I just talked to a friend who was complaining that she has to come up with $1000 every October and she has nothing saved up. I asked her if she could save $19.25 on a weekly basis. She said she could, if she cut out her morning coffee and took her own to work, and if she also skipped eating lunch out one day a week.
That's a good reminder that we all need, to save small amounts toward big bills. I do it on a monthly basis for bills that are due every 3 or 6 months like the newspaper, house insurance, etc. I divide the yearly totals of each by 12, and put that amount aside every month to save. When the bigger bills finally come, the money is there to transfer back to checking, and if there were a true emergency where we had to have the money, it would still be there.
Now if I could just make myself go make a list of all the household appliances that wear out every 10 years or so, and put THAT money aside. Can't afford to put that much aside in reality, but I can work on one or two. I've found that if the money is in my checking account, it's GONE, but if I don't have it there, I can do without a lot of 'wants' that I would otherwise have thought were 'needs'.
Have everyone in the family put all their quarters, dimes, nickels, pennies into a "bank" on a regular basis. (daily, or weekly).
When shopping, I get the total, write the clerk check and then offer the coupons. The cashier then gives me cashback after deducting the coupons which in turn goes to a saving account for special projects.
Have everyone in the family join in. You must use "survival skills". Make due with what you have on hand. Be creative in being thrifty. You may want to start with two weeks and see how it goes. Make a game of it!
Right now we are living on one income as I am unemployed. We are a family of 5: me (41), hubby (38), son (16 no permit), daughter (14), and son (11).
Strategies to help people save money. Post your ideas.
I am a terrible saver. Just the other day, at the drive through, I realized just how much lunch was costing me each day. So I made a plan - I will go to the bank each Monday and get 5 $5 bills and put them in a special envelope. Then I go to the grocery store and buy some healthy food (deli turkey, fruit etc.) I take this to work and for each day that I don't eat fast-food I reward myself with $5 (which is a good estimate of what it was costing me to eat out.) I take one of the $5 bills out of the envelope and take it home and put in my "piggy bank."
If there are days that I have to buy lunch, any change left from one of the 5's goes into my piggy bank. Imagine - this small savings adds up - as much as $1300 a year and I'm not missing it. I am also eating healthy at the same time! It's a lot of fun to watch the money add up!
By Robin McDonald
Just this afternoon at the grocery store I almost bought a bakery package of 6 cinnamon rolls for $2.79. But then I noticed the refigerator cinnamon rolls (in the packages like Pillsbury biscuits) were on sale for $1.66 each. So for $3.32 I bought two packages which will make 16 cinnamon rolls.
And that's because I was being lazy! Usually I buy cake mix on sale for $1 a box or less and bake 24 cupcakes (no frosting) which are good with a cup of tea for a snack, or I bake 5-6 dozen cake mix cookies.
This saves us at least $4-$9 weekly for cheap-to-on-sale store-bought cookies. Well, maybe I am lazy! But even I can't figure out how to bake 5 dozen cookies for about $1.20 (including oil and eggs) totally from scratch. And when you count in the time saved using the mix, then it's definitely a deal.
By making my husband's lunch every day and baking instead of buying snacks from the store, I save more than $35 a week than if he bought lunch and we bought snacks. We don't put that money in the bank though. When we figure out how to change our lifestyle so we spend less, we choose to work less so we can have more time rather than more money.
Money saving can really be part of creating a richer life.
The best way of learning to save money has been to do this.
I am a teacher and get paid once a month. When my check arrives, in my checkbook, I subtract the amount I want to save that month, say $300. On the back page of my check register I list how much I "subtracted" so that I can keep up with how much I save each month.
For that month, I try to get by without adding the $300 back in. It's there should I have an emergency but I do my BEST not to touch it.
I know this sounds so simple you might not try it, but believe me! IT WORKS! I was so surprised at how fast I saved money and how it really did not put a strain on my spending, if it's not showing in "my" balance, then I didn't spend it!
It certainly was a good feeling to simply "add" $800 "back" to my account to pay for this laptop that I bought with 6 months no interest/no finance charge! It almost felt like a free computer!
If you do not make long distance phone calls, ask your phone company to remove the long distance service from your phone. I rarely, if ever, make long distance phone calls & one day I looked at my phone bill & noticed I was being charged around $7 a month just to have long distance service on my line. Now I am saving $84 a year. If I need to make a long distance call, I use phone cards. The cheapest place to buy phone cards is at Sam's Club & you can add minutes on the cards. Last time I checked, I think their phone cards equal 3 cents/minute.
This tip is certainly not original with me, but I have claimed it as my "own" ever since I realized how incredible the results are!
We began by saving every bit of our change and rolling in paper wrappers. We made it a habit to bank each week's coin savings in our savings account without fail once a week. On average, that turned out to be between $10 and $12.50 a week. At the end of six months, we had added another $292.55 to our account just in coins.
After several months of seeing how much more was added to our savings account beyond our regular savings amount, we then ventured up to saving all the $1 bills that came our way. Before we even began, we promised each other we would NEVER spend a dollar bill but rather each night put the ones in a zippered bank bag we had. It bowled us over to realize that on average we were banking between $20 and $25 at end's week just in one dollar bills. At the end of six months, we had added ANOTHER $572 to the savings account.
Between the coins and the $1 bills, we added an additional $864.55 to our account and it was really painless! We've never missed those coins or $1 bills, and it is a joy to have "lightened up" our wallets.
Sandie
This subject could cover a whole series of books but since I am a true believer in supplementing my diet with a variety of healthy supplements, I often buy supplements in bulk powder form and put them into a healthy breakfast shake. For instance, calcium citrate in bulk powder form can be purchased from http://www.bulkfoods.com for $6.67 for eighteen ounces and one teaspoon yields 700 mg. calcium. I also wait for the Puritan's Pride http://www.puritanspride.com 3-for-1 sale (going on right now) and stock up on vitamins then.
Saving Money at Kroegers on Gas Tip. You can save 10 cents per gallon on gas at Kroger fuel centers when you are a Kroger Plus shopper, apply in the store for a Kroger card. It's not a credit card! It is like a coupon card, there are absolutely no fees ...
"A penny saved is a penny earned," said Benjamin Franklin. However, what good is a penny saved if it's spent on something else? Think of it like this: if you purchase a pair of pants on sale for $6 off the ticket price, where does the $6 go?
Sometimes it gets a little tight waiting for payday, so I go into the money stashes I have to ease things just a bit. The stashes include my piggy bank (I do have one), and other coin receptacles.
In a few weeks my fiance and I will be moving to Des Moines to start living in the "real world". He is graduating from college and I will be continuing my education in the area. Since this will obviously be our first time out on our own, I am in desperate need of some tips!
