10 Ways to Save Money

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10 Ways to Save Money

Ever get into a money-saving rut? You’ve been frugal for a while now, you’ve cut down your bills, and are in good saving habits. But it’s time to mix things up! There are 10 ways to save money below, to help you get inspired! Every so often, it’s good to examine our savings routine and make adjustments.

Some of these 10 Ways to Save Money are things you may already be doing, and some might be things you can add to your frugal repertoire:

1. Call your Cable/Dish provider. Ask for a long-term subscriber discount.

2. Use the Library more — not just books. DVDs, CDs, Learning Kits, and magazines are all available at the library. Most libraries also have community activities for all ages, which can take the place of costly activities, especially for preschoolers.

3. Don’t buy another plastic water bottle! Get one reusable water bottle and fill it up before you leave.

4. Eat from the Pantry. Do a 1-week pantry challenge. It’ll be easier than a month-long pantry challenge, but you’ll still be able to save at least $50-$100.

5. Unplug appliances when you’re not home. The TV, air purifier, even the toaster are sucking small bits of energy and money every second they’re plugged in.

6. Instead of dumping the water from your dehumidifier, use it to water plants.

7. Take advantage of Kids Eat Free nights. We can take the whole family out for dinner for $15 by combining a Groupon (for the adult entrees) with Kids Eat Free night. Save on beverages by ordering tap water and share a dessert.

8. Don’t buy prepared anything. Recipe calls for taco seasoning? Ditch the packet and make your own. Need pumpkin pie spice? Don’t buy it, just throw together some cinnamon and nutmeg.

9. Cut out one daily habit. Drinking soda? It’s not good for you anyways. Buy a bag of chocolate every week? Starbucks once a week? Pick one small thing to cut out and just do that. It will start adding up!

10. Save water by taking what’s called a “Navy Shower” –  soap up with the water off, then turn on the water to rinse. This is probably more likely to happen in the warm months than when it’s freezing.

Looking for more ways you could be saving money?

What are your best frugal money tips? Have you tried any of the above 10 Ways to Save Money?

sarahbio

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19 Comments

  1. We are going to try a spending fast. We have been dwindling our saving down so we decided to go cold turkey and stop buying. We decided on 8 months (to get through Christmas) but you could do it for a day, a week, a month…anything just to start the process!!

  2. What an awesome list! Lots of ones I hadn’t thought of. Number 7 is also a great suggestion. However, as a former waitress, I want to remind everyone to make sure you have enough money to leave a proper tip. Too many people think they can afford to eat out but do not factor in the tip, which should be 15-20% of the ORIGINAL bill, not the total after all the discounts. The server still has to do the same amount of work, regardless of how many coupons you have. Servers are paid less than minimum wage, and that money goes to taxes. They work for your tips, remember that! 🙂

    1. Well said! Save as much $ from big businesses as u can, but please remember to tip ur server with cash if u appreciated their service. Give them what u would want to be given

  3. I don’t know if others will like this idea , but it works for us .
    but we buy whole milk & dilute it almost half.
    milk at our local shop is 2 for 7.00 , NO matter which gallon type you purchase.
    so ,we’re going back to slitting the milk.
    also if I find milk on sale.. I buy extras & put in the freezer, pour a bit out of it , recap & freeze. thaw in frig a couple days.

  4. We try to do a “spending fast” every three months or so. We don’t spend any money on anything except gas in the vehicle for driving to work & any bills scheduled to be paid that week. No groceries-we eat from the pantry. No shopping. No entertainment. Nothing. It makes us very aware of any money leaks we need to repair. It may not work foe everyone, but it’s been very helpful for us.

  5. Something we’ve done for years is to turn our hot water heater off. Our home is all electric. We use to flip the breaker, but now we have a light switch right outside the panel box. We save an average of $40-$50 a month by flipping the switch. It only takes a half an hour to heat a whole tank, plus it’s insulated, so it stays hotter longer.

  6. Wal-mart sells a part that fits behind the showerhead and you flip it to one side and itstops the water to just a trickle, flip it back for full power. It saves a lot of water by not having to get the temperature right again and again to rinse the soap and shampoo. We have had ours for over 10 years and it works like new. I think we paid under $5.00 for it. It has paid for it’s self many times over with our family of 5!

  7. My husband and I save money when we eat out by sharing a meal instead of getting separate ones. It saves a lot of money and we also don’t end up wasting food because neither of us are really big into restaurant leftovers. This is a great list! My husband and I will for sure start doing some of these.

  8. these are fabulous ideas! thanks so much!
    I always forget to unplug stuff at night, what a great idea. And an even better one would be to turn OFF the laptop at night instead of leaving it in sleep mode.

    I think i’m gonna do the navy shower thing on warm days this year, and I’m going to start keeping my cooking water for my plants (once it cools off :P)

    It’s the little things that do add up! I’ve been saying this to my hubby for years! 🙂

  9. If I buy paper plates (which is not real often), I buy the cheapest ones I can find. When we use them, we double up 2 plates (so they’re a bit stronger), but then peal the bottom one off when we’re done eating & put it back in the pile to use again… the bottom plate typically doesn’t get dirty as long as it’s not set down on something messy or the top plate doesn’t soak through bad. A pack of 100 cheap plates (which most people would double-up anyway) gets the full 100 uses verses only half that.

  10. Merissa, I am a long-time reader and fan of your site and I have never – not once! – ever commented on a post. So this is a very overdue THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for all the time and energy you put into this website for us. I have learned SO much from you, and am inspired every time I see your posts. The world is a better place because you’re in it!! Thank you for being YOU! 🙂 Allie

  11. Some times when I go to a thrift shop I can trade something in on something that I really need or want, that way I get rid of something I don’t want or need and get something that I do and it doesn’t cost me anything.

  12. Another way a lot of people don’t think about saving money is on their prescription medications. Often times you can find better rates if you shop around to different pharmacies. There is a great, free website: http://WWW.MEDFISHER.COM that takes all of the legwork out of calling each pharmacy to see who has the best price. You can input your medication names and, based on the zip code that you enter, MEDFISHER will find pharmacies close to you that have the best rates. You can get your free voucher one of three ways: email, print or text. You take the voucher to the pharmacy when you get the prescription filled and, voila, the price you pay will be the price that was listed on MEDFISHER. No surprises! Here’s a tip: If you are on a generic maintenance medication try looking it up on MEDFISHER to see what the price for a 90 day supply would be. You might be surprised to see that your prescription is less expensive for a 90 day supply with one of their vouchers than it is month-to-month with your insurance. I’ve used MEDFISHER when I was out of town and forgot my insurance card…because that’s the one time of year I actually get sick. Anyway, Medfisher is free, easy and it could save you some money. And we all like that.