Another BIG Cost "Cutter"

I just love sharing ways I am learning to limit our expenses. We have had less money to work with lately, so I am really looking for ways to cut our costs and God is so faithful to show me ways to do it.
I have been blessed by other women's blogs and especially This Beautiful Life, where Paula shares how to give yourself a haircut! I only get to the hairdresser about once a year, because I don't seem to find time and it seems like we can never afford it. I don't take Rebekah very often either. With Paula's super easy instructions and step by step pictures, I was able to cut my hair and Rebekah's. It was so easy and has nice style to it.  Larry shaves the boys hair and now I can do mine and Rebekah's. That should save us quite a lot of money each year.

Here is a recap of other cost cutters we do;

• Make our own liquid laundry soap (estimated cost - less than $1/year)
• I no longer use plastic wrap for opened packages of cheese. I just put them in used bun bags.
• I grind up my own bread crumbs from stale homemade bread in our coffee grinder.
• I hang our clothes out to dry.
• I have found the the fast cycle on our dishwasher (20 mins) works just a good as the full cycle I have always used (60 mins) and it doesn't have a dry cycle, which I don't like to use anyway. I think this would be a huge savings.
• I haven't been buying extras like canned mushrooms. Nobody really notices them in a dish anyway.
• I buy our meat on clearance and freeze it right away.
• Of course, I buy our milk at Shoppers Drugmart, where I earn rewards points towards free groceries.
• I usually only buy anything if it is on sale.
• Preserve our own jams and pickles.

That is a few of the things we do here at our home to cut costs.