• Think homemade for Valentine’s Day. Cookies and cakes in the shape of a heart are always a hit. Presentation matters, dress it up with a nice ribbon.
• Keep some dessert mixes on hand (brownies are good) for when you need a quick treat to bring to your child’s classroom or scout meeting or sport practice. Those unplanned runs to the bakery can add up quickly.
• Have a romantic “living room picnic”. Send the kids to bed early, start a fire and enjoy an inexpensive date night.
• Keep a small Ziploc bag in your refrigerator. After using a stick of butter or margarine put the wrapper in the bag. Pull it out and use it when you need to grease a pan.

• Most liquid dish detergents can be watered down to make them go a little further.

Read your dishwasher manual, some can run on as little as 2 tablespoons of detergent.

• Dishwasher detergent and laundry detergent are excellent buys at Sam’s Club.
• Do you use canned chicken broth? You can buy “chicken base” in the spice isle at Sam’s Club much cheaper. All you have to do is add water and it tastes great!
• Switch to concentrated juice. Adding your own water will reduce your expense by at least 50%. Why pay for someone to add water?
• Substitute inexpensive bubble bath for liquid hand soap.
• Hair conditioner works great as shaving crème.