"When we were saving for our first house, I would cut back by keeping the ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise packets from fast-food restaurants and filling bottles at home. We even had close family members save the packets for us! In addition, we never purchased drinks and always took our orders to go. We drank water from a thermos or purchased soft drinks on sale or with coupons.

"The way registers were set up at the time, we'd sometimes make money on items that didn't cost a lot to begin with. In addition, we had coupons that were doubled. This gave us more off than the original cost of the item. Since we wanted to save money and make as large a down payment as we could for our home, we figured EVERY penny counted, which it did."

-- Robert from Indiana