What are some good money saving ideas!?

Question

Okay--heres the deal. My husband and I are saving all we can for a down payment on a house in a couple months....I need some original ideas on how to save money...I know all the suff like stop eating out as much, but I mean ways like "save all your one dollar bills". Does anyone have any quirky ideas that worked for them?

buddy guru...if it were that simple wouldnt EVERYONE just up and make more money.....seriously....Wouldnt we all LOVE to make more money? Are you going to give me that Job promotion...how about a job at all? I'm a student in college...i graduate in december with a civil engineering degree....perhaps you have that job i've been looking for!!!!! If not, "just make more money" is not exactly what i was looking for!

Answer 1

dumpster diving and holding yard sales
with what you find
learn face painting origami, juggling entertain as a clown at children's birthday parties
Get a house big enough where you can have a separate entrance for the basement, rent it out when you buy the house or rent an extra room out (my husband and I when we were first married bought a house large enough to rent 5 rooms out to students whose income we used to pay of morgage heat lights and taxes on the house in the first 10 years after which we bought a second home and now rent the first for a steady income) Yes it is tough the first 10 years but then wow not a bad investment altogether.
Go to the library and borrow vol 1,2 and 3 of Tightwad Gazette it is filled with many ideas that are quirky. God bless Hope you achieve all your dreams. Oh yeah i forgot to mention we got a house from bank when someone declared bankrupcy for a song and dance. ($29,000) you might ask your bank if they have any bankruptcy homes for sale
My sister dumpster dove in the paper recycle bin and saved all the coupons for food she use to get 100 to 200 dollars worth of food for 10 -12 dollars every week and sometimes for free. because she used the coupons on double coupon day and for sale items she also got about 50 to 100 dollars worth of bottles the same way which she returned. for the money. and for those who want to scoff at being quirky consider this I have 3 houses in 3 locations world wide one has marble flooring are you doing so well??

Answer 2

You can save your change and dollars but that will only get you so far. Experts suggest estimating what your mortgage payments will be and subtracting your current rental expenses from that number and saving the difference, especially since you need to be able to guarantee you can come up with that amount monthly once you have the house anyway so here's a good way to get in the habit and see how it affects your life and finances.


You guys can also play a game where you pay a fine of $1 or $2 everytime someone curses or something like that.

Saving money is good but park it somewhere where it's making interest, not jars around the house. Get short term CDs and money markets. You can get pretty decent rates and every dollar counts. It's free money in a way.

You can try to make more money too, I know it's not simple but it all depends on what you are willing to do. I know someone who is employed and not homeless who collects bottles and cans and recyles them for drinking money and he can make up to $50 on his time off, most of us don't care to dig through garbage though. I don't know where you live but you can provide some dog walking service, write term papers and do any other odd jobs, you may actually like it. There are also paid panels and focus groups, a quick $100 or more.

Answer 3

The truth is the small things don't matter. You don't acquire wealth by saving $3.00 and not going to Starbucks. It's the big things.

Drive a used car and don't take the 20% hit from a new one. Pay cash for one you can afford and don't' pay the interest on one you can't. Both our cars are paid for, one is 10 years old and I just sold my Jeep (toy) to add to the pot even though we could easily afford to be driving brand new cars.

Your doing good by saving for a down payment. We live in a home we could pay off with the nonpayment were saving for the home my wife wants. That's a plan.

We live below our means and still enjoy life, we do direct withdrawals to a ING account (high yield savings account) so we never see the money and we budget!

Answer 4

It's amazing how easily additional services creep up on you. You sign up for one, and then another, and eventually you've got many. Here's just a partial list of stuff that adds up- Cable TV, DSL Internet, Netflix (actually Blockbuster), Yahoo Music Subscription, cell phone, 3 magazine subscriptions, and 2 political organization memberships.

Each of these is a monthly or yearly expense. Many are not needed or no longer used. This is very common. So you should at least once a year, go through all this stuff and ask yourself. Am I still using this? Do I need it at that level? Do I need it at all? Can I get this or a similar service elsewhere for less? Even better would be to think about these every time you pay the bill.

Right now, I'm considering halting the Blockbuster DVD service, or trimming it back from 3 DVDs at one time to 1 DVD at a time. I just don't get to sit down and watch DVDs that much.

I recently switched to DSL internet at $17.99 per month from Comcast Cable at a rapacious $42.95 a month. I haven't missed the higher cable speed at all, but I sure like having that extra $25 per month.

I've shaved my home telephone bill from $27 to $17 a month by going to a 3rd party long distance carrier. They have great rates by the way, with no monthly fee or minimum usage requirements. I urge you to check out Americom for your telephone and long distance needs.

I've ditched one of our two cell phone plans in favor of Prepaid. My monthly cell phone bill went from $19.99 to about $3 to $6 per month depending on how many minutes I used. If you use less than 200 minutes a month like I do, take a hard look at prepaid cell phone plans. Right now, I think T-Mobile has the best prepaid plan. Like Catherine Zeta-Jones says, "Why pay more?"

Your auto insurance is a great service to do this with too. Every year you should review your coverage, and then shop around to a few different companies or sites to see if they can give you something better. One time, I reduced my rate by $500 per year this way by finding out Costco offers low cost auto insurance. Make sure you check the rates your warehouse club offers if you are a member. Or if you aren't a member, check anyway. A $500 annual savings is worth a $35 annual membership.

By staying sharp and investigating alternatives, you can save substantially. Who doesn't like to save money?

Answer 5

A famous radio talk show host - Neal Bortz has a great money savings plan. It's called "never spend a dollar."

If you need to buy something with cash, never use a one dollar bills. If something costs $1.75, pay for it with $5. Then put all of the single dollar bills away.

I did this for about a month and I had nearly $150 in my kitty.

Answer 6

1) You can switch your utilities to flat rate billing meaning your bill is the same amount each month. This could potentially save you money as well as help your budgeting.
2) If you have any credit card debt, request an interest rate deduction for credit card company or move balances to a lower rate card.
3) Do all your spending on a cash rebate credit card where you get back 1% of all you spend.

Answer 7

Be very strict with your self for 2 weeks and don't spend any money what so ever different than to your charges and nutrients, then see how lots money you have saved! spend the money determining to purchase diverse and thrilling issues from 2nd hand shops, motor vehicle boot sales and everywhere else that is composed of strategies, then checklist them on EBay as descriptive and as professional as you are able to and it relatively is totally almost specific that as quickly as all your issues are bought you would be in earnings. seem at stuff on EBay that sells properly and attempt to get that kind of stuff! then shop reinvesting you cash this way, you will no longer get wealthy rapid notwithstanding it is relaxing merchandising and you will come out in earnings. stable luck

Answer 8

Drive 55.
Buy in bulk,freeze and store in zip-lok bags.
Open up the doors and windows on nice days.
Saving one dollar bills wont work if they are easy to get to.Put a little away into a saving account every week and stay out of it.

Answer 9

Why suffer? Just make more money and you can reach the same goal without the pain.