In today’s economy, everyone’s focus seems to be on saving money and creating wealth. Unfortunately, it’s easy to become overwhelmed by rising gas prices and mounting credit card bills in addition to your other monthly expenses. However, saving does not necessarily require you to live on bread and water. You can start to save money by practicing a series of simple habits.

Money-saving tips

There are several methods you can implement today in order to gain financial security for the future. Here are 20 great money-saving tips to get you started:

1. If you’re a homeowner, you may be able to refinance your mortgage to save money on interest. If you are struggling to make your mortgage payments, you may qualify for federal programs to lower your interest rate, extend your loan length or forgive some of your principal in order to get your payment under 31 percent of your gross income.
2. You can consolidate insurance policies rather than having separate plans for your automobile, home, life, etc.
3. Buying generic household products and food items can help you save a significant amount of money on your grocery bill each week. Most generics are just as good as the name brands and include the same ingredients.
4. Use leftovers to pack your lunch for work or school rather than buying meals out.
5. If you have a library card, you can gain free access to books, magazines, movies, music, and even online downloads of audiobooks and more. Libraries also often have free Internet access and provide a quiet place to relax, study or read.
6. Create a budget for you and your family to follow. This will help you to avoid overspending and free up extra cash for savings.
7. Shop at dollar stores for cheaper grocery items and cleaning supplies.
8. Many companies allow you to bundle your cable television, Internet service and phone bills to save money.
9. You can restrict the amount of money spent on dining out and entertainment by inviting friends and family over for game nights, cookouts, or potluck dinners.
10. If you hold multiple credit cards, switch to cards that pay you back. A number of credit-card companies offer incentives such as cash dividends, miles, gas or goods that you can redeem.
11. Give yourself and the dishwasher a break by using paper products to reduce your water bill.
12. You can use your cell phone or a cheaper Voice-Over Internet Protocal (VOIP) phone service rather than overspending on traditional land-line services.
13. Visit the library for story hour or engage your children in different activities such as bike riding, instead of spending frivolously for other types of entertainment.
14. You can save a great deal of money by doing a lot of things yourself, such as painting the house, coloring your hair, cutting your children’s hair, etc.
15. You can save money on gas and help the environment by driving your car sparingly and using public transportation. You can also get in some exercise by walking to your destinations.
16. Change the light bulbs in your home to LED or CFL, which last longer and save you money.
17. Rather than continuously paying for bottled water, invest in a filter for your faucet.
18. Buy certain items in bulk from warehouse stores such as Sam’s Club or Costco to save money.
19. Have a garage sale to get rid of items you no longer use and put the money aside in savings.
20. Avoid buying items on credit that you can live without until you have the means to pay cash.

Tags: credit-card debt, personal budget, savings, thrift, tips

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 at 6:50 am and is filed under ARCHIVES . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.