We're getting out of debt!

Like most, we're in debt. Yep - credit cards, auto loan, school loan, 2 mortgages (about to just be 1!). I don't think we've been irresponsible, especially over the past several years. But enough is enough.

We're currently doing Financial Peace University by Dave Ramsey. We read his book a few years ago, and we put some of his strategies into practice, but now we really need to get into the plan. Dear Hubby and I are both spenders, and that's not great! But right now, we are very focused.

So, here's just a few money saving tips from a spender! Take them for what they're worth, but I wanted to pass them along:

1. Clip coupons. Sounds easy, but you can save some serious money. I'm not the kind of girl who goes in and gets $200 in groceries for 50 cents, but I usually can save about $10 a trip if I'm being super good;

2. Go co-op. I've joined a few wholesale co-ops so I can get better deals. Sometimes, I can save about 50%. This has been a good move for me since I've gone organic/natural;

3. Find things you can stretch out. For example, I use Aveda hair products. Love them, hate the price. I can't bring myself to buy the large bottles, and the small bottles last me about 6 - 8 weeks. Instead of using them every day, I'm using a decent but really cheap products every other day. This should stretch out my Aveda products to 12 - 16 weeks. This will save me about $120 a year. I know it's over a year, but hey, it's a savings, and it's almost a week's worth of groceries;

4. Buy second hand. I swore my children would never have anything but new. But once I started hitting consignment sales and stores, I found some great deals on items that had only been played with/worn once or twice. I've also had some great finds on eBay;

5. Speaking of eBay, I like to buy new things here, too, after seeing them in stores. I've bought E Belle's Christmas dresses on eBay the past two years for about $20 cheaper each than I found in the local boutique. I used to be afraid of buying clothing on eBay, but now I sell and buy clothes quite a bit on here;

6. Just never pay full price for clothing, especially places like Gymboree. There's always a coupon somewhere; and

7. Use retailmenot.com or similar sites for online coupons. Last year, I estimate that I saved about $150 on discounts and free shipping using coupon codes from this site.