for the seed to drop through. The birds are loving my cheap, 2 liter plastic bottle, bird feeder.

#56 Bring Your Own Bags

I've started bringing my own bags shopping and stores take off a nickel a bag. One of our stores had a special sale, 3 for $1 cloth bags and I had coupons for a few dollars off any purchase from another offer. At that rate I save around a dollar a week, sometimes less.

While I am at the store, I shop in all the bargain bins for reduced merchandise of the things we can use. If it is not half price or lower, I do not consider it a very good bargain since it is overstocks, discontinued items, items close to or past date, dented boxes and cans, ripped bags and that sort of thing. Recently I was able to get bird seed that had been repackaged due to ripped bags at a very good price. Birds don't care even if the ripped bags had to be gathered off the floor.

#55 Fresh Herbs

Grow your own fresh herbs in a small flower bed or in indoor pots. Small plants or seeds are inexpensive and will grow and furnish you with fresh herbs, sometimes for years to come if they are perennials.

#54 Rent

When you need something for one event or task, check into renting what you need rather than buying it and storing it. This might be party or entertaining supplies, home or yard improvement equipment or tools, sports equipment, special clothes for a special occassion, camping supplies and more.

#53 Birthdays

Make your own birthday cakes from scratch or from a box mix. The ones you make yourself taste great, cost less and are probably healthier (bakery cakes often contain a lot of shortening or fats). Decorate with inexpensive candies in the frosting.

Start some traditions such as a birthday table cloth or placemat, a special plate for the birthday person (one plate that birthday people get to use it on their birthday) possibly from a dollar store, maybe an inexpensive birthday hat for the birthday person, maybe an inexpensive banner that appears whenever a person in the house has a birthday, a few balloons on the table or in a place where they can be seen, and maybe making the birthday person's favorite meal on their day. Making someone feel special has more to do with getting special attention than it does spending a lot of money.

#52 Offspring

Instead of rushing around to take the kids to all their various activities, limit the number of activities they participate in to those that are most important to them. Decide to live a lower key life. It will save you money on gas, on equipment, on travel expenses, on registration and other fees and many more related expenses.

Everybody needs "down time" just to relax. People who are constantly on the go develop stress related illnesses like migraines, ulcers, acid reflux and many other things. People who do not stop to rest and let their mind and bodies renew themselves pay for it in less creativity, less ideas, often more heart troubles and may even go to an earlier grave. The effects of long term stress are well documented.

Overscheduling kids does not give them the opportunity to make choices. As an adult, they will not be able to do everything. Limit setting ability is best taught early. When a kid is overscheduled, the world of the family revolves around them. That is setting them up for an unrealistic idea about how life works. Not only that, all that overtending of the children sends Mom (and Dad)to an early grave and to a host of stress related conditions on the way. Parents do not usually give birth to children so they can become slaves to them. That's crazy. Past generations did not behave that way.

Save money on medications for stress, anxiety, reflux, headaches, body aches, sleep problems and much more for the whole family by slowing down and letting your body and soul renew themselves.