When we earn $10, we may actually receive $8 or less after taxes plus we had to spend time to earn the money. Savings are better. They are tax-free and take much less time to acquire.

At our home, we save so we can give. We give to the Lord's work (our local church) and we provide food, medicine and other necessities for those in need. We are very motivated to live frugally. In return, the Lord blesses us financially. Much comes through savings rather than increased income.

Here are some of the sources that we have found to be useful. Hardly any of these require sacrificing features that we have now -- just getting the same thing from a different source.

(This page has been designed to be printed and still show the significant links on paper.)

TRAVEL      Gasoline - Find the Best Local Price      Airline Specials   $39 and up FINANCIAL SERVICES      Health Insurance Alternative   About ½ price      Life Insurance - Term      Mortgage - Dropping the Insurance      Banking - Free Online Banking    $0.00      Reduce Existing Auto Lease   Added in March 06      Buy Stocks Online   $7.00 FOR SENIORS      AARP - For those 50 and above      Motels - Further reduced cost for those above 60      Property Tax Freeze for Seniors COMPUTING      Microsoft Office Alternative    $0.00      Anti-Virus    $0.00      Firewall    $0.00      Getting on the Internet    $0.01      Internet Page Hosting    $2.95 PHONE RELATED      Phone Network - cellular    $0.10 per minute      Phone Network - Wired Toll Calls    $0.03 per minute      Directory Assistance    $0.00 UNCLASSIFIED      Bible Program    $0.00      Photo Developing - locally      Deeply Discounted Drugs      Use Less Toothpaste   Added in March 06      Craigslist      Websites of Specialists in Being Frugal    $0.00

Bible Program for Computer. There are a number of fine Bible programs that show different versions and let the user check the Greek and Hebrew text as well as consulting maps, dictionaries and encyclopedias. A fast and free program is the excellent e-Sword http://www.e-sword.net/ More than 3,000,000 copies have been downloaded. A Pocket PC version is also available.

Search for gas prices by US Zip Code

Gasoline prices. If we want to know the local price of gasoline today, here is a web site that probably can tell us. The site is updated every few hours by local reporters. While we may not want to drive to the lowest price, we can be sure that our choice is among the lower priced outlets. When you locate your neighborhood, right click your mouse and save a link to your desk top. The site is supported by advertising.

Craigslist. This grass roots site is becoming world-wide. It is a free electronic garage sale on steroids. More than 10 million people use it each month. Prices are low, some items are free. It has the dangers of the market place, so caution is advised. Response is frequently fast. The site does not appear to have a home page, but your area can be selected from the right-hand panel of its menu. eBay has 25% interest in Craigslist. http://portland.craigslist.org/

Airline Specials. Southwest Airlines flies most places that we want to go in the US. They offer a special reduced Internet price to those who order tickets online. They also offer tickets that are about 25% off of the special Internet price. These prices are available for about four hours, then go away. Southwest places a program called Ding on your computer and it dings about twice a day with specials. The price still earns rewards just as other Southwest tickets do. I needed to travel from Nashville to Tampa Bay last year. The Internet price was $39. Subtract the $16 value of the points that I earned and the real price was $23. With points previously earned, I flew from Tampa to Portland free. http://southwest.com/

Prescription Drugs Reduced. Some people do not have prescription drug coverage, either public or private. A group of drug companies have banded together to offer a free card for discounted drugs. Savings range from 25% to 40%. The application is just five lines long at their website
http://www.togetherrxaccess.com/ or the application can be made by phone at 1-800-444-4106, so lack of computer access is not a problem.

Less Toothpaste, better results. Toothpaste advertising usually shows photos of the entire top of the toothbrush covered with toothpaste. The reality is that is about four times more than necessary and may even interfere with good brushing. Read the explanation at:
http://dentistry.about.com/od/childrensdentistry/ss/brushkidsteeth_2.htm
For further verification, go to your favorite search engine and enter "toothpaste pea." Plan on reducing your toothpaste bill to 25% of its former self. The biggest challenge may be to convince the kids.

Specialists in Being Frugal. Information on living frugally is the speciality of several financial gurus. We like the radio broadcast and web site of Clark Howard. Browse his wealth of information at http://ClarkHoward.com. Dave Ramsey is changing many families with his highly-directive style in person, on videos and at his web site. http://daveramsey.com/.

Mortgage - Dropping the Insurance. When we own 20% equity in our house, based on the purchase price, we can have the mortgage insurance dropped. Some people don't know this and pay it for years and years. You may be able to save $40 per month or even more. There is a Consumer Alert covering this at
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/pmialrt.htm

Free Online Banking. It is safe. Transactions are encrypted while traveling to and from the bank. It is lower in cost than using regular mail. Many banks and credit unions are making it available. I entered "free online banking" in Google and received 38 million hits. Check around town. You may be able to get this service.

Reduce Existing Auto Lease. If you have an existing auto lease that is hurting the pocketbook, there is a web site that specializes in rewriting leases. We do not recommend that you extend the payment period, but the other options could save you a bundle. Visit them at:
http://lowermylease.com/

Stocks online. Before computer access, buying and selling stocks, mutual funds and bonds provided the bread and butter for local stock brokers. A transaction could cost hundreds of dollars. Now online brokers allow clients to do the trading themselves. I like Scottrade at http://Scottrade.com. The trading is online, but they have brokers in over 200 cities across the nation. If something needs clarification, the broker will handle the question by phone. Stock trades are only $7 and some mutual funds are free.

Property Tax Freeze for Seniors. Many localities have this feature at the County or State level. Be sure to find out if it is available where you live if you're a senior. Putting "Property tax freeze for seniors" in Google brought up more than 200,00 hits.

AARP. There are some significant discounts for AARP members in travel, housing, car rental and many other items. The applicant must be at least 50 years of age. http://aarp.org/. Phone 888-687-2277.

Motels for those 60 and above. We stay with the Choice Hotels group when possible. This includes Comfort Inns, Sleep Inns, Quality Inns, and Clarion Hotels but not EconoLodge and Rodeway without inspection and recommendation. Choice has a reduced price for AARP members, but they will offer an even better price by phone to Seniors who are 60 and above. Call and ask for the rate. 1-877-424-6423. http://ChoiceHotels.com

In addition, if you join the Rewards Program, a stay accumulates points for free nights.

Microsoft Office Alternative. There is no cost for downloading and using Open Office, a look-alike for the excellent Microsoft program. Free is a hard price to beat. http://www.openoffice.org/.

Free Anti-Virus. It's high risk to operate a computer without anti-virus software. A program that is updates as new threats appear (providing your computer gets online) is Grisoft. http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1.

If you use less than 100 hours per month, there is even a more frugal way. Bamnet http://bamnet.com/onepenny/ offers an 800 number at 7¢ per minute. This will work for any city in America.

But we can go lower yet. They offer local connections from nearly every city for just 1¢ per minute. The connection speed varies a bit, but it does connect. I use their plan as backup if my high speed connection falters. It isn't always fast, but it works.

Internet Page Hosting. Do you want to put up a web page? Or get your own email address rather than use one of the free ones like HotMail? You need a hosting company. My favorite is CrystalTech. They are among the 10 top hosting companies in America. They have two hosting plans at $2.95 per month. http://crystaltech.com/. The charges are reduced 50% for non-profit organizations. It is also possible to purchase a low-priced domain name "www.yourname.net" from them and it is yours, not theirs, as with some companies. CrystalTech has professional, English-understanding tech support from their offices, not from India.

Photo Developing locally. I can print digital photos on my color laser printer. But professional finishing at 19¢ (4 x 6) is hard to beat. There are lower prices on the Internet, but by sending the photos to Walgreens, I can pick them up at the local store in one hour and there aren't any shipping charges. Most neighborhoods have Walgreens.
http://photo.walgreens.com/.

Phone Network - Cellular. The phone companies want us to purchase one or two year contracts for service. Most of these contracts begin at $40 and are up from there. Another approach is to use prepaid cellular. The phone companies have worked the pricing of prepaid around until some of the plans look like the regular monthly plans. I use a plan that charges only for the time used. There is no connection fee, no separate taxes or other fees. By using this plan, I pay about $4.00 per month for my cell time, perhaps $5.00 per month for my wife's cell. (She talks just a bit more.) A low-priced approach is to buy a pre-paid phone at a T-Mobile store for $30. Then find a $100 pre-paid T-Mobile card. Target has them on sale at times for $88. That makes the airtime less than .09 per minute. After one full year, the time remaining on the card can be rolled over by a minimal purchase of additional time. My phone is loaded with two years of talk time now providing I make that small purchase.

Phone Network - Wired. In some locations, the TV cable company is offering an alternate phone service with some savings. The prepaid phone card offers low-priced long distance calling. Costco offers one for under 3¢ per minute.
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?ProdID=11047875. It is postage paid.

But if you have high-speed computer access, either through the phone company or cable company, the door is open for an alternate phone service using that access. It is necessary to have a microphone and earphone. These may be combined in a simple unit that looks like a telephone.

European-based Skype was recently sold to eBay for four billion dollars plus. Skype combines excellent audio with video. Calls are free, Skype to Skype, anywhere on the planet. As these lines are being written, there are well over 3,000,000 customers using Skype. Skype to Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) in the U.S. and Canada is avout $.02 per minute.. http://skype.com/. I use Skype regularly for long distance calling. At this stage, one needs to be at the computer, but that will change during 2007. Skype starter kits are available from Radio Shack stores. My Skype name is historian.

Directory Assistance. Years back the only way to get a number in a distant town was to call Operator Assistance. The service is still available, but the fee has climbed to $1.99 (AT&T). Now there is free information again. Dial 1-800-FREE-411. (1-800-373-3411) The worst thing that could happen is you would listen to a twelve second ad. It works for either cell or home phone. There is more description at: http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/nothing/free411.asp

The computer way is to check with one of several online directories. My favorite is Switchboard:
http://switchboard.com/. It is supported by advertising. Or use
http://www.free411.com/searchresults.php?searchtype=1