Money Saving Tips – Share yours
By glblguy
So you got a tip or what? Photo by: law_keven
I’ve written about a number of money savings tips since I started my Money Saving Monday series. I still have tons of ideas, but I thought I might try something a little different this week. Instead of me sharing a money saving post with you, I’d like you to share money saving tips with each other!
If you have a blog, blog about your tip and email me a link. If you don’t have a blog, add your tip by adding a comment below.
In a week or so, I’ll pull all of your tips together into one big money saving reader tips article. Have more than one idea? No problem, share away, the more tips you share the more we all benefit!
So what’s your tip? Add a comment!
April 28th, 2008 at 6:27 am
This is an excellent idea. I’ve written extensively on this subject, but I always find that the best way to learn is from each other; here are a few of the links to my money saving articles;
http://www.friendsandmoney.co.uk/credit-card-costs.html
http://www.friendsandmoney.co.uk/lease-or-buy.html
http://www.friendsandmoney.co.uk/buying-new-car.html
Feel free to remove this post from your blog when you’ve reviewed the links, I don’t want you to think I’m trying to spam your post.
Happy reviewing and I look forward to reading some of the tips you come up with.
April 28th, 2008 at 8:46 am
Well, this isn’t a very healthy tip, but one thing way I like to save money when I go out to eat is to eat at a Mexican restaurant. I fill-up on the chips and salsa and then order a $2 quesadilla for my meal. (even when I spend more money on a meal, inevitably I’m already close to full anyway from all the chips!) I rarely spend more than just a few dollars if I get a drink plus tip. Like I said, it’s not very healthy to eat mostly chips and salsa for dinner, but it sure it GOOD! I’m also not afraid to eat dinner before I go out and then enjoy the chips and salsa as a “dessert.” So when my friends all get together, I’m the first to suggest Mexican!
April 28th, 2008 at 10:39 am
A few great tips for saving a few dollars every week:
1) Eat less prepared foods and make things from scratch. This is easier if one stays home while another works, but can be applied by everyone. For example, you can get 10 times the breakfasts out of oatmeal than you can out of cereals. Better for you, too. Frozen dinners vs. home made are similarly more costly.
2) When you work, bring your lunch rather than eat out. You save $5 to $10 a day by doing this, which adds up to $35 a week, and $1,750 a year.
3) Pay all of your bills on time and never overdraw your account. Those late fees and overdraft fees add up in a hurry.
4) Shop for kid’s clothes both at thrift stores and garage sales. You can get amazingly high quality things barely worn for 5-10% of retail. This is especially true for little kids, who grow so fast used clothes are almost always barely worn.
5) Entertainment discounts – Use coupons or an entertainment book to cut your overall entertainment bill in half without any sacrifice at all. This also encourages you to try different restaurants and entertainment options.
6) Get DVDs at the library, not the video store. You can generally request titles and pick them up for your movie night. You can’t really beat free entertainment. As a bonus, you don’t feel guilty if you end up not watching all of a movie you don’t like. After all you didn’t pay for it, did you?
7) Go to movie theaters which allow you to bring in snacks from outside. Just ask, a lot of them do now.
8) Make coffee at home, don’t get it at Starbucks or even McDonalds. It’s pennies a cup versus dollars.
9) Learn to like water.
10) Eat less meat and cheese and more veggies.
April 28th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Buy everything with cash. I love my debit card. It makes it easy to go about my business but I used to carry no cash, only my card. By switching to buying everything with cash, I am able to budget myself much easier. I know I have a certain amount in my wallet to last for a certain period of time and I can see it going down as I spend it.
April 28th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
I think one of the things that has saved me the most money is being a do-it-yourselfer… There are so many things from building a headboard, to growing a garden, to doing your own car maintenance that can save you a ton of money. I also find that even as a beginner I can often do a better job than some people who I would pay to do the job.
April 28th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Save money on heat and AC by only heating/cooling the room you’re in with a window AC unit or space heater. It much cheaper to only heat/cool one room vs. your whole house.
Window ACs are hard to move around so just put it in the room you spend the most time in during the warm months. My wife and I put one in our bedroom for those nights when it’s so hot you can’t get to sleep. For the winter we wear more clothes and sit under blankets, they’re much cheaper than heating the whole house (especially ours which leaks like a sieve).
April 28th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
Here’s my post about saving money on lunches!
http://geezersontalbot.blogspot.com/2008/04/truth-about-juice.html
April 29th, 2008 at 6:49 am
To save money
1. I use my debit card more often
2. Keep 20% of my salary away and forget about it. this has helped me a lot during emergencies.
3. I prefer cooking at home rather than going to restaurants
These are a few things that I follow.
April 29th, 2008 at 7:29 am
If you’re about to have a kid – especially if you’re going to have more than one – ask for some high-quality cloth diapers as baby shower gifts – we use bumGenius. A high quality cloth diaper is as easy to use as a disposable and reduces the cost per diaper use from about 20 cents to about half a cent. Since you’ll change a few thousand diapers on each child, that’s a whole lot of savings. Plus, the bumGenius diapers are high-quality enough that they have some online resell value after you’re done with kids.
April 29th, 2008 at 11:47 am
Here are my Top 10 Tips that I follow…hopefully everyday : )
http://www.pinkponders.com/?p=377
May 2nd, 2008 at 2:51 pm
I did a series of posts during Earth week about saving resources and money. Two of the favorites:
http://breakingeven.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/04/making-the-most.html
A Complete Guide To Composting (which saves a lot if your city charges $2 a bag for garbage like mine!)
http://breakingeven.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/04/5-tips-on-how-t.html
Five Ways To Cut Down On Energy Use
What I like about these is they are fairly painless and don’t make it feel like your missing out on anything.
Oh and I try to have whole commerce-free days where I don’t buy anything. I’ll be posting on that this weekend.
Thanks for the opportunity to participate!
June 28th, 2008 at 6:19 am
Great tips. I love this site.
We buy gift cards for ourselves at Giant Eagle and Kroger. If you buy gift cards, you will get “Fuel Perks” for buying merchandise at other stores.
Let’s say I buy a $50.00 gift card for Kohls at Giant Eagle. Then I go to Kohls and use it. The fact that I purchased the gift card at Giant Eagle means that I get $0.40 off per gallon of gas. $0.40 may not seem like a lot, but when you add it with a Joann’s, McDonald’s, and Best Buy gift card, that’s $1.60 off per gallon.
Hopefully I made sense ?!?!?!