Frugal Families Do Own Chores

By Ashley M. Heher / Associated Press

Beth Rogers is taking the family's finances into her own hands -- literally.

The 35-year-old from Fayetteville, Ark., ditched her weekly housekeeping service and now mops her own floors. She and her husband, Stanley, work in the yard after canceling their lawn care contract. She cooks at home instead of the family eating out, and she told her husband to iron his own shirts rather than send them to the cleaners. Total savings? About $10,000 a year.

"It made me feel embarrassed, because I realized the things we were hiring out was just me being lazy, or things I could do for myself," said Rogers, a stay-at-home mom who made the changes after business began to slow at her husband's car wash company.

Across the country, people are taking on chores that only a year ago were ...

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