10 easy ways to save $500 or more
From installing a TV antenna to adjusting the thermostat, you'll barely feel the pinch with these smart tips for economizing.
By Bankrate.com
Raises are hard to come by at many jobs this year, so don't wait for the boss to be struck by the sudden realization that you're valuable. Give yourself a raise by spending less of your hard-earned cash.
Following any one of these tips can save you as much as $500 per year. Some of them can save you more. If you do all 10, you'll save at least $5,000 a year. That's a heck of a lot more than the measly 3% increase that your employer is likely to hand out. And the best part about it is that you don't have to smile and say "thank you."
10 suggestions for painless frugality
1. Drive less.
2. Bring your own stimulant.
3. Conserve energy.
4. Dig gardening.
5. Go small or pet-free.
6. Don't flush money down the commode.
7. Limit media.
8. Sign up for tax-advantaged plans at work.
9. Eat in.
10. Don't bank on it.
Drive less
With gas hovering around $3 per gallon, you don't have to cut back on much mileage to save $500 in a year. You'll save that much in gas alone if you drive a car that gets 15 miles per gallon just 50 fewer miles per week. When you divide it by 50 weeks, 2,500 miles in a year isn't much. If you have a 25-mile commute, persuading the boss to allow telecommuting one day a week, or squeezing 40 hours of work into four days, will definitely put you ahead about $500 per year.
If that doesn't work for you, there are other options. The cutback doesn't have to be extreme. Trimming a couple of unnecessary short hops out of your routine is enough to hit the target. Encouraging the kids to take the school bus instead of schlepping them in the car or consolidating three trips to the grocery store into one weekly excursion may do the trick. Vacationing at the lake instead of driving the family to Florida will certainly help you hit the goal.
Bring your own stimulant
Stop buying coffee at the chichi coffee joint down the street from work. Bringing coffee from home in a thermos or brewing it in the break room will actually improve the quality of your morning shot of energy, as well as cut its cost dramatically. You can get 40 cups of coffee from a pound of beans. Even the gourmet ones can be purchased for $4 per pound. If you're spending $2 per day on coffee -- easy to do in most workplaces -- you'll go from spending $500 a year to about $25 by making your own.
Save even more by taking cans of soda or bottled water to work instead of buying them out of the vending machine. Bottled water sells for 14 cents a bottle at a big-box grocery store, and soda is 16 cents a can (less for off-brands). Compare that to the 75 cents or more that you'll spend at the machine, and it's a no-brainer. You can go even further by cleaning your small plastic water bottles and replenishing them with drinking water from a gallon jug. (It's an environmentally friendly move, too.)
Conserve energy
Dad was right. Turn off the TV when you leave the room. Using less energy is a painless way to save. Heat and air conditioning are the largest home-energy hogs. The U.S. Department of Energy points out that during each 24-hour period, you will save about 3% on your energy bill for every 1 degree that you lower the thermostat setting (or, conversely, raise it when air conditioning is the big cost).
For example, let's say you normally keep your thermostat set at 73 degrees in summer. If you raise it to 76 degrees, you will save about 9% (3 degrees times 3%). That's 9 cents for every dollar you spend on air conditioning costs. If you're spending $2,000 per year, that small change will save you $180. Buy a programmable thermostat and turn the system up 10 degrees during the day when no one's home, and you'll save much more. Here are some other quick and easy fixes for savings that add up to an additional $400: Switch to U.S. Energy Star-approved light bulbs and save $60 a year. You can also save more than $200 a year just by turning off the TV when nobody's watching it. Running a 32-inch TV four hours a day costs $3 per month, but many families use the TV for background noise, letting it play 24/7. Washing clothes in cold water is good for another $60 a year, and powering down your computer at night saves $70.
Dig gardening
Not only does gardening burn lots of calories, but a nice yard adds value to the house. If you do it all yourself, it's pure profit. Assuming a modest savings of $300 per summer for mowing your own grass and another $200 for such related expenses as applying your own weed killer and fertilizer, a $500 savings is easily attained.
Bonus idea: Assign jobs like shoveling, raking and car washing to Junior, who's always good for hitting you up for money. While you might shell out $200 for him to do these chores, it's a savings, considering that you were going to give him the money whether he worked for it or not.
Go small or pet-free
Fido and Tabby are lovable, but they can cost a bundle.
Pawprints and Purrs, an animal adoption agency based in Keithville, La., tells its clients to expect to pay these annual costs of pet ownership: cat, $640; small dog, $780; medium dog, $1,115; large dog, $1,500. Obviously, smaller is cheaper. The difference between a large dog and a small one is $720 per year -– and that's a lot of kibble.
Don't flush money down the commode
No-name-brand toilet paper, paper towels, tissues, paper cups, plastic wrap, plastic bags, etc., are all available at half the price of similar name-brand products when you buy them in bulk. You don't even have to wait for a sale. Such stores as Wal-Mart, Kmart, Costco and Sam's Club offer these items all the time at bulk rates.
For instance, you can buy 15,000 sheets of toilet paper for about $15, compared to the 4,224 sheets of the "squeezably soft" variety that routinely sells for $9 in a 12-pack. Big-name plastic wrap is 10 times more expensive than the big-box variety -- 0.04 cents per square foot versus 0.004 cents per square foot. Commercial laundry detergent is 34 cents per pound, versus a small box of familiar-name powder at $2.10 per pound.
Of course, bulk buying requires having some cash on hand, transportation to carry large quantities and enough storage space for these items. If you can manage those basic requirements, buying big can be a tremendous deal and easily cut costs by $500 per year. But remember, putting these purchases on your credit card defeats the purpose.
Limit media
A cost that didn't exist at all for most people a decade ago has morphed into a major expense. The average monthly cable bill, excluding Internet access and other extras, now runs about $52, according to Kagan Research, which monitors the broadcasting industry. (With high-speed Web access included in the mix, the average cable bill rises to nearly $73.) The average satellite bill is $59. Look hard at what you are spending for television, phone and Internet. If you are like the rest of us, cutting $50 a month out of this category is a slam dunk. Here are some suggestions.
Who watches 300 channels anyway? The easiest way to cut costs: Just take a deep breath and cancel everything but the basic plan. Most cable companies have a very limited plan for $10 or $15 per month that offers local channels and a few other networks. If you have satellite, the basic plan, including local channels, will cost you about $25. If you want to watch a movie or an HBO series now and then, rent it -- you'll still come out way ahead.
If you have greater-than-average do-it-yourself skills, consider installing an antenna and capturing high-definition television signals over the air. An antenna isn't your father's rabbit ears -- you get no snow and reception that's probably clearer than your cable or satellite provides. And best of all, it's free. A page on the National Association of Broadcasters' Web site lists the stations you can expect to receive. In most cities, that's all the networks plus PBS. In rural areas, you might get less, but that's changing quickly. CNET offers a great set of instructions for setting it up, and calls it a three-hour project.
Next, examine your phone service -- particularly your cell. What kind of user are you? If your phone's for short calls only -- "I'm on my way home now, dear" -- consider a pay-as-you-go plan like Virgin Mobile. It has cool phones, and, for a total of $80 per year, you can make those kinds of calls and have peace of mind. It's a big bargain.
Family plans are another possibility. Nobody checks your DNA, and Sprint Nextel doesn't even require sharers to be in the same area code. Four people on the same plan will cost about $25 each. Calls after 7 p.m. and during weekends are free, so the small prime-time minute allocation goes a long way. You just can't chat endlessly during regular business hours with these plans.
If you are paying more for home phone service than about $50 per month for both unlimited local and long-distance, you're missing the boat. Check out plans offered by MCI, Trinsic or PowerNet Global.
For those with high-speed Internet service, the cheapest phone option is probably an Internet-based phone service like Vonage or others offered by cable or phone companies. These aren't subject to the same taxes that wired phone lines are, so for less than $20 a month, you can get 500 minutes of service with lots of features, including voice mail.
There are drawbacks. One is that a 911 operator won't be able to locate the origin of a call on one of these lines. Another is that if your Internet is down, so is your phone.
Sign up for tax-advantaged plans at work
The possibilities include education, health, transportation and child-care savings accounts.
If you're in the 25% tax bracket, you'll be $500 ahead once you spend $2,000 in pretax dollars on these necessities. If your company doesn't offer these plans, ask for them to be added. It's a cost-free benefit that even the smallest and most cash-strapped employer can offer.
Eat in
Replace one $20 trip per week to McDonald's with a large $7 carryout pizza from any of the billions of cheap pizza places in every city.
Better yet, buy pizza at the grocery store.
Don't bank on it
Pay credit-card bills in full as soon as possible, and take advantage of free bill pay.
The real savings can be had by avoiding credit-card debt and paying off what you've accumulated as quickly as possible. For instance, if you owe $4,000 on a card charging you 18% interest, and you pay three times the minimum payment every month, or $300, you'll pay off the card in 15 months and spend about $500 in interest. If you spread the cost out and pay $200 per month -- still twice the minimum payment -- you'll pay off the bill in 24 months and pay out $4,800 in total -- $800 in interest. If you can bite the bullet and pay as much as $400 each month, the debt will be gone in less than a year and you'll save between $100 and $700 in interest over the other options.
Saving money doesn't have to take an ugly bite out of your lifestyle. Once you put these strategies in place, you won't feel pinched, because you're not giving up much at all.
By Jennie L. Phipps, Bankrate.com
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/SaveMoney/10EasyWaysToSave$500OrMore.aspx?page=all
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