Here are a few more practical money saving tips. Some are nickel and dime savings but others could save you thousands of dollars. Kevin O’Leary from Dragon’s Den reveals his business goal is to “make money”. If the business idea looks like it will not make profits, he won’t invest in it. His rude mannerisms sometimes get to me, but the same goal-oriented attitude should help in focusing on saving money.
Here is another list of a few more practical money saving tips.
- Save on car insurance. Leave out the windshield option. Why? How many times does one need to replace windshields in a year? In most cases the answer is none. So you’ve paid for the insurance for the whole year and had no benefit from it financially. We’ve only had two windshields replaced in 20 years. The cost was much lower than if we had paid for this option. A new windshield only costs a fraction of the cost of insurance. Chances are you won’t need a new windshield every year.
- Use the envelope system. After you’ve tracked spending habits and set up a budget, and if you use cash, set aside certain amount of cash to use for smaller cash purchases. This works if you’re trying to keep track of the disappearing cash. Then you can really see where the little termites are eating up your reserve fund. Once the cash is gone from one envelope, you may need to ‘borrow’ from another envelope which means you have less for that category of spending. Keep diligent and honest.
- Buy used instead of new. This is best for big ticket items such as cars, houses, some furniture, etc. The experts have calculated that it is more cost effective to buy one or two-year-old car or a demonstrator than a brand new one. This saves money on insurance, the purchase price is lower and you can still get a warranty. Of course you must take into account that there may be problems. Do you have cash to make repairs and maintain a used car? There is a point of crossing the line of used vs new. When the repairs create headaches then maybe a new one is better. Whatever the choice, count the financial cost?
- Recycle and reinvent. Stores are now charging a nickel or two for plastic bags. This should get us to use recyclable bags. I have several in the car, but often forget to get them into the store, although I am getting better at it. There are so many other uses for plastic bags that we still accumulate. Use them for trash, laundry, shoes, etc., etc., etc.
- Use price matching. If you purchase an item from a store and you find that it’s on sale a few days later, go back and ask for a discount. Or if the item is on sale at another store and you are shopping at a different store, find out about price matching. If they allow it, then good, but if they don’t, then go to the other store. This works only if you read the flyers, or internet sales.
- Bundle your communications technology. Shop around and compare prices for individual TV, internet, home and mobile phone, and then look at the bundle packages. Compare these for price and detail. Read the fine print. No contract bundles are the best. Or if it’s not available, know the cost for breaking a contract. If your city has several providers its best since they are in competition and prices are reflected accordingly.
- Shop in season. To get best selection and prices find the deals, but be careful to buy only what you need! Now is the back-to-school time for kids and students. But recycle binders, pens, pencils, markers, scissors, etc. Don’t buy new binders every year unless kids have messed them up with graffiti and rips. Look through your drawers and closets.
I hope you can benefit from any of these money saving tips or maybe you are already living this way. Awesome! I am improving in these areas so I can recommend them to anyone interested in living a more frugal lifestyle.
How about you? What money saving tips have you used, especially now during this pandemic of Covid-19? Leave a comment here.