Ways to save money?

madmax

Just looking for a few ideas on how to save some upgrade dollars.

One good example a friend gave me was to hang my jeans up on hangers after washing. Saves at least one dryer run a week.

Another was to turn down the hot water heater temp somewhat. A few others I found on the internet was to eat pasta, bagels and shop for food at walmart.


Any other painless ideas out there?
madmax

strider

Shopping at Wal Mart, for me at least, is far from painless.

When I'm buying something with cash, I never dig through my pockets for change. I always use whatever paper I have on me. Leaves me with a bunch of change at the end of a shopping day, but it adds up over the course of a year.

I also have started using coupons and checking the food sales circulars. Always swore I'd never do it, but it really does help.

janmike

Give up a habit and put the money in a jar.

Face

I turn down my hot water heater thermostat to the lowest setting for the summer.

AndyGwis

Eat out less (talking about restaurant meals, not the other thing).

Research ways to save on energy / utility costs (those really add up, especially in the summer).

Instead of donating items, host a garage sale.

Drink less booze, or at least less expensive booze.

Paul in Canada

janmike wrote: »

Give up a habit and put the money in a jar.

Do you have any suggestions on which habit or habits someone may give up to save money? Which ones would be the easiest and which ones would save me the most money?

madmax

My main habit is getting starbucks frapacinos, tastes like a really good milkshake. I sometimes spend $20 a week there. Gone! For now I'll stop and get a hot fudge sunday from McD's for .99 or maybe a wendys frosty for $1.69 when I NEED something.

Good one!

No drinking here, it messes with the sound too much.
madmax

rskarvan

If you must have Starbucks... buy it at Sam's Club.
And, if you haven't already, join Sam's Club (or Costco).
There are a lot of things that can be purchased in bulk-sizes that will save you some coin.

Also, don't be afraid to order the kid size meal at Culvers, Wendy's, and Chick-Filet. They are often a better deal than the specials.

Drink water... not soda. Good for the waistline too.

Dump your Directv and just go to Family Video instead.

Pack your lunch for work.

Lastly, remember, the old saying... "Take care of your pennys and the dollars will take care of themselves".

- Ron

dudeinaroom

I don't know about sam's club, I have found wal-mart to have prices the same or cheaper - go figure? Pack a lunch for work it can easily save you at least $20 bucks a week.

Early B.

However you do it, find ways to save $20/week and put it away. That's your audio stash. You'll be surprised how fast it adds up. Once you sell a component, use your stash to offset the cost of its replacement. When you do that, it feels like you upgraded for free.

Also, find a small business activity like selling stuff on ebay. Won't take too much effort to make some "mad" money (pun intended) on the side.

Of course, less drinking always helps.

Polkitup2

No doubt kick the habit that's any easy $1,000 + year. Everytime you buy a cup of coffee from Starbuck's have your significant other kick you in the nuts because well, you deserve it. Don't eat out, make your own lunch. Don't spend any more money on chicks - this works best if you are already married.

Bamadude

Watch the gas, you'll be surprised how many trips you can eliminate if you think about it before you get in the car. Run errands all at once instead of making separate trips.

jflail2

If you smoke, there's your habit. Quit, and you'll be rolling in it.

I hand every bit of loose $$ I have to my girl now. Whether it be a 5$ bill or a 100 bucks. We have a "house fund" going now, and I don't even want to know what's in it at this point. We'll find out in a couple of months.

To save? Be stingy as hell. Walk to work. Carpool if you can't.

Pack your lunch every single day! You will get tired of it, but you will also save $. If you drink lots of coffee, get one of those 1 cup wonders on your desk at work and quit paying for it somewhere. Eat breakfast before you go and bring fruits for snax; also cheaper.

Find everything free in town and do that instead. Free concerts, art shows, parks to walk in, sports to play (2 people +a soccer ball= free fun) etc etc. Free is the key for entertainment. You'd be surprised how entertaining the local HS symphony can be; good classical is still good classical...

Swap dvd's with neighbors to get your hands on something new without having to rent it.

If you want to have a get together, cookouts rule. Everyone contributes a little bit, and everyone ends up eating well.

Tell cable to blow all those useless premium channels out their wazoo.

A few of the words I'm trying my damndest to live by right now. Its hard, but once you get in a habit of it, its worth it.

tonyb

C'mon you cheapskates......if nobody is spending money,the economic wheels stop turning and all those big buck CEO's won't get their measly bonus.:p

Shizelbs

Drip coffee, brown bag lunch, cook your own dinners, do that for a month and you'll save a ton.

michael_w

The change jar works especially well in Canada where our smallest bill is a five. If you do the only bills payment style and put the change in the jar it feels like you go through your money faster (makes you reluctant to spend more because you think you're spending too fast) but really a ton of that is going into the jar.

If you have the room use a clothesline. Saves you a ton of energy and money if you use the dryer as little as possible.

Taking the bus to work works really well for me. I save a ton of cash by not driving or insuring a car. It's not all that fun when it takes over an hour to get home when it would take under 20 minutes to drive, but it's worth it (sometimes).

janmike

Paul in Canada wrote: »

Do you have any suggestions on which habit or habits someone may give up to save money? Which ones would be the easiest and which ones would save me the most money?

Sure, smoking, drinking, junk food, going out for lunch every day, gambling, fast food, the morning coffee shop...

Just pick one and go buy some gear.

Systems

Come on!!!
Be a typical American
Go get yourself a $10000 limit CC and dump it full of all the gear you ever want!!!!
Then take the rest of your credit and charge it full with goodies like new amps.
Then claim chapter 11


Well, maybe the laws have changed now so you can’t do it but I’m telling you. I *knew* some people that did that like 3 times.

michael_w

And our word for today is credit. (as in bad credit)

Mazeroth

I started clipping coupons a few weeks ago and wait until our large grocery chain (Giant Eagle) runs double $1 coupon week. They double all coupons up to 99c and $1 becomes $2. We got almost $250 in groceries and toiletries for $100. Not bad.

kingtut

Set aside X-amount of $ pre-tax toward your 401K retirement account. You save $ and less taxable $ amount on your paychecks.

dudeinaroom

Silverti wrote: »

Come on!!!
Be a typical American
Go get yourself a $10000 limit CC and dump it full of all the gear you ever want!!!!
Then take the rest of your credit and charge it full with goodies like new amps.
Then claim chapter 11


Well, maybe the laws have changed now so you can’t do it but I’m telling you. I *knew* some people that did that like 3 times.

From what I heard it's a lot harder to do that now. In stead you get multiple credit card, and in some thing like 5-7 years the cc company's stop hounding you, and it's off your credit report in 7-10(that's how my last boss started his business:eek: :eek: :eek: )

wallstreet

You could find a better paying job. That's the most painless route.

dragon1952

Only shower once a month whether you need it or not :eek: Take sponge baths. Only flush when absolutely necessary. Don't get haircuts...that's a biggee there.
Use newspaper instead of TP...or better yet bark. Lots of ways if you think about it.

fatchowmein

Another suggestion.

Power things off. Before everyone in the house goes to bed, walk around and turn off anything that's still on or in standby. Unplug chargers that aren't charging anything and ac adapters that aren't in use.

We saw our electricity bill drop 10-25%.

lomic

Familiarize yourself with the finance forum on fatwallet.com.

If you're financially responsible, have a good credit score, and won't need a home loan in the next few years, look into the topic of App-O-Rama. Basically you're getting 12 month, 0% loans from credit cards + signing bonuses. You put this money into a 5+% interest savings account, then at the end of the year you pay off all the cards and keep the interest. I admit it takes some balls to do, but it's perfectly legal.

Other credit suggestions are pure signing bonuses which don't hurt your score very much, and always using a credit card that gives you cash back on your purchases. Example from me:

Chase Freedom Card: 3% cashback on Grocery, Gas and "Quick Serve" restaurants. When you accumulate $200 cashback you can redeem for a $250 check. As a sign up bonus I received a $250 check.

Emigrant Direct Mastercard: 1.4% cashback on all purchases. I use this anytime a purchase is not Grocery, Gas or Fast Food. It requires I have $10k in my Emigrant Direct savings account to receive the 1.4%, so I am motivated to always keep my savings above that level.

Sony Card: After my first purchase I received a $100 credit on the card, and occasionally receive offers in the mail for $25 credit if I spend another $100. Other than those offers I never use the card, because who cares about Sony points

All told in about 6 months from starting the fun I've gotten $425 from these 3 cards, and I've given the CC companies $0.00 in finance charges and fees. Obviously you have to be careful not to spend more than normal with your shiny pieces of plastic, and you do get a couple point drop in your credit score for every card you apply for. Your credit recovers in 6 months to 2 years depending on the credit agency the card issuer gets your report from. Again, not a problem if you aren't planning a major loan.

There are also banks which offer bonuses for opening checking and savings accounts. While you're doing this you can take advantage of the BoA "keep the change" offer, which you can earn max $250/year with. If you buy a cup of coffee for $3.14 with their debit card, you get the remaining $.86 back in your account. Better than a change jar.

Anyway, those are just some basic tips from a financial perspective, I highly suggest reading the fatwallet forums. They also have a hot deals section to find things on the cheap, just don't go buying stuff you don't need, or you certainly won't be saving money

The biggest savings will be what people have already mentioned - the things around the house, and your eating habits, that can save you the most.

Gaara

One thing I have always done to save money is rolling over credit.

I got a CC with 0% financing for 12 months, bought a whole bunch of stuff and paid just over minimum payments. During this time the money I would normally use to pay it off was in the bank earning ~4.5%.

If you can find a card with free or extremely cheap balance transfers with 0% financing then use this card at month 11 to transfer all the balance from the soon to be not 0% card, to the new 0% card. This way you can keep the money in the bank earning interest instead of paying off the card.

If you were planning any big purchases you could make them with the new 0% card and use the money you would have used for the big purchase to pay off the old card.

I have been doing this for 4 years now and have never paid a finance charge of any kind, and have been able to keep cash in the bank earning ~4.5%.

bobman1235

Gaara wrote: »

One thing I have always done to save money is rolling over credit.

I got a CC with 0% financing for 12 months, bought a whole bunch of stuff and paid just over minimum payments. During this time the money I would normally use to pay it off was in the bank earning ~4.5%.

If you can find a card with free or extremely cheap balance transfers with 0% financing then use this card at month 11 to transfer all the balance from the soon to be not 0% card, to the new 0% card. This way you can keep the money in the bank earning interest instead of paying off the card.

If you were planning any big purchases you could make them with the new 0% card and use the money you would have used for the big purchase to pay off the old card.

I have been doing this for 4 years now and have never paid a finance charge of any kind, and have been able to keep cash in the bank earning ~4.5%.

For the record, this is pretty bad for your credit score, if you care. A bit component in determining someone's credit-worthiness is their "length of credit", or how long they maintain a single line of credit. Constantly floating around to different creditors is a big black mark.

Gaara

bobman,

Can you elaborate on this? I was under the impression that the length of time a person has had a card is a big determinant of credit. I am not closing any of the accounts that I have, just not using them after the 0% period is over, unless they offer cash back rewards.

Thanks.

Jared

snow

dragon1952 wrote: »

Only shower once a month whether you need it or not :eek: Take sponge baths. Only flush when absolutely necessary. Don't get haircuts...that's a biggee there.
Use newspaper instead of TP...or better yet bark. Lots of ways if you think about it.

LMAOOOOO. So lets see here you look bad, Smell bad and your poor arse is rubbed raw from the treebark:D This only works if your working for yourself, by yourself. Single and have no plans on getting laid within the next year.

REGARDS SNOW

bobman1235

Gaara wrote: »

bobman,

Can you elaborate on this? I was under the impression that the length of time a person has had a card is a big determinant of credit. I am not closing any of the accounts that I have, just not using them after the 0% period is over, unless they offer cash back rewards.

No idea on specifics, it's just one of those things I've "heard" from many sources so I assume to be true. Try a Google search... something like this site may be helpful.