25 ways to save Money

Dawn over at Frugal for life asked people to list 25 ways they save money. While I have habits that garner that money - like not carpooling - I feel I fund them by saving money in other places.

1. Pack my lunch most days
2. Eat dinner at home most nights
3. Utilize the local Library
4. I can sew so I repair clothing, mostly by putting patches on the knees of my son's school pants - inside becasue they are uniforms. Then, if they still fit, I will cut off the legs and hem them thus creaitng uniform shorts
5. Avoid dry cleanable clothing. In my IT career I can look professional in washable dress pants form Talbots
6. We remove our shoes inside the house
7. I use only my banks ATM
8. I use the ATM once a week
9. I have money automatically transferred into our Money MArket fund
10. do my grocery shopping with the sales
11. I have a shelf where I stockpile certain groceries when they are on sale: Ketchup, syrup, breakfast cereal. There are usually things my family is brand-loyal on.
12. Utilize Generics and store brands as long as the quality is good
13. Plan my weekly menu
14. Hand down clothing between my boys
15. Buy bread at the Bakery outlet - we are not huge sandwich people, so we keep our bread in thef reezer anyways
16. Pay as many bills online as possibly
17. Pack snacks as often as possible
18. we keep our cars for 10 years - we do buy new
19. We keep our cars in good repair
20. Pay more than the minimum on the mortgage
21. Pay more than the minimum on my credit cards when I am carrying a balance
22. Try not to have a balance on my credit cards
23. Make my own cards - So the supplies are expensive, but I use them over and over and it's recreational for me.
24. I use 1/3 of a dryer sheet per load. Got hubby to use 1/2
25. Make my own decorated cakes for my kids