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With Christmas headed our way and the talk of recession buzzing all around, I imagine most families are thinking of ways they can cut back on household expenses. When considering what to eliminate from your expenses, don’t forget to consider adding a money-saving co-op. We have belonged to both a babysitting co-op and a fabulous dinner co-op, and they had not only money-saving power, but were also time savers and stress relievers. Here are the details and a few more ideas to consider:

Babysitting co-op – All you need to start this service cooperative is a group of parents with similar child-care needs and someone to be in charge of tracking the hours consumed by each family unit. It is a bonus if the children in the group are around the same age, and of course you need to make sure you trust the parenting style/values of the adults who will be caring for your kids. To start our group we allotted each family a certain number of babysitting hours. We made our babysitting arrangements and then reported the information to our record keeper. It is simple, but works wonderfully if you have the right group of people trading services.

Dinner co-op – For this time and money saver, you need to gather a few families with similar schedules and meal preferences. We were involved in a neighborhood dinner co-op for almost two years. There are many variations on this, but we operated by having three families each preparing and delivering a meal once a week. For example, I cooked on Monday and would deliver a meal to feed six to the other two families at their home around 4 p.m. every Monday. One neighbor cooked and delivered her meal every Wednesday and the other on Thursday. We all had young children, so by cooking for 6 adults we had leftovers to spread throughout the other days. It reduced my trips to the grocery and the money spent on dinner, primarily by eliminating eating out or expensive prepared meals. My husband also loved the variety that the co-op provided in our meals, since some of the members cooked things I had never ventured to try.

Gardening co-op – This is an oldie but goodie that I haven’t tried YET! I think most of us are familiar with how a garden co-op works, and I know a few people who have had great success with this in their neighborhood. It would be nice to have a person or two with some experience, but other than that I would think you need a good central location, good soil, a master garden plan and a commitment to work.