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Archive for May, 2009

Believe it or not, one of the more recent status symbols among those that are considered “trendsetters” is driving smaller more eco-friendly cars. The reason for this is that the smaller cars are more economical when it comes to gas, and they are better for the environment. Of course the economy doesn’t currently make it easy for most people to get rid of the vehicle they have and buy or lease a new hybrid.

That’s okay actually. There are a number of things that you can do to alter your daily driving habits to save money and be kinder to the environment. This is a lesson in “It isn’t what you drive, but how you drive.” What time of day you drive, put gas in your car, the number of trips that you make and the speed at which you drive can all either cost you money or save you money. The goal should always be to save money.

First, did you know that the time of day you decide to fill up your vehicle can help you save money? The most ideal time of the day is when it is coolest, so either in the morning or in the late evening. I am sure you are asking why that is. The majority of gas pump measure the volume of gas that you pump and not the density. Gas is denser when it is cooler, providing you with a better gas price economy.

You may also find this tip interesting, the pump at the station figures out how much to charge you based on how tight you are gripping the nozzle. The closer you get to reaching the price you want to pay, you tend to let up on the nozzle. When you release the nozzle the gas doesn’t stop flowing instantly. Let the nozzle sit in the tank for a few seconds so that you are getting every last drop of gas that you have paid for.

Next watch your speed. I know there are times when you are in a hurry and the last thing you want to do is the speed limit. What you need to know is that when you drive at 70 mph, your car is consuming 38% more fuel then when you drive 50 mph. Also, use cruise control. Smoother driving will also help you save money. Slow down gradually when you are approaching a light, and don’t tailgate. If you have to drive fast, do it with the windows closed. When you drive at 50 mph and have the windows open you are increasing drag, which then increases fuel consumption.

Most importantly, decrease the amount of driving you are doing. This doesn’t mean stop you have to stop going places. Instead think about where you have to go in a day, and then create a loop. Try to run all of your errands in one trip. Drive to the farthest one away first and work your way home. When you go out once a day or even twice a day instead of multiple times a day you are saving money on gas. You are cutting down on the exhaust that is being emitted into the air and you are wasting less time on the road. If you are a stay at home parent and take your children to school you have two chances to get your errands done.

You can save money regardless of what type of vehicle you are driving as long as you think about the way you drive.

Neil Bartlett is the founder of CheapInsider.com. Cheap Insider provides everyone with Tips and Techniques for saving money and finding bargains. To learn more INSTANTLY grab his FREE report “10 Money Saving Tips”

When keeping a close eye on every penny you spend and trying to make sure that each dollar goes as far as it can many people are considering bulk buying. We have all seen the bulk stores in our local cities and towns. The parking lots are often over flowing, but are those people really saving money and are you missing out? The simple answer is yes, if you are smart.

Just like when you go grocery shopping at the normal grocery store you think about what you are buying based on your needs and the size of your family. You would not want to go to a Bulk Supply Store and buy fresh vegetables or other produce related items if there is only you, or you and a partner. You can only eat so many green peppers in a week. Yes, most bulk stores will offer a gallon of milk, and it will be a few cents cheaper… they sell eggs and things which can help you save money.

What about the other items though, and your budget? If you know the cost of the same products at your local store and you have a list of the items you actually need you can save a lot of money buying in bulk most of the time. I want to give you a few examples that I have encountered locally. I know that a case of Pepsi at the local grocery is around $7.00. I know that a case of Pepsi at the Bulk Store is $9.87. Initially you think that the case at the Bulk Store is more expensive, but it isn’t. Actually it costs the same at both places; the case at the local store is for 24 cans, which come out to .27 per can. The case at the bulk store is for 36 and again they are .27 per can. The trick there is that you are getting more in the case so you think you are saving money.

Another example, a case of toilet paper the local grocery has Charmin 12 rolls for 6.99. The bulk store has 36 rolls for $12 something. If you buy the toilet paper at the bulk store you are going to save .24 per roll of toilet paper or $8.64. So it makes sense then to buy toilet paper and other paper goods at the bulk store. You can go and buy your paper products at the beginning of the month, save money and not have to worry about it when you go to the grocery the following week.

I can also give you an example for bread. At the bulk store you can get hot dog and hamburger buns cheaper then what you can get them at the local store. The same holds true for bread and bagels and such. But if you are not going to eat 48 hot dog buns and you don’t have the space to freeze them, you are still wasting money.

I also want to interject a little note here. Your local grocery may offer a bulk food section. Pay attention to the price per pound compared to the prepackaged item in the next aisle. Sometimes it saves you money and sometimes it is going to cost you more.

Another thing to consider is that when you buy in bulk you are protecting the environment. Instead of the waste of packaging materials used to wrap each paper towel, or one package of napkins or one loaf of bread that ends up in a landfill, bulk buying allows more items to be placed in one packaging container.

Buy your staples in bulk, pay attention to prices based on the quantity in the package and you will save hundreds of dollars on year on groceries.

Neil Bartlett is the founder of CheapInsider.com. Cheap Insider provides everyone with Tips and Techniques for saving money and finding bargains. To learn more INSTANTLY grab his FREE report “10 Money Saving Tips”

It is imperative in this day and age that we all buckle down and look for ways to save money. Even if you currently have a fulltime job it would be prudent to do a once over on your spending habits and check you budget to see if there are a few areas that you can save in. Most people are hesitant about giving up things to save money, not because they don’t want to save money but because they don’t want to give up their lifestyle. Which is understandable, no one likes to feel as though they have to do without.

To help ease that fear here you are going to find three tips that will help you save money, and you will only notice the plus in your checking account and not the minus in your daily life. These are three tips that anyone and everyone should be seeing if they can incorporate into their life.

Tip One: Eliminate Needless Driving to Save on Gas

While gas prices are lower then what they were a year ago, it won’t hurt for you to decrease the amount of driving you are doing. Yes, I said tips on saving money that you won’t notice so ask yourself how many trips you make in a day. If you are doing a lot of back and forth maybe it is time for you to look and see if there is a way that you can combine your trips out into one or two a day. If you have to go to the grocery store, and the movie rental place and the post office and pick up your kids from school see if you can make it a big loop so that you are hitting all of those places on the same drive.

Tip Two: Water Conservation to Save Money and the Environment

Do you realize that if could just cut two minutes out of our shower each day that we would save enough money to keep the Great Lakes filled with water each and every day? Not to mention the money you are going to be saving on your water bill and your heating bill. It may not seem like much but it will make a big difference in the end. Here are the facts, and how these were calculated can be found here at http://www.atsecosolutions.com/saveonshowering.html. Here are the numbers:

* Cost of electricity: $0.0944 per kWh
* Multiplied by the cost to heat one liter $0.1313685
* This gives us a heating cost per liter $0.0130054 (or a little more than one cent).
* Add the cost of water $0.0030274
* Total cost of one liter of shower water $0.0160328

Which means that if you decreased the amount of water you used in the shower you could save an average of 1.19 per shower. Doesn’t seem like much but if you shower every day and there are four people in your family you save 142.80 per month or 1713.60 per year!

Tip Three: Eat at Home More

There is nothing like a night out with your family. I mean that in two ways, the enjoyment of being with your family sharing a good meal laughing and no one has to clean up afterwards. The second way I mean that is that it can certainly do a number of the pocket book. Depending on where you live, the average night out to dinner for a family of four can run anywhere from $45 – $80. That is one meal for each of you. Where as if you took that money and went to the store and bought the food and made it yourself, that is enough money to buy almost a week’s worth of groceries. Eating at home more is more cost effective, allows for better quality time for the family and nine times out of ten… offers you better cooked food. Cut out one meal a week that you eat out and you are saving that $45 – $80, remember you have already gone grocery shopping. That can equal $180 a month (on the low side) and $2160 a year!

Taking a look at the three tips, even if you estimate on the low side you can save a little over $4000 a year! I promise you will not even notice that you are making these money saving changes.

Neil Bartlett is the founder of CheapInsider.com. Cheap Insider provides everyone with Tips and Techniques for saving money and finding bargains. To learn more and INSTANTLY grab his FREE report “10 Money Saving Tips”

From the time we were children our parents told us how important it was to save money. We all remember our first piggy bank. Maybe yours was a turtle, or an actual bank where you put the coins in a tube and they rolled down the tube into the right section for that coin. Which is why it amazes me to this day that a lesson we have been taught since we were old enough to hold money, many of us still have not mastered.

Saving money is not like riding a bike, where all you need to do is get on the bike and you remember. For some reason the fascination with watching the coins roll in the tube or hearing the coins shake in our little piggy or turtle has dwindled. Perhaps it is because we never really learned how to save money; we just knew it was fun to put our coins in the banks to hear the noises.

This is why I decided that it was important to provide you with tips that I picked up from a few people I know that have been successful at saving money. Picking their brains was fun, and I have to tell you the tips I got from there are easy to follow… and more importantly, they make sense.

Tip One: Give Your Savings Meaning

Probably the number one reason people struggle with saving money is because they don’t see why they need to, what is the point? You can’t take it with you, and if you are saving for a rainy day… what if it never rains? The recommendation, forget that philosophy and save for a reason. Start small, say there is a new bedroom set that you really want. Find out the total cost, and then take a look at your finances and see how much you can set aside each week or every other week towards your new bedroom set. Believe it or not this tip came from a waitress I met in Florida. She had saved for three months for a set of silk sheets she wanted for her bed. She set $5 a side each and every week until she had enough money to buy them. There as purpose to her saving, something tangible and she felt really good about her savings when she was able to go buy the sheets.

Tip Two: Make the Saving Automatic

Ahhh, the beauty of technology, most people have direct deposit. Which means that they really don’t even see their paycheck… it automatically goes into their account. The successful money savers say that what you need to do is take part of your pay and have the bank automatically put a certain dollar amount into a savings account. It is the whole out of site out of mind concept. If you don’t have to think about it you are more likely to do it.

Tip Three: Avoid Your Weakness

We all have them, whether it is Starbucks, Macy’s or the latest CD at the music store. Stay away from those temptations while you are trying to save. Look at it this way; you love your latte at Starbucks. Even if you get the small one you are going to plop down about $3, and let’s say that you go three times a week. If avoided that temptation you would save $468 a year… even if you cut back to going once a week you would save $312 a year.

You don’t have to give up everything in your life. All you have to do is take simple steps to help increase your savings. One Starbucks a week instead of three, have the bank set up an automatic transfer at each paycheck and give the money you are trying to save meaning.

Neil Bartlett is the founder of CheapInsider.com. Cheap Insider provides everyone with Tips and Techniques for saving money and finding bargains. To learn more and INSTANTLY grab his FREE report “10 Money Saving Tips”

Everyone is looking for ways to save money. While the President is doing what he can to help boost the economy we have to admit that it does take time. We all should also be doing what we can to make sure that we are taking care of our own. There are many ways that you can save money, some are creative, some are subtle and some are… well extreme. That is our focus here; we are going to tell you three extreme ways to save money.

When we say extreme we mean it. These aren’t necessarily things that everyone would do or want to do. However they are good tips because you never really know how tight you will have to keep your budget if you main source of income goes away tomorrow. While there are some people that will go as far as making eggs or baking cookies on the car engine that is not what we are talking about here. We do have a tip though when it comes to your car and saving gas, which is turning your car off when you are at a stop or stuck in bumper to bumper traffic. For those that are looking for extreme measures that don’t really make you cringe, read below.

Tip One: Make Your Home Carpet Free

You may be scratching your head on this one, but do you realize what it cost to maintain your carpet? To properly maintain that carpet you have to vacuum regularly which requires electricity. You also need to have the carpet steamed and shampooed a couple times a year. This isn’t even taking into consideration the medical costs associated with carpet due to pet dander and allergens and molds taking up residency in the fibers. While it may cost a little to get rid of the carpet upfront, it will save you over $200 a year once you get rid of it.

Tip Two: Move in With Mom and Dad

Regardless of how old you are or if you have a spouse and kids, you may want to take a look at living with mom and dad again. The reason for this is that it can significantly save money for both you and your parents. Yes, you will lose some privacy, but overall it can be a better arrangement for all involved. Mom and dad get to bond with grandkids, expenses are shared which could easily save you $3000 a month.

Tip Three: Have a No-Spend Month

Yes, the thought may give you a headache but it can save you money. For 30 days hold you and your family to a no-spend agreement. Pick a dollar amount, a very low one, such as $250 and that is what you are going to live on for the entire month. That $250 has to cover your auto gas, entertainment, food and other daily expenses. This will force you to eat at home more and actually use the food in your cupboards and freezer. It will also make you keenly aware of what your spending habits are per month. You could easily save $1000 a month or more.

Yes these types are extreme but they can save you money, a lot of money. If you are facing tough economic times or you are just trying to prevent having a tough time consider our options. Based on our figures if you did all three you could save thousands a month.

Neil Bartlett is the founder of CheapInsider.com. Cheap Insider provides everyone with Tips and Techniques for saving money and finding bargains. To learn more and INSTANTLY grab his FREE report “10 Money Saving Tips” go to http://www.cheapinsider.com/specialoffer