Frugal Beginnings

Over the past several years, for a variety of reasons, our finances became very tight. As things became tighter we worked at reducing our expenses. In the beginning here were some of the things (in no particular order) we began to do which helped reduce expenses:

1. Eat out less, cook at home more
2. Shop for less expensive insurance - home, car, health
3. Borrow books from the library instead of buying them
   
4. Learn to cook more from scratch instead of pre-packaged/processed foods
5. Borrow videos from the library instead of Blockbuster
6. Go to the mall much less (it helps that we don't really live close to one)
7. Turn the thermostat down 1 degree from the previous winter
8. Stay home more, go out less, combine errands to save on gas
9. Use what we have rather than upgrading unnecessarily
   

There are many more things I've learned about living frugally. These are just a few from the beginning of the journey. I'll be sharing more over the next several weeks. How did your journey to living frugally begin?