I found that foraging for hay bedding is very effective if you want to save money. It takes some physical labor but it is worth it in the long run because it saves trips to the store as well as high prices on bedding (why pay $5 for dried grass you can find outside, afterall!). Basically, all you need to do is find a field with grass in it and you can use scissors to cut it and bag it. Some grass out there will usually be the color of straw, so they will not be the same color as the hay people usually buy for guinea pigs. However, I have found my guinea pigs don't get sick from eating this kind of grass, nor do they seem to dislike it. I personally prefer to gather the longer strands of grass. Around my area, I can specifically forage for timothy hay, luckily, since there is alot of timothy grass near my home. I have also found alfalfa hay and other common varieties. When you forage for hay for use as guinea pig bedding, another advantage is that you can pick whatever extras you want to put into the mixture! I personally liked to pick some lovely wildflowers such as clover and dandelion. Kitchen scraps, like sweet potato skins, can also be added to the mix. My guinea pigs will nibble on their bedding and scurry around in it at the same time. Now that the weather is getting colder and less sunny, hay is harder to make out of grass, however. Wet grass has to be put out in the sun and allowed to dry before using as hay. During the colder weather, it is possible to oven dry the grass, though the results aren't as good or aromatic as sun drying. Me, personally, I don't mind using the wet grass as bedding. I find that the grass gets messed up easier and the moisture causes my guinea pigs's poop to turn sort of muddy, so it can get messy. However, I figured that wet grass was healthier for my guinea pigs since in the wild they normally would have eaten fresh green grass and not hay. I do use fleece too, but I dislike the fact that the bedding requires alot of washing!