10 of My Favorite Ways to Save

I've been asked a few times in the past few months about my grocery budget. It is $400/month. I use that to buy everything from detergent for the dishwasher to diapers to groceries. We have a family of 5, granted three of them are small. I put together a list of 10 of my favorite ways to save money. Here it is!

Allyssa, David, and Kaytlin making laundry soap

1. Make your laundry soap. 6 months of detergent (10 gallons) costs me less than $3 and takes only minutes to make
2. Line dry as much as you can. Your drier is an energy hog, and it lets heat into your house making you have to run the A/C more.
3. When you can't line dry, cut those drier sheets in half. They work just as well.
4. Make your own broth. Bone broth is super healthy for you and super easy to make. Bonus: It is free. Place your thawed chicken quarters (bought on sale, of course) in your crockpot(s) with water. Cook for 6 hours. The liquid left in the crock is bone broth. Jar it; freeze it. Make cheap soups and use it in any recipes that call for broth.
5. Make your own special breads. I can't make sandwich bread for much cheaper than Aldi sells it, but rolls and such, that I can do. Pull out your Betty Crocker Cookbook (this is the one I have) and go to town.
6. Stock up when sales come. When tomato sauce is 16.666 cents a can, buy it. Lots of it. When your go-to canned veggie is 33 cents a can, stock up. When flour goes on sale, buy it.
7. Make your own sauces. Instead of paying a premium for spaghetti sauce and Alfredo sauce, make your own. I use spices and canned tomato sauce. 16 oz costs me about 34 cents, if I got it on a great sale and 66 cents if I didn't. That's a lot cheaper than the Prego.
8. Don't buy premade cookies or dough. I know they look good on the package. I know they are easy. Pull out that Betty Crocker Cookbook and mix up a batch yourself. For less than $2 (real butter price even), you can have way more cookies that taste way better!
9. Don't buy snacks. You don't need them. Remember, you just made cookies. Cheap cookies.
10. Limit your beverages. In our house, the kids drink water or milk. That is it. Literally. Okay, if they are sick, I'll give them a tiny bit of apple juice. It is rare. I recently gave up soda, again, so that's not an added cost. I drink water. That's it. My husband mainly drinks water, but will sometimes have milk with dessert. I also buy a 6 pack of beer for him every 3 to 5 weeks.

What would you add to this list?