It’s been said before but it bears repeating; most families can’t afford to not be frugal in today’s economy. There are the obvious things you can do to combat rising prices: buying in bulk, saving whatever you can for a rainy day, and not succumbing to unnecessary luxuries, but what do you do when you’ve got these tactics down to a science? You look for new ones, of course! Here are a few ideas sure to put a few dollars back in your pocket, whether immediately or a little ways down the road.

Surf the Web: Next time you log onto the Internet, instead of bee-lining to Facebook or your sister’s blog, conduct some constructive research. There are a number of great websites which offer either coupons for common items or just ridiculously low prices in general. Coupons.com is a great site which offers printable coupons that change on nearly a daily basis.  If you have diaper-age children within your brood, be sure to check out Diapers.com, which offers fantastic prices on diapers, feeding supplies, bath care items, and hundreds of other must-haves for moms, many of which ship for free (or close to it). They even have a referral program, which scores you discounts for referring your friends. These sites are so good that I’m not getting paid to advertise them; I just feel that I should.

Spend for college: Everyone dreams of sending their little one off to a higher education one day. What some people aren’t aware of is that, if your child is in kindergarten now, it is projected that a four-year education may cost you over $110,000. If you don’t want to be paying student loans off with your retirement money yet you aren’t in a position to open a college savings account, try accumulating some extra funds with Upromise.com. You can print coupons, use a discount card at popular grocery and drug stores, and even link your credit or debit cards to an online savings account. Each time you spend at a qualifying store or restaurant, they contribute a percentage of the sale to the account which you can disburse towards a college education. Percentages range anywhere from 1% to 8%, and a number of online retailers participate as well.

Teach your Kids to Save: Children are inevitably greedy. Sometimes (not always, unfortunately), this stems from the fact that they do not understand the basic concepts of money – earning, saving and budgeting. Showing your children the fundamentals of economics will help them understand why they can’t always have what they want when they want it. Invest in your child; an allowance doesn’t have to be exorbitant, even a couple of dollars a week can help them plan to spend. Stress the importance of saving some, spending some, projecting future expenses, and even being charitable. If you’ve given your son four dollars, explain how he might want to hold onto a dollar every week to save up for that Transformer he’s had his eye on, project that he might want to put aside seventy five cents for a candy bar at the grocery store later on, spend an extra buck fifty at Chuck E. Cheeses this weekend to help rack up some tickets, and donate another three quarters to the nice people who help other kids whose parents can’t afford to give them an allowance each week.