With this economy that is going deeper down the a-hole... I believe that we must do something to help ourselves.. I wanted to be able to bring ideas on what things We Can Do To Save Money!! Because we spend a lot in things we want but dont need.
COUPONS: buying with Coupon is a great idea but... watching those tv shows about 'coupon ladies' worries me, because I dont want to end up 30 to 60 hours a week looking for coupons for that 'deal'. Saw this Coupon show that this lady purchased 1,000.00 dollars worth of groceries and at the end she just payed 2.00 dls after giving all her coupons. She spent 30 hours a week cutting, collecting, picking up newspapers from for sale homes and doing all those thing for coupons. for more information go to http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/tv/extreme-couponing/couponing-resources.htm
Trading Parties: so many mommie blogs talk about having trading parties where they trade clothes from their children. Some traded shoes, dresses, bags and lots more as many of us just use that Dress one time to a friends wedding or party and we never use it again. why? well!! "like oh my Gosh what happens if they see us in another picture with it again"... (the quote was just a sarcastic remark). for more information go to http://tradingkidsclothes.blogspot.com/2012/03/trading-party-march-17-2-5.html
ON SALE: I have to admit that since I was younger I am an on-sale addict. I dont like buying a shirt for full price when I can buy something similar or the same shirt for 60% to 90% off. For example, I wanted this perfume but it was to expensive about 100 dollars, when it came out.. I waited until it was on-sale for 49.99 not only it was the biggest perfume bottle but it also included 2 creams. I was like no way! I had to have it and purchased it.
Thrift Stores: They are not my mayor cup of tea because they sell items more expensive than the brand new item when on sale. You have to go there with your eyes wide open to see a good bargain. My Advice is Never buy used shoes end up with stinky feet. Also, Never Wear an Outfit without washing as your armpits will end up smelling forever if that shirt wasn't washed correctly. Do buy things like crochet/knitting blankets as they are always cheaper than buying the yarn and making them oneself. HINT: wait for days when they have their 'big sales' as 15 dollars all you can put in a bag.
Cut Back on things not needed: how do you know what things you dont need?? for 1 month keep track of the things you buy. for example, drinks, going out to restaurants, clothes shopping,.. Now that you know what you are spending your money cut back on a few of those things or on all of them.
1. hate to say this but the trip to Starbucks and drink a late is not needed. I am sorry but its true.. we can make the coffee at home put it in a mug and take it to work. Its cheaper than buying a 5.00 dollar coffee. I know that some people are embarrassed to take a 'mug' to work so go to Starbucks or to your favorite coffee place and buy a mug from them.. Then you can say you are 'saving' the environment. Also if you really dont want to stop buying your expensive coffee because 'it doesn't taste the same' then ask them to put it in your own mug and many places take off about 50 cents for helping recycle.
2.If you go out to eat every day and spend 20 to 30 dollars.. put that money on a piggy bank.. At the end of the week you will see how much money you saved. Go to the grocery store and buy the items you will need that week and you can cook it. Cooking can save lots of Money.
A friend said, that HE CANT COOK even if his life depends on it.. So he cut back on eating at restaurants for breakfast, lunch and dinner. , he just went to the restaurant at night for dinner. He ate cereal in the morning. For Lunch he took to work a big salad and a sandwich.3. Cut back on Utilities: Many people have cable television and they are paying hundreds of dollars a month and they dont watch tv at all. Or They are paying for the best WiFi and they dont even use their computer or a tablet or ipod. How to save on this items.. Call your cable company and tell them that you just want the basic or just cancel it all completely. You can use your television as a monitor and watch programs that are provided free by companies as hulu. In my opinion dont pay for hulu, why? because they have commercials and those pay the company, you can just wait one more week to see the program you want to see.. it will be free soon.
4.when going out one can cut back on many things as not getting pop corn or drinks or candy at the movies. Also, there are lots of places that offer one dollar movies.. Also, Many movie theaters offer 2 for 1 in the mornings or on Wednesdays. The Movie places that are one dollar are not just older movies that came out a month ago, they do have new movies too.. for example, My friends, my sister and I were at the premier of Hunger Games at our one dollar theater by our house..
5. Cut back on the gift giving.. for example, on Christmas, if we are a family of 4 or 12 people we dont need to be giving each other multiple gifts. Really just do a secret santa thing and one person gets one gift.. Do a limit on how much one can spend on the gift and how much is the least amount of money one can spend.
6. with the invention of cellphones we have added another bill into our lives but why not cut back on this? If you are like my family.. each of us has a prepaid cellphone and there is one house phone.. My Hint is See what type of plans there are out there for your type of cellphone needs. I am sorry but I dont think a 10 year old needs a 60 dollar phone plan that has data, text a month. I believe that if you dont need it why have it? While the economy is down cut back your cellphone use to emergency calls only.. by getting a 100 dollar a year plan which is a prepaid phone.. sorry but you dont need to have an ugly phone. You can have a cool phone and let people believe that you are in 'with the crowd' paying thousands of dollars a year when in reality you are just paying 100 dls a year. If you dont use the 100 dollars, it will cross over to the next year with the condition that you buy another 100 dls before the 1 year expires. OK OK lots of people need a cellphone for work.. but why? dont we have a phone at work that we can use there? On our lunch time its out darn lunch time and we dont need to be answering client calls.. they can wait 30 minutes.. and we dont get payed over time when answering our work calls on our cellphone at our lunch breaks or when we are at home.. well, if you are getting payed over time then go right ahead go crazy but for all of us that dont get payed for using our phones for work purposes... how about just use the work phone at work. and when we come home enjoy our family and tomorrow the phone calls will be there on your work phone for you to answer and call back all those clients. DATA Coverage? really?? do we really need internet on the cellphone?? what are we rich?? buy a phone that has WIFI enable and when you are in a place that has WIFI you can take it out play with the internet and thats it..
When shopping always ask yourself this questions: Do I really need to buy those expensive shoes? Take your time... think about what you really need for that month..
how many times are you going to wear those shoes? are you going to buy them and never wear them? are you going to wear them every day until you need to buy another pair of shoes?
Do you need those 50 dollar shoes or do you think that buying groceries would be better?
how do you know that buying those 50 dollar shoes are worth it? ANALYZE IT: divide the price of the item by how much money you earn per hour.. for example, 50 dollars divided by 10 dollars an hour.. it equals to 5 hours of you working... does those shoes really worth those 5 long hours working?
BUY IN BULK/wholesale: Unite with Family members or Friends to Buy in Bulk or Wholesale.. having a group of people that need lets say Diapers will help you look for a good online deal and get it cheaper. Some companies even offer free shipping on large orders. good savings can be found on non-perishable groceries and diapers. then when the item arrives you can just divide the goods.
CASH Allowance!!: Look at how much you want to give yourself as a allowance. Every week give yourself an allowance and at the end of the week the cash that you still have put in a piggy bank. At the end of the year or month you can see how much you have saved. This is also good idea because you dont over spend as you have the cash in your hands and you can see that you are starting to run low on funds.
Creditcards: GRRR!! I know we need them but only for emergencies.. remember that only for emergencies.. and lets remember that 'shoe that are on sale' is not an emergency.
CAR: if you can take the train to work.. that would be cheaper and great for the environment. If you cant walk or take the train to work.. then car pool with your friends.. Lots of companies have programs that give goodies to people that carpool. the hated word GAS! If can look around for cheaper gas prices. How? there is an app for that :) really, you can find websites that people post gas prices.
The Bus Not a Taxi.. if you can avoid taking a taxi and take the bus.
HOUSE electricity: many people dont realize this but having cables plug in to the power is consuming electricity. when you are not using an appliance just disconnected. If you dont believe me, do it Only One Month and see the difference on your electrical bill. When you are not playing the X-box, Wii, Computers, Television in guest rooms, VCRS (yes many of us still have one or two and they are still connected even if we dont use them), DVD players, CD players, Radios.. all electrical appliances in the kitchen except for the stove and or microwave as they are hard to unplug and plug again. I have extension cords connected in the power outlets. I turn them off when not in use.. There I plug in the thing that I need to use in that moment and disconnected when finished and turn off the extension cord. for example, The All the Components of the Computer is connected to the extension cord.. when we finish using it we just turn off the computer and turn off the power to the extension cord.
here is one thing that I learn and I want to share with you all...
1st. write down all your bills from highest to lowest
2nd. write down how much is the minimum payment for each of the every month.
3rd. pay 50 dollars extra on the lowest bill first. that way you will pay it off faster and you can focus paying the next highest/lowest bill later.
here is the thing.. after you have checked where you can save cash take that extra cash and put it to pay that lowest bill for example..
morgage 1,500.00 a month
kohls 150.00 a month
sears 140.00 a moth
creditcard 1. 130.00 a month
creditcard 3. 115.00 a month
creditcard 2. 100.00 a month
creditcard 4. 60.00 a month
we will pay first "creditcard 4" we will be sending the minimum payment which is 60.00 plus 50.00 dollars and any extra cash that we can save from cutting back lets say 40.00 dls
its color coded to see how it is done..
4. when we finally pay off creditcard 4. then we focus on creditcard 2. which is 100 dollars a month. here is the tricky thing that people dont do but should do.. send the 50 dollars extra that we were paying to creditcard4 also the extra 40 dollars that we were able to save by cutting back but here is the THING WE NEED TO DO.. add the 60 dollars that was the minimum payment for creditcard4
its color coded to see how it is done..
5. NOW THAT WE HAVE creditcard2 payed off.. lets start adding more cash to creditcard3 when paying it.. so it will be the 115.00 a month plus the 100 dollars that was the minimum for creditcard2 and the 60 dollars that was the minimum for creditcard4 and the 50 dollars extra and the 40 dollars that we were able to save by cutting back on our expenses.
6. see? this is what we are going to do until we are at morgage and here we are going to pay the 1,5000.00 plus 695.00 dollars total that were the minimum payment from the other bills that we were paying and the extra 50 dollars and the 40 dollars that we were able to save by cutting back on expenses..
7. when you finish paying off the morgage you will see that it was just fast and simple and you wished you had this idea years ago.
**congratulations after paying off all your debt.. take all the money you were paying those bills and put them into a savings account**
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