"Take This Money and Stuff It"
Easy Frugal Living Techniques To Live Better For Less...
by Terry Clark
Table of Content
1. Better Money Management
2. Creative Ways to Save Money
3. Easy Money Saving Ideas
4. Eco-Friendly Money Saving Tips
5. Frugal Money Saving Tips
6. How to Become a Successful Money Saver
7. How to Economize at Home
8. How to Make your Money Grow
9. How to put Money in the Bank
10. How to Save and Invest Your Money
11. How to Save for Major Expenses
12. How to Save Money Every Day
13. How to Save Money for Retirement
14. How to Save Money on Your Car
15. How to Save Money the Painless Way
16. How to Save on Home Improvements
17. How to Save on Household Costs
18. Money Making Tips for Teens
19. Money Savers that Work
20. Money Saving Guide for the Family
21. Money Saving Ideas for a Honeymoon
22. Money Saving Ideas for a Kid’s Birthday Party
23. Money Saving Ideas for College Students
24. Money Saving Ideas for Small Business
25. Money Saving Tips for Parents
26. Money Saving Tips for Singles
27. Money Saving Tips for Teachers
28. Money Saving Tips for the Unemployed
29. Money Saving Tips to Buy a House
30. Money Saving Tips for a Destination Wedding
31. Save Money in the Kitchen
32. Save Money on Entertainment and Clothing
33. Saving Money when You have a Baby
34. Saving Money with No Budget
35. Summertime Money Saving Tips
36. Wintertime Money Saving Tips
37. Stay Out of Debt With These Money Saving Tips
38. Put yourself first
39. Simple Tips to Help You Save Money at the Grocery Store
40. 9 Tips for Saving Energy On Water Heating
41. Buying in Bulk Saves Money On Groceries
42. Learn About Saving Gas
43. Repay Your Mortgage As Slowly As You Want
44. Making The Most Of Hard Times
45. How Small Businesses Waste Money
46. Save Money and Energy With an Efficient Toilet
47. 7 Ways to Change Undesirable Spending Habits
48. Kill Your Credit Cards
49. Six Tips on How To Lower Your Utility Bills
50. Downsizing Your Life
Resources
Better Money Management
There are quite a few people who feel that they will never be able to save because it is an impossible task. Nothing is really impossible if you apply self-control and responsible spending to the way you disburse your money. The key to saving money is to avoid excessive spending and waste, to achieve better money management.
In this article you will read about money saving ideas that will help you manage money.
Knowing where your money goes is one way to track your expenditure. You may be new to the concept of money management, and more used to living from one paycheck to another. In this case try to maintain a record of your expenditure for a couple of months. This will give you a clear idea of where your money is going. Now look at all the expenses and highlight the unnecessary ones that can be eliminated.
There are many free online software tools to help you manage your money. You can use any one of these money management tools to help track your expenses and set up a budget to manage your finances.
You can keep your energy costs down by keeping the thermostat down a few degrees for the heat and up a few degrees for the air conditioning. You may even want to consider investing approximately 30 dollars for a programmable thermostat that will help you save money by keeping the temperature at energy efficient levels when there is no one home.
On the financial front you would do well to set up an emergency fund. It has been recommended that you save enough money to cover 3 to 6 months worth of expenses. In the event of an emergency like sudden unemployment, you will be covered for these months till you can find a new job. Putting the money in a high yield savings account will earn you more money on your savings.
Increase retirement savings to the maximum possible amount. You need to stash away at least 15 percent of your income in a 401K or IRA account. Find out what the maximum company contribution is and try to bring your account up to that level to really benefit.
You may or may not be aware that by improving your credit score you can actually save money on insurance costs. One way to improve the score is to pay off credit card debt as soon as possible.
Creative Ways to Save Money
With the way the economy is going today, saving money is on most people’s minds. It is strange that people talk about saving yet never get around to actually doing it. Sitting around with a calculator, coffee and good intentions just won’t put money in the bank for you! You need to learn money saving tips that will actually work and make use of money saving techniques to reach your saving goals.
You need to get creative and find ways to actually use money saving tips that work for you. This makes all the difference to whether you actually stick to the plan or not.
Without a plan you are going nowhere, so set savings goals before you do anything else. There are many reasons why people wish to save money. It could be as serious as retirement or something more light-hearted like a vacation. Whatever your reasons for wanting to save money, you need to first decide how much you need to reach your goal – have a specific number in mind. You also need to establish a specific time frame to reach your goal; nothing indefinite or the plan will not work.
Step two is to assess your spending habits; never an easy task, but it has to be done. You may want to consider refinancing a mortgage or other loans provided you can secure a better interest rate that saves you money. If eating out is where the bulk of your money is going, stop and start eating at home, brown bag it to work and cut out expensive coffees. You can save money by setting up a car pool to get to work. Either you drive and the people you drive pay you, or you team up with someone. Of course there’s always public transportation, which is the most economical solution.
Simple things like dry cleaning can really add up. Start doing laundry at home to avoid the expense; use the dry-cleaning service only when absolutely necessary. You may have to steel yourself to cut out buying books, DVDs, magazines, unnecessary groceries that only end up in the trash, going to the movies very often and so many other things that really cost money and add up to quite a bit of saving when discontinued.
Saving money does require discipline and sacrifice. Make sure you actually save the money you save. Put the money into a savings account and forget about it till you reach your goal. If you keep it in your regular account you will probably spend it.
Easy Money Saving Ideas
Saving money through simple ways is better than adopting complex strategies that you cannot follow through with. This article provides easy money saving ideas that can really make your savings add up. Many of these ideas are not new ones, but the more you read about them, the easier they become to follow.
Be warned right from the start that you are going to need to make sacrifices and put in some effort to make those savings add up in your account.
• Food is a major expense in any household, more so if you have hungry little mouths to feed. Children as we know want everything they see so try not to take your kids grocery shopping with you. You could work out a swap with a friend and babysit each other’s kids, taking it in turn to go shopping. Another money saver is to cook at home, difficult when both parents work, so keep the meals simple and nutritious.
• Taking your own lunch to work and making your own coffee will add up to quite a few dollars in saving. You can save more if you reuse your sandwich bags and brown bags. Anyway’, too much coffee is not good for your health, so skip buying it from outside. You can always eat out once a week at lunch time so that you have a break from sandwiches one day a week. Have a family meal outside once a week as well to break the monotony and save yourself from becoming over-stressed.
• Try to fit your shopping in between two tasks. When you are in a hurry and armed with a precise list, you will not have time to meander round the aisles and pick up stuff you don’t need. Always check expiry dates, you may be saving by buying something in bulk, but is it really a saving if you have to bin it because it has expired? Try to buy as many generic brands as possible to really save money. Branded products are more expensive and all you are really paying more for is a name. Cornflakes are cornflakes regardless of the brand you buy!
• Be organized about paying your bills on time. All too often we get so rushed, we forget to pay bills on or before the due date. Then you have to pay late payment fees and this is a waste. Save your money by always paying your bills on time. Make a chart with the bills to be paid and the due dates and try to get them out of the way as soon as possible.
Eco-Friendly Money Saving Tips
Have you ever given much thought to the concept of green living? If you haven’t this just might be the time to do so. In this article we link green living to money saving and offer useful tips that will help save money. There has never been a more crucial time than right now to help the environment that has been so damaged by our technological advancements. It is even better if you can make money while doing so.
Frugality does necessarily mean miserliness especially when actions are linked to protecting the environment. Here are some tips that you may wish to consider adopting in your own homes to ‘go green’ and save money.
• The simple acts of turning down the heat and the air conditioning saves in heating and cooling costs. Further, you actually save something like 2000 pounds of CO2 each year just by changing the temperature by a mere two degrees.
• You don’t have to wash your clothes in warm or hot water, cold water does just as well. You save energy and money. If you air dry your clothes rather than using your dryer, you save 700 pounds of CO2 not to mention the money you save in the process.
• Turn off lights and appliances when not in use, get rid of the heat-producing halogen lamps, install motion sensors for outdoor lights, use fluorescent lights and get a laptop instead of using your desktop and you will save money and the environment.
• Cut down the number of times you eat lunch outside the office, the coffees you grab on your way in to work and at lunch time and reduce the family dining out to once a week. Big money savers! Save and reuse your ziplock bags or brown bags rather than throwing them away after every use. Better yet get a lunch container to put your sandwich in and you won’t need plastic or paper.
• We are so busy rushing around we never have the time to stop and enjoy the world around us. Start taking the bus, train, tram, monorail or any form of public transport to avoid driving and adding to the CO2 emissions. You will save a load of money on gasoline and actually get the chance to sit back and relax. Car pool to go to work or do your shopping and you can save money, the environment and have fun with your friends.
Frugal Money Saving Tips
There are many frugal money saving tips that can be applied around the home and to yourself. We live in an age where money is in very short supply, why give it to the ‘big giants’ who already have so much? Keep reading to learn some useful tips on how to save money.
Make your own home cleaning products that are so much cheaper and better, as well as environmentally friendly. A large part of household expenditure seems to disappear on cleaning products each month. Try putting a teaspoon full of soda bicarbonate on a damp cloth – it works just as well as your expensive cleaners. You can clean glass for free with newspaper soaked in water. A few drops of vinegar in the water will give glass a smear free clean.
Separate your laundry into the dirty and not so dirty piles. The not so dirty piles do not need a long cycle so you save water and electricity. They also do not need the full measure of detergent – another saving.
Shop in the bargain stores that give some really great bargains on the very same products you pay 3 times as much for in the big brand name supermarkets.
Have you ever heard the term ‘vampire current’? Forget Dracula, we are talking about appliances that are switched off, but still drawing current because they are plugged in. As soon as you are done with an appliance, turn it off and make sure to switch it off at the wall as well. You can turn off ovens and hotplates a few minutes before time, they will stay hot.
If you are a beer drinker and need to consume a few pints each day, try taking up a hobby that keeps you occupied for a while to cut down on the number of pints you imbibe. Good for your health and a great money saver.
Why do you need to buy expensive clothes at full price when you can wait for the sales? Make it a point to only shop when the sales are on and you can get real bargains. Try the discount stores and bargain stores for cheap T shirts, shorts, fleece pants and other stuff that you normally wear at home. Surely one does not need designer wear to go jogging! Here’s an example, the bargain stores will sell you track pants for 10 bucks while you would have to pay at least a hundred in a big store.
How to Become a Successful Money Saver
The world is full of successful money savers and if you would like to join this group here are some hints. How do people get to be successful savers? They use a variety of money saving tips and techniques to save their money. This money is then used to build wealth. The important thing is for potential money savers to understand the need to set aside a predetermined portion of their income