Over the years we have: switched to Vonage - they are still cheaper than the "local" phone company, locked in to a natural gas plan for the house, installed light switches and some outlets on timers so that the kids can't leave them on by accident anymore, turned down the temp of the waterheater, started a worm bin last year to take care of our kitchen waste as well as I have bins outside. I usually have one yard sale every year to clean out the clutter, donating what I don't sell to Goodwill just so it doesn't come back in the house. I feed the dogs a raw diet - most of which they work to earn not just for them but for us also and when I have to buy meat for them I buy in bulk (6 months supply at a time) and if travelling to get it carpool with a friend so we share the gas costs, so my costs are pretty low to feed them. I've always made their treats, which turned into a side business and occassionally I sell some of the meat I have in the freezer to other raw feeders. Don't make much from it but it at least covers the costs of the ingredients and paid for the dehydrator. I try to only go into town once a week or grab things when I'm on the way back from one of the farms the dogs and I work. We did away with paid satellite - we use FTA instead and we just got a paid satellite through barting with a lady, we do some work for her and she put us on her commercial satellite account.
Every year we sit down and see what else we can cut or shave off the budget so there isn't much left this year to do - we did shop around for better car/house insurance and found one so that will save us quite abit this year. I'm trying really hard to bake most of the bread and treats the family eats and stop from eating out. I've talked dh into adding at least one raised bed for veggies, also I'm growing flowers for my work in progress flowerbeds and I know I will have extras so I've already got a waiting list of people who want to buy some, plus we are considering a booth at the local market for the flowers, treats, worms & worm castings, and my african violets that I grow and show. This will help to cover the costs of buying the seeds (off ebay in bulk) and growing them. Plus I hate to just throw the plants I don't use in the compost bin, it seems like such a waste. I plan on trying my hand at making soaps, I already make simple liquid castille soap with essential oils that we use for not just ourselves but the dogs too.
Our main thing is we want to move next year to a piece of property so that I can have larger gardens and raise some livestock. Not alone be able to work my own stock rather than everyone elses.
