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Tips to Save You Money!

No matter your walk of life, you yourself, or someone you know is being affected by these economic times. Whether your 401K went from 1 million to 500k, or you are living on savings that is quickly depleting, learning tricks to make your penny stretch is always helpful! Hopefully this article will give you at least one thing you can do to save money!

1.  Cut Back! The first thing that comes to mind is to cut back on things you don’t need. Of course this seems obvious but if you get a Venti coffee from Starbucks every morning that’s $2.11. Multiply that by 5 that’s $10.55 again multiply that by 50 (lets take two weeks off for vacation) and you get $527.50 a year on coffee! Imagine what you could save by buying a to-go coffee mug and making it yourself. I now set up the whole coffee thing at night instead of the morning, due to my mistake of putting my coffee pot in the cupboard instead of back on the pot. I’m much more aware of my surrounding after my morning coffee!

I asked my Twitter followers how they were personally cutting back and Richard Scheffrin said the first thing he did, was cut his cable.

As a woman, I can save huge amounts of money by doing my own nails, or finding a friend who can cut my hair. Also Real Simple Magazine is tremendously helpful with their article 101 New Uses for Everyday Things. Who knew you could use coffee filters to clean your windows when you are out of paper towels!

2. Plan Meals Ahead! The second thing that can help cut money is planning ahead regarding meals. When I asked people on Twitter how they are cutting back  Joseph Jones replied, “I eat out less . Also, I pay a little more attention in what I am buying.” Planning meals at home ahead of time can be very helpful. I actually have a calendar that has meals planned three weeks out. I don’t always stick with the exact plan, but I always have ingredients on hand to make dinner at home.

Dave Pancost also said that he makes his lunch for work now instead of eating out. He has been saving roughly $10 a day from adding 10 minutes to his morning routine!

3.  Make Dinners with Minimal Ingredients! Make dinners that have only a few ingredients! This will save you a lot of money while grocery shopping. Here is a site with over 400 Pillsbury Recipes with Under 5 ingredients each!

4.  Buy Generic! Don’t be fooled and pay 3-5 dollars more just for a name. Generic Medications are required to have the exact same ingredients as brand name, and here WalletPop says that generic food items are “Sometimes cheaper and Better.”

Another article that WalletPop has recently published actually goes through over 25 items and does a Generic vs. Brand Name comparison.

5.  Find Cheap Gas! We all are aware that we are no longer paying what we were 6 months ago for gas, and I’m sure we are all grateful, but all of us would still choose $1.75 a gallon vs. $1.79, and the best way to find these lower prices without driving all around your neighborhood is Gas Buddy. Just simply go on-line and enter your zip code. The site will automatically pull on the gas stations near you, in order of cheapest to more expensive.

6. Buy a House Plant that Blooms All Year! If you are prone to spend $20 a week or even a month on fresh flowers to spruce up your house, try buying a potted plant instead. Real Simple’s Madaline Sparks, suggests one of these, the Angel Wing Begonia, a Kalnchoe or the Flowering Maple. All can be found at togees.com and range from 7 to 15 Dollars!

7.  Share a Babysitter with a Neighbor! If you and your significant other have a set date night, or even a mother’s day out program that is making you spend hundreds on child care each month, try cutting that cost by sharing your nanny or babysitter with friends and only paying half. Care.com you can find a sitter share in your area, and allows parents and providers to list their needs.

8.  Enjoy your Favorite TV Shows and Films for $1 or Less! Redbox.com is the most convienent way I have found to rent movies; And the cheapest. For only $1 a night,  you can rent any new feature you could at a local Blockbuster or Hollywood video, and all without a memebership! Each kiosk can hold up to 700 videos, so happy shopping! Also Hulu.com is a website that provides over 900 prime-time TV hits as well as classic movies, all for free.

9.  Carpool or Embrace the Public Transit! If you have the abiility, make it happen! If you need to find people in your community to carpool with visit eRideShare.com to find fellow riders online. If you would like to use the public transit but don’t know where to start try these sites, hopstop.com, google.com/transit or supershuttle.com.

10.  Cut Your Wine Cost! Recession minded varieties start at $3! Whites, try 2007 Twin Vines Vinho Verde for $7, 2008 Santa Rita 120 Sauvignon Blanc for $8, or 2006 Recession White Chardonnay for $5. For Reds, 2007 The Little Penguin Shiraz, 2008 Bohemian Highway Merlot, or Trader Joe’s Charles Shaw Cabernet Sauvignon.

The following Five Saving Money Tips are originally posted by Trent at The Simple Dollar.

11. Switch your bank accounts to a bank that respects you! You shouldn’t be spending your hard-earned money on maintenance fees - you also should be earning some serious interest on your checking and savings accounts. I use ING Direct as my primary bank - I earn roughly 3% on my checking account and 3.4% on my savings account and they’ve never dinged me with a fee. Here’s a guide on how to make that switch.

12. Turn off the television. One big way to save money is to watch less television. There are a lot of financial benefits to this: less exposure to guilt-inducing ads, more time to focus on other things in life, less electrical use, and so on. It’s great to unwind in the evening, but seek another hobby to do that.

13. Turn a critical eye to your “collections.” Most people collect something - what do you collect? Is it something that consistently brings you joy? Or is it something that you just do out of habit at this point? Does the collection itself have value? Could you perhaps “trim the fat” from this collection by getting rid of duplicates or getting rid of the items you no longer use? Also, could you perhaps cut down on your spending on that hobby? Focus on trimming the things you don’t feel strongly about - if you dig into things that bother you, you’re going to eventually relapse.

14. Sign up for every free customer rewards program you can. Even if you rarely shop at that place, having a rewards card for that place will eventually net you some coupons and discounts. Here’s the basic game plan for maximizing these programs: create a Gmail address just for these mailings, collect every card you can, and then check that account for extra coupons whenever you’re ready to shop.

15. Make your own gifts instead of buying stuff from the store. You can make food mixes, candles, bread, cookies, soap, and all kinds of other things at home quite easily and inexpensively. These make spectacular gifts for others because they involve your homemade touch, plus quite often they’re consumable, meaning they don’t wind up filling someone’s closet with junk. Even better - include a personal handwritten note with the gift. This will make it even more special than anything you could possibly buy down at the mall, plus it saves you money.

I hope this article will be helpful in saving you money, or opening your mind to new creative ways to cut back. Please share any other additional things that you have begun doing to make every penny count!

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