Here's my last post about ways to raise money for adoption.

This post is about saving money for adoption. The idea behind these two posts is that unless you are doing foster-to-adopt, adoption can be quite expensive. And even if you are doing foster-to-adopt simply raising a child can be expensive. Everybody can use money earning and money saving tips (except you Powerball winners...I hope to join you soon).

Anyhoo, here are some tips for saving money when you're hoping to adopt.

1. Quit eating out and quit getting fancy coffee. My family eats out about once a week (well, actually it's take-out) and it always costs about $30. That's not a ton of money, but if we'd quit doing it we'd save ourselves $120 a month, and of course some weeks we eat out more than that. We don't drink the fancy coffee, but occasionally we do buy things like ice cream for the kids or other little treats like that. I bet in my house we could save about $150/month by avoiding any food that we don't cook ourselves.

2. Be more energy efficient. Turn the temperature up in the summer and down in the winter. I happen to live in a gigantic old house so this is the only way we can actually afford to live, but 2 degrees either way can make a huge difference. Also - buy those long lasting flourescent bulbs for all your light fixtures. They pay for themselves and are extremely energy effecient. Hang your laundry (I don't do this...although I'm thinking about it). Install a solar or tankless water heater (we are doing the latter).

3. Buy used everything. Go to thrift shops. Visit yard sales. Take advantage of ebay and Craig's list. You can save tons this way. I think that in the past year I've spent less than $500 total on clothing, shoes, etc. for my entire family because I buy most stuff used and I only buy on sale. My kids are little boys and they don't care. My husband is as cheap as I am so he appreciates it. Neither he nor I have to dress up for work, however, so that helps, but even if we did I'd still try to shop this way.

4. Be less extravagent in gift-giving. Know what I'm giving as Christmas gifts this year? Books from our library's Friends of the Library booksale. Many of the books are practically new and hardcovers cost $3. Do you think my sisters or friends will care? Nope.

5. Downsize. Do you have a car payment? Do you really need that big or fancy of a car? How about your house payment. Again, do you really need that big or fancy of a house?