Did you know that one of the simplest ways to save money is by changing the way you buy food? Eating for less need not mean a sacrifice in taste or variety. In fact, you may quickly discover that paying more attention to the amount of money you spend on groceries translates into more attention to the foods you choose and how you prepare them. Drawing inspiration from “tips and tricks to eat healthy on a budget“, here are a few hints to get you started: 

• Pack a lunch instead of buying food during the day. Ready-made food is often expensive and unhealthy. Stick to eating what you know is good for you. 
• Buy local whenever possible. Enjoying fresh and healthy food from local producers isn’t as expensive as you might expect. 
• Prepare a specific shopping list before you head out to do your food shopping and never shop on an empty stomach. This will help you avoid the impulse purchases that are based more on your poor memory or hungry stomach than any real need you might have for a product.
• Make some thrifty friends and find out what they do to save money on food and where they shop. If you have coworkers with lots of kids, ask them where they shop for food. A person accustomed to feeding lots of people in one house typically knows where to shop for the best food deals!  photo credit: x-eyedblonde

1. Take a road trip: It now costs you less to put gas in your car while it will take more money to get your bags on a plane. The idea of spending hours in a car with howling kids might terrify you, but they are your kids and the howls of laughter can make it worth all your effort. The key to a successful family road trip is planning. Pick a travel route that connects interesting places at least 75% of your family will enjoy. MP3 and portable DVD players can be great to keep the kids quiet, but don’t rely on them the entire trip. Technology creep has led families to spend less and less time actually communicating. Just don’t expect anything miraculous to happen. Most family bonding happens when remembering a trip, not during it. (more…)
   

We’re nearly done with 1/12th of 2009 and chances are good that your spending habits are still bad. You might not have the money to purchase large items or expensive fashion, but most of us have a little bit of cash hanging around. The problem comes from seeing that cash as just “hanging around” instead of viewing it as a brick in the massive wall of financial freedom and wealth. If you tend to spend small amounts indiscriminately, consider the following. 

1. You wouldn’t trade a can of Coke for a private tropical island, would you? Of course not! Then don’t buy frivolous items. Each time you do, you are giving up some of that tropical beach sand. Feel the sun on your face and the wind in your hair? No, you don’t, because you just drank it and now it’s gone. Figure out exactly how much cash you must have on-hand to meet your basic needs each day and carry only that amount with you. 
2. Start carrying a little notebook. If you want to be extremely chic, pick up a Moleskin at your local Barnes & Noble’s. Make a habit of writing down each time you spend money with an amount and a reason for purchase. Save receipts. Cash in on your laziness and reduce the number of times you write in your little book by reducing the times you buy things! 

I’m not saying to never buy fun small things. Just make a habit of not buying them so that when you do, they’ll be much more enjoyable.

If you are trying to save money, start by paying your bills on time. You can cut coupons, rummage through dumpsters, and buy dented cans of beans to save $35 only to have those savings gobbled up by a credit card late-fee.

Don’t have enough money to pay all your bills? Pay the credit cards first. Consider this:

If you had 5 hungry mobsters standing outside your house waiting for money but only 4 pieces of lasagne, you’d feed the 4 meanest-looking ones first, right? Think of your utility company as the 5th jolly mobster who doesn’t mind waiting a few days to eat.

Avoiding late fees, increased interest rates, and return-to-service fees is just like winning free money! A few simple steps will get you on track to maximizing your winnings: (more…)

photo credit: Clean Wal-Mart

A recent article outlining Walmart Corporation’s decision to “go green”by New York Time’s writers Stephanie Rosenbloom and Michael Barbaro should give you hope as a consumer. Why?

Walmart is such a massive company that it dictates the terms by which it purchases products. To put this in perspective, imagine you are the primary customer at a local bakery. You purchase 5-600 loaves of potato bread at this bakery each week and it’s safe to say that they would fail without your business. Understanding your position, wouldn’t you feel comfortable asking your local baker to make potato bread in round loaves instead of the typical oblong ones? Of course you would! Your neighborhood baker would be happily obliged to bake round loaves in order to keep your business. Walmart does the same thing with many of its producers. When Walmart asks GE to produce a different shape of florescent light bulb, GE spends the money to make the new light bulb because it cannot afford to lose Walmart as a customer.

Walmart’s choice to “go green” means that companies the world over have started scrambling to develop environmentally-friendly versions of their products so they don’t lose Walmart as a customer. After only two days of board meetings, Walmart has begun a dramatic evolution toward environmentally-friendly products with a force that legislators can only drool over. Walmart wants to sell you everything. They’ve decided to win your money by offering environmentally-friendly products that will save you money in the long run while costing you less in the short term. Just don’t give them all your money.

Your gym membership may just be your local gym’s way of preying on your good intentions to make a buck. Unless you live in outer space, you are subject to the laws of gravity. This means you can use your own body weight to exercise your muscles. For many of us, myself included, it would be nice to have a little less body weight to exercise with! Here are three everyday things you can substitute for the machines at the gym that were built as substitutes for the everyday objects you have around you. Think about that for a moment! Ready? Here we go:

1. Stairs: Your local gym has stairclimbers, stairmasters, and other machines with fake steps. Forget about those machines and find some stairs near you. Chances are you have stairs right in your building. Make a game of adding steps each day. There are 1860 steps from the street level to the 102nd floor of the Empire State Building. When you’re up to running that many steps, the people who use the machines at the gym will wear a path to your door begging to know how you got so fit!
2. Sidewalks, fields, mountain roads, vacant lots, city streets: A few years back, some fitness experts got together and decided to build a machine that would allow people to continue a walking motion without getting anywhere, seeing anything, or meeting anybody. They came up with the treadmill and lonely, boring people have been using them ever since. Take your plain old shoes on your plain old legs and walk yourself out the door. An amazing world of exercise awaits you!
3. Heavy stuff: Do you realize how silly it is to get dressed up and go to a building to lift metal disks and yank on cables attached to more metal disks? Unless you work in a cable-and-disk factory, this shouldn’t be a normal part of your day. We are surrounded by heavy things and when we run out of heavy things to move, we have our own body weight to work with. If you still have energy after cleaning your house and helping your neighbor move, do some push-ups. Feeling really creative? Sit down cross-legged on your kitchen floor then stand back up…50 times. The same drive that would keep you going to the gym can be re-directed into physical activities you don’t have to pay for.

I’m not a doctor or otherwise certified to give out health advice. If you hurt yourself trying to bench press your office furniture, you won’t be able to sue me. However, I do know about saving money in practical ways. If you are serious about saving money, start by cancelling your gym membership.

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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credit: rpongsaj

To most people a Swiss Bank account is something for the super rich, crooks, dishonest government officials or just a good way to hide assets. They’re the stuff of thrillers like The Bourne Identity or James Bond. (more…)

photo credit: Ordinary Guy

The internet isn’t just an easy way to do a lot of things these days - it can also often be a cheaper way. That makes sense because companies operating over the internet have lower overheads and can provide their services and products to customers more cheaply - so why not take advantage of it. (more…)

photo credit: m o d e

With summer upon us, many people are heading off on vacation. Taking a holiday is important to help you relax, reward yourself and simply to get away from home, but if it just creates a larger debt to pay off when you return, then all the good is undone. That’s why it’s really important to do some pre-trip budgeting to make sure you’re planning an affordable vacation. Here are a few tips: (more…)