Are there just no ORIGINAL money saving ideas out there any more?

[pjlla]

Okay.... being the thrifty person I am, I am ALWAYS checking and Googling and Pinteresting around the internet for ideas to save/make money. But I swear, there are just no "new" ideas out there. When I clicked on a blog about "saving money on road trips" the other day, DD and I just chuckled because we started listing what the "new ideas" would be before the page even loaded (bring along your own food/drinks, check your tire pressure, drive the speed limit, etc, etc).

It gets discouraging to read the "top 10" ideas to save $100 in a month and to realize that we do them ALL on a regular basis (don't go out to eat, don't get manicures, cut your own hair, eat beans instead of meat, drive an older car that is paid for, cut coupons, buy used, use rags instead of paper towels, turn down the heat or a/c, etc, etc).

I admit there are areas that we could cut if we absolutely had to (satellite TV, third car for the kids, the occasional new article of clothing, the occasional movie date, Subway/Chipotle every once in a while), but while I'm looking to save (for a trip and tuition payments) we aren't at a financial crossroads and as such I am not ready to ditch these things.

So where do you look (besides the Dis Budget Board) to find NEW money saving ideas!!???..............P

 

[hsmamato2]

Isn't pretty much everything a recycled idea anyway? I think what you're saying is you already know the basics of saving money.... so what else is there? Well, you could do more as you stated,and you could start separating toilet paper and reusing paper towels to save money,or extreme couponing,or churning credit cards,or or or..... it's all the same info,and once you know it, you know it. There are still smal details here and there to learn about,and my mind forgets things quickly,so relearning something I've forgotten is fun..... adapting to changes in the economy,etc are 'new' things.....

 

[Yarbogash]

Not a new idea but do you farm reward points, churn credit cards?

 

[Nebraska_Disney]

If money is tight, I'd look at my monthly budget and see if there were any opportunities in it that could be useful: bundling services, refinance a mortgage, shopping around for insurance/service providers etc. Downsizing your home? Moving to an area that is cheaper to live in? Saving on commuting costs. We all have to live within our means, and that can be tough task.

Now for things like vacations and tuition etc, those are expenditures which either need to be built into the monthly budget, or a new revenue source will be needed. If you budget is tight, you are not going to be able to take from Paul to pay Peter. You mention your kids are driving, are they contributing to the cost of this activity by paying for gas/insurance/upkeep? Are they thinking about college the same way you are too and contributing to that? Do you kids have phones and do they contribute to the costs associated with those? Have you thought about a part-time or seasonal job?

I like tracking my expenses and knowing where each dollar goes each month. Fortunately, my wife and I both work and able to meet all our financial goals, but we do live by a budget and we also make sure to pay ourselves first every single month.

 

[Gr8t Fan]

Okay.... being the thrifty person I am, I am ALWAYS checking and Googling and Pinteresting around the internet for ideas to save/make money. But I swear, there are just no "new" ideas out there. When I clicked on a blog about "saving money on road trips" the other day, DD and I just chuckled because we started listing what the "new ideas" would be before the page even loaded (bring along your own food/drinks, check your tire pressure, drive the speed limit, etc, etc).

It gets discouraging to read the "top 10" ideas to save $100 in a month and to realize that we do them ALL on a regular basis (don't go out to eat, don't get manicures, cut your own hair, eat beans instead of meat, drive an older car that is paid for, cut coupons, buy used, use rags instead of paper towels, turn down the heat or a/c, etc, etc).

I admit there are areas that we could cut if we absolutely had to (satellite TV, third car for the kids, the occasional new article of clothing, the occasional movie date, Subway/Chipotle every once in a while), but while I'm looking to save (for a trip and tuition payments) we aren't at a financial crossroads and as such I am not ready to ditch these things.

So where do you look (besides the Dis Budget Board) to find NEW money saving ideas!!???..............P

Same with us. I used to get so excited and click on these articles, only to find that we already do/don't do the things they're suggesting.

 

[CalDisneyMomof2]

Do you use discounted gift cards everywhere you go? (Chipotle, Subway etc.) We eat at Chipotle and Panera a lot (not as much this year because we've made it a point to eat at home about 90% of our meals) and I cash out my Discover rewards for Chipotle gift cards (they're 10% off through their gift card portal) and I usually get the Panera gift cards at 15-20% off on a discounted gift card site. I try to purchase everything with a discounted gift card. That's ONE thing that's new to me.

Another is I price out EVERYTHING before I buy. Now, I'm sure you already do that. But it takes some work sometimes. If I'm buying dog food for instance, I check the price at Petsmart/Petco (expensive) but what would it be with the current highest discounted gift card? And are there any coupons online? Which site has the highest percentage for cash back (Ebates)? Now combine them all. Is that price lower than Amazon? Is Ebates offering cash back for pet products through Amazon? Have to factor in shipping into it all and Amazon is free. Can I get a free shipping code for the other stores? I do this for pretty much any big ticket item ($25+) I'm going to buy.

Both of these are things I've only been doing the last 2 years or so, so fairly new ways to save.

 

[barkley]

it's difficult-what works for one person doesn't nesc. work for another, what may appear to one person as a HUGE cost savings practice is after I've mentally nickel and dimed out the cost actually more costly in my experience/opinion. so........I just read/listen to what others suggest/are doing and decide if something financially works out for our household. some habits I have are VERY old school but that's b/c I was the late in life child to parents raised during the depression, but some of those habits I was raised with I've opted to largely abandon b/c what was cost saving back then is not the case now (like canning-I enjoy doing it, I have all the equipment so there's no expense there BUT be it either growing the vegetables ourselves or going to local farms to buy it, the cost of the items my mom traditionally canned cost much more than I can get them for prepared at the grocery store).

one thing I do is to never hesitate to look at my fixed monthly bills/ask of whomever I pay them to if there's any way I can reduce these expenses. I've found that by paying my car insurance in full twice per year vs. monthly I'm not charged a $5-$15 per month 'billing fee' (and I get a paid in full discount), same w/my homeowners (I pay it myself vs. using the mortgage company), by getting car/homeowner's/life insurance from the same company I get a multi policy discount. with garbage service-I cut the bill by 50% going from weekly pickup to the larger containers picked up every 2 weeks. with power/heat I use the budgeted monthly plan so I pay the same rate every month (and our company is very good at determining the amount-so far I've not had to pay for an under estimate at the end of their yearly cycles). when the kids were in private school I hit up the school and asked what kind of discount they would give me if instead of paying tuition in full each quarter (for a small discount) I paid it full at the beginning of each school year (they doubled the discount from the quarterly amount then decided they liked the idea so much it was offered to everyone the following year).

you can see that some of my 'big ticket' expenses (insurance, tuition) I have to work it out so I have large amount of money to pay in full what most people pay in much smaller increments over the course of a year-this is where my way of doing it might not work for someone else-but when we decided to do this we were in the same boat so we ended up biting the bullet and taking a chunk out of savings one year that equaled a year's tuition, a year's property taxes, a year's car insurance, and a year's homeowner's insurance to set up what we call our 'reserve account'. that first year when those bills came due we paid them in full, all the while every month putting into that same account from our budget 1/12th of the total we started with. by the end of the first year we had built up enough for the second year plus we had back in savings what we had saved by virtue of this method. yeah-it stunk taking it out of savings BUT little by little it's being paid back through the additional savings AND it sure is nice to start of each calendar year seeing that all your major expenses for the next year are all ready paid for.

 

[morgan98]

I agree about saving money and researching purchases, etc. We too almost never eat out, have no land line, no cable, etc. I think once the money saving ideas that are obvious are exhausted, my focus would turn to earning more money. Is there anyway you can pick up even an extra few hours of work a month somewhere and then save the extra income? For example, a part-time job at a favorite store, etc.?

 

[barkley]

I agree about saving money and researching purchases, etc. We too almost never eat out, have no land line, no cable, etc. I think once the money saving ideas that are obvious are exhausted, my focus would turn to earning more money. Is there anyway you can pick up even an extra few hours of work a month somewhere and then save the extra income? For example, a part-time job at a favorite store, etc.?

just be careful for tax implications on this b/c it can end up costing more than you earn.

I learned this when for a period of time I reduced my hours at work and happened to mention to my cpa (it was tax time) that I was planning on increasing them back to my normal amount within the next month or so. she suggested we 'run the numbers' to see what that increased income would net our household, and I was SHOCKED to find out that a fairly small number of increased hours/earnings not only bumped our household into a different/HIGHER tax bracket, but it also messed with some of the itemized deductions we traditionally got to take (the ones where you can't deduct unless it's at/above a percentage of your income-my additional income would have put that percentage's dollar amount much higher so we wouldn't have met it/lost out on the deductions). we would have had a lower net income if I had increased my hours.

never hurts to check.

 

[morgan98]

just be careful for tax implications on this b/c it can end up costing more than you earn.

I learned this when for a period of time I reduced my hours at work and happened to mention to my cpa (it was tax time) that I was planning on increasing them back to my normal amount within the next month or so. she suggested we 'run the numbers' to see what that increased income would net our household, and I was SHOCKED to find out that a fairly small number of increased hours/earnings not only bumped our household into a different/HIGHER tax bracket, but it also messed with some of the itemized deductions we traditionally got to take (the ones where you can't deduct unless it's at/above a percentage of your income-my additional income would have put that percentage's dollar amount much higher so we wouldn't have met it/lost out on the deductions). we would have had a lower net income if I had increased my hours.

never hurts to check.

I am a CPA (practicing 23 years), so I am well aware of tax implications and I do not understand how earning $1 can cost you more than $1 in additional tax, unless it was a very strange or extreme circumstance.

I just think that sometimes we focus so hard on trying to save $1 by taking on at times extreme, time consuming measures that we lose sight of the fact that earning a few extra $ (through some other source) can be an easier route to take.

 

[rigs32]

If you bump into a high tax bracket, that higher rate only applies to the monies earned above that number, right?

Example:

10% tax rate if you earn up to 10k
20% tax rate if you each up to 20k

I would make no sense that people earning 9,999.00 paid 10% tax and people earning 10,001.00 paid 20% tax. You'd pay 10% on the first 10k and 20% on anything over that.

 

[morgan98]

If you bump into a high tax bracket, that higher rate only applies to the monies earned above that number, right?

Example:

10% tax rate if you earn up to 10k
20% tax rate if you each up to 20k

I would make no sense that people earning 9,999.00 paid 10% tax and people earning 10,001.00 paid 20% tax. You'd pay 10% on the first 10k and 20% on anything over that.

This exactly and even if it phased you out of a deduction or credit, it is not going to cost you 100% or more of the additional income. However, I did not want to derail this thread into specifics of taxes, etc.

 

[barkley]

If you bump into a high tax bracket, that higher rate only applies to the monies earned above that number, right?

Example:

10% tax rate if you earn up to 10k
20% tax rate if you each up to 20k

I would make no sense that people earning 9,999.00 paid 10% tax and people earning 10,001.00 paid 20% tax. You'd pay 10% on the first 10k and 20% on anything over that.

I think it was b/c of California's tax code-I've moved since but from what I can tell from just looking at their website it hasn't changed. as an example-

if your married/filing jointly taxable income is:


over $58,744 but below $81,546-tax is $1,448.36 plus 6.00% of amount over $58,744

add $1 in additional taxable earnings and it changes to

over $81,546 but below $103,060-tax is $2,816.48 plus 8.00% of amount over $81,546

so at minimum a $1 difference in taxable income can cost $1368.12 in additional taxes (and it gets uber scary in the higher brackets-jumping tens of thousands of dollars bracket to bracket).



and this is why it is the rule rather than the exception that most California retirees move to one of the 2 nearby states without state income tax (and in my case also w/ almost 2% lower sales tax vs. what I paid in California).

 

[PerfessorZ]

I think it was b/c of California's tax code-I've moved since but from what I can tell from just looking at their website it hasn't changed. as an example-

if your married/filing jointly taxable income is:


over $58,744 but below $81,546-tax is $1,448.36 plus 6.00% of amount over $58,744

add $1 in additional taxable earnings and it changes to

over $81,546 but below $103,060-tax is $2,816.48 plus 8.00% of amount over $81,546

so at minimum a $1 difference in taxable income can cost $1368.12 in additional taxes (and it gets uber scary in the higher brackets-jumping tens of thousands of dollars bracket to bracket).



and this is why it is the rule rather than the exception that most California retirees move to one of the 2 nearby states without state income tax (and in my case also w/ almost 2% lower sales tax vs. what I paid in California).

No. Tax on $81,545 would be $1,448.36 plus 6% of ($81,545-$58,744 = $22,801). 6% of $22,801 = $1,368.06. So your total taxes on $81,545 would be $2,816.42. Your taxes on $81,546 would be $2,816.48. 6 cents difference.

 

[yoopermom]

It's not a perfect analogy, but I think cost cutting is like dieting, there are only so many ways to do it.

I figure my greatest cost savings will be when our college age DS is no longer on our insurances (health and car). He's a good student, so we don't mind, but man he still costs us money !

Terri

 

[rigs32]

I think the tax discussion is relevant because so many people don't truly understand it.

For example, my employer allows us to cash out one week of vacation a year at 75 cents on the dollar. That payment ends up being taxed at the much higher rate applied to bonuses. So many colleagues had no idea they would get back much of that come tax time.

 

[morgan98]

I think the tax discussion is relevant because so many people don't truly understand it.

For example, my employer allows us to cash out one week of vacation a year at 75 cents on the dollar. That payment ends up being taxed at the much higher rate applied to bonuses. So many colleagues had no idea they would get back much of that come tax time.

You are so right about many people not understanding the tax code. And for many people, taxes are a large part of their budget, so not understanding how the system works can be a budget buster if it leads to wrong decisions being made about withholdings, earning more income, etc.

 

[barkley]

No. Tax on $81,545 would be $1,448.36 plus 6% of ($81,545-$58,744 = $22,801). 6% of $22,801 = $1,368.06. So your total taxes on $81,545 would be $2,816.42. Your taxes on $81,546 would be $2,816.48. 6 cents difference.

you may well be right, I'm not a cpa and the information I posted was what I directly cut and pasted from the California franchise tax board website. all I know is from MY personal experience and when my employer needed me to increase my hours back up the increase in my gross income resulted in net loss over the course of the year for our household.

I just suggested above that

never hurts to check.

what works for one person doesn't nesc. work for another, what may appear to one person as a HUGE cost savings practice is after I've mentally nickel and dimed out the cost actually more costly in my experience/opinion

 

[barkley]

I think the tax discussion is relevant because so many people don't truly understand it.

For example, my employer allows us to cash out one week of vacation a year at 75 cents on the dollar. That payment ends up being taxed at the much higher rate applied to bonuses. So many colleagues had no idea they would get back much of that come tax time.

I had many co-workers sadly surprised by the same thing. I remember one instance where it took a year and a half for the union to settle our contracts, and as part of the settlement my classification got a large one time lump sum payment-one of my co-workers didn't consider the tax implications and didn't even look at the direct deposit amount on the day we got the supplemental checks before going to the closing of a home she was purchasing and handing over a personal check for the down payment. our payroll had applied some kind of flat rate withholding that drastically reduced those checks-and my coworker was left trying to renegotiate the house purchase in addition to paying all the bounced check fees for it and the other purchases she had made on what she thought she would get.

 

[SirDuff]

you may well be right, I'm not a cpa and the information I posted was what I directly cut and pasted from the California franchise tax board website. all I know is from MY personal experience and when my employer needed me to increase my hours back up the increase in my gross income resulted in net loss over the course of the year for our household.

I just suggested above that

You copied it fine, but you did it wrong.

I think it was b/c of California's tax code-I've moved since but from what I can tell from just looking at their website it hasn't changed. as an example-

if your married/filing jointly taxable income is:


over $58,744 but below $81,546-tax is $1,448.36 plus 6.00% of amount over $58,744

add $1 in additional taxable earnings and it changes to

over $81,546 but below $103,060-tax is $2,816.48 plus 8.00% of amount over $81,546

so at minimum a $1 difference in taxable income can cost $1368.12 in additional taxes (and it gets uber scary in the higher brackets-jumping tens of thousands of dollars bracket to bracket).



and this is why it is the rule rather than the exception that most California retirees move to one of the 2 nearby states without state income tax (and in my case also w/ almost 2% lower sales tax vs. what I paid in California).

You are ignoring the PLUS 6.00% of amount over $58,744. To get a difference of $1,368.12, you just subtracted $1,448.36 from $2,816.48. But, the $1,448.36 would the tax of someone making $58,744 - way more than $1 less than $81,546. So, sure, someone making $81,546 pays $1,368.12 more in taxes than someone making $58,744 - but they are making $22,802 more too!

Nothing wrong with what you quoted from the site - just your interpretation of it.