Here are 11 things our family of 4 has stopped doing to save money in this economy and what we do instead

• Inflation has a lot of people rethinking how they spend their money.
• For my family, it required some tough choices but will make us stronger financially in the long term.
• Some strategies had a bigger cost upfront to save over the long term, such as buying an espresso machine.

While Americans are still spending money, inflation has a lot of people rethinking what they do to get the best bang for their buck. This is no different in our family of four, which includes two teenagers.

How my family lived our day-to-day lives before the pandemic is vastly different compared to today with many changes geared toward being a bit more frugal and conscious of where the money goes.

For example, passing on the hottest new fashion and instead buying clothes from second-hand stores can save a lot of money and still lead to nice threads. In other cases, it requires a bigger cost upfront to save over the long term, such as buying a nice coffee machine, something we are fortunate enough to be in a position to afford.

Some of those changes we deliberate and others happened subconsciously. However, combined, they are saving us hundreds of dollars every month at a time when those dollars don't go as far as they used to.

Here are some things we stopped doing to fight inflation and save money.