Frugal Tips For Saving Money

Saving money isn’t that hard when you take a frugal approach to it. I know that the words “saving” and “frugal” don’t bring the happiest thoughts to your mind. And that is the number one reason you aren’t able to save any money. You have the wrong attitude. It is surprising how easy it is to change your attitude. When you succeed at saving money, you are helping yourself. Keep you goals at the top of your priorities. When you have a budget and live frugally, you don’t have less, you have more. It is all about having more money. Not less.

I know that personally, my biggest challenge is wanting more. It is something that is hard to fight. We are saturated by advertising. We see new and more expensive things all around us. Many of us struggle with issues surrounding shopping and acquiring. I have the fear of being without something I need, so I buy everything I might use someday. I have to constantly remind myself that if I don’t buy it now, I will have the money to buy it later. It is in the attitude. You can change it.

One of the easiest ways to start saving is to cut down how much you have to buy. You can stretch things out a bit. Use less cleaning supplies and soaps by diluting them with water. Save scraps and reuse old clothing as rags. Look at the uses of things that might be considered trash. If you can avoid a shopping trip by reusing something once, you are saving.

I have found that being frugal has a great side effect. You can lose weight. Start by only drinking water and milk. Cut out the sodas. Save juice for breakfast. Don’t make the sugary drinks. None of it is good for you anyway. Drink water. Cut the calories and feel healthier.

You can also cut out a lot of money, and calories, by only buying healthy foods. These are often cheaper than the prepackaged convenience foods. Instead of frozen pizza treats, have a salad or turkey sandwich. Eat fresh veggies and fruits instead of chips. Shop on sale. Don’t eat as much each meal so that it goes further for your family.

If you have the money to stockpile on sales items that you will use, then by all means, shop up. Buy enough to last you until the next sale. But don’t get carried away. Only buy items that you will absolutely use. Canned and frozen veggies, flour, sugar, tomato sauce — look for the items that are staples of your diet. In fact, if you can only buy sale items when you shop, you’ll be doing pretty good.

When you stock up your pantry and have plenty to eat, it is easy to focus on other matters. You don’t have to worry about finding the money for food. The food is already there. When you can make something yourself, make it. You can often save money by simply putting a little time into it. And it is often quite satisfying.

And my number one way to save money — pay off those debts. Take every penny you are saving and put it towards getting rid of that debt and building an emergency fund. Don’t buy things you can’t afford and don’t need. Ask yourself what is more important to you — having some item or living a stress-free financial life? Having the money you need when you need it is more important than having some gadget sitting around collecting dust.

Martin Lukac represents RateTake Refinance Rates marketplace. RateTake matches consumers with multiple lenders offering low rates.

Article Source: by Martin Lukack

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The Success Of The Kids’ Fun Fund

Our family recently returned from a week of vacation, and I’m proud to report that the Kids’ Fun Fund that I mentioned a few months ago worked just as I had hoped. Throughout 2009, my kids have been doing little chores around the house, chores for which they can earn a little money. A portion of this money gets deposited into the Kids’ Fun Fund – just a plastic square container decorated with their names and labeled Kids’ Fun Fund.

The purpose for our Kids’ Fun Fund was pretty specific. Our kids love to go to an arcade – a very specific arcade – located about fifteen minutes from where we go on vacation. This arcade is really more than just an arcade, it’s more like a small-scale amusement park, complete with miniature golf course and go-carts. My kids, for some reason, just really like to this particular arcade.

Last January, when we started to plan for our vacation, I asked my kids what they thought about creating a Fun Fund, so that they could save up a big pile of coins to use at the arcade. They really took to the idea an the Kids’ Fun Fund was born. You can click this link to read more details about the Kids’ Fun Fund.

The Kids’ Fun Fund really worked. Our kids worked hard – and worked hard together – to earn money for the Fun Fund. They were both so proud, when we were preparing for vacation, to pack their big jar of coins. When we arrived at the arcade, we all stuffed our pockets with quarters, and headed inside. The kids had a blast and it was great to see them enjoy the reward for their labors.

It’s cool to note that the kids could have spent every penny in their Fun Fund, but they chose not to do so. In fact, they used just a small portion of the money that they had saved. Now, they are in the process of deciding exactly what to do with the rest of the Fun Fund. I’ll guide them as they make the decision, but I’ll leave the final choice up to them. Whatever they do, I’m super-proud of my kids. They set a goal, worked hard to achieve it, and then had a blast at the arcade. Success!

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No Credit Needed: The Success Of The Kids’ Fun Fund

[TheSimpleDollar] Insights into Saving Psychology from The Economist

Recently, while digging through the magazines in our magazine rack, I came across the May 16, 2009 issue of The Economist. The Economist is my primary print source for news and it almost always gives me quite a bit of food for thought.

Anyway, on page 82, I found a really interesting article entitled “Smooth Operators,” which discusses some very savvy saving techniques that have developed in nations with developing economies. First, though, is a bit on why such techniques are needed there:

Paying interest on your savings will strike most people as odd. Yet some poor people in the developing world do just that. In West Africa, for example, some people pay roving susu collectors a fee amounting to a -40% annual interest rate for looking after their deposits. [...] a similar phenomenon in India, where a female deposit collector named Jyothi looks after small savings for people in the slums of Vijayawada at an effective yearly interest rate of -30%.

To us, this seems very alien. Why would you bother to put money in a savings vehicle if you’re charged such outrageous fees?

To put it simply, money security is the real reason. Keeping significant amounts of cash on hand can be dangerous, and after doing a risk assessment, it’s pretty clear that to many of these people, it’s better to pay that painful fee than risk the high likelihood of having the money taken in some method – a -100% interest rate is far worse than a -40% interest rate.

But why save at all?

Many of the subjects emphasized [that] controlling the flow of cash becomes all the more critical when income is not just low, but also unpredictable and irregular.

In other words, many of the people using these savings systems have very irregular incomes, so in order to survive during the many lean times, they need to sock money away. And without personal security, they need a service that keeps the money safe, so they utilize the susu (and other local variants).

It’s not that different than the problems that people face in America, where many people have irregular incomes (I myself am one of them). To put it simply, if your income is irregular, you have to save. You can’t spend what you earn, or else you’ll be in deep trouble during the lean times.

What gets interesting, though, is some of the tactics the savers use.

They are acutely aware, for example, of the importance of some psychological phenomena whose effects behavioural economists have only recently begun to explore. For instance, they purposefully seek out commitments to help ensure that they meet their savings goals. Many of the South African women in the study joined several monthly “savings clubs” in spite of having bank accounts. They found that the extra discipline the clubs provided was valuable in itself, because it compelled them to save no matter what.

This is a really important point, one I think is overlooked in western society. Peer pressure is a huge motivator, and using it for savings goals pushes you strongly towards saving. The idea of a “savings club” seems a bit strange, but why not? Investing clubs are quite prevalent in the United States, and they have roughly the same goal – encouraging people to invest and keeping their eyes on the prize.

If you have some friends that are also trying to save for different goals, why not start a savings club? Meet once a month or so to talk about money saving tactics and to share your progress. Knowing that you have to tell the others in the club about your progress will push you to meet the goals you’ve set, lest you look bad in their eyes.

Another solid tactic comes later in the article:

The mother of a Bangladeshi man who found himself unable to stick to his monthly saving goal found she could make him save more by taking out a loan from a microfinance company. The shared obligation of having to pay the regular loan installments meant he abandoned his spendthrift ways.

At first, this might not seem like the best idea. Taking on debt to force yourself into regular savings behaviors?

But think of it from their perspective. That microloan might have a 10% interest rate. On the other hand, the susu down the street charges you 40% interest on your savings. Seems like a good deal to me.

This is not altogether different than when people play games with 0% balance transfers on credit cards. They write a cash advance check from card A into their savings account, then do a 0% balance transfer from card B to card A to cover that check. Then they hold the cash in their savings, earning 2-3%, until they have to pay back the 0% transfer. Along the way, they can usually earn a few bucks, particularly if the amount isn’t large enough to really harm their credit.

In both cases, it’s a crafty way to use the financial tools available to you in an unexpected way to put yourself in a better financial place. Don’t just think of a credit card as a way to buy more stuff. Don’t think of a low interest or a zero interest loan as bad simply because it’s debt. Instead, look at all the tools available to you – and use them together to maximize your situation.

Personal finance lessons can come from anywhere. Always keep your eyes open.

The Simple Dollar

The Simple Dollar Time Machine

From [TheSimpleDollar]

Many newer readers of The Simple Dollar haven’t been exposed to the hundreds of great articles in the archives of the site, so this is a weekly series that highlights the five best posts from one year ago this week, as well as the five best posts from two years ago this week. I call it … the Time Machine.

One Year Ago (May 31-June 6, 2008)
Planning for the Long Haul: My Family’s Lifetime Financial Plan We’re still pretty much sticking to this plan a year later. Nothing has really changed, except for, to some extent, the “retire early” part, since we’re both passionate about our work. We’re also on track for our 2009 goal.

Money Magazine’s “7 Investments You Need Now,” Portfolio Theory, and My Own Plans for the Future A mixture of railing against the “fund of the month” type of financial writing along with how to translate it into something truly useful, as well as a primer on basic portfolio theory. Mmm… a tasty mix!

Making Frugality a Game For people who thrive on competition, this is one way to make frugality really work in your home.

Got Credit Card Debt? Ten Tactics to Use Right Now to Get It Under Control If you’re sitting there with a big mountain of credit card bills and you’re simply wondering where to go from here, here’s ten things you can do immediately to start taking charge of the situation.

Ten Clever Money Savers You Might Want To Try This Weekend Some of these are really timely, because they focus on tactics that work great in June but perhaps don’t work well in November.

Two Years Ago (May 31-June 6, 2007)
Ten Financial Matters I Wish I Had Discussed With My Wife Before We Got Married This is a pretty good list of things for any couple to discuss, particularly during the run-up to marriage, but also afterward. My wife and I would have started our marriage on a better foot with these conversations.

Comparing Yourself To An Earlier Generation – And Blowing The Comparison To Bits The financial reality of your generation is different than the ones before it – and the ones after it, for that matter. Don’t judge your success by what your parents did at a similar age – and don’t judge your children’s success by where you were at their age.

Save Time, Effort, And Money With A Monthly Home and Auto Maintenance Checklist If you own a home or an automobile, it’s well worth your while to spend an afternoon once a month practicing proper maintenance. Things will last longer and you will save money – a lot of it. Here’s a lengthy checklist to get you started.

The Simple Dollar Convinces Someone to Quit Their Job This was actually the very first moment when I realized that the things I wrote really impacted people’s lives. It was exciting, but simultaneously quite scary.

A Guide To Eating Well Without Spending A Fortune Although we spend more on food than we should, it’s primarily because we buy things like organic milk and free range chickens. Our baseline of food spending is actually really low, and here’s how we do it.

If you’d like to browse through more of the archives, visit the chronology, where all posts are listed in chronological order.

Eight Ways to Get More out of The Simple Dollar
This is kind of a FAQ for new readers and is posted each week along with the Time Machine. Here are eight great ways for new readers to dig deeper into The Simple Dollar.

1. Subscribe by email or RSS. Visiting The Simple Dollar’s website is great, but for many people, it’s more convenient to receive the articles in another form. It’s easy to join 60,000 other subscribers and get The Simple Dollar’s content by email or in your RSS feeder (if you’re unfamiliar with RSS, check out Google Reader.

2. Comment. Each article on The Simple Dollar has lively discussion. Just click on the green square in the upper right of each article on the website and join in!

3. Read my story of financial meltdown and recovery. The Simple Dollar isn’t based on what I’ve read in books or learned in school. I’ve made a lifetime of financial mistakes – The Simple Dollar is a record of what works for me during the process of getting my life on a better track.

4. Download my free 49 page e-book. Everything You Ever Really Needed to Know About Personal Finance On Just One Page is completely free. It summarizes all of the key lessons I’ve learned along the way about personal finance in one tidy package – in fact, all of the main principles can be found right on the cover.

5. Follow me on Twitter. I post tons of interesting articles, quotes, follow-up material, commentary, and other material on Twitter. Follow me! If you’re unfamiliar with Twitter, it’s essentially an open discussion forum for people to share ideas and thoughts with other like-minded folks – you just choose the people you want to listen to and their ideas and thoughts are all delivered to you on a single page.

6. Dig through “31 Days to Fix Your Finances.” 31 Days to Fix Your Finances is an article series that outlines how you can get a grip on your finances over the course of a month.

7. Send me your questions and suggestions. Send me an email and let me know what you’re thinking, what you’d like to see, and any questions you might have. I try to respond to as many emails as possible and I read them all. I may even use your question in a future article!

8. Email a great article you find to a friend. Find an article that you think your friend would love? At the bottom of each article, you’ll find a link that says “Email this” – just click on that, type in your friend’s address, and send it right along to them!

Ten Tips For Cyber Monday Shopping

Cyber Monday is the Monday after Thanksgiving. It is well known to internet shoppers and designed to kick off the beginning of the online Christmas holiday shopping season and offer deeply discounted items for sale on the Internet.

It is much easier to shop for Cyber Monday deals rather than fighting the crowds for Black Friday. More than 80% of the online retailers are planning to offer discounts on Cyber Monday, December 1, 2008.

Some interesting Cyber Monday shopping statistics

• 2007 Cyber Monday Hit Online Retail Spending Record of $733 Million
• 2007 Cyber Monday Online Sales Were Up 21 Percent From the Year Before
• 2007 Cyber Monday represented an 84-percent jump from the average daily online spending totals during the preceding four weeks.

Tip #1 – From Google – Check your budgets, and consider increasing them. You’re likely to see increased traffic and you won’t want to exhaust your budget early on a day when there are so many potential buyers.

Tip #2 – From Google – Give customers peace of mind about shipping times. One of the most stressful parts of online holiday shipping is not knowing if a present will make it in time. Be up front about delivery dates and let customers know ordering deadlines for gifts to make it in time for the holidays.

Tip #3 – From Google – Promote any special offerings in your ad text. If you have a holiday special that differentiates you from the competition, be sure to showcase it in your ad.

Tip #4 – Offer Free Shipping. Customers will be doing searches for items with Free Shipping.

Tip #5 – Check over 500 website deals at once at Cybermonday.com. They report on deals from KMart, Macys, Sears, Banana Republic, Walmart, Cabelas, J.C. Penney and hundreds of shopping sites.

Tip #6- Up To 50% off on Your Business Checks, Order Direct at Coolchecks.net

Tip #7- Check Ebay for CyberMonday Coupons

Tip #8 – Circuit City has a one-day only coupon this Cyber Monday, for those looking to buy a TV or Home Theater system. You can save an additional $100 on TV orders over $1,700 with coupon code YEA2M45AGJ

Tip #9 – Target is offering free shipping on orders over $50.

Tip #10 – Check out CouponChief.com for the latest in Cyber Monday coupons.

5 Tips To Saving Money

Here are five tips to saving money.

• Have your employer automatically send part of your paycheck directly to a savings account.
• Make sure that the place you have your savings account is very inconvenient to get to.
• Cut up your credit cards or make a vow to not use them.
• Budget the same amount of money to be saved each month.
• Set a lifetime habit of saving a certain amount of money.

Saving money is much easier to do when you have goals in mind and when you have your money automatically sent to your bank. There is a lot of beauty in having your savings plan written down and accomplished with very little effort.
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