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List of Ways to Save Money

Save Money on Everyday Expenses by Applying These Money Saving Tips

Need help finding ways to save money? That's easy, there are two ways to save money.  The first is to increase your income and the second is to lower your expenses.  To have success you'll need to be creative and perhaps change your lifestyle a little.  Your income isn't just your wages, but includes lots of other ways you earn money.  Your expenses are the easiest to control and therefore can make a bigger impact on how you save.  Here are our money saving tips.

Ways to Save Money by Increasing Your Income

  • Your career or job is usually your top source of income.  Try to find ways to increase your worth to your employer.  This can mean asking for a raise, seeking higher education, or searching for a higher paying job.
  • Put your savings to work!  Invest every penny you earn to increase your income even further.  Interest rates, dividends and capital gains on stocks and mutual funds can add significant money to your savings.
  • Add to your savings by selling unused stuff.  The average person has thousands of dollars tied up in belongings that are hardly ever used.
  • Make a little extra money by filling out online surveys.  This is no way to get rich but if you have extra time and enjoy giving your opinion, you can make a little money each month with surveys.
  • Visit our article that lists many more creative ways to make money.

Ways to Save Money by Lowering Your Expenses

Ways to Save Money
  • Start by creating a family budget to help you understand where your money is being spent and to help set a monthly savings goal.
  • Keep track of all your expenses for a full month.  Then analyze each expense to see if you can lower or eliminate it.
  • If you have a lot of credit card debt at high rates, look into consolidating your debt.  Furthermore, learn if it is worthwhile to refinance your mortgage at a lower rate..
  • You can save a lot of money by buying used stuff.  Used doesn't mean cheap, and there are excellent savings to be found.
  • Insurance policies are a big part of your budget and can vary widely from different insurers.  Learn how to lower your health insurance.  Also, shop around for lower auto, home and renters insurance as well as dental insurance.
  • Try to train your spending habits.  Stop purchasing impulse items and try to forego purchasing as many non-essential items as you can, and don't buy anything just because it is on sale.
  • Learn how to lower your health care costs.
  • Lower your phone bill.
  • Sign up for Groupon and other coupon or discount sites.
  • Buy generic, or non-name brand merchandise.
  • Wait for prices to fall before buying (applies especially to electronics items).
  • Reward yourself for saving money.  Enjoy watching your debt shrink and your investments grow.  Invest the money you save so that it earns money too.
  • Save money on your car and on gas.
  • Save money on your food costs.
  • Don't eat out as much as you'd like to.
  • Do more activities at home.
  • Keep your job skills sharp and study for a certification or new degree.
  • Stay busy - you have less time to spend money.
  • Find an inexpensive hobby to occupy your time and stop you from spending money.  Better yet, find a hobby that you can earn money doing.
  • Lose Weight. Not only do you save money on food, look and feel better, but your long term healthcare costs should also fall dramatically.
  • Learn how to manage your finances by reading and watching financial media.
  • Don't try to compete or compare yourself to your friends and neighbors.
  • Sell your car and take the bus to work.
  • Contribute the maximum each year to your 401K or to an IRA.
  • Remember, paying down debt is also a way to save money (it saves you from a debt payment and gets you closer to having money to invest).
  • Save money on your TV.
  • Save money on your vacations.
  • Save money on your remodeling costs.
  • Practice restraint, be patient and start saving money today!
  • Don't give up!

Ways to save money added from our visitors:

  • List of ways to save money: Shop for clothes at thrift shops (especially for young kids). Many times you can find gently worn or even new clothes for 1/10 the price of new (or less).
  • Pay bills online. Its safe and I save $50 a year on stamps.
  • Put your kids on the school bus instead of driving them to school.  Another great ways to save money.
  • Slipcover or reupholster older furniture to update rather than buying expensive new furniture.
  • Learn to refinish furniture or decorate with paint. Use cast-off furniture to make a unique piece.
  • Save money by taking your lunch to work every day! Make meals in bulk and then freeze them in smaller portions to save even more money.
  • Buy a bread maker and make your own bread. Much cheaper than $2.00 a loaf, and tastes great!
  • Shop for canned goods and toiletries at salvage grocery stores.
  • Cancel magazine subscriptions. Read them at the library or buy them at the thrift shop for .25 to .50 after someone else has donated them.
  • Stop buying expensive sodas and make Kool-Aid or decaffeinated iced tea.
  • Great ways to save money:
  • Cancel expensive (and annoying) phone options like call-waiting.
  • Check out library books instead of buying expensive paperbacks.
  • If you wash your hair every day you don't need to lather twice. Saves shampoo!
  • Change eating habits (avoid processed foods).
  • Exercise and eat right - keeps doctor bills down.
  • Brush and floss your teeth - keeps doctor bills down.
  • Keep up on auto maintenance to avoid costly repair.
  • Mend clothing instead of buying replacements.
  • Buy only clothing not requiring dry cleaning.
  • Simplify manicures - don't get them.
  • Simplify hairstyle - one that doesn't require much maintenance.  A decent way to save money.
  • Get 3-6 quotes anytime shopping for item over $100.
  • Develop self-control; simplify your life if possible.
  • Many inexpensive, no-name drugstore cosmetics are as good as or better than their department store or salon counterparts. Read the ingredients and find cheaper substitutes for your favorites wherever possible.
  • Cut dryer sheets in half.
  • Buy generic over the counter medicine.
  • Buy generic baby wipes, diapers, formula...... studies show that it's all the same!
  • Find name brand clothing at garage sales in affluent neighborhoods.
  • Find fashionable clothing at the sale departments of stores like the Gap. Ways to save money.
  • Keep in fashion by buying basic colored tees and skirts and then adding trendy accessories.
  • Buy baby clothes from someone that has a child one year older than yours. You can get good quality clothing, fashionable baby clothing at ultra low prices.
  • If you get change back when you purchase an item, put it in the piggy bank. Give the cashier whole dollars, not the exact amount. In a few months you will have "found" money that you could use to pay bills, save or buy something nice.
  • Save money by shopping for groceries in the "bulk foods" aisle in your grocery store. Many stores now carry bulk staples that are much less per ounce than the smaller family size versions. Buy large noodles, sugar, flour, etc. and appropriate storage containers for the part not to be used as soon as the package is opened.
  • Also, if your family is trading off meat for legumes one or more times per week (which can be both healthy and cost effective,) shop for dry legumes and rice in the "Mexican" food aisles. They will often have better prices on a large variety of dry beans and peas.
  • You don't need the heat above 68 degrees in the winter inside your house. Wear warm clothes and socks/slippers while in the house. While watching tv, snuggle with a blanket. Warm air breeds germs. So by keeping the temp. 68 or below -- you save on heating costs and breathe healthier air.
  • Use all those plastic bags you receive at the grocery store for trash. This way you don't have to buy trash bags and you are helping out the environment by recycling.
  • Some grocery stores give you a 5 cent credit per bag if you bring your own, although they never advertise this. Ask the next you go grocery shopping.
  • Instead of buying a nice house, rent to own.  The payments are cheaper. A great way to save money.
  • Install a water softener. It might be expensive to start up, but in the long run, you use less shampoo/conditioner on your hair and it saves your appliances (pipes, iron, washing machine, dish washer, kettle and hot water tank) from clogging up with lime scale.  Excellent ways to save money.
  • Save money when shopping next time at the supermarket by remembering to check the lower items nearer to floor level as they are often much cheaper than those at eye level. Also resist the temptation to purchase extra items at the checkout such as magazines and candy bars placed there to tempt you. And never go food shopping on an empty stomach, you always buy more!
  • Re-gifting! You don't need half those things you get. Just keep a list so you don't re-gift to the original person!
  • Every year my family gets a cow slaughtered and butchered for approximately $600 per cow. The average cost of the meat is $1.00 per pound. Ask the farmer to grain feed the cow for two months before the cow is done. This eliminates a lot of the toughness of the meat. Also a fresh cow has a lot less fat than what you get in the grocery store. Even with the cost of running an additional freezer, I still only pay $1.00 a pound for T-Bone Steaks, Filet mignon, Sirloin Steaks, Rib Eye Steaks. It more than pays for itself. Interesting ways to save money.
  • Buy fruits and vegetables in season.  They are less expensive and taste better.
  • "I used to go out every weekend to see a movie and i realized i was spending too much money on recreational activities. So now i wait to see a movie on dvds at the video store. I still go see a movie every once in a while but not as often. so instead of spending $8.00 on a ticket and spending $10.00 on popcorn and drink and candy i spend $6.00 on a dvd at video store."
  • Save money by buying your (and kid's) clothes for the following year at the end of the season / during the off season. You get great mark down prices.
  • Catch Your Coins--Every evening take the spare change from your pockets or periodically clean out your purse and toss the coins in a jar. Never take any money out of the jar until the end of the year. Then take all the coins to be bank and exchange them for cash. You'll be surprised to find they've added up to $50, $100 or even $200.
  • "Take care of your cents, then your dollars will take care of themselves." - Also one have to live with a financial plan and set up a financial goals for oneself, this means to increase one's income sources, economize money, and invest your money wisely and profitably. "When you save your money, you buy yourself control", and money have to be "saved and invested" wisely (intuition of a person knows everything well, so one has to follow it's signs - always).
  • Bike to work in good weather to save on gas.
  • Eat a few vegetarian meals a week.
  • Garage sales are a great source for household items, books, clothing, and furniture.
  • Don't buy bottled water! Invest in a water-filter and drink tap water.
  • Save money by throwing away any catalogs or magazines which tempt to buy something
  • One way to save money I stumbled across is that cereal can be frozen and it keeps for a very long time. Before that, we could never eat it fast enough and had to throw it away when it was stale. When you pour milk on it, you would never know that it had been frozen. I have not yet found a cereal that tasted bad from the freezer.

    Also, instead of buying bottled water, we have a water softener on our hot water only. Our water comes from a well, but if i run the tap until the water is completely hot, I can fill a pitcher, let it cool, refrigerate it, and get very good tasting clean water for drinking.

  • Don't throw out your empty bags of milk. Instead cut them open and wash them. You can use them as baggies. They also keep frozen foods fresh when used with a sealer.
  • Save money by making your grocery list by planning menus for the week and buy only what is on your list.
  • At the end of each day, when you come home, put all of your change into an empty coffee can. Then just roll coins while you watch TV or listen to the radio. This adds up to hundreds of dollars very quickly.
  • Save money by taking a serious look at your energy costs. Energy is usually the number two or three expense, along with the cost of rent or mortgage and food.

    - Switch every single bulb to compact florescent bulbs. They may be expensive but they last for years (no more replacements) and tend to use about 10-20% of the energy of regular bulbs. Buy one each time you make a shopping trip, starting in the high traffic areas of the house like the kitchen or stairway until you no longer have any incandescent bulbs left.

    - If you own your home seriously consider switching any electric heating appliances to natural gas such as the hot water heater, furnace, stove or dryer. Electricity can be used for almost any device, and you pay a hefty premium on electricity for that. Gas is very efficient for heating devices, it heats up much quicker and wastes far less energy.

    - Do your laundry in cold water. Most modern detergents are just as effective in cold water as in hot water. Also make sure any laundry that you do is a complete and full load - it takes the same amount of energy as a tenth of a load.

    - Try this trick with your dryer: Put it on for 20 minutes, then put it on "air fluff" for 15 minutes. Your clothes are already hot with the water coming off as vabour and you'll find although it takes about 20% longer, you save about 50% of the energy costs of your dryer.

    - In the colder months when you need to use your furnace, turn the heat on to your desired temperature. When the furnace turns off (your house has been heated to temperature), turn the thermostat to the off position. If you feel cold, check the thermostat. If you 5 degrees below your desired temperature, turn the thermostat on again to your desired temperature. Often furnaces will kick in and out to maintain your desired temperature, but furnaces are far more efficient when they are in the heat cycle for longer periods of time. You'll save about 50% on your furnace costs, even 30% over having a high-tech digital thermostat. Of course keep it completely off when you're out of the house.

    - If you ever leave the house for the weekend or longer, unplug everything. That alarm clock or VCR blinking or DVD on standby still take power. If you're leaving the house for a week, you will save real money by just unplugging all of these devices- and you'll protect your home from fire risks should there be a malfunction or power surge.

    - Keep your fridge and freezer as full as possible. The less airspace in your fridge, the less time it takes for your fridge or freezer to cool the air. Don't have much money for food? Just buy a bunch of bread and throw it in the freezer, you usually can get bread cheaper when you buy it in large quantities anyway.

    When we first moved into my home our hydro bill was $69 and our natural gas bill was $214, during winter months. After these changes, our hydro was reduced to $39 per month and our gas was reduced to $115 during winter months. That's a savings of 54% or $150 a month!

  • If you really need a magazine subscription make a group maybe with 3 persons to divide the costs. Then each person can stay with the magazine for one week.
  • I've saved a bunch of money by upgrading from a combined fridge and freezer with a freezer size that just takes about a package of ice cream. By this you can buy larger quantities of foods that are on special offers. Also check out if you could save some money on upgrading your kitchen appliances to new energy saving models, the difference in energy consumption between an old freezer and a new one could amount to approx 80-90 $ a year, and that is just the freezer only.

    - Save money on in home-decorating: skip the trends and go for quality to create a personal eclectic home. In Europe there is various forms of charity shops ran buy for instance The Red Cross, various churches and other charity organizations. I'm sure there's something similar in NA too. Take your time and stroll around in these shops and switch on your imagination (can the items be altered easily by adding a contrasting ribbon or the like?). You can get really great quality curtains, furniture, linen and kitchenware for almost no cost at all. Someone has regarded their newly died grandma's stuff as junk and donated it to the shop but you will often find that grandma often had wonderful qualities of textured linens (she also probably were in the know of how to maintain her fabrics. Ironing and pressing is just not for the fabric to look posh, it will be less fragile.). This way you'll save cash while still displaying dash, consider many wealthy people don't buy the most trendy stuff either. One good example is that Queen Margerethe of Denmark a few years renewed the winter curtains the castle Amalienborg, the previous curtains had served every winter for 200 years...

    - Save money by being an informed consumer, especially if you're buying services like a contractor for renovating kitchen or bathrooms. Check out if there's magazines which is for homeowners that has written or undertaken surveys/ tests in the area. The insurance companies also tend to have information they gladly provide to their clients (well at least in Sweden you can get a lot of "do" and "don't" advices from insurance companies).

    - avoid the trap of thinking you don't have time to cook your own food and ending up paying a lot for half fabricated and take away. Try make your grocery shopping once a week only (why not go together with a neighbor, that way you'll get company and also you're two which saves gasoline on the trip to the store) and then make most of your cooking for the week during the weekend, make sure you have a good, basic, wide range cooking book and involve the rest of the family in creating menus and the cooking. You'll notice that you with a modest effort of planning can eat food equivalent to an upscale restaurant 7 days a week to less cost than a few days of take- a- way at McDonalds. Even relatively small children can participate in this and they often enjoy doing things like this. Store the weeks meals in the freezer (but take them out of there the same morning that you plan to consume, avoiding to use the microwave oven to defrost will also save money)

  • Borrow DVDs from friends and family instead of renting to save money.
  • Set your washer to the shortest wash setting possible. Instead of washing your clothes for 8 minutes put it on for 4 minutes. It saves on your electrical bill and on your clothes.
  • One way I found to save money is to pick up the pennies, dimes and nickels I find on the sidewalks or in parking lots. I add it to the jar of loose change we are saving and by the end of the year we have about $50. Every little bit helps!
  • Foster the practice of sports in your kids. The more time they spend practicing any sport, the less time and money you and they will spend at the shopping mall.
  • To save money on gas, never fill the gas tank full since the extra weight of the gasoline takes extra toll on engine power. And of course take out all items on the trunk which are not important to reduce vehicle weight.
  • Another way to save money on the movies is by joining a movie club such as Netflix or Blockbuster. This works best if: you rent several movies a month, and or, you and your family have different movie choices. Also there are no late fees.  To save even more buy popcorn in a jar or bag and pop it yourself. Much healthier and you can add your own seasoning such as Mrs. Dash (salt-free).
  • I've enjoyed seeing other peoples' budget-conscious moves. Mine aren't as severe, but I think they do save some money.
  • A trick I learned in England. I turn off the heat at night and sleep with a hot water bottle. I live in a small apartment, so it heats up quickly. For people with larger houses, turning the heat down would probably suffice. It's amazing how warm you can stay all night.
  • I drink espresso. This seems counter-intuitive because espresso seems like a luxury item, but because it's ground finer, and you use less, the coffee lasts longer. I have had a machine for years that I wasn't using. During the work week, I was buying coffee at Starbucks and other places nearby, which was at least $10-$20/week. So, instead I brought my machine in to the office and now spend about $5/month on a can of espresso. You can get an electric machine for about $50...but when I'm home, I use a stovetop one which you can get for as little as $10 or $20. That's what they use in Italian homes!
  • Have another bank account except your savings and salary account of which don't issue yourself either ATM card or a Credit Card (So that you have to go speacilly if you want cash). Make sure that you deposit at least 5% o your salary at a strick date of every month. set a goal and after a certain fixed interval buy yourself a Biscket of Gold (or any precious metal or Stone) and keep it in a bank locker, by the time you retire, I can assure you that you will have enough money that you can take your WHOLE family on a world Tour and even saving a lot more for later.
  • Join your local freecycle group (http://freecycle.org/) The old saying "one mans trash is another mans treasure" is so true. I got some really nice baby clothes, a bottle warmer, breast pump and baby back pack all from my local network. Some people like to see someone benefit from their goodwill as opposed to just dropping off a donation at the local charity.
  • Know what things you buy regularly cost and shop ebay and for things like razors, lotions, computer software, baby formula, diapers, etc. If you can plan ahead you will save.
  • Each pay period, set aside any amount that you had budgeted for an expense but did not need to spend. For instance, you may have anticipated that $40 would be needed to maintain your car, but only had to spend $30. Take the "extra" $10 and put it into your savings account.
  • Stay out of stores.
  • Ask your boss to buy a refrigerator (medium size) for the office. Place up to 64 oz of juice/drinks in the frig for lunch and snacks. I did, and it works. Those $1.45 bottles of soda/juices (16oz.) adds up.

See Also: More Ways to Save Money Submitted from Site Visitors

See Also: Money Saving Tips