I’m in the best financial shape in my life，despite quitting my job and my wife recently quitting hers too. A lot of that is thanks to you guys，the readers，but it’s also thanks to frugality，to eliminating debt，to saving as much as I can.
Here’s what works for me.
Use cash
Instead of charging things to credit cards or debit cards，use cash for non-bill spending such as eating out，gas，groceries. Spending cash makes the spending more real，and there’s an added advantage of knowing when you’re out of cash，instead of spending more than you have.
Small weekly savings transfers
I got this idea from my friend Trent at The Simple Dollar，who automatically deducts $20 a week from his checking to savings. I decided that I could live with $40/week without really feeling it—it’s a relatively small transfer that I barely notice，and I save about $2，000 a year on top of my larger bi-weekly savings transfers.
Stay home
Going out makes you more likely to spend unnecessarily. You eat at restaurants，go to the mall，stop at the gas station for snacks. It’s hard to avoid spending when you’re on the road. Instead，stay home，and find free entertainment. It’s also a great way to bond with your family.
Don’t get catalogs
Or e-mailed announcements from companies trying to sell you stuff. Their announcements of sales or cool new products make it very tempting to buy something you don’t need. Instead，stop the catalogs and e-mails from ever getting to you in the first place，and you’ll spend less.
Keep a 30-day list
If you have an impulse to buy something you don’t absolutely need，put it on a 30-day list. You can’t buy anything but necessities—everything else goes on the list，with the date that it’s added to the list. When the 30 days are up，you can buy it—but most likely，the strong urge to buy it will be gone，and you can evaluate it more calmly.
Cook at home
I know，it seems more difficult than eating out. But it doesn’t have to be hard. Not only is this much cheaper than eating out，it’s healthier.
Exercise
Staying healthy is the best way to avoid costly medical bills later.
Use the envelope system
It’s the same idea as using cash for spending，but in addition you use envelopes to split your spending cash into categories. My non-bills categories are groceries，gas and miscellaneous spending. Three envelopes，and when they’re empty，I’ve spent my allotment.
Talk with your lover weekly
It’s important that you and your significant other be on the same page. A weekly meeting of just 20 minutes. Communication is the key.
The spreadsheet tracker hack
There are expensive programs like MS Money，Quicken，and the like that will do amazing things with your financial information. There are even free ones，on your desktop or online，that can do all kinds of things. Trouble is，I don’t need all that. All I want is a way to track my money easily，with no other bells and whistles，and a way to access that online so that I can view it from anywhere. The best way I found to do that is through Google Docs and Spreadsheets. I created a simple spreadsheet to track my bank accounts，that does everything I used to do with MS Money. It has the date of each transaction，the title and amount，a little field for memos，and a running balance. What more do I need? Keep it simple.
Pay savings and debt first
When you sit down to pay your bills (I do them all online)，make the first bills you pay your savings transfer and your debt payments. If not，if you pay them last you’ll often end up shortchanging them. But if you pay them first，you’ll make sure you still pay your rent or mortgage，utilities，groceries and gas … so you’ll just cut back on other spending.
Exercise at home
Some of you will disagree with me on this，which is OK—everyone should do what works for them. But I’ve saved a lot of money that I used to spend on gyms by just running at the local track or on the roads in my neighborhood，and buying some simple weights and a chin-up bar.
Cut out cable TV
I’m not saying I don’t watch TV—I watch DVDs，so that I’m sure that what I’m watching is something great，rather than the useless stuff you find on TV most of the time. And there’s a lot of it online for free if you look. Not a huge savings，but it adds up.
Declutter
By getting rid of all the excess stuff in your home，you not only make your life much simpler and more peaceful，but you make it harder to buy stuff that will just clutter things up again. Once you’ve simplified your home，you won’t want to go back.
Lend and borrow
Give books and clothes and toys you don’t need anymore to your friends and family. If you need something，send out an e-mail asking if anyone has it. Chances are，they’ll give it to you for free if they don’t use it anymore.
Barter
It’s a lost art，but lots of people will take your services or goods instead of money，especially if you’re friends or at least know each other. Get into the habit of offering to barter，and you’ll find yourself saving a lot of money.
Use online savings
I use Emigrant Direct，but ING Direct is also popular，as are a bunch of other online banks. Not only do you earn twice the interest of a normal bank savings account，but if you don’t get the ATM account it’s not as easy to withdraw money … making it less likely that you’ll get money out on an impulse.
Try frugal gift-giving