Cheap Insider

Archive for the ‘Saving Money’ Category

We all know that sitting in front of the television for more than 30 minutes a day is bad for our health. It makes our bottoms get bigger, and turns our brains to mush (according to Hulu advertisements that is). We push our kids to get outside and play and be active. We are doing it to have them active and moving their bodies. Did you know that by turning off the television you can also save money, lots of money.

I understand, we all like to sit and catch our favorite show after a hard day of work. We love the football games, the golf tournaments and so on. If you are like me, I occasionally have the television on in the background just so that there is noise when I am working. Few of us have ever stopped to think about how much watching television actually costs us.

According to Juliet Schor from Boston College, she has figured that an hour of television a week costs each of us $200 a year. Her theory is based in part to the fact that when we sit in front of the boob tube and enjoy our favorite show we experience an “upscaling of desire” to buy things. This theory has gone big time, CNN has reported that if you watch a handful of sitcoms and a reality series or two you and I are going to end up spending an extra thousand a year… just for watching those shows.

Hmmm… $200 a year, for just an hour a week, who actually only watches an hour a week? If your family is similar to mine, we catch the news in the morning and in the evening and we have one show a night that we watch as a family. So on average that is 3 hours a day, 15 hours a week only looking at Monday through Friday. Let’s examine the $200 here. That breaks down to $3.85 per hour of television. So for our family that is almost $58 a week that we could be saving if we cut out that T.V. time. That is $3,016 a year if we only cut out the television through the week, honestly I don’t want to think about what we are spending on the weekends.

Ok, let’s take out the enticement to go out and buy something. Chances are you that you have cable or satellite television. Depending on the package is running you anywhere from $29.99 to $300 a month, which means that if you were to give up television… or at least enhanced television you would be saving yourself anywhere from $360 - $3600 year! This isn’t even taking into consideration the cost of the electricity to run the television!

I can tell you that my household has had to step back and take a look at our television habits. We have figured out that we were to cut out viewing television we will save $5416 a year. Now giving up T.V. may make you cringe, so consider changing the programming you. We are giving up the satellite package we have, because we don’t watch more than half of the channels anyway and we are saving $2400 a year. That is enough for a decent family vacation!

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

The world is in an economic crunch and more people than ever are looking for ways to save money. Every penny matters and yet many people do not realize that within their own home there are probably a number of things they can do today to save money. Cutting costs does not mean giving up on the things you love, want, and need. It is important to look at the way you are living and then find ways to significantly reduce your investment. Chances are good some of these items below can be done right now and add money to your pockets.

#1: Appliance Management

One of the biggest draws of money within the home is the use of appliances. Do you hear the television in the background? Do you have fans running or perhaps even have the toaster plugged in? Most people realize the importance of turning off lights in the home, but what about unplugging. You may not realize it but when appliances and other devices are left plugged into an electrical socket, they draw electricity. Therefore, by not only turning them off, but also unplugging them, you will be saving money.

How much can you save from just managing your appliances better? You could decrease your electric bill by as much as 25 percent in some instances. Big culprits are televisions, computers, and larger counter top appliances.

#2: Adjust The Temperature

Another big way to save money is to adjust the thermostat in your home. Did you know that you could reduce your heating and cool bills by as much as 20 percent by simply decreasing your heating temperature by two notches and by increasing your air conditioning temperature by two points? Do you feel the difference between 66 degrees and 68 in the summer, sometimes, but not by much. In the winter, what would the different between 64 degrees and 66? It may mean wearing an extra layer of clothing, but for a savings of 20 percent, it may be worthwhile.

#3: Know The Grocery Bill

While other expenses like your mortgage and utilities may be difficult to reduce, you may find it far easier to reduce your grocery bill. Perhaps you think that you are already doing so? Here are a few ways to reduce this large cost.

• Shop the outside aisles of the grocery store instead of the center. You get more healthy foods and less prepackaged products that cost far more.

• Consider store brands. The quality of store brands has risen in recent years. You may not notice the taste difference but you will notice the difference in the lower bill.

• Do shop the sales, but that is it. When something is on sale, this loss leader is a good bet. Stock up. But, avoid impulse buying during these trips. It could cost you. Moreover, use coupons on top of sale prices to pay half the price or less for the item.

#4: Bundle Services

Sometimes you can save a good deal of money by simply bundling your services. For example, your local cable provider may be running a special that allows you to get your Internet, cable service, and phone service for a fraction of the cost you are currently paying. Find out what special offers are available. Also, talk to your insurance agent and ask for discounts. By having multiple products through one provider, you may save considerably.

#5: Track Spending

Regardless of if the purchase is for the home or if it is for personal use, you should track what you are spending. While most people hate this word “budget” it is one of the best ways to know where your money is going and to help to reduce costs.

Go ahead and try out some of these methods. Chances are good you do not realize just how much money is going out the window in these areas.

For more ways to save, check out 100 Ways To Save Money