When my husband and I married, we both brought what we refer to as "Stupid Youth Debt" (those great college credit cards they send you) with us. We'd been doing well, paying more than the minimum payment to get rid of them as fast as we could. We used the Dave Ramsey Debt Snowball for that. Then I started my own small business in 2010. In April 2010, we closed due to the non-renewal of my contract from the company I was working with, leaving me with $45,000 in business debt.

So now...here we go again on the debt. We're still working on the credit cards, as well as the business debt, while trying to keep from going broke or insane. And we'd like to start a family soon. Somehow, our plan went kaput!

So we made a new plan. My husband and I are both working full-time and part-time jobs, and I make custom cakes on the side as well. I coupon like a madwoman - with only a small stockpile of things that we ACTUALLY USE (mainly personal care products and canned food like tomatoes for soups, etc). I am on a number of survey panels that provide me with points that I accumulate to redeem towards gift cards (We've used these for wedding and birthday gifts mainly.), as well as products to test. Just in the last week, I've received a full-size shampoo and conditioner and a full-size laundry detergent! So I get both the products and the points from filling out a survey about them after a few weeks. This past summer we had a large family garden, which is providing us (as well as my parents, brother, and his 2 kids) with green beans and corn, as well as a few pickles and onions for the winter.

In the coming months, I'm planning to reduce my grocery spending (with coupons) by another $20/month. We're planning an even bigger garden next year with more variety, and we're also planning on getting a couple of feeder hogs for the farm, which will provide my extended family with plenty of pork for the year.

If anyone has any other suggestions or things that are working for them to help save and cut costs, I'd love to hear them!