How do you save more money with the present economy?

It's definitely true. And yes, the economy has been having a tremendous impact on my family. I've been a SAHM for 7 years now and I homeschool my two children. Going back to work and being able to homeschool is not really an option. I do have a small cleaning job I do 2x per month, and during the school year I do childcare for a church bible study 1 morning per week, but aside from that, it's next to impossible. We were strapped for cash BEFORE the gas prices started skyrocketing. So, now we're basically doing a financial juggling act all the time. I try to do 2 things to still "save" a little money. I throw all my change in a jar and then periodically cash it in. And I have an ING online savings account set up with automatically withdraw just $1 per month. So, saving $12 a year may not seem worth it, but to me it's the habit I'm establishing. At least that $12 will earn interest and hopefully I can increase the amount of the withdrawal soon to save more. But, it's just all I can do right now.

I guess one should only buy the necessary things that is needed to get through each day. We should be avoiding spending a lot of money for luxury or anything that we can actually live without. At home, with the present economy, we budget our money wisely by doing so. We spend money on important things only. If we have extra money to spare, that is the only time that we spend it for luxurious means. ^^

Our visit to a beach area for a few days has been cancelled. Because of the economy, the cost of staying overnight has gone up from about $80-$100 a night to more almost $225 a night! Instead we will take a few day trips and end up actually saving some money by doing it this way. Lucky for us, we live only about 20 minutes from the beach and our boys love going. We saved for our vacation all year, so it will be nice to put some of the money away, maybe towards a late fall or early spring vacation. If it weren't for my online handmade jewelry shop and earning money online, I don't think we'd even be in the position to take these vacations (and believe me, they aren't great big, expensive vacations)We would barely be able to scrape by each month w/o the extra $$.

I dont eat out at nice restaurants as much as I would like to. I also am not taking weekend trips or day trips very often. Other than that i am doing ok. It is hard breaking to have to fill up your gas tank.