Five-dollar greeting cards. Huge packages of paper napkins that vanish in a matter of days. The little, everyday things can soak up so much of our money. Where does it end?
With you. Refuse to pay too much for these common items:
Rubber Mattress Pad
Greeting cards - make your own, of course. It's not just for school kids making construction paper cards for Mother's Day. There are tons of sites with free, printable greeting cards. If you have any talent for drawing, or just using rubber stamps and glitter, put it to work.
Notepads - the kind you always need by the phone. Save sheets of paper with one unused side. Cut or tear a few of them into quarters and staple these together into a pad.
Paper napkins - handier than cloth ones, but still too expensive. Try this: cut a cheap tablecloth (felt on one side, plastic on the other) into napkin-sized pieces. No need to hem! The plastic side keeps spills off your lap, the felt side is good for wiping your mouth, and they're washable. Just remember to dry them on the line instead of in the dryer.
Laundry detergent - the package usually tells you to use more than you really need. (Wonder why.) Put in no more than half the amount suggested - then see if you can get away with even less. It helps if you throw in one of your used cleaning rags, after it's soaked up a lot of cleaning fluid. (You do use cleaning rags, don't you, not paper towels?)
Sliced lunch meat - companies slap an incredible markup on meat they've bothered to slice and package in small amounts. Get a slicing machine and make your own.
If all this is too much to remember, write it down - on one of your homemade notepads.