I have always felt that "crazy" is a relative term. However, I do get the occasional second glance when I go looking through a pile of trash or a dumpster. Furniture, lamps, tables, lawn mowers, vacuum cleaners and even plastic ficus trees (with the price tags still on them) have found their way into the back of my truck.
To be a little more discreet, I usually take my dogs for a walk in the "nice" neighborhoods on Saturday evenings after people have cleaned out their garages. I then swing back by early Sunday morning and collect the good stuff before the trash truck hauls it away.
A few months back, our Kodak digital camera of six years began acting up, and we decided to look for a new one. We researched the current technologies available (megapixel, optical zoom, memory, battery life, etc.), and decided that we didn't need the top of the line for our needs. We decided we wanted a Kodak with 8 megapixel and 10x optical zoom.
After four weeks of looking at the sales papers, we found a camera meeting our criteria at Office Max – originally $199.99, on closeout for $99.99 (apparently the newer model was coming out with 8.1 megapixel and 12x zoom).
We went to the store; and the salesman said that he had two in stock, but after searching for nearly 30 minutes, he discovered that they only had the floor model. I spoke with the manager, and she said that she would be happy to sell me that "used" camera for an additional 20% off. I comfirmed that this would be taken off of the original price, not the closeout price, so that the discount would be an additional $40 (20% of $199.99). This brought the price to $59.99. Then, I used a "Save $20 off of your $50 purchase" coupon to bring the total down to $39.99. The checkout girl could not believe that we only paid $40!
We do most of the normal frugal activities such as buying in bulk, investing in a deep freezer, limiting restaurant and fast food eating (when we eat out it is usually accompanied by a coupon or a gift card that we obtained from our credit card reward points).
About two years ago, we put our savings efforts into high gear so that my wife could "retire" from her job and be a stay-at-home mom with our first son. One of the first categories that we cut was our entertainment expenses, and we felt little discomfort when we switched to basic cable, cancelled our home phone service and used the Internet at the public library for free.
Through our network of friends and family, we found a couple of parents that had boys almost a year older than our son. Now we receive boxes and boxes of free clothes that their sons have outgrown - most of them name brand, many with tags still on them. What we don't get for free we can buy at second-hand stores such as Once-Upon-A-Child. We also check out thrift stores for children's toys, videos, books and specialty clothes (Halloween and Easter outfits, etc.)
Energy savings has been another big focus of ours. Over the months, as our appliances have been giving out, we have replaced them with high-efficiency models. I replaced all of the faucet and shower heads with low-flow models (these came in free kits from our city water department - ask your local office if they offer them).
The vinyl siding on our house needed to be replaced, so I decided to do that in my spare time. I also re-insulated my exterior walls and put in energy-saving windows. This is quite a good investment, if you can do the work yourself.
When our insurance company sent us our renewal notice with a rate increase, we called and got quotes from all of their major competitors. We then called our agent, informed him of the more competitive offers, and within a week we had a "new" renewal notice in our mailbox that was 10% lower than our old pricing.
Last summer we grew our first vegetable garden, and we never thought that we would enjoy taking care of it as much as we did. We are planning to make this year's garden twice as big.
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