Some of My Favorite Money Savers

1.www.surfthechannel.com  or www.sidereel.com 
 These two websites are my favorite way to watch some of my shows. As a mom, I can't always sit down to watch my shows and without these two websites, I would rarely get to enjoy my shows. Also, I like to watch shows that I can't get without cable and I hate to wait until things are out on video so for those of you that wait for the next season of Weeds, Big Love, or The Tudors, you can stream them each week at one of these websites! Oh, and if you can't afford to rent a movie, most new releases will be available at these addresses as well!

2. Meatless Meals
 You would be amazed at how much people spend on meat. I constantly hear my parents and my brother mention what a deal they got on this, that, or the other that is still astronomical and would most definitely blow my budget out of the water. So if you are wanting to live a long, healthy life and/or you have a small food budget, cut out the meat!

3. Breastfeeding
 Nothing is better for your child or your budget than breastfeeding. The only cost that people always try to bring up for breastfeeding is the extra food that you must consume to do it. However, most of us that have recently had a child are not very interested in keeping on weight so adding calories is not as common as some people think. I prefer to burn the 300-500 calories a day while eating as much as I did pre-pregnancy.
  Breastfeeding is also linked to less cost in the future. Children that are breastfed are less likely to have medical issues of all kinds. They have also been shown to have less chance of obesity throughout life which saves your food budget even after they eat solids!

4. Cloth Diapering
 By using cloth diapers, I don't have to spend hundreds of dollars a month on diapers. I have a one time expense of a few hundred dollars that I can use on all of my subsequent children. In addition, I use cloth wipes and a water-filled spray bottle to clean my daughter; therefore, avoiding any routine costs while diapering. (Another option which we use part-time is Elimination Communication)

5. Child Friendly Cleaners
 Before our daughter was born, my husband and I decided to get rid of all the chemicals in the house.  I looked into buying all sorts of safe cleaning products and then decided that the best thing to do was stick with baking soda and vinegar. Baking soda is my basic scrubing product for any built up nastiness and vinegar covers everything else. The only thing I still buy is dish soap(which I also use to mop tile floors and get rid of fleas) and Murphy's oil soap (which is98% natural). However, in the future I would like to switch those too!

Well, I hope that I've thrown out some ideas that some of my viewers haven't thought of and if anyone would like to give more suggestions, please leave me a comment. Also, if any of you have purchased supersized boxes of baking soda, I'd like to know where!