Your Savings Challenge: Refuse to Pay Full Price

I recently saw a bumper sticker that read: "Friends don't let friends pay full price for anything." What an interesting — and challenging — thought.

In fact, it got me thinking: I wonder if you really could go for, say, an entire month without paying full price for a single thing you buy?

See also: 5 ways to save with coupons.

If you think you can, this month — starting Oct. 3 through Oct. 30 — we're challenging you to get really creative and find ways to pay less than full price for everything you buy.

We're not suggesting that you short your monthly mortgage or car payment or other fixed expenses (although we'll be talking about ways to possibly trim or even eliminate what you might consider to be "fixed" expenses). But, we are challenging you to pay less than full price for most everything else: groceries, eating out, entertainment, clothing, cosmetics and other personal and household items. Heck, we're even challenging you to find a way to pay less for gasoline.

How can you save on absolutely everything you buy this month? Well, that's up to you. If you're already a member of the Savings Challenge group, you know there's no shortage of ways to avoid paying full price if you really stop to think about it. Some of the dollar-stretching topics we'll be talking about this month include:

Next: What's ahead in this fall's Savings Challenge. >>