…Okay, so we aren’t going to list 101 ways to save money on everything but if you really gave saving money, in every aspect of your life, some serious thought, you could probably come up with more than 101 ways.
We’re going to take a look at a few ways that you might not have thought of or possible even forgotten about. I’m just going to throw them out there, like a big, unorganized list. Most things will be pretty self-explanatory, others I’ll try to explain what I’m going for… so, let’s get started:
— Don’t buy expensive stuff on an impulse. I try to give myself a 48 hour “cooling off” period. If after 2 days I still want it and am sure I can afford it, I’ll make the purchase.
— Save your change. If you averaged 50¢ a day tossed in a jar, you’d have almost $200 at the end of the year. I bet it would end up being more; I probably have 20 bucks worth of change in my car right now.
— Lock up a credit card. If you have more than one credit card, take one out of your wallet and lock it up in a safe place in your house. Don’t leave home with it. Try to only use your credit card for purchases that you can pay off when the statement comes.
— Get the junk out of your trunk. No not that trunk, your car’s trunk. I’m not saying take everything out of your trunk, but don’t haul around a bunch of heavy stuff all of the time. fueleconomy.gov says that for every 100lbs of weight you add to your car you reduce your gas mileage by 2%. That might not sound like much but it works out to be about 7¢ a gallon. Would you buy gas at $3.93 a gallon or $4.00?
— Drive the speed limit. While we are on cars… according to fueleconomy.gov “gas mileage usually decreases rapidly at speeds above 50 mph. You can assume that each 5 mph you drive over 50 mph is like paying an additional $0.25 per gallon for gas.” Observing the speed limit is also safer.
— Stop the road-rage. Another one for the car… “Aggressive driving (speeding, rapid acceleration and braking) wastes gas. It can lower your gas mileage by 33 percent at highway speeds and by 5 percent around town” another tidbit from fueleconomy.gov. This one could work out to a savings of up to $1.00 a gallon or more.
— Keep track of your spending. You should already do this but if you don’t, start. At least once a month get all of your statements together and take a look at just where your money goes. Then ask yourself if there is somewhere you could save a few bucks, I bet there is.
— Look at cost as an hourly rate. Try to put things in perspective by converting the purchase price of an item to your hourly rate of pay. For example, stop for a minute and think about those $100 shoes you are about to buy. If you make $10 an hour, you would have to work 10 hours to pay for those shoes.
— Bring your lunch to work
— Go grocery shopping with a list… after you have eaten.
— Only use ATMs that don’t charge you. Consider getting cash back when you make a purchase instead of going to an ATM.
— Cut the cord. Consider cutting the cable TV cord. According the AP, “subscriptions to pay TV are their lowest level in four years” We recently did this in our home, bye, bye cable TV… We have an antenna for the local channels and Roku with paid subscriptions to Netflix and HuluPlus ($16 a month combined) for all other programming and movies. We saved $130 a month, that’s over $1500 a year.
Okay, one more…
— Keep an eye on cell phone costs. Here’s another way my wife and I have saved a ton of money. Our cell service is now with Virgin Mobile. …$35 a month, no contract and unlimited data. The cell minutes are limited but neither one of us use many cell minutes.
These are just a few of the literally hundreds of ways you can save money…everyday! Sit down and make your own list or at least give a couple of these ideas a shot, you might be surprised at just how much you can save.
