Favorite Everyday Savings Trick

[rodent]

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Originally Posted by Christa Wow, great ideas ladies. Everyone is so resourceful. I definitely have room for improvement, but here's our list: -We cook dinner at home every night. We may go out to eat once a month maybe? -My husband packs his lunch every day - takes dinner left-overs I end up buying my lunch usually because we never have enough left-overs for both of us. However, I never spend more than $5 for lunch. -I make coffee at home - saves at least $4/day -I bring cereal or a PB&J for breakfast to work every morning. -Our new home has all energy star appliance, a tankless water heater and energy efficient light bulbs. -We do not have a land line at home. -I am strongly considering taking public transportation to work to save on gas $. -I definitely use the oven heating trick that Maria shared. -I auto-transfer at least $500/month from my checking to a ING Savings account. -I contribute the max to my IRA at work. I need all the tips I can get at this point, so keep em coming ladies!

That is a great one! Maxing out your IRA is so important. I do so many of the other thrify tips to be able to max out my IRA. A few years ago I participated in clinical trials for medicine to have enough money to reach the max. Luckily, I make more money now & can get there without selling my body to science. I never took anything bad. It was usually cough medicine or something like that. But, I did have to stay in the facility all weekend with a bunch of strangers having my blood drawn.

I also do all sorts of experiments around campus. They pay $10-$20 per hour. The other day I played some gambling game on a computer for an hour & got $15. I did one recently at the business school & made $20 in an hour reading a magazine & pretending to shop in their mock store. I also did this cool one where you look at pictures on a computer screen and an infared light tracks your eye movement.

[LCBride2007]

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Originally Posted by Pisces We have automatic savings deductions come out of our account like any other bill. It goes directly to our mutual funds investment and we never see the money.

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Originally Posted by Christa -I auto-transfer at least $500/month from my checking to a ING Savings account. -I contribute the max to my IRA at work.

Ok, I'm feeling a little better now. I do some of these things too ...

- I have a set amount coming out of my account every paycheck into my ING account, as well as a monthly amount into my Fidelity mutual fund account. It's automatic ... so it happens whether I like it or not! lol
- I max out my 401k every year, and have been for a while, and the past 2 companies I've worked for have had great plans as well - ones that contribute a % (13% and 19% for the last 2 companies) of my pay whether I contribute or not.
- I am not a huge shopper, not for "stuff" - I spend my money on doing things like going out to eat (and drink!) and vacations. But that is all starting to slow down due to this child growing in my belly, so that will help

[A10CalGal]

I forgot one thing...I saw this on Oprah I think & decided to try - physically unplug things from the wall when not in use. I can't talk the boys in my house into doing this, but I do it with things like the coffee grinder, coffee maker, hair appliances, chargers that aren't actually being used. I shit you not, we saved $20 on our most recent energy bill! I would really like to do this with the TV situation...we'll get there.

[jamisoncollette]

Speaking of babies, I signed up on the Pampers and Huggies websites and received tons of coupons including free wipes offers and diaper samples plus those point thingies for free toys ( I think that was pampers)

[alex]

Another small thing I forgot about is to shop at the Bulk Food store for certain things, but you have to be careful because you're not always going to get a deal. But an example would be pellets/food for my rabbit. I spent $1.17 for the same amount that I paid $5.99 for at a pet store!

[MikkiStreak]

Forgot a couple more:

* I buy our household cleaning supplies at the dollar store. Instead of buying off-brand cleaners for $3 or name-brand for $4-5, I get window cleaner, furniture cleaner, toilet cleaner, floor cleaner, etc... from dollar general. Same size product, but costs $1. This alone saves us about $20-30 each month.

 

* I learned a lot of savings tips from my dad. We shop garage sales and flea markets primarily because we think it's fun and interesting. But also, because we find things like brand new, in the package, toothbrushes, or other household items that someone is just getting rid of to save space. So we can find a lot of new items for $.50-1.00 instead of paying $3-4 for each item in a store.

 

* Along those same lines---- we LOVE, LOVE, LOVE going garage-saling in the "rich" part of town. I'm telling ya--- those are the best. These people are just wanting to get rid of shit without having to deal with having it removed, so there are some real quality items that can be purchased dirt cheap. Unlike lower-income and middle-class people---- we notice those garage sales are because people want to get rid of things, but they want to make $$$ on it, so the prices are higher.

 

* No judgment please on this one: We have been known to "dumpster dive". No, not for used crappy condition items. But the college town I lived in during my 20's had some fabulous finds every May/June. Literally, we would find brand new, in-the-box microwaves, TV's, etc... from college kids who didn't have room to take all the belongings they bought during the year back to their hometowns with them. Along those lines--- on occasion, we would drive around town the night before garbage day because we'd find nice furniture sitting curb-side to pick up for free. So forgot about those trips--- it's been about 15 years since I did stuff like that....

[MikkiStreak]

And, we love garage-saling and estate sales and estate auctions because we find some items that the people have no clue what their value is, and then we resell on ebay. I've found antique cameras that people were selling for like $5 and because of the brand name, I knew it was worth more- so I'd sell it on ebay or craig's list for $100.

[1elephant]

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Originally Posted by MikkiStreak * No judgment please on this one: We have been known to "dumpster dive". No, not for used crappy condition items. But the college town I lived in during my 20's had some fabulous finds every May/June. Literally, we would find brand new, in-the-box microwaves, TV's, etc... from college kids who didn't have room to take all the belongings they bought during the year back to their hometowns with them. Along those lines--- on occasion, we would drive around town the night before garbage day because we'd find nice furniture sitting curb-side to pick up for free. So forgot about those trips--- it's been about 15 years since I did stuff like that....

my parents used to do this for interesting lawn/garden items. they found great wheelbarrows, carts, and other items to use as planters. they also got me a bike one year, and who knows what else...what's the saying? one man's garbage is another man's treasure.