Free Financial Advice

More Ways to Save Money

Here are additional money saving tips that we've compiled from our visitors.  If you think of more ways to save money (that aren't listed below) please email them to us (email us).

• Instead of buying new DVDs, save money by trading the DVDs you don't want using Peerflix and receive a free DVD.
• Here are some ways my family saves money:

  - We plant a small garden each spring, with just the vegetables we really like. Just a little effort every day can save dollars usually spent on fresh vegetables at the store.

  - We buy bread and other bakery items at the local thrift bread store.

  - We check our local library for the newest dvd/video releases, which we can rent 3 for $2.00 for two days.

  - We read our local newspapers online.

  - We search E-Bay for big ticket items and have saved literally hundreds on computers, dvd players, etc.

  - We keep track of the cost of items we buy a lot and get them at the cheapest store, like cleaning supplies at Family Dollar, pet food at Wal-Mart, etc.

  - We make a conscious effort to combine tasks that require driving some place, so we get the most out of our mileage.

  For our friends and family who do not feel slighted by this, we send e-mail cards for holidays, birthdays and as thank you cards. We also e-mail family and friends who live far away, instead of calling long distance.

  - We do not have a monthly fee long distance service, we just use an access code when we do call, which is infrequently anyway.

  - We decided which satellite channels we could do without, and even gave up a few shows we really liked, and saved more than $20.00 on our monthly bill.

  - When we do buy vegetables, fruits and bread at the grocery store, we check the reduced-for-quick-sale carts and shelves first.

  - We change the oil in our vehicles ourselves.

• Save money by buying your (and kid's) clothes for the following year at the end of the season / during the off season. You get great mark down prices.
• Catch Your Coins--Every evening take the spare change from your pockets or periodically clean out your purse and toss the coins in a jar. Never take any money out of the jar until the end of the year. Then take all the coins to be bank and exchange them for cash. You'll be surprised to find they've added up to $50, $100 or even $200.
• "Take care of your cents, then your dollars will take care of themselves." - Also one have to live with a financial plan and set up a financial goals for oneself, this means to increase one's income sources, economize money, and invest your money wisely and profitably. "When you save your money, you buy yourself control", and money have to be "saved and invested" wisely (intuition of a person knows everything well, so one has to follow it's signs - always).
• Bike to work in good weather to save on gas.
• Eat a few vegetarian meals a week.
• Garage sales are a great source for household items, books, clothing, and furniture.
• Don't buy bottled water! Invest in a water-filter and drink tap water.
• At the end of each day, when you come home, put all of your change into an empty coffee can. Then just roll coins while you watch TV or listen to the radio. This adds up to hundreds of dollars very quickly.
• Save money by taking a serious look at your energy costs. Energy is usually the number two or three expense, along with the cost of rent or mortgage and food.

  - Switch every single bulb to compact florescent bulbs. They may be expensive but they last for years (no more replacements) and tend to use about 10-20% of the energy of regular bulbs. Buy one each time you make a shopping trip, starting in the high traffic areas of the house like the kitchen or stairway until you no longer have any incandescent bulbs left.

  - If you own your home seriously consider switching any electric heating appliances to natural gas such as the hot water heater, furnace, stove or dryer. Electricity can be used for almost any device, and you pay a hefty premium on electricity for that. Gas is very efficient for heating devices, it heats up much quicker and wastes far less energy.

  - Do your laundry in cold water. Most modern detergents are just as effective in cold water as in hot water. Also make sure any laundry that you do is a complete and full load - it takes the same amount of energy as a tenth of a load.

  - Try this trick with your dryer: Put it on for 20 minutes, then put it on "air fluff" for 15 minutes. Your clothes are already hot with the water coming off as vabour and you'll find although it takes about 20% longer, you save about 50% of the energy costs of your dryer.

  - In the colder months when you need to use your furnace, turn the heat on to your desired temperature. When the furnace turns off (your house has been heated to temperature), turn the thermostat to the off position. If you feel cold, check the thermostat. If you 5 degrees below your desired temperature, turn the thermostat on again to your desired temperature. Often furnaces will kick in and out to maintain your desired temperature, but furnaces are far more efficient when they are in the heat cycle for longer periods of time. You'll save about 50% on your furnace costs, even 30% over having a high-tech digital thermostat. Of course keep it completely off when you're out of the house.

  - If you ever leave the house for the weekend or longer, unplug everything. That alarm clock or VCR blinking or DVD on standby still take power. If you're leaving the house for a week, you will save real money by just unplugging all of these devices- and you'll protect your home from fire risks should there be a malfunction or power surge.

  - Keep your fridge and freezer as full as possible. The less airspace in your fridge, the less time it takes for your fridge or freezer to cool the air. Don't have much money for food? Just buy a bunch of bread and throw it in the freezer, you usually can get bread cheaper when you buy it in large quantities anyway.

  When we first moved into my home our hydro bill was $69 and our natural gas bill was $214, during winter months. After these changes, our hydro was reduced to $39 per month and our gas was reduced to $115 during winter months. That's a savings of 54% or $150 a month!

• If you really need a magazine subscription make a group maybe with 3 persons to divide the costs. Then each person can stay with the magazine for one week.
• I've saved a bunch of money by upgrading from a combined fridge and freezer with a freezer size that just takes about a package of ice cream. By this you can buy larger quantities of foods that are on special offers. Also check out if you could save some money on upgrading your kitchen appliances to new energy saving models, the difference in energy consumption between an old freezer and a new one could amount to approx 80-90 $ a year, and that is just the freezer only.

  - Save money on in home-decorating: skip the trends and go for quality to create a personal eclectic home. In Europe there is various forms of charity shops ran buy for instance The Red Cross, various churches and other charity organizations. I'm sure there's something similar in NA too. Take your time and stroll around in these shops and switch on your imagination (can the items be altered easily by adding a contrasting ribbon or the like?). You can get really great quality curtains, furniture, linen and kitchenware for almost no cost at all. Someone has regarded their newly died grandma's stuff as junk and donated it to the shop but you will often find that grandma often had wonderful qualities of textured linens (she also probably were in the know of how to maintain her fabrics. Ironing and pressing is just not for the fabric to look posh, it will be less fragile.). This way you'll save cash while still displaying dash, consider many wealthy people don't buy the most trendy stuff either. One good example is that Queen Margerethe of Denmark a few years renewed the winter curtains the castle Amalienborg, the previous curtains had served every winter for 200 years...

  - Save money by being an informed consumer, especially if you're buying services like a contractor for renovating kitchen or bathrooms. Check out if there's magazines which is for homeowners that has written or undertaken surveys/ tests in the area. The insurance companies also tend to have information they gladly provide to their clients (well at least in Sweden you can get a lot of "do" and "don't" advices from insurance companies).

  - avoid the trap of thinking you don't have time to cook your own food and ending up paying a lot for half fabricated and take away. Try make your grocery shopping once a week only (why not go together with a neighbor, that way you'll get company and also you're two which saves gasoline on the trip to the store) and then make most of your cooking for the week during the weekend, make sure you have a good, basic, wide range cooking book and involve the rest of the family in creating menus and the cooking. You'll notice that you with a modest effort of planning can eat food equivalent to an upscale restaurant 7 days a week to less cost than a few days of take- a- way at McDonalds. Even relatively small children can participate in this and they often enjoy doing things like this. Store the weeks meals in the freezer (but take them out of there the same morning that you plan to consume, avoiding to use the microwave oven to defrost will also save money)

• Save money by throwing away any catalogs or magazines which tempt to buy something
• One way to save money I stumbled across is that cereal can be frozen and it keeps for a very long time. Before that, we could never eat it fast enough and had to throw it away when it was stale. When you pour milk on it, you would never know that it had been frozen. I have not yet found a cereal that tasted bad from the freezer.

  Also, instead of buying bottled water, we have a water softener on our hot water only. Our water comes from a well, but if i run the tap until the water is completely hot, I can fill a pitcher, let it cool, refrigerate it, and get very good tasting clean water for drinking.

• Don't throw out your empty bags of milk. Instead cut them open and wash them. You can use them as baggies. They also keep frozen foods fresh when used with a sealer.
• Save money by making your grocery list by planning menus for the week and buy only what is on your list.
• Borrow DVDs from friends and family instead of renting to save money.
• Set your washer to the shortest wash setting possible. Instead of washing your clothes for 8 minutes put it on for 4 minutes. It saves on your electrical bill and on your clothes.
• One way I found to save money is to pick up the pennies, dimes and nickels I find on the sidewalks or in parking lots. I add it to the jar of loose change we are saving and by the end of the year we have about $50. Every little bit helps!
• Foster the practice of sports in your kids. The more time they spend practicing any sport, the less time and money you and they will spend at the shopping mall.
• To save money on gas, never fill the gas tank full since the extra weight of the gasoline takes extra toll on engine power. And of course take out all items on the trunk which are not important to reduce vehicle weight.
• Another way to save money on the movies is by joining a movie club such as Netflix or Blockbuster. This works best if: you rent several movies a month, and or, you and your family have different movie choices. Also there are no late fees.  To save even more buy popcorn in a jar or bag and pop it yourself. Much healthier and you can add your own seasoning such as Mrs. Dash (salt-free).
• I've enjoyed seeing other peoples' budget-conscious moves. Mine aren't as severe, but I think they do save some money.
• A trick I learned in England. I turn off the heat at night and sleep with a hot water bottle. I live in a small apartment, so it heats up quickly. For people with larger houses, turning the heat down would probably suffice. It's amazing how warm you can stay all night.
• I drink espresso. This seems counter-intuitive because espresso seems like a luxury item, but because it's ground finer, and you use less, the coffee lasts longer. I have had a machine for years that I wasn't using. During the work week, I was buying coffee at Starbucks and other places nearby, which was at least $10-$20/week. So, instead I brought my machine in to the office and now spend about $5/month on a can of espresso. You can get an electric machine for about $50...but when I'm home, I use a stovetop one which you can get for as little as $10 or $20. That's what they use in Italian homes!
• Have another bank account except your savings and salary account of which don't issue yourself either ATM card or a Credit Card (So that you have to go speacilly if you want cash). Make sure that you deposit at least 5% o your salary at a strick date of every month. set a goal and after a certain fixed interval buy yourself a Biscket of Gold (or any precious metal or Stone) and keep it in a bank locker, by the time you retire, I can assure you that you will have enough money that you can take your WHOLE family on a world Tour and even saving a lot more for later.
• Join your local freecycle group (http://freecycle.org/) The old saying "one mans trash is another mans treasure" is so true. I got some really nice baby clothes, a bottle warmer, breast pump and baby back pack all from my local network. Some people like to see someone benefit from their goodwill as opposed to just dropping off a donation at the local charity.
• Know what things you buy regularly cost and shop ebay and for things like razors, lotions, computer software, baby formula, diapers, etc. If you can plan ahead you will save.
• Each pay period, set aside any amount that you had budgeted for an expense but did not need to spend. For instance, you may have anticipated that $40 would be needed to maintain your car, but only had to spend $30. Take the "extra" $10 and put it into your savings account.
• Stay out of stores.
• Ask your boss to buy a refrigerator (medium size) for the office. Place up to 64 oz of juice/drinks in the frig for lunch and snacks. I did, and it works. Those $1.45 bottles of soda/juices (16oz.) adds up.

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