Hair Razing
With haircuts starting as low as $5 and color at $12, booking an appointment with a hairstylist-in-training is worth the aesthetic gamble. Local cosmetology colleges such as Empire Beauty School, American Beauty Academy's Magnolia School and the Jean Madeline Aveda Institute offer deep-discount 'dos to clients willing to turn their heads over to a classroom of salon novices. Although all students shave, snip and foil under the watchful eye of a licensed cosmetologist, most schools also require their pupils to log a minimum number of hours (we're talking in the hundreds here, people) before hitting the salon floor. Of course, the cheapest haircut of all comes courtesy of a kitchen stool, scissors, a bottle of Jim Beam and one brave-ass roommate. Save: $15 to $100.
— Ashlea Halpern

Cheap Kitchen Chic
Whether you're an amateur party hostess or simply a fan of matching dinner plates, take advantage of kitchenware discounts at the city's ethnic supermarkets. Hung Vuong on Washington Avenue (between 11th and 12th) offers white tableware comparable in quality to IKEA's Rondo line for significantly less (think $2 cheaper per dinner plate). Silverware is an even better deal, with packs of 12 cereal spoons for $6.99 compared to IKEA's six-pack for $5.99. Hung Vuong also has plenty of cheap patterns to choose from, and unlike the Swedish behemoth, it's within walking distance of several neighborhoods. Save: $2 per piece of tableware, 41 cents per piece of silverware.
— Gabrielle Mosquera

Curtain Call
You hate yourself for loving those luxurious curtains and those lush colors, but they gaze out from the pages of your latest West Elm and Pottery Barn catalogs, begging you to bring them into your home. Resist temptation! Buy yourself a cheap sewing machine, visit Fabric Row, cut fabric into an approximation of a rectangle, hem and gaze proudly. Save: $110 (includes sewing machine).
— Char Vandermeer

The Strong Haul
The next time you buy a new kitchen appliance or other bulky commodity, don't pay the dealer to have the old one hauled away. Your fabulous city will do it for free. Simply call the Streets Department hot line (215-686-5560), and they will walk you through the uncomplicated process. Save: $10 to $25.
— Peter Burwasser

Smoke Free
Two-pack-a-day habit got you eating ramen? Save a penny by hanging out in 21+ joints frequented by cigarette street teams. Camel, Kool and Marlboro are three of the biggest in the city, and their tobacco-pushing minions can be found in dive bars ranging from McGlinchey's and Good Dog to Tritone and Tattoo Mom's. The one caveat: Promo teams can't approach nonsmokers, so equip your goody-two-shoe friends with decorative cigarettes. Promo guy walks up, sees an entire table of "smokers," takes down everybody's stats, hands out packs like Tic Tacs, and you walk away with a week's fix. Oh, heavenly nicotine. Save: $5.25 per day or $35 per week.
— Ashlea Halpern

Plastic Financing
Use your credit card for work. Get yourself one of those handy points-earning cards and volunteer to buy the company baseball tickets, schmooze donors, pay for staff meeting lunches — go ahead, be the hero. Next, obtain reimbursements immediately and pay off the exorbitant balance. Once you've become a real pro, employ advanced techniques like the "rob Peter to pay Paul" maneuver. That is, time your company purchases (and forthcoming reimbursements) strategically and pay off splurges like that $1,000 bicycle before finance charges kick in. Not only will you reap your cash reward points sooner, but you'll buy yourself a little more time to put together the cash you need for your fun stuff. Save: Lots.
— Char Vandermeer

Tell Motel 6 to Turn Off the Light
Booking a full-price hotel or motel room when you're not going to get there until 2 or 3 in the morning is a big waste of money. Stop doing it! Instead intersperse hotel stays with nights spent sleeping in the car. This is particularly good for the first and last days of long car trips, when you want to get a lot of miles in, or weekend trips that you otherwise could not afford to take. Take turns at the wheel with your buddy until you're both too sleepy to drive anymore, park and sleep and when you wake up, use some of the money you saved on lodging for breakfast in a restaurant with nice big bathrooms (where you can brush your teeth and change). Or, if you're close to your next night's hotel, try to check in early and take showers there. A big car isn't necessary but smaller ones will need seats that fold back to a comfortable sleeping position. A good parking location is also key. You want one in a somewhat public area for safety but not so bright and busy that you won't be able to sleep. We've tried highway rest stops, gas stations and 24-hour supermarkets before finding the near-perfect blend of activity/privacy in, believe it or not, motel parking lots. One bonus: If your parents (or whoever worries about you) ask where you're staying, you can honestly say the Ramada. Save: $75 to $150 per night.
— Carolyn Wyman

Champ Change
If, like me, you've got a jar in your bedroom full of stray change, you look forward to the day when you can turn it into some greenbacks. Unfortunately, the green Coinstar machines located inside supermarkets take a 8.9-percent "counting fee" out of every dollar you put in. But recently a friend put me onto the change machines at Commerce Bank, which will do it for free. You don't even need a Commerce account to use them. Save: 8.9 cents per dollar.
— Gabrielle Mosquera

Mulch Ado
Attention, urban gardeners! Ever dream of heaping mounds of compost and wood-chip mulch, all free for the taking? You have? Better lay off the jalapeño salsa and tequila just before bedtime! But seriously, your dream is true, courtesy of the Fairmount Park Commission. The recycling center, at Ford Road and Chamounix Drive, in West Fairmount Park, does, indeed, contain a mountain range of these garden necessities. You should be a city resident to avail yourself of this resource, so bring some proof, but nobody really checks. Do bring gloves, a shovel and a bunch of heavy-duty bags. There's free firewood, too. Save: $10 for tiny gardens, on up.
— Peter Burwasser

Get Your Hats Here
There's no reason for sex to cost more than your hooker's hourly rate. After dropping a few days' wages on long-stemmed roses and god-awful opera tickets, shelling out for a box of condoms just adds insult to injury. Save yourself a Hamilton and score free rubbers via any number of safe-sex advocacy groups, including the Youth Health Empowerment Project, CHOICE and Planned Parenthood. Most centers offer a wide selection — lubed and unlubed, spermicidal or cherry-flavored — and generously leave the contraceptives sitting out like peppermints. If you're under 18, check with your guidance counselor; some area high schools are doling out condoms like No. 2 pencils these days. And while it may seem wrong to scam community outreach groups for free rubbers, you can always rationalize it this way: One fewer child fashioned in your image can't be a bad thing. Save: $10 per month.
— Ashlea Halpern

Shop Like it's Going out of Style
Sure, back-to-school shopping trips with Mom were painful, but admit it, she was right. Join the converted and head out to the final sales at Lord & Taylor. Find a friend with an extra 20 percent-off coupon and save 80 percent or more. Recent finds include $100 jeans for $20 and a cashmere sweater for $7. Save: $20 to $250-plus.
— Char Vandermeer

Help Train the Next Generation of Teeth-pullers
If you've got expensive root canals or orthodontia in your near future you might consider becoming a guinea pig for students at Penn or Temple dental schools. After a couple of intake visits, you get matched with a student who is your dentist for as long as he or she is at the school. Even good students take two to five times as long as a regular dentist to do anything. And you can't figure out if the trade-off makes sense simply by comparing your hourly wage to the dollar premium a regular dentist would charge (unless your job is like having someone poke your gums with a metal probe for six hours — in which case, you don't need a dentist, you need a shrink). There is obviously a fear factor here, although I take comfort that treatment takes place in huge multichair rooms with instructors wandering around, so if the kids really hurt you, you can scream and someone would probably come. Save: about 50 percent over the cost of a private dentist for most procedures.
— Carolyn Wyman

Buy One, Get One
Keep an eye on those Sunday circulars and make a special trip to Super Fresh when they do that most excellent buy-one, get-one-free sale. Make a list of household necessities and bring your coupons. It's like Christmas. Save: 50 percent on everything.
— Char Vandermeer

Floor Show
Laminate hardwood surely isn't hard and it surely isn't wood. And at $4 a square foot it's a terribly costly cop-out. Not only will the initial outlay cause pain, but the lifespan of the crap is a fraction of what you'll enjoy with actual hardwood. Here's what you do: Buy yourself a few bundles of unfinished red or white oak tongue-and-groove flooring. Page through one of those idiotproof how-to books at the Home Despot checkout and you'll learn all you need to know. While a real wood floor requires a little more elbow grease, the results are worth it. Once you factor in all the various stuff you'll need for that floating laminate floor, a 15 by 15 room will cost you nearly $1,000. Now double that, because after five years it'll be a scuffed, chipped and battered monstrosity in need of being replaced. Your cost-effective alternative: a load of wood, one cheap miter saw and one decent sander (both incredibly useful tools that will bring you years of do-it-yourself pleasure). The same room will run you $950. Save: $1,050.
— Char Vandermeer

Business Cards
Stop expecting callbacks from matchbooks with your number scrawled on them. Go to www.vistaprint.com to get 250 personalized business cards for the price of shipping ($5.25) and get back in the game. Save: $70.
— Nick Norlen

Alice's Restaurant Lives
You can get anything you want for free from one of the local freecycle lists operating on Yahoo! People hate to throw away still-useful items that they can no longer use. Freecycle lists let the owners share details of what they are looking to shed and to whom (some prefer nonprofits; others those who can pick up right away). Freecycle lists range from citywide to microcosmic (West Philly or Center City) to regional (Delco). Search www.freecycle.org for one near you. Recent offers have included house paint, books, cassettes, moving materials, lamps, dressers, sofas and just about everything needed to make a comfortable home. Save: Lots.
— Mary Armstrong