I read an interesting article today about simple things you can do to potentially save $100 or more. I am always excited to hear of ways to save money, especially these days with gas and grocery prices going up and up.
The ideas from the article are all good, but I think some will work better than others for people. Read them, see if any sound good to you, and give them a try!
Tip #1. Wash With Cold Water. This should have little impact on how clean your clothes get since washing machines and detergents have advanced enough that only the dirtiest and greasiest clothes now need a hot wash to get clean.
While a hot wash/cold rinse setting will cost about $100 to $150 a year if you do a load of laundry a day, the same number of load as with a cold wash/cold rinse setting will cost about $10 a year.
That's $100 in savings, and can be much more if you have children and do frequent wash loads. Best of all, it takes a split second to turn the knob on your washing machine to receive this savings.
Tip #2. Drink More Water If you drink at least three glasses of water everyday, you will cut back on the other more expensive drinks you like to have (for me, pepsi...bad, I know)and that in turn will save you some money (plus it is great for your health.) If you can cut out three drinks a week that usually cost $1, you have saved over $150 a year for the minute or so it takes to fill three glasses of water each day.
Tip #3. Compare Prices. It's easy to go Online and comparison shop for things like Auto and Home Insurance. If you take a few minutes, you might find a better deal than what you are paying now. You can also compare prices on major purchases with sites like PriceGrabber or Shopping.com
Tip #4. Use Coupons. Cut out only those for the products that you already use and will purchase again and don't bother with any others. It only takes $2 each week in coupon savings to save more than $100 a year. When you think of all the coupons that go beyond groceries (pizza, oil change, haircut, etc.) it should be easy to save much more than this with little time or effort.
Tip #5. Start Haggling. According to this article, virtually all the services you currently pay for are negotiable, including your cable TV, gym membership, phone bill and Internet service. While asking for a better deal may not work with all of these all of the time, you will get a discount a lot more times than you probably imagine.
All it takes is a 10-minute call to each service. If you can negotiate a $10 a month discount on each, that comes to $480 a year in savings for a few phone calls.
Tip #6. Get a Lower Credit Card Rate. Make a call to your credit card company if you currently carry a balance on your credit card.
Many people don't realize that all it takes to lower your credit card interest rate in many cases is a simple phone call asking. A 2002 study found that over half the people who had good credit and called their credit card company to get a better interest rate were able to do so with the average person reducing the rate by one-third.
Tip #7. Sell Stuff Go through closets and your garage and get all the stuff you have stored but will probably never use again. Sell it on eBay or Craigslist, and you could probably make much more than the $100--and declutter your home atthe same time!
Tip #8. Refinance Your Home. While refinancing is a bit more complicated than the other saving methods and will take a bit more time to complete all the necessary work, the amount saved per year is huge and thus well worth the effort.
Remember --- To make the savings last, you need to set the money aside that you save after completing the above tasks. Save this money in a separate account so it doesn't get spent on other things!
Related Posts on Saving Money:
Oprah,Suze Orman,and a Woman's Saving Financial Plan
