10 ways to Save Money in 2008
As the New Year approaches I think we need to look forward to other ways to save money in our daily lives.
I would like to share Ten Ways to Save Money in 2008 with you:
1. Keep Records
2. Cut Costs
3. Save Money
4. Make Budgets
5. Start Small
6. Open Accounts
7. Pay Debts
8. Use Less
9. Drive Slower
10. Drink Water
These are some of the tips that I personally have used in the past and continue to use every day to save money. They are simple and easy and these are things you can do on a day to day basis without putting up too much effort.
1. Keep records
You need to keep records of what you actually spend so that you will know where your money is going.
2. Cut Costs
I know everyone is rolling their eyes at this one because you think I will come up with the obvious things that everyone says to cut. I am not talking about cutting the gym membership that you never use… because I never had a gym membership. Remember this is all about the things that I did (and still do) to save money.
I cut costs on things like my electricity bill by simply using natural light. I left the blinds and curtains open in certain rooms so that I could use the natural light and not have to turn on the electric lights in my place.
I was also able to save money by using solar lights when I did need an alternate source of light other than the natural light. My electricity bill went down when I used the solar lights so I continue to use them. These are a small investment up front but when you get in the habit of using them you will notice big savings.
3. Save Money
It seems really obvious but many people do not save money. They keep saying that they do not make enough to start putting anything away in savings. I used to think that way when I was making minimum wage. That’s right everyone….I made $5.15 an hour while going to school full time and only worked 20 hours a week.
I knew that I had to start to save money and even if it was just a tiny amount I needed to do what was best for me. I started my Never go Back to Fresno Fund and have not looked back since. This was actually Step Five of my Steps to getting Rid of Debt series. I have never been to Fresno but that was just the name I decided to use for my Emergency Fund. I started off with putting just $2 a month into the account. $2 was a lot for me on my income of just about $450 a month but I knew I had to get in the habit of saving or I would never get anywhere.
Set up your savings with whatever you have and just make it regular so that saving will come naturally to you.
4. Make Budgets
Most people flinch when they hear the word budget. If that is the attitude you have then it will take a great deal of effort for you to start being able to save. Budgets do not have to be bad. My budgets started as a list of the money I had to spend every month. Rent is rent is rent and the amount stays the same……unless you are renewing the lease. So my rent payment went down on my budget and I knew where that part of my money was going.
Ditto for all the other fixed expenses for the month.
The next thing I did was to look at all the minimum payments for my credit cards. Those figures plus $5 all went down on my little excel spreadsheet as part of my budget. I added the $5 arbitrarily because it ‘looked’ like a good amount to pay over the minimum AND it was an amount I could commit to paying every month.
I then looked at my past payments on everything else that I spent money on and wrote down an average amount for that category. After I had all my figures written down I was able to take closer look and see exactly where my money was going and what I needed to work on. For the first month of the budget I did not try to cut any costs. I simply tried to see if I could remain in the same range for all of the amounts I had written down. I did, so the following month I looked to see where I could begin to cut costs.
I cut one cost per month as I could so that I would not feel like there was this big task ahead of me. The first thing I cut was my eating out spending. I used to order pizza twice a month, costing me about $40!!!! I cut this down to once a month and started preparing more food at home…and saved $20 each month doing this.
5. Start Small
You do not have to quit everything you do cold turkey in order to make saving money work for you. If you noted above, I cut down my pizza spending by $20 when I started to cut costs.
I started my savings account by putting away just $2 a month since that was all I could afford.
I put in solar lights so I would not use the electricity at home.
When I did need to use the electric lights I made sure I switched all my bulbs over to CFLs…even the ones in the refrigerator.
I pick up pennies on the ground and put them in my change jar. I recently emptied out the change jar and got $18 worth of coins ranging from pennies to dimes!!!!
6. Open Accounts
I know that everyone is worried about the interest rate that are dropping all over the place. If you really think about you are getting 0% interest on most checking accounts.
You earn about 0.1.% interest on most savings accounts.
You can earn an average of 4% interest on most online savings accounts like ING, Emigrant or HSBC. While it is true that these rates have dropped from highs of about 5.15% they are still more than what you would normally get in your ordinary savings accounts.
Make your money work for you by opening up a high yield savings account online. I still have invites for ING where you can get a $25 bonus for opening up a new account.
7. Pay Debts
If you do not start paying on the debts they will either stay the same or just get bigger, due to increasing interest fees and charges. If all you can pay is the minimum, then go ahead and pay that. It is better to pay the minimum payment than to let the account go into collections.
If you can pay more than the minimum then go ahead and do that. Remember that I was only paying $5 more than the minimums on my credit cards at one point.
One of the best ways to pay down your debt is to pick ONE debt to tackle really hard and then to just pay the minimum (or $5 more) on all of the other debts. You can choose the debt to tackle in a number of two ways:
1. Highest interest rate first
2. Lowest balance first
These are just two of the most popular methods of picking which debt to pay off first. I have used the lowest balance method first because I wanted to see myself making actual progress with my debt reduction.
8. Use Less
This one is really simple. Less is more sometimes. You do NOT need to use dollops of product to make yourself look or smell good all the time. Sometimes just a light application of a product is enough to go a long way.
9. Drive Slower
When you maintain a constant speed you burn up less gas. Simple as that. Avoid braking sharply and then having to pump a lot of gas to speed up again. coast when you can and your car will thank you for it.
10. Drink Water
Water is free at most restaurants. Order a glass of water with your meal and save on that expensive drink.
Water helps keep you healthy so you do not need to spend extra money on medicines.
Make the initial investment in a water filter and enjoy the benefits of clean, pure tasting water without having to constantly purchase bottled water.
Related Posts
- My never go back to Fresno fund
- 25 ways I save money: The full list
- 25 ways I save money: part 1 of 5
- What I did with my income tax refund
- Changing How I Save Money in My ING Accounts
13 Responses to “10 ways to Save Money in 2008”
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Great post. I did one similar for New Year’s titled Ten Money Saving Resolutions. Not only are these tips great for your wallet, but they’re also great for your health too. Cutting out costs for fast food is one money saving, and drinking more water instead of ordering a soda in a restaurant cuts down on calories.
I have a real bad habit of eating out alot for lunch. I agree with not ordering a soda with meals. Some places charge over $2 for a drink alone. I would rather drink all the free water I can and bank the $2.
We always need a good reminder to save money. And there are so many ways to do it that it’s great to hear ideas from everyone.
I like #8 about driving slow. It saves wear on the brakes too, which saves lots of $$$ in car repairs. I will never understand all the maniacs that mash the gas pedal just so they can slam on the brakes at the next light.
Hey everyone thanks for commenting here. How about you guys sharing YOUR money saving tips with the readers here. We can do this in one of two ways:
1. Submit some tips in the comments or email me and I will put them out there as your ideas…OR
2. Write a post with your money saving tips and I will write a post highlighting all of your posts..like a mini carnival.
And… done!
http://hellwithfluorescentlights.blogspot.com/2008/01/ten-money-saving-new-year-resolutions.html
I also wanted to add in saving, bank your finance to the least accessible to you. Avoid atm type of saving because you will still get it when you know you have money on it and even though you dont need it badly.
@ Paulette:
I don’t even have ATM cards because I do not want the temptation of going to the machine. I don’t carry cash so that makes it a lot easier for me.
It seems to me that once you get into the habit of living by your budget and checking your account balances, along with upcoming bills, it is easier to have a debit card because there is no need to go to the atm anymore.
That’s been my experience. I used to use my ATM card all the time in my 20s which gotten me into trouble but the last 3 years, I have only gone to an ATM maybe 10 times total. I think it is a mentality thing.
Knowing you have the cash is one thing, knowing your financial plan is another.
I understand the point of view about using a Debit card instead of cash. It helps reduce the amount of trips to the ATM, and therefore, the fees you pay to access your own money. But the problem I have with that is you become more exposed to CC/Identity theft. The more times/places you use your card (whether credit or debit), the higher your chances are for someone with bad intentions getting a hold of it.
Yes, it’s true that usually consumers have a $0 or $50 liability limit for unauthorized transactions. But the hassle of filing reports, canceling cards, checking credit reports, etc might not be worth it.
@ Anon:
I have not had that problem yet so I just use my one card that I carry with me and that works well.
Interesting to see the difference between interest rate between my country (indonesia) and US. I can have 8% per year year. But I you save in my currency you will currency rate risk. If you are confident that the us will weaken, then you might want to try other saving account if you can.
invest money’s last blog post..Forex mini account