USE CASH OR CHECKS INSTEAD OF CREDIT CARDS

One method to keep your hands off the credit cards is to switch to using only cash or checks (or a debit card) for all of your purchases for a year.This forces you get in touch with your money again. Without plastic, you are forced to carefully consider each purchase that you make and verify that you do in fact have enough money for that purchase before you make it.  Here are some suggestions:

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  Do not destroy your credit cards, but instead freeze them in a block of ice. Just pour a small pan about a third full of water and freeze it. Then toss your credit cards on top of the ice and pour some water, then freeze it again. Your cards will be frozen in the middle of that cube, inaccessible unless there is a real emergency; any time you think about getting them, you will have a long time to consider it as you melt or break the ice.
  
  
  
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  Remove your credit card numbers from any online sites you use regularly. If you use credit card for billing on some merchant websites, remove your credit card number, if you must, replace it with a debit card number instead so the money comes straight from your checking account.
  
  
  

START YOUR OWN GARDEN

If you have a bit of space where you live to break ground, gardening can be an extremely cost -effective hobby and can be as good as putting money in your pocket. You have to make some up front investments - the cost of hoe or other equipment to break ground, and the time investment needed to tend to your plants - but you will earn a nice harvest at the end of the period. You will have spent a lot of time in the garden on a very frugal activity, time you might spent elsewhere engaging in an expensive hobbies. In some fruitful seasons, you will more than break even with the value of the procedure you grow, and you have the freedom to grow the foods that you like. Don't have space? Try starting a window garden or a box garden. You can grow a small amount of food in one of these in even the tightest of spaces.

You can grow your vegetables in a box garden.

http://gardening.tips.net/Pages/T005148_Building_a_Box_Garden.html

EAT BEFORE YOU GO GROCERY SHOPPING

One of the most dangerous expenses in the grocery store is the impulse buy, and impulse buys are often directly caused by hunger. When you are in a grocery store and you are feeling hungry, many more items are going to look tasty to you and are thus much more likely to sneak their way into your cart. There is a simple way to suppress this grocery shopping impulse: Eat a small meal just before you leave to go grocery shopping. That way you are not hungry, but you are also not bogged down with a heavy meal in your stomach. This will allow you to keep your energy up and get finished with shopping quickly, but not be tempted to throw extras into your cart just because you are hungry and impulsive.

GO GROCERY SHOPPING ONCE A WEEK AT MOST

Think about your average grocery store trip. You wind up buying mostly stuff you need, but a few odd and unexpected items always wind up in your cart. You have usually got enough fortitude to keep the items to a minimum, but they wind up in there each trip. The simplest way to curtail those extra items, and to save on gas and time as well, is to get into a routine of going to the grocery store less often. You should go once a week at most. Not only you will save time and gas this way, but you will also cut down on the number of extras you dump into the cart.

DON'T EAT OUT AS OFTEN

Eating out on a regular basis can get very expensive. Aside from low-end fast food, there is almost no meal you can eat outside the home that's not far more expensive than a virtually identical fish you can prepare for home. You can usually prepare it much faster and with healthier ingredients. The only way to get good at this, and to reaaly reap the cost benefits of eating at home, is to do it all the time. Reduce eating out and ordering delivery or take out to special occasions only and start busting out the pots and pans more often. Not only will your wallet thank you, but your taste buds will, too. As you gain more practice at cooking, your dishes will become more delicious.