Entries from April 2009 ↓

As we all look for ways to save money, there are amazing places you can find new money saving ideas and put them to work in your own personal finance plan.

The important thing to remember is, you aren’t just trying to save money, you should also plan to put that money into a savings account so you are really saving you money, and not just saving here so you can spend more there! That’s not how to build wealth – you want to save and invest for true wealth.  Start with basic budgeting, and from there you build to pile of cash you have to save and invest to biuld wealth.

So where can you find the best saving money tips? Ideas are everywhere. But the bottom line is that there are really only three, just three, ways to save money: (1) spend less, (2) make more, and (3) bank the difference between your expenses and your income. That’s it – literally everything you read on the web or anywhere else about how to save money will include one or all of those three things. Once you get those ideas under your belt, you’ll be inventing great ways to save money all on your own.

Let’s talk about the first item, Spend Less. The goal here is that you should try to to spend less than you make. Think this is too hard? Have more expenses left at the end of the month than money to pay for them? Try a little experiment. Next time you head to the store, just put back one of every four things you initially want to buy. think you need the item? Try doing without, just for this trip. yo ujust saved 25% on your shopping trip! Seriously, if you think you need that jar of spaghetti sauce, for example, think about what you have at home you can still use, or what else in your cart you can use. It may be hard to do, but even if you try, you’ll see how many things you really dont’ need to buy.

Next, you’ll want to think more about making more money. We’ve posted here on this blog in the past about how to make at least a little more money at home in your spare time. But the important thing is, as you reduce your spending, and increase your income, you’ll start to see a little extra money flowing into your life. Read other posts on this blog aotu making money, to get some ideas.

Last, when you’re saving money by spending less and making more, you can put that savings into a bank account and watch it grow. It might grow slowly at first, but if yo ustart putting $25, $50 or $100 in the bank each month, as well as money yo’uve saved by spending less, and any extra money you make, this is exactly how wealth is built. This is the money you will learn to invest in the near future and start to build some financial security for your family.

Even though you might be looking for new ways to save money, there are really only old ways, but put to good use by new thinking. To have the most options, we recommend you open a no-fee brokerage account today with www.TradeKing.com
so you can then invest your savings in safe investments like CDs, money market accounts, or mutual funds with more safe investments.

When you save water, you save money, but you’re also helping to conserve one of the planet’s most valuable resources. Learning how to save water is simple, and it’s one of the easiest ways to save money. It just takes a little discipline to stop turning on the faucet and just letting the water run.

When you aren’t careful about water use, pretty soon hundreds of gallons of water have gone down the drain along with your money. And did you know that when you save water, you can also save on sewer charges which are often based on how much water you’ve used?

Generally speaking, the amount of water used every day by a family of four can vary. For bathing or showering needs, that takes up about 80 gallons. Taking showers accounts for as much as 30% of the total water usage in an average home.

For washing laundry our family of four uses about half of that, or 40 gallons. For dishwashing they’ll use about 15 gallons, cooking and drinking purposes use another 12 gallons, and the biggest surprise is that four people can flush more than 100 gallons of water a day through toilet use. There are also many times that water leaks are responsible for water loss. Along with any miscellaneous usage, the total water use comes to about 250 gallon a day or up to 7,500 gallons per month. That’s money flowing right down the drain, literally! So, what are the best ways to save water? Here are a few to get started.

1. Turn off the tap! Many people just let the water run at the sink while they reach into the fridge, lather up their hands, brush teeth. Get in the habit of shutting off the faucet when it’s not needed.

2. Make sure your toilet doesn’t leak. You’ll hear or see dripping. To save water, the easiest way is to put a brick or small jug filled with water into the tank to displace water and thereby use less for each flush. You could consider replacing it with a low-flow model.

3. Cut your shower time to ten minutes or less. Running long hot showers is a major cause of water expense. Let yourself indulge infreuqntly, but for other times make it fast! You can also use a low-flow showerhead. When you wash, get wet then turn off the water to soapy up. Turn the water back on to rinse. If you’re taking a bath, the tub doesn’t have to be full. Stop shaving in the shower too – that’s better done at the sink!

4. When you shave or brush your teeth, shut iff the faucet. Letting water run while brushing for two minutes wastes up to four gallons of water.

5. Only run full loads of wash to save water and electricity. If you must run a short load, reduce the settings to the smallest possible load size. Remember that the permanent press cycle uses 1/3 more water than a regular cycle, so use accordingly.

That should get you started saving water – Stay tuned for more ways to save water in a future post!

Everyone is getting on the coupon bandwagon, since we’re all trying to save money. Everyone knows coupons save money right? WRONG. The fact is, using save money coupons can actually hurt your financial attempt to save money! While it’s a good idea to use them sometimes, knowing when is a good time to use coupons will actually save more than using as many as possible.

First, using a coupon to buy a more expensive item than you usually would is going to cost you more. Of course. But that’s part of the reason manufacturers put coupons in the paper – so you will buy their more expensive, less desireable items. If you normally buy a store brand, you can figure that the store brand is probably just as good, and will cost you less, than the coupon brand even after you apply the coupon savings.

Second, notice how many coupons now require you to buy two of something? That’s cause if you’re going ot get double cuopons from your grocery store, the manufacturer wants to be sure they’re move twice as much inventory. So, even if you only need one item, you’re now being coaxed into buying two, at higher total cost. Yes, your saving on each item, a little, but you are out of pocket the price on a seconed item. That’s cash you don’t have in your pocket!

Third, if you are trying to save money on groceries, you are going to spend a heck of a lot of time managing and going through coupons to save just a couple bucks. some of these coupons websites say they help you cut time – but they don’t really, because you still have to go through the sunday paper, keep the coupons somwhere, rad through the lists on the weekend, plan your trip, and all of that takes up time. Ever had the experience that you spend three or four hours managing coupons, for a savings off three bucks at the market? Not worth it. Spend the hours buildinga web-based business like the coupon lady does, that’s where the real money is!

Fourth, not to mention, you are also paying for the Sunday paper to get the coupons in the first place. if you deduct the $3 a week or more for the paper from your coupon savings, are you ahead or not? Not to mention the tonnage of paper that is just getting recycled – hopefully.

Fifth, many coupons are for processed foods, foods the companies want to push, which are not as good for you, with additives, packaging, chemicals and more. If you want your family to be healtier, and your environment cleaner, you might focus iunstead on fresh fruits and veggies, fresh meats (not processed), household cleaners that are natural, and products that don’t come packaged in as much plastic as the food they contain.

No – instead of coupons, you can save money groceries shopping just by finding the least expensive store, stocking up on good sales, and not driving around to a lot of different locations or wasting time with coupons. Your real savings is your time which is worth far more than a couple dollars an hour. Save money, time and the planet, adn skip the coupons!

Going without a telephone is just out of the question today. Most households have land lines and cell phones. Even kids have cell phone lines to talk to their friends. But when everyone’s using a cell phone, the land line isn’t needed as much, and more households are making the switch to just cell phone usage.

There are a number of ways you can cut your cell phone bill, or your telephone bill costs generally. These cell phone bills can get out of control fast.

Many people just buy the unlimited plan, because it’s easier that opening a severl-thousand-dollar bill when you’re not paying attention. Here are a couple ways to cut your cell phone bill costs.

1. Look for real cell phone deals before you buy and get locked into a two year plan. Most carriers have similar plans, although some like Sprint have unlimited plans for a low flat rate. Be sure to explore all the cell phone deals out there before signing on the dotted line. You can find some good deals also with prepaid cell phones, because you aren’t locked in, and you pay only for what you need for calls and text. Pay as you go can be really good cell phone deals for younger kids especially, who don’t make as many calls.

2. At least save on the phones with free cell phone family plan choices. Many carriers offer the free cell phone family plan because they know you’re going to make thousands of dollars of calls with that free cell phone! so, if you have to stick with your current plan, at least get a free cell phone out of it.

3. Don’t upgrade your phone until the free options are available. It might take a few months, but your carrier will likely offer you a free cell phone after a while, when you commit to an additional two year cell phone plan. Again, you’re still stuck with the plan, but you can at least get a free cell phone out of it.

4. Get rid of features you don’t need. Every cell phone service comes with options, you ca pick and choose from. Use only the cell phone service you need. For example, try to avoid using the web on your phone, the data plans are truly expensive, and you don’t need it to text or make calls.

5. Take another look at prepaid cell phone deals. These cell phone services are now offering top of the line phones, as well as unlimited text and calls. You can cancel at any time, your cell phone number is portable, and you aren’t locked into all the minimum monthly fees either. Prepaid cell phone plans also vary widely like regular cell phones.

That should get you started toward getting some good cell phone deals to cut your phone bill starting this month!

In today’s economy, getting a new credit card is tough. But also, as banks start raising fees and interest rates to ridiculous proportions, you might consider getting rid of credit card debt altogether and getting a Visa cash card. A Visa cash card is a prepaid credit card that you can load with money, so the amoutn you spend is money you already have in the bank so to speak. There is no interest rate charged, and you can use it to avoid needing credit or rebuild a bad credit history of you need to.

You can get a card without needing good credit, since it’s secured alredy with payment. In fact, using one of these cards is how to pay off debt and rebuild your credit. While you won’t pay interest, you will pay some application and processing fees w3hen you apply and for the ongoing management of your acount. Be sure to check what fees you’re paying before you sign up.

So can you save money with a Visa cash card? It depends. If you’re paying higher fees, you need to calculate what the difference is in payments for you. Are the monthly maintenance fees higher or lower than the interest rate you pay on credit card debt? That’s something to figure out which saves you more money.

With a cash card, it’s like a debit card because you need to make monthly deposits to your account before buying things with the card. This way, you can stop your overspending habits, and start learning to use cash, but you don’t have to carry bills around with you.

A Visa cash card is accepted at all stores which accept regular Visa cards. You can also use them for buying online. For some accounts, you can even have your paycheck deposited right into your cash card account by your employer, and that way you don’t have to wait to use the money nor do you have to have a checking account.

You can even findcash cards with rewards and rebates. Did yo know that Visa debit cards have a major part of the market compared to their competitor? The Visa Cash card is so popular, it’s bound to give you some opportunities to save money by using less credit.