Some Financial Advise from the expert (me).

Hi.  I thought of some ideas that helped us save money and I thought I would share.  Some of these are Isaiah's ideas.  I will let you figure out whose ideas are whose.

1.  Resist the urge to eat out a lot.  We have saved TONS of money from not eating out.
2. You will probably eat out anyway, so my next thought is to not buy sodas with your meal.  They cost extra and are bad for you, unless you are eating pizza.  Nothing tastes better with pizza than a coke.
3. Buy real food, its actually cheaper in the long run than prepared foods. And much of the prepared food sold today is the leading cause of cancer, diabetes, anger, resentment and even sudden death by car accident.
4. Have your husband go on a hunting trip and bring home an elk or deer.  It will be a year's worth of meat for free.  If he isn't successful on his trip though, be a supportive wife.
5. Butcher the animal and store it in salt to save on electricity.
6. Several nights a week, "Unplug."  Turn off your computers and TV's and light candles.  Read a book, write a letter.  Not only will you be saving on electricity but you might find that you have a much more relaxing evening and better quality time with your family.
7. Buy good bread.  I mean, bakery  bread.  But the way you do this is by going to the bakery and asking them for "day old" bread.  Day old bread is just as good as the non-day old bread.  It is also cheaper and better than any bread from the store.
8. Come up with a fun project to do at home involving things around your house. For example, you can take a pile of Styrofoam plates and shred them then drive your toy cars through them.  It won't cost anyone but your mamma a dime!
9. Quit eating.  Okay don't quit eating, at least not altogether.  But, I have considered skipping a meal or two a week and saving the money I would have spent on that meal. But I don't know if I will ever calculate how much my meals cost in that much detail to make this an efficient way to save money.
10. Get a Costco Membership.  The amount of money you will save on free samples each week will pay for the cost of the membership itself, and then some.  Then you will have money to go through the rest of the store and buy lots of other things that you hadn't thought that you needed until you went to Costco.
11. We often buy bulk beans and rice.  Black beans, lentils and pinto beans.  I make large pots of all sorts of things with them.  We eat these types of things several nights a week.
12. Shop at Garage sales and craigslist.  Isaiah and I are avid yard-sailers, and I have found that not only do garage sales build community, they also give you a chance to buy enough things to host your own garage sale the following summer.  Seriously, though I have found a ton of great things almost new through craigslist and yard sales.
13. Run a hose from your neighbors house into the kitchen to wash dishes.  Not only will you be saving on your water bill but you will be encouraging a stronger and more giving community.
14. Eat oats in the morning.  I bought a 50 lb bag of oatmeal for 17 dollars from Azure standard and it fed us breakfast for two years. Even though we really don't like oats and throw half of them away each time.
 15. Buy Bulk.  I buy bulk stuff from Costco, Azure Standard, Winco and Cash and Carry.  Don't buy bulk at the Market of Choice, their prices pay for the polished floor and cleverly picked selection of classical music.  Which I do admit I enjoy just for fun on occasion.
16. Walk!  If you live in a place where you can walk places do it!  There is no reason to spend the extra gas money if you don't have too.  It will be better for your health and even for the earth, if you're into the earth.
17.  Don't get cable T.V. Instead, find a neighbor who has cable and watch it through your window at night.  Not....that we have ever....done that....
18. Buy a cow.  We bought a quarter of a cow this year and the meat is AMAZING and much much cheaper than the store.
19. Finally, attend Dave Ramsey's Financial peace University.  We went through this last year and it has helped us re-orient  our thinking about money for the better, thus saving us a lot of headache and helped us see clearly enough to get out of some of our debts.

I can't actually think of a 20th.  Please share if you come up with something interesting.