This family is a bit too narrow-minded. It seems their main focus is on the grocery bill. I clip coupons from time to time, but don't find much as I know that saving a quarter or two here and there on a brand name product is still more expensive than buying the store brand. I don't know how common this is, but our grocery store prints out coupons with your receipt for products you purchased or related products. For example, we decided last week to try out some Hot Pockets and with our receipt came a coupon for $1.50 off Hot Pockets. Now that's easy coupon clipping!

But, in the long run, we don't spend too much energy trying to reduce our grocery bill because it seems to us that necessities like food is exactly what the money is for. Some times spending a little extra at the grocery store promotes exactly the sorts of things I'd like to see more of. I like to be able to read and understand all of the ingredients in a product even if it cost me a little more than the over-processed variety.

I'm also not a fan of anyone who proudly says they've never touched a credit card in their lives. Unless your concern is anonymity, a credit card used wisely can bring money into your home that cash can not. We charge everything we can for two reasons: it helps us keep track of spending so we know where our money is going and the incentive programs on credit cards give us an added bonus from time to time--ours mostly in the form of Home Depot gift cards. What I like to hear is, "we've never paid a dime in credit card interest," which is true in our house.

What we do focus on when trying to save money is pointless spending. Any kind of interest is to be avoided as much as possible. Any extra money we come across goes toward paying down our mortgage. I have a relative that refinanced their house in order to pay for two college educations. Ignoring the fact that I'd never pay my kids' way through college, it would have been smarter to take the student loan for as much as you can get and send your money to your house payment. Many student loans are interest free while in school; and, even when interest accrues, it can be as low as 2.5% while home rates don't come close to that. Make the minimum payments on low-interest debt and send what you have to whatever is costing you the highest rate.

Another way to avoid big mortgage interest is to only buy the home you need. Many people shop for homes with a "what can we afford?" attitude. We probably could have afforded a home $40K more expensive than what we chose to buy. If we find ourselves needing the larger home in 5 or 10 years, we will own more equity in our current home since we've spent that time not paying interest on $40K worth of currently unneeded space.

There are tons of other things too that weren't mentioned here. I get the impresssion that they don't eat out too often since they have a freezer full of food, but what about avoiding unnecessary driving or being energy efficient to reduce the electric bill? How about clothes shopping at resale rather than new? No mention of garage sales either--my little boy would have very little to wear if it weren't for these. I just think it takes more than a super efficient grocery shopper to earn the "Cheapest Family in America" title.