How do you save money?

Thanks for the vibes and the suggestions on a desk.  The Craigslist find was a no go... already sold.  Ohwell.

I'm still on the hunt and I'll let you know if I find anything!

So my thought process the past few days has been on saving, saving, saving.  We're a modest one income household with three kiddos...

...and we pretty much live paycheck to paycheck. 

Despite this, we're on our way to meeting many of our financial goals..

Our retirement accounts are automatically funded, we both have life insurance to cover the "what-ifs", we have a small emergency savings, and our credit cards are 100% paid off.

When you don't make much money and your focus is on getting your financial household in order, it really doesn't leave any extra money for the fun stuff in life.  You know, like taking trips with your family....

 or doing home renovations.  Yes, I do consider home renovations to be fun stuff.  :)

So, how to do you save money for the fun stuff, when you live paycheck to paycheck?  All of our expenses here are set.  We know 100% how much money will be going out each month.  Granted, our utilities change, but we know where they tap out at, so we can plan.   Our gas bill pretty much stays the same because we don't drive often.  We live about 3 miles from my husband's work, and my son goes to school in our neighborhood.   The only part of our expenses that changes monthly (unless we do go on a trip, since in that case, our fuel bill does increase) is our food budget.   If we want to save money for an item, or if we want to plan a get-a-way, we have to cut back on our grocery bill. 

I recently discovered a website that has really helped me cut back on our food spending.  Have you heard of it?  It is SouthernSavers.com, and I apologize if you are a friend of mine on facebook because I know you're absolutely SICK of hearing me talk about this!  LOL.  Seriously, check it out.  You'll be happy you did.  There is a ton of information, and it might take you several visits to not be overwhelmed, but it has been one of my favorite finds this month.

Another thing we do to help us save money, is to make it easy.

Our bank account has a nifty online feature that will let us create additional accounts online, within a few minutes.  We have several savings accounts, all with different names.. some with only $100 in them.  For example, we have an account named Disney World, and another account named Brandon's Flying Fund.  We all have these little dreams, and when you can actually move $50 or $100 over to your dream fund, it really does make it seem more obtainable.   Instead of my husband talking about one day taking flying lessons, we're actually working on making it a reality.    Plus, when you move extra money out of your normal checking account, you sort of feel like a failure if you  have to move any back.  This really motivates us to stick to a strict spending plan so we can keep our funds going up rather than down.

So share with me.  What do YOU and your family do to save money?  I'd love to hear any tips you can share.

:)  Courtney