Money Saving Ideas
So I met with my friend Paul Moyer for lunch on Tuesday. I thought I was a maniac when it comes to saving money, but Paul is an absolute FREAK!
He showed up with a printed list of money saving ideas and explained each one in great detail throughout lunch. I will share the ideas with you, but I am going to share my favorite one first – CHANGE HUNTING.
Apparently, Paul walks around looking at the ground. Swings, merry-go-rounds, cashier's counters at stores, sidewalks, the dryer, etc. He is constantly on the lookout for change on the ground. This is what CHANGE HUNTING is all about. He has even managed to find a dime once or twice (SMILE!). This is saving on an entirely new plane.
Thanks to Paul for sharing his ideas with me! And now, on with the money saving ideas.
Free samples – Walmart.com; Google.com – Paul rarely needs to purchase shampoo due to free samples.
MyPoints.com – This takes some time, but you are basically getting paid to receive advertising.
Tightwad Gazette – Written by a crazy person who has saved enormous amounts of cash and has taken the time to write out the ideas in a book. You can buy the book for around $15.
On-Line Banks – Pay way more in interest than local banks. E-loan, HSBC, ING
MyCoupons.com – Free grocery coupons that are changed weekly. I use this occasionally myself.
Shopping.com; MySimon.com – This resource actually comparison shops for you and delivers the prices from multiple stores for the item you are looking to purchase.
Travel Ideas – Bidding for travel.com – You can see the prices that people are paying on priceline and hotwire. Use Skyte.com for overseas travel.
VOIP – Voice Over Internet – Telephone service through your internet (Vonage/Charter). Way cheaper than BellSouth.
Bundle – Cable/Internet/Phone; Homeowners Insurance/Auto
Bagged Cereal – Way cheaper than boxed cereal. This is how I buy 1/2 of my cereal.
Kid's Clothes – Why pay retail when kids grow so quickly (especially 0 – 2 years old) Buy at consignment shops and garage sales
Printer Ink – Apparently the refill kits do work (per Paul). Cost is about 1/3 of that for purchasing a new cartridge.
Purchase Used Articles – E-bay; Craigslist.com;
Just a quick comment on Biddingfortravel.com
My wife and I are going to Miami for about 5 days in March. Now this is in the middle of college spring breaks so the prices were not great but we were able to save 20% per night using biddingfortravel.com in conjunction with Priceline.com’s bidding platform (as opposed to just searching for good deals).
Hotwire is the best site for just searching for good deals usually coming in around 25% better than most the other sites.
Good luck looking for the best deal
Paul Moyer
Nextag.com will compare prices and list prices at multiple websites for almost anything you could imagine, and links directly to the page that lists the product. I’ve used it for several electronic gadget purchases to find what retailer or etailer is offering the best deals.
My husband works for the Dept. of Insurance. We received our income tax refund and I said why don’t we pay our car insurance for a year instead of six months since we will be on vacation when the next six month payment is due and that will make us less likely to go into debt for anything on vacation. We are going to save $400 by paying for a year instead of six months. Not all insurance companies will do that and we will loose our multicar/house discount from our current company. But we are told we can still save money when it is time for our house insurance to be due and by loosing the multi discount the house would only go up 15% ($86) for still a savings on the car insurance of $314.