7 Ways to Save a Little Money Now

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I have been doing a little cost cutting on our wedding budget in the last couple of days. And I started thinking about ways to save a little money in our every day budget as well. So why not share the love and write a post on 7 ways to save a little extra money now.

The biggest problem we have had with our budget in the last two years has been food. We have these massive weekly grocery bills that you would think would be the majority of our food spending.

Unfortunately for us this is not the case.

We spend most of our discretionary income on eating out. We buy all this food to make at home, healthy wonderful food, and we let it sit in the fridge while we go out to dinner. I never realize how often this happens until the end of the month comes and I review the budget and bank statements.

It’s never pretty!

And every month we vow to stop eating out so much. But does it happen?

Of course not.

Over the years I have come across some great ideas to counter this and many other money wasting issues and here are a few:

1. Fund an eating out envelope –

This one is going to save us! Look at your budgeted amount for eating out. For us right now it is $100.00 a month. Go to the bank and pull out the $100.00 or whatever your budget is and put it in the envelope. Eat out as much as you like with the money in the envelope, but make a promise to yourselves that once it’s gone, it’s gone!

2. Back away from the Starbucks! -

This extremely difficult for me as well. I LOVE coffee! But if I went to Starbucks every morning I would be broke. I get my venti cinnamon dolce and a blueberry scone and it comes to around $7.00. If I did that every day for a year like I would like to I would be bleeding $2,555 per year. It’s good, but not that good! Make coffee at home or better yet, start to break the addiction to coffee.

3. Cut out the video rentals –

When we want to watch a movie, which is often, we usually just pay-per-view it on our cable box. This is the fastest, simplest way to get a movie going and chill out. But because that money gets charged to your cable bill, it doesn’t seem to hurt as much. $3.99 once a week for a year costs you $207 dollars a year. Watch a movie you already own or actually watch something on that HBO channel that you pay for and never watch. These things add up!

4. Quit the tobacco –

I will admit it, I am hooked on nicotine myself. I used to smoke and I chew tobacco now, and there is nothing harder that I have experienced then quitting. It is a disgusting habit and I am working hard to quit. But what is making it easier to make that decision is the cost of tobacco. I actually have it easy because smokers pay even more than me but I am paying $4.00 for a can every other day. Forgive me for being blunt but that is just stupid! When I quit for good, which will happen soon, I will save $832.00 a year! I can think of a lot of better things I would love to do with that money.

5. Buy generic –

Everything from prescription medication to toilet bowl cleaner has a generic version. Cold medicine to toilet paper, they all have a version that is exactly the same but steeply cheaper than the name brand. A lot of times they are made by the same company in the same manufacturing facility. But only one of those two products coming off the line has to pay for advertising costs. Any time you go shopping, check the generic version, if it is the same ingredients it’s the same product. Buy generic and save a boat load of money!

6. Check out your cell phone bill –

If you haven’t closely examined your cell phone bill, now is the time. I recently went through every charge on my cell phone bill and found several things that I didn’t need and several things I shouldn’t be paying for. It is very easy to get signed up for things that are already included in your package. For instance, I found that with my plan I had unlimited text messaging but that I somehow signed up for the $5.00 per month 500 text messages program. So for a year or two I had been paying for text messages that I already get for free. Awesome! So take a hard look at your statement and see what you can cut out. You might even be able to cut your minutes back and save even more.

7. Become a vegetarian –

You don’t have to be a vegetarian exclusively, although that will add years to your life, but a part time vegetarian. Cutting back on meat will save you bunches of money at the grocery store. Meat is typically one of the most expensive items in your shopping cart and you don’t need it. My mom serves meat with every meal, she never misses and her grocery bill is ridiculous, even though the food is breathtakingly good. This is a simple way to save a bunch of money right away.

These are just a few of many ideas you can use to save money now. We could all use a few extra dollars in our pocket right now. Get creative. Find any possible way you can to save a few bucks. I know sometimes it feels like saving a couple of dollars doesn’t really make that big of a difference, but it does. Those dollars add up fast.

Let me know some of your ideas, I need the help too. I’d love to hear from you!

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