<p>On another thread, someone posted: “if anyone would like to ask me for advice on how to economize on hotels, dining out, or airfare for college trips; summer camps, musical instruments, groceries, handbags, neckties … bring it on!”</p>
<p>So… I am taking this gal up on her offer (she’s a great economizer!).</p>
<p>Who’s got the first $$$ saving tip??? (On ANYTHING! )</p>
<p>Always always always clip coupons - and look online for EVERYTHING.
99% of the time some store, somewhere is having a clearance sale for whatever it is you desperately need.</p>
<p>Ok…</p>
<p>To get your ideas going…</p>
<p>What is your best $$$$ saving travel tip?</p>
<p>What is your best $$$$ saving clothing tip?</p>
<p>What is your best $$$$ saving beauty aid tip?</p>
<p>What is your best $$$$ saving hair care tip?</p>
<p>What is your best $$$$ saving meals/eating out tip?</p>
<p>What is your best $$$$ saving college tip?</p>
<p>and more…</p>
<p>Meal saving dinner out tip</p>
<p>A family of 4 should ONLY order three dinners, we tip the same, but share our food, no body bats an eye and no food wasted</p>
<p>We have sometimes ordered 2 dinners, a soup and a big salad and water</p>
<p>healthy and not wasteful</p>
<p>CGM:</p>
<p>We have done similar – since I have 2 boys (perhaps bigger eaters than girls), we have ordered 3 meals but usually one is a bigger “combo” type meal (chicken and ribs – that sort of thing). It is much cheaper than ordering 4 reg meals. </p>
<p>also, sometimes my boys are really hungry when we go out and want a little something right away, but I hate to order an appetizer cuz they are very pricey. So… sometimes I order a side dish (like fries) as an appetizer – usually much cheaper.</p>
<p>I always get my hair colored at the beauty college. It is very inexpensive and the instructor is right there so no mistakes - in past 10 years have only ever had one mistake and it wasn’t a big deal to me.</p>
<p>You can do the beauty college thing for prom as well, lots of my Ds friends did, my D, had to go to Alix, our hairdresser who “knows” her hair…ah well</p>
<p>I cut my own hair. You can save lots of money making your own bread (70 cents a loaf for whole wheat bread -vs. 3.25 a loaf of bakery whole wheat bread. All the pennies add up.)</p>
<p>mags:</p>
<p>How much do beauty colleges charge for highlighting?</p>
<p>I have saved tons when I find people who run their businesses out of their homes. </p>
<p>I have had two hairdressers who have built actual salons in their walk out basements. Both charged much less than regular salons.</p>
<p>I also found a florist and a baker that worked out of her home.</p>
<p>I am constantly getting my color changed – If I get highlights with bleach, tonor and more than one color it is around $20- $27 dollars. </p>
<p>I have also gone the grocery store route - tyring many different colors - only to end up back at the beauty school to have them fix it</p>
<p>I keep a bottle of Dritz “Fray Check” where I fold laundry. so when a piece of clothing shows a bit of fraying or a tiny hole ( sometimes just a broken thread which will become a hole), I put the Fray Check on and it prevents the hole from getting bigger. (Since my kids where uniforms to school (and they can be pricey) this has been a huge saver.)</p>
<p>Even cheaper - let your hair grey naturally. People ask me about my hair “frosting” - my “salt and pepper” is au natural and completely free.</p>
<p>I cut my boys hair but I do have them go to a Super Cuts every once in a while to get a better job done & get a “style”. Then, I follow up with frequent trims (so I don’t lose “the style”) until I think that I need to pay again.</p>
<p>When you have a lot of gray (and you don’t have nice “s & p” looking hair) hair dye will often give you soft highlights because the dye usually ends up being lighter on the gray hairs.</p>
<p>grey…nope…I will camoflauge as much as possible…at 45 I WILL NOT BE GREY ANYMORE!! ;)</p>
<p>For my Ds, they are both on the small side, so we do alot of shopping in the Kids sections- especially for sweatshirts- kids large are half the price of adult small</p>
<p>I do have my hair colored and highlighted by a home business stylist, but I save a bit more by touching up gray around the hairline with store bought dye in between times so I don’t have to go as often (I don’t do the whole head, just the hairline and part area.)</p>
<p>cgm</p>
<p>Yes, the kids section.</p>
<p>when I found out that the XL boys uniform polo shirts are about the same size as the men’s medium size uniform polo shirts (but half the price) I began only ordering those sizes. (School uses Lands End for uniforms)</p>
<p>get airmiles per dollar on a credit card and pay for everything that way, even if it gets annoying I put a Hallmark card on my credit card…hello Italy, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver for my family.</p>
<p>I go to Costco with a good friend and we split the larger quanity items (the dbl packs or big bags of potatoes, etc) so we can get the lower prices but not have things go bad before they could be consumed.</p>
<p>I do the Exec Costco membership because it pays for itself with the “cash back” each year.</p>