Learning to be frugal

Lately my husband and i have been trying to save money. We aren't in a great place right now, financially, and are trying to prepare for the unexpected that could make us even worse off. Here's some things i've started trying to do.

• We found out that electronics, when plugged in but not running, take up a bunch of energy. So we plugged our several family room electronics, (all but our tivo and wireless internet router, which have to be left on) into an energy saver power strip and turn off the strip when we're not using those things. The good thing about this, is you have to get up to turn on the switch. So i end up watching tv less, because if i have to get up to turn the danged thing on, i usually just go downstairs and bring up laundry or clean or read to David or something productive, since i'm already up.
• We've started keeping our blinds closed. This is actually a point of contention with us, because i love it to be bright and sunny, but it warms up the house, and the A/C has to work harder to keep up with the programmed temp. Now to me, the simple answer is "turn off the A/C", but this is not an option to my warm-blooded husband. At least on days like today when it was already 78 degrees by 7:45 AM. We also keep our ceiling fan on.
  
• This is a small thing, but i've started saving all the napkins they give you in fast food restaurants. You know how they hand you like 20 of them for one cheeseburger? Well, that's good for quite a few meals at our house, and they work for things like wiping off dribbled peaches from the chin of an adorable 6-month-old boy. It saves both napkins and paper towels, which aren't too expensive, but still add up.
• i'm trying to take shorter showers, and making them a little chillier. This sucks. i hate it. But it's a good thing to do, because our water bill is pretty high. i also only shower every other day unless i did something strenuous and am smelly.
  
• Along the water line, we use cold water in our clothes washer (it works just fine) and i'm trying to only wash clothes when they are actually dirty. Jeans can be worn a bunch of times, for instance. Or i might wear a dress shirt just for a few hours on Sunday morning, so i hang it up instead of tossing it in the laundry bag. This reduces unecessary wear on our clothes as well as the washer, bringing down the amount of times we have to use it.
  
• When the kitchen trash bag is full, i bring the can out to the dumpster and dump out the trash, but not the bag, making the bag last at least a week, instead of using 4-5/week like we had been. Trash bags are not cheap.
• i tried using only 1/2 of a baby wipe. This did not work. Baby wipes are an area where i don't want to skimp, and i'm sure David thanks me for it.
• i'm trying to turn off lights whenever possible.
  
• i use Shaklee Get Clean products for my household needs. Everything in that line is non-toxic, as well as highly concentrated. It requires adding measured amounts of water and product, but works very well, is safe for David, and lasts a LONG time. i've saved probably $100 since May when i started using it, and i will still not need to order more for a long time, because it lasts so long. i originally signed up with Shaklee to help out my friend and to try to make my house safer for David, but i love it now for how much money it saves me. (Not to mention saving me from that harsh chemical smell every time i wash my mirror.)
• i water down juice. This is not only to reduce the amount of sugar i am drinking, but also to make juice last longer. i'm also buying concentrated juice, generally 33% of the cost of buying it in bottles.
• i turned my refrigerator down to a lower setting. Haven't noticed a difference, and hopefully it should save us some money.

So those are some things we're trying to do. Hopefully they'll help, (we started most of them just a couple days ago) and they really won't be too much of a sacrifice.