My Family's No-Buy Experiment at Reader's Digest.

Timely story about a family that took saving money to the max and grew to like it:

The rules were that we would buy nothing for 30 days except absolute essentials, like fresh milk and fruit; and even there, after one too many "essential" trips to the market those first few days, I capped expenses at $100 for the rest of the month. A handful of key outlays like our mortgage, utilities, and Sebastian's preschool tuition were excused, but restaurants, parking, clothing, toiletries, Internet access, babysitting, and, yes, gasoline, were now in the no-buy zone.

The best takeaway from the story may be this link:

On a website called thriftyfun.com, thousands of users posted tip after penny-saving tip on conserving cash. There wasn't a crisis on earth, it seemed, that couldn't be averted with some combination of baking soda, white vinegar, lemon juice, salt, and a certain dishwashing liquid.

Thrifty Fun is the small talk of a small town sharing advice. The site, which began Jan. 12, 1999, pays $25 for the best recipe and two best money-saving tips each week, ensuring a flow of both. There's an interesting date-based index which opens to today's tips -- you can browse any day's tips by clicking on a date.

The Hochmans' story was necessarily an overview. I'd like to read more of their little economies.