photo credit: ninjapoodles

What we spend at the supermarket often makes up a large portion of our weekly expenses. That means that finding a few ways to save money on our grocery bills is definitely useful. Financial Planning at About.com recently ran a post with handy tips and here’s a summary of the most useful information they gave:

Plan ahead by writing a shopping list and using a meal plan to do so. When you’re at the supermarket, don’t buy anything unless it’s on your list.

Eat before you shop - if you’re hungry you’re much more likely to make impulse purchases and spend more than you planned to.

Stock up on specials, but check to make sure they really are specials. Buying bulk can save you money, but sometimes supermarkets offer items at a special price which actually has a higher unit price than smaller packets. Do the math.

Consider buying store brands rather than the more expensive known brands - for many products, you won’t notice any difference.

Using different cuts of meat can save money.

Check out the different coupons you can use at a supermarket both in your local paper and online, and use them to save money too.

photo credit: SqueakyMarmot

A recent post at the very hands-on No Credit Needed blog gives a great checklist of what the writer does every month to ensure he becomes or remains debt free. Certainly, some of these monthly tasks could help all of us to reduce our debts, and here are some highlights from the list:

• Check through your house for items that are no longer in use that you could sell, for example on eBay. Doing this monthly will usually unearth at least a few items to make some extra cash from.
• Call your credit card companies once a month to ask for an interest rate reduction. It never hurts to ask and can save you heaps if they say yes.
• Go shopping for seasonally-related specials - for example, at the end of winter, buy boots or coats that you’ll need for the next year, while they’re on special; in January, buy Christmas cards to send the next Christmas.
• Check your air-filters on air-conditioning units and replace them if they are clogged up, because if they’re running harder than they need to be this will be adding to your electricity bill.
• Go through your regular bills (especially your phone bill) and check for any irregularities or unusual rate increases, and call the company to check them out.

photo credit: mahalie

When you’re about to add a child to your family, the excitement and anxieties that surround the birth and the preparations for life with a new baby often outweigh the practical need of adjusting your budget. But a good example of keeping everything in perspective can be seen at a No Credit Needed post on the financial impact of a new baby.

As a case study, it’s something we could all learn from. NCN predicted how he would need to alter the family budget before the new arrival and looking back, he was mostly correct. If you’re about to expand your family, look at these budget areas for increases or decreases:

• Increase in the grocery bill - including diapers and having less time for shopping or checking for good deals
• Increase in the electricity bill - due to extra washing, more lights on in the middle of the night, and perhaps the mother being home more often instead of being at work
• Increase in medical expenses - but hopefully these are mostly just one-off expenses related to the birth
• Increase in clothing expenses - not just for the new baby but for the mother’s new after-the-birth figure
• Decrease in entertainment expenses - at least for a while, you’ll probably be spending a lot more time at home and less going out to eat or to see a movie

photo credit: 416style

Many of us dream of quitting the day job and living a life of luxury doing whatever we want all day. Or at least working less. It’s not impossible, and here a few tips to help you on the path to being independently wealthy:

• Find extra income sources - for example, by doing freelancing or consulting work in addition to your day job. Yes, this sounds like working more - but it’s a transitional thing, both making you more money and opening up possibilities for part-time work in the future.
• Find passive income sources - having an investment properly with rental income, earning money from advertising on your websites or getting royalties are all forms of passive income - you don’t have to do anything more to continue getting income coming in.
• Invest often but smart - diversify your investments, get advice from the best people, and regularly save more money to invest.
• Track where your money goes - as well as developing and following a budget, keep a written record of where the money really goes so you can adjust your spending and/or your budget accordingly.
• Stay married - really! Getting divorced stops many people from becoming independently wealthy so it’s worth investing time and energy in keeping your marriage together, if it’s for the best.

photo credit: ba . ninja

Over at CNN Money they’ve run a story identify the best cities to live in if you’re needing to save money on fuel costs. It makes quite an interesting list and includes these:

Hays, Kansas: with an average commute of less than 10 minutes, most people live near and work in the large medical center or the state university

Santa Paula, California: many people have a reasonable distance to travel to work from Santa Paula, but they’ve got their act together to save fuel money in a very sensible way - almost 30% of commuters take part in car pools

Westport, Connecticut: a lot of very well-off people live here, and one of the ways they stay well-off is by avoiding commuting costs altogether - many of them work from home, with over 11% of locals having home offices

Laramie, Wyoming: home to the University of Wyoming, where more than 5,000 locals work, and the average commuting time for all residents is under 10 minutes

Hoboken, New Jersey: lots of locals here work in New York City or in other parts of New Jersey, but the trend is never to drive along - three quarters of them travel with at least one other person in their car when they’re commuting

photo credit: Unhindered by Talent

A lot of the money we spend seems to get frittered away on cups of coffee, bus rides and impulse chocolate buys. Although each of these purchases might be just for a couple of dollars, the dollars add up and this kind of spending can be one reason we can’t save money.

The Financial Planning site at About.com recently wrote about a really simple tip to help get this kind of spending under control: use cash for a week.

The idea is that you should first work out how much money you think is the maximum you should spend on these impulse cash purchases. There might be other payments you need to make during the week in cash (for example, paying the parking meter when you go to your French class after work) so make sure you budget these in too.

Then put only this amount of cash in your wallet at the start of the week. No more! During the week, you will physically see the amount of money reducing and if you haven’t got any left for a Starbucks coffee on Friday, you’ll have to make do with the coffee you can make for free at work. The idea is that physically handling the money is a whole lot different to just seeing a number going through your account as you swipe your credit card or write a check, or even if you’re just handing over cash and going to the cash machine for more whenever it runs out. Hopefully, a tip like this can help cut unnecessary spending and you can see where your money is going.

It’s becoming increasingly common for only one half of a couple to retire first, leaving the other to work for longer- in fact, statistics suggest that only 20% of couples both retire within the same year. Rather than causing conflict, this is actually a good opportunity to test-run retirement in a financial sense, as long as you follow some of these tips:

• Check on health-care: make sure the retiring partner will either be covered by Medicare (after age 65), their former employer’s plan (sometimes possible for up to 18 months) or the working partner’s plan.
• Check on Social Security: taking it earlier might be a disadvantage when the working partner retires, depending on who was the bigger earner. Check on future implications carefully.
• Re-examine the household duties: the non-working partner should take care of more of the home duties while the other half continues to work. Negotiating this could be tricky depending on how duties were shared while both were working.
• Make sure the retiring partner stays active: either through social clubs or outings, volunteer work or a part-time job.
• Consider changing spending habits: look into which activities and expenditures have been making up a large part of your budget while working and see what adjustments can be made - for example, maybe only one car is necessary now instead of two.

credit: jm3

Unless you’ve got an extension, you’ve probably filed your tax return for 2008. Like many Americans, you might have missed out on some deductions simply because you weren’t aware of them – it’s a complicated system! So take a look at this list and keep in mind that some of these deductions might be available for you when you next file a return.

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photo credit: G & A Sattler

Saving money isn’t always easy, especially with gas prices on the rise, little job stability, and an economy that feels quite recessed. It’s all about being frugal though, and a look at your finances and spending habits should help you identify where you can save. For a little inspiration, check out these five easy ways to save money:

• Buy in bulk: Many items on your grocery list can be bought in bulk, such as canned goods, Ziploc bags, and juice packs for your kids’ lunches. Buy several months’ worth of these goods, and you’ll not only reduce your per-item cost, but you’ll save money on fewer car trips to the store.
• Shop used: Stores like eBay, Craigslist, and your local classifieds are a great way to buy at a reduced cost. Don’t shy away because used sounds like a bad word - many used items are barely used, in great condition, and can be bought for just a fraction of a lesser-quality equivalent bought new.
• Avoid ATM fees: This seems simple, but check out your monthly bank statements. If you’re paying for ATM withdrawal fees, you’re wasting your hard-earned cash.
• Write it all down: For the next three months, write down every, single purchase you make, right down to the newspaper and coffee that you pick up at the convenience store. By forcing yourself to note every expenditure, your spending will go down almost on its own.
• Save every $1 bill: This one is a little more involved, but commit yourself to saving every $1 bill ($5, if you’re brave) that passes through your hands. You can save hundreds of dollars a year this way!