Ideas for Saving Money

• Cash a $5 bill every time you go to the vending machines at work.  Save the change.  If you go to the vending machines three times in one day, cash a $5 bill every time.  Save the change.  I have a friend who become debt-free using this very technique!
• Use cash envelopes for any budget item that is subject to impulsive spending.  For me, my impulsive spending list includes groceries, restaurants, clothing, entertainment, and blow money.  By pulling out the budgeted amount and placing it into the envelope, I will not spend more than I budgeted.  Period!  This is a key reason that Jenn and I became debt-free.  By the way, we saved over $200 PER MONTH by putting our grocery money into an envelope.
• Have your insurance rates quoted every two years.  Get at least one quote from an independent insurance agency.  Many people can save $200 – $500 per year!  Consider raising your deductible and driving more carefully!
• Make it automatic!  If you begin investing $50/month and need to write a check every single month to make that investment happen, there is a big chance that you will not invest $50/month.  It will be too easy to say, "I'll make two deposits next month, I need the $50 for something else this month."  By making it an automatic draft, it will happen without a question and without any action taken by you.  You will be amazed at how fast this can add up!
• Get rid of the huge, honking car payments!  Sell the expensive car with the big payment!  Drive a beater!  I know that this is not "cool" and it is not "your style".  My question is this, do you want to be stylish and broke with a bad case of stuff-itis or do you want to be wierd and actually have money to pay cash for things.  Listen, I love a nice car, but something is out of line when it is robbing you of your ability to give and save money!
• Don't go to Aruba for vacation.  Go to the local campground!  Again, I love to travel to nice places, but something is out of line when you have not saved a dime for retirement and are taking really expensive trips.
• Share items.  If you need a drill, borrow one!  If you need a saw for a small, two-day job, borrow one!  If you are going to cook a whole pig, don't go buy the pig cooker – borrow/rent one!  If you want to go fishing/skiing, rent a boat!  It is so much cheaper to rent a boat for the 5 times you actually go fishing/skiing than it is to pay for the payments, insurance, storage fee, winterization, summerization, breakdowns, frustrations, etc.
• Refuse to buy anything unless you have the cash on hand to do the deal.  By making this commitment, it will prevent you from making a bunch of dumb decisions!  I can tell you this, when Jenn and I established this rule, it really helped us out when we experienced bad cases of stuff-itis!

Other Items

• I am including this MORTGAGE CALCULATOR for the person who requested it last night.
• You can do this!  I believe in you!