As I've become more and more frugal, I've also become more prone to collect clutter. 

My family members, however, are not crazy about the idea of holding on to items that they see as garbage.  They throw away glass jars when I'm not looking.  My husband puts furniture on the curb and hopes that I don’t notice.  My son throws away anything with a rip or stain on it (…and he rips and stains a lot of items). 
 
So, to combat my family’s nonchalant attitude about tossing out useful items, I have become a garbage snoop.  Here are just a few of the things my family has forced me to do to save money...

While I find I am truly gifted at squeezing blood from a proverbial stone, I have one major weakness.  I love magazines. 

I have a couple of subscriptions, usually purchased through neighborhood kids at a discount.  I also hear Woman's World and First calling my name whenever I am in the grocery aisle.  I have no self-control over my magazine habit.  That is, until now. 

A brand new website will help you get your money back if it goes on sale after you purchased it.  The site is called PriceProtectr (funny spelling and all).

Here's how it works...

A huge part of being thrifty for me is being natural. 

I find that when I focus on avoiding products that are toxic to either the environment or myself that I save a great deal of money. For example, if you take a visit to The Fun Times Guide to Living Green, you will find many ways to save money.

Here are some of the natural ways I use to save money...

Growing up, Goodwill was somewhere you went when you needed to pick up a trundle bed for guest sleeping. Or, if you needed a costume for a play.

As a young adult, I went to Goodwill to furnish my home. When I had kids and saw how quickly they outgrow clothing, I realized it might be a god idea to buy clothes from Goodwill, as well.

As time passed, I began buying less from Goodwill stores, and donating more. Because I was not necessarily needy, I stopped shopping at Goodwill.

That was then. This is now.

Because we have high-speed DSL through our home phone line, I have been ignoring the high amount we have been paying on our home phone.

However, even with DSL, $120 a month is just too much to pay for a home phone when your household already has 4 cell phones.

I recently watched an Oprah Winfrey episode where she profiled the Freegan movement. Freegans are people who get as many items as possible that they use -- for free.

This may mean taking items they find on the street. This may mean dumpster diving for food. This may mean going without new clothes.

The purpose of the Freegan movement is to inform the rest of the world about over consumerism.

Here's a collection of links that are jam-packed with money-saving ideas that everyone can use on a daily basis.

Enjoy!

Although DVDs are gradually getting cheaper, they are still pretty expensive.

But I still love to get my favorite movies and TV series on DVD.

One way to save money and still do this is to download them to your computer and then burn them to a DVD.

Are you looking to purchase equipment such as printers, copiers, or office furniture for your business in the near future? If so, you may want to look at the purchases you have already made this year before determining whether to purchase the new equipment this year or next.

By appropriately planning your business purchases, you can save money through tax deductions.

Nowadays, most of us have a cell phone, Blackberry, or some other type of phone to keep us connected. But as we've grown more dependent on our cell phones, another question has come up: Do we need a home "land line" phone anymore?

Well, depending on your personal situation, cutting out the home phone service can be an easy way to save money.

Depending on your service, cutting out a home line can save around $40/month or $480/month, plus any incidentals. While this is a decent savings each year, I've listed some things to consider when deciding on whether to keep your home phone service or not.

Whether you're headed to the Redmond Town Center, the Oakbrook Mall, the University Mall, or the Mall of America...  Whatever your favorite mall happens to be, there are a few ways that you can actually save money when mall shopping these days!

Sometimes we just go there to hang out and other times we go there with particular items in mind, but most of the time when you head to the mall, you go with the intent of spending money.

Below are a few ways to decrease the amount of money you spend at the mall so you can keep building your savings, while still being able to buy what you need (or want!).

You already know the best days to purchase things...

Well, here are some more great shopping tips.

10 Things You Should Never Buy New.
10 Things You Should Never Buy Used.

Want to be a part of probably the most wide-reaching tax refund - and of course, save money at the same time? Well, the Telephone Excise Tax is a one-time tax refund only offered for the 2006 tax year.

You may have read my earlier post about how you can get FREE business cards.

As a reminder, here's how you can get professional business cards from Vista Print -- for FREE.

Turns out, another fun way to get FREE business cards...

As you know, shopping (both online and in brick & mortar stores) is incredibly popular during the months of November and December.

Not only is all of the hoopla surrounding Black Friday sales events getting bigger each year -- to the extent that many shoppers behave like maniacs on the day after Thanksgiving... But now, the retailers themselves are getting more competitive and doing more things to win over the average consumer.

This means YOU... and you can save big money, as a result!

As one example, for the first time ever, many retailers opened their doors at midnight on the night before Black Friday this year.

With more and more retailers fighting for your shopping dollar, there are a handful of ways that you can save big when you're shopping -- both online and in stores.

Interested in saving some money? What about saving time?

Check out these quick tips for saving time & money.

Just about everything under the sun is covered here...

(...not if you're buying a digital camera... and it's from Sears!)

You hear it all the time. Whenever you buy something of value at the department store, they ask:

"Would you like to purchase an extended warranty on that?"

"We've got an optional service protection plan that will fully cover the product beyond the standard manufacturer's warranty. Are you interested?"

As a rule, we never buy into such "protection plans", "insurance", or "extended warranties" -- believing that the odds of something going wrong that the standard manufacturer's warranty wouldn't already cover are quite slim. Not to mention the fact that such protection plans are quite expensive, relatively speaking.

A CBC Report on Extended Warranties

Smart Money: Extended Warranty Rip-Offs

When Service Contracts Make Sense

Consumer Reports: Extended Warranties Aren't Worth The Cost

However, there have been two occasions in my lifetime when I've purchased an extended warranty. Both were at Sears. One experience (on a bicycle) was good. The other (on a digital camera) was not so good.

Here's what you need to know...

At which point does "a good thing" become "too much of a good thing"?

Case in point: I venture into my favorite department store: Kohl's. Upon walking through the door, I'm immediately greeted with lots of "SALE" signs: "huge sale"... "MEGA-sale"... "up to 30% off" sale. You get the idea.

I'm thinking: "Lucky me. I've picked a good day to shop at Kohl's!"

The goal in my mind now switches from: "look for that pair of jeans that I came to buy" to: "check out what's on sale".

Have YOU ever thought about being a Mystery Shopper?

You've seen the ads... You may have even come across the Mystery Shopping websites during a search for "Work At Home".

Is it a scam? Can you really make money doing this?

"Pink Poppy" is a real-life Mystery Shopper, and she tells us all the in's and out's to getting into the 'biz.

Before you buy something new, we recommend checking the following resources for consumer ratings and reviews first: