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101 ways to save money – offers tons of down to earth ways to save money and stretch your dollar just a little further
10 unusual ways to save money – This is a short list on the US News website, but as I read this, I realized that I already do some of them, but could maybe improve on. While others, were things I remember seeing my Mom or Grandma doing when I was a kid and never understood why they did it ….. now it suddenly makes sense and my Mom and Grandma truly became wiser in my eyes 
The theme of the sites I included links to, in many ways seems to be one of encouraging folks to get as much use out of what they have, rather than assume that a “disposable” item is strictly a single use item, if possible give it another purpose after its initial use. Or, even look at how much use you will get from something at the time of your purchase, if you will only use it once, and it’s something that is somewhat pricey to buy, maybe consider borrowing the item from someone else. Bartering can be helpful, as can bulk shopping.
Be realistic though, if you see an item on sale and know its a good price, ask yourself if it is something you really have a use for. In my opinion, it’s ok to have extra of things you actually use, but if you are getting stuff just because its on sale despite not having an actual use or need for the item, you may be defeating the purpose of saving money.
I’m all for the use of coupons, store discount cards, and doing what you can to combine these to increase your savings, I do it myself. I tend to have some concern though as I watched a show called “Extreme Couponing” on TLC. I was in awe of how much they managed to get and how little they paid for it, but then when the extreme coupon shoppers began showing off their “stockpile” of stuff they had accumulated, and one person in particular bragged about having 100 packs of diapers, but in the same breath pointed out she didn’t have any kids, and was “preparing” for when she does have kids. I found my mind turning in a direction of thinking that the next show we’ll see come out on TV will be something about stockpiling unnecessarily.
While yes, I do encourage people to stretch their dollars, and strive to get the most bang for their buck, I would also like to stress that there needs to be a balance between saving money and extreme stockpiling. Buy what you need or can reasonably use and if you don’t need it, don’t buy it.
In closing, here is a link to a page on Wikipedia that talks about the history of coupons and even talks about their purpose. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coupons
