|
Home
Warren Buffett
|
Ways to Save Money
Here are some money saving tips. Some of them are great and easy
ways to save money. Others are still good, but may require more
sacrifice or take a lot of time to payoff. And remember, a penny saved
is a penny earned. Every step you take to save money helps! After
reading the list, think of your favorite ways to save money (that aren't
listed below) and email them to us (email
us).
Ways to Save Money:
- Spend less money than you earn.
- Find ways to
make more money.
- Make more money by filling out
paid online surveys.
- Adjust your lifestyle to accommodate the first rule.
- Create a
financial budget to help you save.
- Do not use credit cards.
- If you do use credit cards, pay them down in full each month.
- If you have a lot of credit card debt at high rates, look into
consolidating your debt.
-
Lower your student loan payments.
- Forego spending money whenever possible.
- Stop purchasing frivolous, impulse items.
- Forego purchasing non-essential items.
-
Refinance your mortgage or debt at a lower rate.
-
Refinance your car loan
 at
a lower interest rate.
-
Find cheaper insurance rates.
- Lower your phone bill.
- Lower your
international phone bill plus get $5 in free calls.
-
Use coupons
to shop. (Here's
another free coupon site to try. )
Or try
coupons.com for free local coupons. If you haven't heard of it,
the
Entertainment Book
can save you hundreds of dollars at your local hotels, restaurants
and attractions.
- Join an online shopping club and
get
20% off shopping
by joining an online shopping club.
- Join
MyPoints
 and
get paid for visiting sites, joining offers, referring your friends
and even online shopping.
- Earn savings bonds for college, retirement or spending by
shopping through
BondRewards.
- Wait for things to go on sale before buying them.
Find catalog saving certificates here.
- Don't buy anything just because it is on sale.
- Occasionally buy generic, or non-name brand merchandise.
- Wait for prices to fall before buying (applies especially to
electronics items - like DVD players).
- Reward yourself for saving money. Enjoy watching your debt
shrink and your investments grow.
- Drive used cars.
-
Look for a higher paying job.
- Reduce your
auto insurance.
- Don't eat out as much as you'd like to.
- Buy
discount magazines
 .
- Do more activities at home.
- Invest the money you save so that it earns money too.
- Create a plan to save $100 per month (or as much as you can
swing). Try never to miss the monthly savings payment and try to
find ways to increase it to $150 per month.
- Don't ever spend money just because you have it.
- Keep your job skills sharp. Get a
free trade
magazine subscription.
- Stay busy - you have less time to spend money.
- Find an inexpensive hobby to occupy your time and stop you from
spending money.
- Find a hobby that you can earn money doing.
- Stop smoking.
-
Go on a diet and lose weight
Not only do you save money on food, look and feel better, but your
long term healthcare costs should also fall dramatically.
- Look critically at how you spend and save your money.
- Learn how to manage your finances by
reading
financial publications.
- Increase the money you earn (second job, promotion, new job,
through investments, etc.)
- Don't try to compete with your friends and neighbors.
- Don't try to compare yourself to your friends and neighbors.
- Sell your car and take the bus to work (may not apply to
everyone).
- Contribute the maximum each year to your 401K or to an IRA.
- Buy
Dental Insurance
 before
you need it.
- Buy
Health Insurance before you need it.
- Remember, paying down debt is also a way to save money (it saves
you from a debt payment and gets you closer to having money to
invest).
- Lower your cable bill by ending pay channels or switching to
satellite.
- Earn extra money by filling out
short surveys at one or all of the following sites:
Lightspeed,
Ispos
Opinion Outpost,
Greenfield Online, or
Opinion Surveys. For a complete list along with detailed
reviews, visit our
review of paid survey sites.
- You can make even more money from these online survey sites, but
they'll cost you a membership fee:
PaidSurveysOnline.com,
Survey Scout.
- Get paid to
read email (completely free). Get your friends to sign up and
earn even more.
- Here are sites (we don't know if they work) that promise to pay
you to type
from home, to
shop and eat, or train you to
make millions
from home.
Fast Cash at Home.com promises all of the above plus more
options to make money through self employment in your own time.
- Join a
Product Test Panel
and earn lots of cool, free, new products.
- Here's another
rewards site
that pays you up to $250 cash if you sign up for several of their
deals. It's only a good deal if you were going to sign up for their
deals anyway.
- Practice restraint.
- Be patient.
- Start saving money today!
- Don't give up!
Ways to save money added from our visitors
(please note that we post our visitor responses regardless of whether or
not we agree with them):
- Shop for clothes at thrift shops (especially for young kids).
Many times you can find gently worn or even new clothes for 1/10 the
price of new (or less).
- Pay bills online. Its safe and I save $50 a year on stamps.
- Put your kids on the school bus instead of driving them to
school.
- Slipcover or reupholster older furniture to update rather than
buying expensive new furniture.
- Learn to refinish furniture or decorate with paint. Use cast-off
furniture to make a unique piece.
- Save money by taking your lunch to work every day! Make meals in
bulk and then freeze them in smaller portions to save even more
money.
- Buy a bread maker and make your own bread. Much cheaper than
$2.00 a loaf, and tastes great!
- Shop for canned goods and toiletries at salvage grocery stores.
- Cancel magazine subscriptions. Read them at the library or buy
them at the thrift shop for .25 to .50 after someone else has
donated them.
- Stop buying expensive sodas and make Kool-Aid or decaffeinated
iced tea.
- Cancel expensive (and annoying) phone options like call-waiting.
- Check out library books instead of buying expensive paperbacks.
- If you wash your hair every day you don't need to lather twice.
Saves shampoo!
- Change eating habits (avoid processed foods).
- Exercise and eat right - keeps doctor bills down.
- Brush and floss your teeth - keeps doctor bills down.
- Keep up on auto maintenance to avoid costly repair.
- Mend clothing instead of buying replacements.
- Buy only clothing not requiring dry cleaning.
- Simplify manicures - don't get them.
- Simplify hairstyle - one that doesn't require much maintenance.
- Get 3-6 quotes anytime shopping for item over $100.
- Develop self-control; simplify your life if possible.
- Many inexpensive, no-name drugstore cosmetics are as good as or
better than their department store or salon counterparts. Read the
ingredients and find cheaper substitutes for your favorites wherever
possible.
- Cut dryer sheets in half.
- Buy generic over the counter medicine.
- Buy generic baby wipes, diapers, formula...... studies show that
it's all the same!
- Find name brand clothing at garage sales in affluent
neighborhoods.
- Find fashionable clothing at the sale departments of stores like
the Gap.
- Keep in fashion by buying basic colored tees and skirts and then
adding trendy accessories.
- Buy baby clothes from someone that has a child one year older
than yours. You can get good quality clothing, fashionable baby
clothing at ultra low prices.
- If you get change back when you purchase an item, put it in the
piggy bank. Give the cashier whole dollars, not the exact amount. In
a few months you will have "found" money that you could use to pay
bills, save or buy something nice.
- Save money by shopping for groceries in the "bulk foods" aisle
in your grocery store. Many stores now carry bulk staples that are
much less per ounce than the smaller family size versions. Buy large
noodles, sugar, flour, etc. and appropriate storage containers for
the part not to be used as soon as the package is opened.
- Also, if your family is trading off meat for legumes one or more
times per week (which can be both healthy and cost effective,) shop
for dry legumes and rice in the "Mexican" food aisles. They will
often have better prices on a large variety of dry beans and peas.
- You don't need the heat above 68 degrees in the winter inside
your house. Wear warm clothes and socks/slippers while in the house.
While watching tv, snuggle with a blanket. Warm air breeds germs. So
by keeping the temp. 68 or below -- you save on heating costs and
breathe healthier air.
- Use all those plastic bags you receive at the grocery store for
trash. This way you don't have to buy trash bags and you are helping
out the environment by recycling.
- Some grocery stores give you a 5 cent credit per bag if you
bring your own, although they never advertise this. Ask the next you
go grocery shopping.
- Instead of buying a nice house, rent to own. The payments are
cheaper.
- Install a water softener. It might be expensive to start up, but
in the long run, you use less shampoo/conditioner on your hair and
it saves your appliances (pipes, iron, washing machine, dish washer,
kettle and hot water tank) from clogging up with lime scale.
- Breastfeed your children! Even if you are a working mother and
especially to those of you who are not... breastfeeding requires
very little or no money and can save you from spending upwards of
$100 a month in formula. Even a good breast pump for a working
mother will cost you a little more than 2 months worth of formula.
You can also sometimes rent or get your insurance to pay for your
pump if you need one. You can get assistance for all kinds of
breastfeeding issues from La Leche League (lalecheleague.org) find
yourself a local group or call them toll free. Breastfeeding your
children will also reduce your long term medical costs and save you
more money.
- Save money when shopping next time at the supermarket by
remembering to check the lower items nearer to floor level as they
are often much cheaper than those at eye level. Also resist the
temptation to purchase extra items at the checkout such as magazines
and candy bars placed there to tempt you. And never go food shopping
on an empty stomach, you always buy more!
- Re-gifting! You don't need half those things you get. Just keep
a list so you don't re-gift to the original person!
- Every year my family gets a cow slaughtered and butchered for
approximately $600 per cow. The average cost of the meat is $1.00
per pound. Ask the farmer to grain feed the cow for two months
before the cow is done. This eliminates a lot of the toughness of
the meat. Also a fresh cow has a lot less fat than what you get in
the grocery store. Even with the cost of running an additional
freezer, I still only pay $1.00 a pound for T-Bone Steaks, Filet
mignon, Sirloin Steaks, Rib Eye Steaks. It more than pays for
itself.
- Buy fruits and vegetables in season. They are less expensive
and taste better.
- "I used to go out every weekend to see a movie and i realized i
was spending too much money on recreational activities. So now i
wait to see a movie on dvds at the video store. I still go see a
movie every once in a while but not as often. so instead of spending
$8.00 on a ticket and spending $10.00 on popcorn and drink and candy
i spend $6.00 on a dvd at video store."
- "Abrupt braking, corning, and accelerating (speeding) will eat
your gas up considerably. Never let your fuel needle go below a 1/2
tank, or fill it up when you drive it to "E". Nickel and dimming
your gas tank gets you no where fast!"
Click here for More Ways to Save Money
|
|