Monte Carlo computer simulations have long been used to obtain information on the behavior of thermodynamic systems. The method has the advantages of being applicable to a very large class of models and of using only systematically improvable approximations (finite size of system, statistical errors, etc.). However, in the critical region, finite-size effects mask the critical singularities, and put severe practical limits onto the accuracy to which the true critical behavior can be determined. By combining Monte Carlo simulations with a real-space renormalization-group analysis, a large increase in efficiency and accuracy can be achieved — without the uncertainties of the usual truncation approximations. The methods are illustrated by explicit calculations on models exhibiting critical and tricritical behavior.