I am so tired of everything going up and the more I try to save the more things seem to go up.

1. Make food by scratch
2. Pay by cash only
3. Do not use my credit card except for my monthly bills.
4. Use only cold water to wash clothes, expect for towels, washclothes, and rags.
5. Hang dry clothes
6. Cut way down on smoking. I have allergies and I'm sure if I cut down or quit my allergies will be better. Also, my budget.
7. Buy what only I need. I usually do now, but be more selective in what I buy.
8. Take lunch to work which I already do.
9. Having work take out $100 instead of $60 every two weeks.
10. So far since April I have turned off my circuit breaker for heat and my air conditioning. Since than my bill for my gas has been only $35 per month.
11. Only bought one flower pot for my garden this year. Last year I started by perrinals (sp) so I wouldn't have to buy any flowers.
12. Have been taking advantage of daylight saving time.
13. Start walking more to save on gas.
14. Never go out to eat. Only time I do is when my sister comes up from PA and we go out to eat once. If my girls want to go out to a fast food place they can use their allowance or their dad takes them out to eat.
15. Been putting $50 extra on my car to get it paid off in 3 years instead of 5 years. Would like to pay it off sooner, but only make around $18,000 to $19,000 a year.
16. Work overtime as much as I can. When I do work overtime I put most of it on the car and the rest in my christmas fund. Do not believe in charging christmas. Last year cut down on christmas presents.
17. Keep lights off when not needed. Use those light bulbs that don't burn as much enegy.
18. Need to make more use of the thrift stores. We have a St. Vincent de Paul near me and there prices are great!
19. This year there will be no big trip. I will be going to my sister-in-laws and brothers house for vacation. They live about two hours away and they have two large parks where you can go swimming, biking, canoeing(sp), and walk trails. This way it will save me gas and hotels. Of course, I will make a few meals for them or pay for getting into the park. Not that cheap that I will scam somebody.
20. Have been putting enough money in my 401 (k) where my company puts money into once a year.
21. When I go for walks I look for loose change and pop bottles. It's money Uncle Sam didn't tax me on.
22. I go to the library to get books to read. If I'm not going to be done reading the books I take out I call them and have them extend the date so I don't get charged a fine.
23. Use Sam's long distance program. Much cheaper than using my phone for long distance. I usually get it for 600 minutes. So far I have used only about 300 minutes for the last year. Don't call long distance very much.

In my blog I would like to write things down I do daily to save and see how I am doing. Realistically I will probably wont'
write down daily due to working alot of overtime at work. Just want to keep track of how I am doing with my finances and where I could cut cost.

Only debt I have right now is my car and my mortgage. Once I pay off my car I want to start putting extra on my mortgage.

Hopefully by keeping this blog I can keep on the right track.