Make a menu before you go to the grocery store. Grow a garden. Do your own maintenance at home. Program your thermostat.

These were just a few of the cost-saving ideas tossed around at last week's Money Mondays seminar at Virginia Western Community College. The seminar is part of an ongoing series of financial education classes being offered by a partnership of area credit unions and Virginia Cooperative Extension.

The partnership has offered free monthly seminars since January to provide people with useful information about budgeting, saving and taking charge of their credit cards, said Virginia Cooperative Extension agent Deb Chappell, who helps oversee the program.

Another program leader, Freedom First Credit Union outreach coordinator Rod Nunez, said seminar attendance has doubled since the classes started.

Nunez has noticed more young people show up in addition to the older demographic that the series originally attracted.

"You've got friends encouraging friends to go, girlfriends dragging along their boyfriends," Nunez said.

Perhaps because of the recession, people are realizing the importance of financial education, Nunez said. In these seminars people can refresh themselves on ways to regain control of their finances.

"Saving money was real to those in the Great Depression. We've just got to get back to the basics," Nunez said.

An instructor from an area credit union volunteers to lead the seminar each week, Nunez said.

Their purpose is educational, not sales related, Chappell said. "They're not there to hawk their services," she said. It's about making the consumer more aware of their financial choices, she said.

Monday's instructor, Member One Federal Credit Union financial literacy coordinator Theresa Womack, explained fundamental guidelines for wise money management to the seminar's 20 attendees.

She emphasized the importance of setting up measurable, specific and realistic financial goals. "A goal is not a goal until you put a date on it," she said.

People should not shirk budgeting because it's too complicated, Womack told the class. "A budget is nothing more than a blueprint" that helps people determine what choices are available to them, she said.

"People often find the money they've worked hard for falls through the cracks or flies out the windows," Womack said. Budgeting is a way to prevent that.

Womack also emphasized the importance of saving.

"The younger you start saving, the more you'll have and the easier it will be," she said.

After discussing her own money-saving tips, Womack opened the floor for discussion.

Among those present in the group were Susie and Doug Morris of Salem and their 14-year-old son, Sean. Susie Morris said Money Mondays served as a great family activity.

"It was my husband's idea," she said. "This is a way to teach him [Sean] life skills."

Roanoke residents Paul and Olga Hunt were prompted to attend the class after seeing a flier advertising the seminars.

Paul Hunt said the seminar was useful in reiterating the basics of budgeting. "A lot of stuff I already knew, but the class presents it in a more functional way."