So, nothing to do with cakes...but it may save you a few bucks...add your own if you have one!

1. In NYC, if you get a parking ticket, you can have it reduced AUTOMATICALLY by disputing it online. For example, I got a $125 double-parking ticket. I clicked the link to dispute it online and it was reduced to $90 if I agreed to settle and pay it. Different states may offer similar deals..

2. If you like STARBUCKS....next time don\\'t pay with cash...buy a gift card and use that to pay. Then register your gift card online, and they will send you a coupon for a free coffee on your birthday.

Great tips! I love my Starbucks and registering your card also gets you some other great stuff too!

My tip: I don't go shopping (online OR brick and mortar) without first visiting http://www.retailmenot.com. Just search for the store and list they list any coupons or discount codes that are applicable.

we switched to "pay in advance" cell phones because we just refused to be sucked into and screwed by phone contracts anymore. $50 a month flat fee for unlimited everything. But ...... if you have a contract and want to get out of it, here's what a friend told me she did. She reduced her phone services to bare bones minimum. She has texting only on her phone. Pays a ridiculous low monthly fee that is WAY cheaper than buying out the contract or paying early cancellation fees.

A small thing: I have two bottles of dishsoap at my sink. One is the regular bottle that I use when making a sink full of water. The other is a smaller bottle that I have a mixture of 1/3 soap and 2/3 water. I use this one when I'm just hand-washing a couple of pieces. I noticed that we tend to squirt the same amount of soap whether we are washing a sinkful or just one coffee cup. The watered-down version is great for that, and for squirting some onto my wash cloth to wash down the counters 'n such. Saves pennies ... but it adds up.

if buying plane tickets online, check the prices on places like Expedia and Hotel.com ..... THEN go directly to the vendor site (the actual airline or hotel site) and compare prices. I did this once and got cheaper tickets directly from the airline than from one of these discount sites.

FYI ... from working in a hotel, I have learned that if you buy hotel rooms via one of these discount sites, the hotel cannot make ANY changes for you (airlines either, but not sure on this one). I have people come in and want to upgrade their room or change from 2 queen beds to 1 king bed and i can't do it. The reasoning is that my hotel is getting paid by Hotels.com so they are my customer ... not the guest standing in front of me. Any changes at my end affects the price the guest got. I'm not even allowed to tell the guest the "real" price of the room they are stying in. So just know that while it might be cheaper, there may be a price to pay for it. Most of the time, it will work out ok. It sthe exceptions you need to watch for.

A couple of things that work well for us.

I <3 pampered Chef. They sell a "suds pump" that we've used forever! I have one in the kitchen for hand washing and one in the bathroom for the kids shampoo. Our kiddos are 6 and 7 and they seem to think that they need 1/2 a bottle of shampoo every time they wash their hair (Daughter has hair to her chin, and son has his head shaved) One bottle of shampoo lasts us about 6 months now!

I also check out a website called hillbillyhousewife. She gives a lot of tips on make your own stuffs, like seasoned rice and chocolate syrup. Tastes the same or better at a fraction of the cost!

not so much an initial money saver, but definitely over time.... but when we have leftovers from dinner during the week i put them into ziploc plates (plastic plate with plastic lid that snaps on top)....we might have 1 chicken breast left over from a meal and mashed potatoes and corn from another meal...sometimes its a single serving of spaghetti and a slice of garlic bread, I make up the plates and freeze and label them and nights when I don't feel like cooking or we are on the run, we just all pick out a meal (we end up with about 20 a month...all different) and everyone gets to eat somthing different.

also works well when you need to grab a quick meal in a pinch to take to work with you, reheats from frozzen in microwave in minutes.

So i have another one... i am really getting into couponing and stacking them on top of store sales etc... Unfortunately i don't have any stores around me that match coupons, but i sure wish i did.

For your favorite items check out the manufacturers website and see if they have a facebook page. Most have coupons listed in these two places that you won't find in papers, or on coupons.com or smartsource.com.

I have two kids under 2 so diapers, wipes, and formula are the big expenses right now. I have joined the rewards program or their mailing list and get coupons for anywhere from a couple of dollars off to free items (i just got a coupon for a free container of formula up to a $25 value, i stacked this on top of a $4 off store coupon and then used two $3 off coupons from coupons.com and got two containers for $7 when all was said and done)

I know some people that think coupons are for "poor" people, but to me its FREE money! if i'm buying it anyways then i might as well save my own money.

IF you do a lot of shopping on line i get points for purchases by using www.mypoints.com, i knwo there are others out there too, but this is the one i'm familiar with. I get so many points per dollar for shopping certain places online and then i can get gift cards back for so many points. The last 3 christmases we have paid for about 40-50% of our christmas's by using these gift cards. Granted my BF orders a lot of computers for his clients so that helps rack up the points pretty fast, but i print coupons through them from coupons.com and get points for using those too.

Hubby and I use prepaid cell phones as we don't like to be "plugged in" all the time so we don't use them very much. We get a year's worth of service for about $100.

Check with your home owner's insurance company about discounts for simple things like smoke detectors and deadbolts. Check with your car insurance company for good student discounts.

One most people won't agree with, but get rid of the cable/satellite tv. I can keep up-to-date on most stuff online so most of the time I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything. As my son said on Facebook this week, "We need cable like a duck needs an accordian."