Save Money Tips

The Internet has given people who like to save money many entirely new ways to save, and inspired a whole new range of save money tips of which we all must be aware. Here’s a tip that every online shopper should know about and use regularly.

Before you buy something online do a quick search by typing the name of the retailer plus the word “coupon” into the search field. You might be surprised at how many retailers online have ongoing offers in the form of a code that one enters into a form during the buying process. This search only takes a few minutes can save you anywhere from $.50 to a whole lot of money! Times are tough nowadays, and whether you are unemployed of just could use a little extra money, why not approach saving as a way to actually make up for extra cash that you are not earning. After all, you may not be able to snap your fingers and get a job, but what you can do is take action and save yourself a lot of cash by saving with coupons instead.

Here are a couple of examples of the wide range of online merchants who offer money-saving opportunities of this kind online:

Every time I buy or renew a domain name or renew my hosting, I’ll check in Google for coupon savings via Hostgator or Go Daddy, two registrars/hosting companies which I use. I always save at least a dollar if I register a new domain name, but the more you spend the more you will save. If you spend $75 you might save $15 on the total purchase cost. It’s a outstanding investment of your time to get substantial coupon savings like this.

Recently I rented a car from a major car rental company, and just before I hit the reservation button I remembered this particular money-saving tip, and I did a fast little search for a coupon relevant to the reservation I was about to make. I saved almost $50 on my rental, and we’re talking after-tax free money that only took me a few minutes to save!

Honestly I don’t know why more people don’t talk about this tip for saving money, because as I have illustrated the range of retailers who offer coupons like this is very wide. Also there is a cottage industry of websites that have been created to point you to these coupon offers; by using them an affiliate commission is paid to the website owner but you get your savings, and the retailer gets his business. It’s really a win-win-win for everyone.

Don’t forget to use this save money tip the next time you are about to buy online and pay the full retail price. You will not always find an applicable coupon, but I guarantee that over time the effort you put into saving in this way will be completely worth it.

Saving money on airfare when booking flights online is a combination of consumer empowerment via the internet, and potentially a real time sink. It’s great not having to rely on travel agents to find the best deals for flight tickets, as one had do 15 or 20 years ago. If you’re not careful though, you can spend hours perusing different online ticket sites like Priceline, Travelocity, Expedia, Hotwire and many others in an effort to get the best price on airplane tickets. Save money tips have to be weighed against the time and effort needed to use them.

Complicating matters further is the issue of trying to predict the timing of your purchase. Often, buying far in advance (if you can) is the best way to lock in a cheap airfare. But as frequent fliers know, this is not always the case. Sophisticated ticket pricing algorithms today have seat prices changing almost continuously. If for some reason you don’t shop tickets until a week or less before departure, you will sometimes find that the airline was forced to radically reduce prices in an effort to fill seats on a half-empty airplane. Taking advantage of this phenomenon has serious practical limitations however, whether for business or holiday travel, as you run the risk of seat prices for a given destination simply increasing until the flight date, or worse, finding no seat availability at all.

What if there was a way to take a lot of the guesswork out of timing your purchase of airplane tickets in an effort to get the best price? What if there was a website that presented you with search results from several of the major online travel booking websites as well as a recommendation to buy immediately or to wait, based on its prediction of the direction prices would move? It might sound like science fiction, but the technology exists today. It is the best single way that I am aware of to save money on airfare.

Farecast.com was a website with a revolutionary way for a person to determine the best time to buy airplane tickets. The company was acquired by Microsoft in April, 2008, and thankfully Microsoft kept the ‘know when to buy’ feature when it blended it into Bing Travel.

Here’s how it works: you enter your departure and destination cities and your desired dates, with an option to include nearby airports in your search. There are also options to look at fares over many different dates as well as the option to check prices for multiple routes to a given destination. In this way, whatever flexibility you have in your itinerary can be incorporated into your search results, and can potentially save you money by showing you a larger range of flights (including hopefully, flights with surprisingly low fares) based on the filter you construct initially. As the search for lowest fares over multiple sites is being performed, you’ll notice the price predictor functionality “building your prediction”. Amazingly, when the search returns the lowest fares there will also be a suggestion to buy now or wait, along with a specific dollar amount prediction as to how much higher or lower the fares will change between now and your flight date. If the software tells you to wait, it also tells you specifically why; that there is a high likelihood of a major price drop in the next seven days for instance. Incredibly, the site actually quantifies just how much confidence it has, expressed as a percentage, that fares will rise, fall or stay in a given range around the current price, between now and the flight date. For added context you’re presented with a graph of price fluctuations for this route over the last 50 days. It is all based on Farecast/Bing Travel’s past track record for predictions within the market you are searching, and similar markets. One small shortcoming is that the Farecast technology does not cover international flights as comprehensively as it does domestic (US) flights. One wonders however, if the number of covered routes will increase as flight sample sizes increase, as well as leading to even better predictions in the future across the board.

If being informed helps one to save money on travel (or anything for that matter), it doesn’t get much better than Bing Travel with its ‘price predictor’ technology.

The technology is consumer empowerment on steroids. While I find myself normally gravitating towards Google for search and a lot of other things, this is one area where Microsoft still has a lock on a state-of-the-art internet application. Try it the next time you are booking tickets online and looking to save money on airfare. It’s one of the best save money tips I know.

When we go on vacation, the biggest expense that we have after airfare is what we pay for accommodations. What if there were a way to save on travel by eliminating the expense of a place to stay the next time you go on holiday with your family or your spouse? Well there is a way, if you think outside the box just a little bit and also have a little bit of flexibility. There is a lot of money to be saved through something called homeswapping– it’s one of the best save money tips that I can offer. Let me preface this by saying that I have nothing to sell in this article, that I ‘m simply one of those people who has saved money in the way that I’m about to suggest to you.

When you’re thinking ahead to your next vacation, or talking about it around the dinner table, it’s a lot of fun to kick around different possibilities: this anticipation and planning should be part of what a vacation is. In addition to being a way to save money on travel, what I’m about to share with you a source of ideas for trips that may have never occurred to you, that could open the door to new travel destinations that you may never have thought of as affordable.

Home swapping involves trading your home or a secondary residence, even an apartment that you rent, for similar accommodations with someone you may not yet know across the country, or across the world. Usually nowadays you would join a home swap website for a nominal fee, and insert a written description and photographs of your property. Then you can search for homes in places you would like to visit, as well as receive offers from other potential swappers who are interested in your listing. I always thought I knew exactly where I want to go on my vacations, but lately I have thought very seriously about visiting places I never considered previously, because of the offers I’ve received to swap, through the home swapping website that I joined. Here’s another tip: join a large site to increase the number of property offers that you will have. The internet makes it easier than ever to save on travels: if this doesn’t help you save money on business travel, it still is a route to save on traveling during personal vacations.

The swap occurs at an agreed-upon time when both parties want to travel, and usually involves use of all household amenities, subject to pre-agreed-upon guidelines between both parties. Maybe the swap involves a vehicle, maybe it does not. Maybe one of your requirements for a swap is that the other party take care of your family pet, or maybe it doesn’t. Your counterpart in the swap arrangement has the same motivations and probably trepidations that you do, and this is part of the reason why home swapping works. Most homeswap websites that I have looked at have a feedback system, and members who have done multiple swaps over the years. If someone has done several swaps, you are likely to feel more comfortable with them.

Maybe you’re thinking: even if they’d like to save on travel, who wants to rent my house or apartment, there’s really nothing special about it! The thing is that you have no idea how good a fit your residence and its location would be for others, and besides, chances are the person on the other end is thinking the same thing. Okay, neither of you will be staying in a fancy hotel on the holiday in question, but look at the money that you will both save, money that could be put to other uses on your trip, or simply saved. If saving money in this way seems attractive to you, you can bet there are plenty of people out there who feel the same way. In fact there are many, many home swap sites to be found on the Internet.

To save money on travel is one thing, but what about the destinations that I referred to at the beginning of this article? No compromise there! Whether you are looking for a small apartment in Bali, a place near the ocean, or in the mountains, or in the middle of Rome, you will find people offering residences in places that are intriguing for a vacation, I can assure you. There is truly something for everyone. And that’s the thing-if you know exactly where you would like to go, you can contact people offering home swaps in those locations. But if you are open to suggestions as to your next holiday, you’ll find it very exhilarating to look through offers you receive through the home swap site in your e-mail box. You are under no obligation to accept any of these offers, but if something sounds interesting and the desired travel dates of the other party match yours, you can take the first tentative steps to see if you feel good about the other person and the property they are offering. Your motivation might be to save on travel, but you might find yourself on a non-standard holiday that you enjoy much more than your normal hotel stays.
Even if you do only one swap, you could potentially save hundreds or even thousands of dollars on a longer trip or months-long sabbatical. Saving money through homeswapping is worth looking into– you’ll be glad you did!

Okay look, it’s 2010 and for anyone who has not actually make the necessary change to take advantage of this next Save Money Tip yet, I’d like to run over the reasons why you should, so that you can take a hard look at your reasons for why you have not done so. Telephone expenses are not the biggest monthly bills you have, but they are constant expenditures, and when you have monthly expenses that will be spread over the rest of your life, it really behooves you to analyze them closely and try to reduce them if you can.

My basic suggestion here would be to ask yourself if you really need that landline telephone that you’re still paying for. You know that you would save hundreds of dollars a year if you are able to live without it. Is there anything about your present home telephone that could not be accomplished just as easily with your cell phone? Of course I’m assuming that you have a cell phone, because my argument here really centers on the undesirability of paying for something like having a telephone line, twice each month. I think that for most people who still have landline telephones getting rid of them seems like a big step, but would be one of those ways of saving money where after you did it, you wish you had done it years earlier.

Some of the best ways for saving money generally are by eliminating duplicate expenses, that we have developed over time without really realizing it. Old habits die hard, as they say, and they develop a momentum over time. But it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t change our ways when another method becomes available. Saving money by eliminating your landline is a perfect example of this. It may sound like a radical step in the name of saving money, but just look at how many times you actually use your landline phone in the course of a week, and how many times those calls could have been taken just as easily on your cell phone. I have taken this step, and frankly I’ve never spoken to anyone who has decided to save money this way, who regrets it.

So let me ask you: if taste tests reveal that the taste of a coffee brand that happens to be cheaper, and in some cases quite a lot cheaper, was enjoyed almost as much by taste-testers, would you consider switching?

Which? researchers found that there was little correlation between price (and presumed ‘quality’) and the enjoyment of a given brand. They tested the instant coffees of seven supermarkets’ own brands-Aldi, Asda, Lidl, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose, against Nescafe Original, which is as much as three times as expensive as the others. Nescafe was generally preferred, but not by much, and the experimenters estimate that a couple could save as much as £54 a year by switching.

At 6 AM, do you really think that you prefer a premium brand three times as much as you would a more economical brand? At that hour I’m lucky if I can find socks that match. But that’s a different blog post altogether.

Here is a quick video offering seven tips to save money on home insurance, by a former insurance agent and financial consultant. Tips like this are especially useful, because decisions like which home insurance or mortgage insurance to buy are in effect huge financial moves that you pay into for years. Comparison shopping is indeed Read the rest of this entry »

Here is an outstanding two minute video on saving money with coupons. One point is that it’s worth it to buy/get multiple sources of coupons, because you should always save more than you pay for the newspaper. The video is absolutely worth your time.

Here is an outstanding short video on basic money saving concepts.

I think that most of the challenge of saving money is psychological, and so it’s good to be inspired by stories of people who have gotten out of debt. Not only can you glean practical methods for saving, you get in the mindset of being a saver, and this is a huge step. Here are four stories of people who were able to get out from under substantial debt. By the way, the common thread? Cut up the credit cards! But you knew that already, didn’t you?

1) Starbucks has promotions called “pairings.” You can save as much as 90 cents if you buy a snack or breakfast with a drink that they choose to combine with it.

2) If you bring your own cup you’ll get 10 cents off your beverage.

3) If you can save the receipt from a Starbucks visit in the morning until the afternoon, after 2 p.m. you can get an Grande cold beverage for 2 bucks. Even a Vivanno Smoothie.

4) For brewed coffee, try the coffee press. It costs around $3 (less than two Grandes) and you’ll get four 8-ounce cups from it.

5) Probably the best tip to save money at Starbucks: A refill on brewed coffee is 50 cents and if you have a Starbucks Card they’re free!

You can get aggressive as far as saving goes, but the reality is that you shouldn’t limit yourself to focusing only on not spending. If you have extra time, why not convert that into cash by finding ways of helping people get things done? Here’s an outstanding post from Ron over at The Wisdom Journal– it’s a whole bunch of ways to make extra money. Breaking away from the TV for even a few hours a week will make a huge difference in your income over the course of a year, and who knows, you might make some new friends while you’re at it.

photo credit: Matt McGee

OK, here’s your money saving tip for the day. I use this myself so I know that it saves me money whenever I’m going to do my ‘big’ shopping, for groceries and household stuff. I keep my coupons near the door so that I don’t waste time looking for them before I leave. I just make it a habit when I read the paper (especially Sunday’s) to set aside noteworthy coupons but ALWAYS WALK THEM TO MY LITTLE SHELF near the door so that I don’t forget them when it’s time to go.

photo credit: clspeace
Winter is on it’s way in the Northern Hemisphere, and here’s a good little list for saving money on electricity bills, from Bukisa.

Hey have you heard of slickdeals.net? It bills itself as a ‘community driven bargain hunting’ site, where you can find discounts, promo codes, reviews and price comparisons. What I like is that there are all kinds of obscure items, as well as the usual electronics and clothes. You’ll find some very aggressive savings on the site, and I’d suggest putting it right into your feed reader for finding the latest deals quickly.

It’s a great idea: using cheap basic products, instead of paying retail for higher priced products with nice packaging. The Simple Dollar has a nice list of 12 ways that you can avoid paying that retail markup, through substitution. In some cases using just a little imagination and a bit of elbow grease can really save you some money.

photo credit: goosmurf
Hey, have you hear about Google Voice? (pardon the pun)
Imagine having one phone number that you keep forever, whether you change cell phones or move across the country. You give this number out to people and the call gets routed to any phone you want. Interesting idea, and empowering for consumers: doesn’t everyone have a story about getting gouged by a cellphone carrier?

The thing is, and the reason this saves you money, is that you can choose to have ‘extras’ like text messages and call forwarding taken care of by Google Voice, NOT your provider. Simply have people use your Google Voice number for text messages as well as calls that might go to voice mail (ie all calls!). You can turn off SMS notification to your phone in Google Voice, then text messages go to your Gmail, and that will save a lot over the course of a month. You can listen to voice messages, or they are transcribed for you, also in your Gmail box.

So just ratchet your plan down to voice calls only, and start saving money immediately by taking these expensive add-ons OFF your plan.

photo credit: Deanster1983
Here’s a money saving tip that can only help you, if you are flexible enough to be able to use it. Bing Travel basically absorbed farecaster.com in 2008, but regardless of the name, the technology lives on in its new home as a wonderful way to save money on airfares.

The idea is simple: enter your itinerary, then check the ’7-day Price Predictor’ in the upper left hand corner of the page for advice on whether to buy now or to wait until you are closer to flight time. The results aren’t 100% reliable, but at least you aren’t ‘flying blind’ when it comes to having an idea if the price you have been quoted on a given route is high historically, or not.

Now, if the flight on which you are waiting for a price drop gets full while you are waiting you’d have to book at a different time, but if you have a little bit of flexibility you’ll essentially be paid for it, if the fare prediction says to wait and it’s correct. It’s an amazing piece of technology, when you think about it, and we aren’t talking about saving a couple of bucks either: with a little luck, you can save a whole lot more

Housing is one of the biggest expenses we face, so if it’s really time to look hard at expenses and saving money, maybe it’s time for renters to at least consider moving to a cheaper apartment. The savings can be considerable, and who knows, you might like the new place even better. Here’s an interesting piece from the New York Times on the subject. Interestingly, one of the women in the story even decides it’s time to move out of New York altogether. While that may seem extreme, the situations that some people find themselves in related to debt can be pretty extreme too. What’s that they say about desperate times requiring desperate measures?

Like millions of Americans, you may find it very challenging to spend less on things and save money in the bank for your future. It’s not so surprising because education, health care costs and inflation are on the rise, there are more malls than ever and cool technology is becoming more and more affordable, which means companies are manufacturing electronic products and selling them at prices that most people can’t resist paying for.

Based on statistics, people are making more withdrawals a month from from their savings accounts. This means that more and more people end up with little or no money to spend before their next salary. In spite of the rising cost of commodities and rising inflation, people are spending more than ever instead of saving.

Whether you’re making enough money to meet your and your family’s needs and financial obligations or you’re on a meager income, it’s never too late to start saving money. Here are a few tips to help you get started:

Save Money Tips #1 Tip: The Big One-Curb Your Buying Impulse

Seven out of 10 people end up buying something they like on impulse or at first glance. A simulated sociological study found that people who bring cash or credit cards with them while they are window shopping are more likely to end up buying things on impulse than if they had little cash or didn’t bring their cards with them.

You can save money by exerting a conscious effort not to give in to your buying impulse. If you see something you really like, save for it instead of buying it the first time you see it. When you’re shopping, shop for things that are necessary or  that you need immediately. If something isn’t crucial or immediately needed, don’t buy it right away. Wait a while and see if you still want it the next time you see it.

Save Money Tips #2 Tip: Learn to Budget

Creating a budget is a great way you can manage your money. A budget can help you identify and spend on things that you really need. If an item is not specifically in your budget, you simply do not spend on it. Thus, a budget eliminates unnecessary purchases. Any money that doesn’t get spent can go to a savings budget, which you can later on decide to spend on something you want.
Save Money Tips #3 Tip: Compare Prices

Whether you’re buying clothes, food, gas or any other commodity, it’s a good idea to compare prices. Thanks to the Internet, you can compare prices of various goods and services online without having to drive around or spend too much time doing it. You’ll be able to find the best deals and save money by doing price comparisons before shelling out any money.

Likewise, take advantage of warehouse type stores where you can buy many items in bulk much more cheaply than if you were to buy them in retail stores.

Save Money Tips #4 Tip: Eat In, or Prepare Food Ahead of Time

You can save money by preparing your meals ahead of time and bringing them with you to work or wherever you go. You won’t find yourself going through the drive-thru or sitting in a restaurant and spending more money on food you could have prepared yourself. You can make a big batch of food at the beginning of the week, put them in small containers and freeze them. Take one with you when you go to work and simply microwave them when you’re ready to eat. Likewise, you can save money by drinking water instead of soda. Have a bottle of water with you and drink that instead of soda. You’ll be amazed at how much money you’ll save by avoiding the soda machine. Water is much healthier too.

Who doesn’t want extra money? With the rising costs of just about everything today — food, housing, education, health care, cars — extra money is always a welcome addition to the budget. More money means the ability to save more for the future, whether it’s towards retirement or for your children’s education. When you have more money in your bank account, you’re more liquid, and you know you have enough to spend should an emergency crop up.

So how exactly can you make extra money? Start by looking at how much time during the day you basically aren’t doing anything. Identify your idle or free times. These times are those times you’re resting, napping, reading, watching television or doing your hobby. These times are the perfect time for you to get into activities or projects that can earn you money on the side, in addition to your regular income. If you have huge blocks of free time on some days, why not consider getting a part-time job? Instead of simply doing nothing during your free time, you can engage in something that you like and help you make extra money too.

There are several reasons it’s a good idea to get a part-time job. For one, it’s an additional source of income. You can save the money you earn from a part-time job for a vacation you’ve been wanting to take for a long time. Another option is to buy stock with the money, and invest in your future. Or you can perhaps put the money towards your children’s college funds or save it for a new car or house payments. With a part-time job, you wouldn’t be sitting idly and wasting your time. You can be much more productive of your time.

If you’re a student, a part-time job can be a valuable experience and introduce you to the real world. You can learn new skills and know your way in and out of a particular job. And if you’re lucky enough to find a part-time job that’s in line with your career goals, you get to already have one foot in the door so to speak. When you graduate, you already have a place to apply for a full time job and climb up the company ladder.

Are you a social person? Do you love meeting new people and networking? A part-time job can provide you with this kind of opportunity. The part-time job you find may not be a job you envision yourself doing in the long-term, but you are likely to meet people who can give you leads to other jobs or to people who may be working in the type of job you want.

Part-time jobs are everywhere. Start by looking at the classifieds section of your newspaper. If you’re a student, there’s probably a bulletin board in your campus where part-time jobs are posted all the time. If you want to work for a specific company in your area (e.g., fast food, department store or office), call them up or go to their place of business and ask if they have part-time positions available. Ask your family, relatives, friends, friends of friends or anyone you know if they know of a company that’s looking to hire someone part-time. If you’re the entrepreneurial type, you can start making extra money by offering your services while you’re at home. Some part-time jobs you can operate right from your own home include tutorial, writing, web design, home repairs, party planning and such. If you’re Internet savvy and willing to learn new skills, there’s a lot of people who run online businesses who may be needing a virtual assistant — someone who can respond to their e-mails, do minor updates on their sites, post online ads, etc.
How many hours you devote on the part-time job depends on the job you take as well as how much hours you’re willing to put in. You can work only a few days per week, in the mornings or afternoons, or even during the weekends. Of course, if you already have a regular job, you will have to do some balancing to make sure that your part-time job doesn’t take away from the hours you devote to your full-time job. The key is efficient management of your time and energy. Once you get the hang of managing your time wisely, you’ll see that getting that part-time job is paying off big-time.