We've done the grocery tips, how about general money saving tips....

[Mickey & Minnie Mom]

I buy clothes one season ahead. I prefer Carters, OshKosh & other name brands, so when the end of the season rolls around & those are the ones on clearance, I buy the sizes my kids will wear the following year. And when they are 50% off the clearance price, you can get a lot more for your money. Shop a lot at Kohls...their discounts are the best.

I also buy gym shoes/dress shoes ahead. Today, I picked up size 9T mary janes for my DD even though she's only in a 6T now. But for $4 I had to. She'll probably only where them with her Christmas dress once anyway.

 

[Melissa M]

Clean your bathroom and kitchen with baking soda and vinegar. It costs a lot less and it is better for the environment.

Switch to a low cost internet service provider. My current service is $10.00 per month. The service is just as good as my previous provider that charged $21.95 per month.

Packing my lunch rather than eating out is what is paying for our trip. Soooo simple, with such a huge payoff!

 

[disneysteve]

Originally posted by Mickey & Minnie Mom
I also buy gym shoes/dress shoes ahead. Today, I picked up size 9T mary janes for my DD even though she's only in a 6T now. But for $4 I had to. She'll probably only where them with her Christmas dress once anyway.

But how do you know that she will be a size 9T at the right time of year to wear them? Our DD keeps growing like a weed and there is no possible way we could predict a season or more in advance what will fit. We have enough trouble with her constantly outgrowing the clothes she already has. We're looking forward to the point in the not too distant future when she can wear her mother's clothes which will save some money for a while until she outgrows those as we fully expect her to be taller than Mom.

 

[Mickey & Minnie Mom]

Originally posted by disneysteve
But how do you know that she will be a size 9T at the right time of year to wear them? Our DD keeps growing like a weed and there is no possible way we could predict a season or more in advance what will fit. We have enough trouble with her constantly outgrowing the clothes she already has.

So far, I haven't had a problem with my kids wearing the next size larger each season. While sometimes, some clothes get smaller sooner (various brands), they'll wear those more at the beginning of the season until they are just too small.

There are certain brands that run smaller/larger so I have just learned which ones to buy. Sometimes the shirt & pant sizes will be different as well since the pants seem to run larger on my kids -- guess they won't be the tallest in class!

I am pretty sure she'll be able to wear them, and if not, it was only $4. I can always give them to a friend or resell them at a garage sale. It is easier with gym shoes of course. Those are year round & the styles seem to be close to the same year after year.

Like I said, luckily it works for our family. Wish it could for you too since it does save a lot of money for us!

 

[adriannabannana]

In regards to the fabric softener tip, I'd like to add that you can make your bath towels (in fact, all towels and wash cloths) last longer if you don't use fabric softener on them at all, and you line dry or hang dry them. I got this tip from a West Point Stevens factory outlet manager here in town. It will also make them far more absorbant.

Another little trick of mine is to write the purpose of each of my sponges on them with laundry marker, then put them through the dishwasher when they start to get scrungy. It really helps to keep them from getting gross too quickly.

I use the waste from our document shredder as kindling for the wood burning stove in the winter, and as packing material for things I have to ship.

Coupon Bug, sometimes it's great, sometimes it stinks...

I always check price against volume. For example, you have to check the total square footage that you'll get with each brand of paper towel to determine if you're really getting a bargan.

I sew, so long sleeve shirts that are grown-out of become short sleeve play shirts, jeans into shorts, ect.

Wash your clothes with the lowest heat setting possible. I never use hot water to wash clothes anymore, even with whites I use warm/cold. It's saved us about $20 a month right there. We're also going to replace our tank electric water heater with a tankless gas unit. The best ones have a battery powered ignition, so you don't waste any energy at all.

 

[mrsbornkuntry]

Everyone has such great ideas, and alot of them I hadn't heard before!

I just wanted to point out that washing clothes in cold water does not kill germs, only hot water and bleach will. My son had a stem cell transplant for leukemia and didn't have an immune system for a year so we were instructed by the hospital to wash absolutely everything with hot water. So if someone in your house has been sick or gets sick frequently you may not want to wash with cold or warm.

 

[Ozymoe]

Originally posted by grlpwrd
...use meat styrofoam trays to insulate around your outlets

OK...how do I do this?

Which outlets?

 

[adriannabannana]

Originally posted by mrsbornkuntry
Everyone has such great ideas, and alot of them I hadn't heard before!

I just wanted to point out that washing clothes in cold water does not kill germs, only hot water and bleach will. My son had a stem cell transplant for leukemia and didn't have an immune system for a year so we were instructed by the hospital to wash absolutely everything with hot water. So if someone in your house has been sick or gets sick frequently you may not want to wash with cold or warm.

Excellent point. I still use bleach, but you're right about the temp.

Ozymoe, you can use the free meat styrofoam, or they sell the same pretty cheaply for a roll. You remove the switch plate covers, and outlet covers, and cut the foam to fit. Then you just replace the covers, and wala--no more cold air coming in from the outlets. (also, no heat coming in during the summer)

There's a product called "Great Stuff" that can patch up spaces around pipes and such, and is naturally insulative. It's fairly cheap, but be prepared to use the whole can at once, or it hardens up. Just scout out your spaces first, then have at it.
Edited to add:
I've never used it around electrical outlets/wiring, and I don't know if it's safe for that. I wouldn't try it unless you check with an electrician first. It's excellent for around windows and drafty areas, and can be cut or sanded down flush with any surface. I've even painted it with latex paint to disguise it.

 

[PrincessDadx2]

1. Set up automatic deductions - Spending always rises to available cash. If you don't go to Starbucks you hit the vending machine or buy a newspaper or a lottery ticket or a.... You can't spend money you never have.

2. Library - I am selling all of my books on Amazon.com and just using the library. Every reference book is now free on the internet. So far I have cleared $1,500 selling books.

3. Costco - My executive membership pays for my annual fees and I get cheap gas + everything else. Some items are more expensive, but overall I save a bunch and only have one stop to make.

 

[Lynn CC]

This is my all time favorite $ saving tip for everyone who is paying a mortgage on a house. It was given to DH and I years ago, by a friend of the families,when we were just married.
He told us to....
Pay Double the Principle each month. It takes a month off the end of the mortgage. We really couldn't afford to do this but we saved whereever else possible and paid off our 30 year mortgage in 16 years by just doing that each and every month.
You have to be consistant. We started off paying less than $50 extra each month and then it was more and more as the years went on.
It's such a great feeling to be in our very early 40's with no mortgage!
I hope someone else can do it to

Make sure that you monitor your mortgage (I printed out mine each month online) and that the extra money is being put toward the principle each month.
Oh, and our interest was 91/4% I never lowered it over the 16 years because by the time mortgage rates started coming down I only had a few years left to pay, so I just never bothered.

 

[disneysteve]

Originally posted by Lynn CC
Pay Double the Principle each month.

our interest was 9-1/4%.

While prepaying your mortgage may have been a good idea with a 9.25% loan, it probably isn't such a great idea at current rates. For example, our rate is 5.875%. After taxes, that drops to a real rate of less than 4.5%. So prepaying the loan is equivalent to earning less than a 4.5% return on our money. Even in today's economic environment, I'm pretty confident that I can do quite a bit better than that by investing that money elsewhere. Just putting the money in an S&P 500 index fund would far outpace that return, even after taxes and fees are counted in.

Also, by prepaying the loan, you lose the time value of compounding on your investments. So prepaying your mortgage will save you money on one hand, but it may cost you in the form of lost opportunity to earn more on the other hand.

 

[MELSMICE]

Some great tips here.

--I hate it - but I started ironing my DH's shirts instead of taking them to the dry cleaners! UGH - it's a struggle for me, but I do it.

--Eat at home more often.

--Buy things in bulk or stock up when they're on sale. You need to spend a chunk of money, but in the long run it saves because you don't have to pay full price for the items you need or enjoy.

--Found a great deli in our area that has very inexpensive deli meats that are outstanding.

--Shop at discount grocery stores (Save-A-Lot & Aldi's) Only go to the major grocery stores for buy 1-get 1 items or meat sales, or specific items that we enjoy.

--Only shop sale racks & especially look for things on clearance racks.

--When my DD's were smaller I would also buy clothes that were on clearance for the following season. I never had a problem getting the right size for them. It always seemed like they were a size bigger than their age (example - if they were 3 then I would buy them a 4T for the following year). This saved a lot of money & I was able to buy designer clothing for them. It's harder now that they are older, however, over the summer we bought short sleeve shirts that were darker colors for the beginning of the school year. I know it will technically be "fall" but it's always warm enough for short sleeve shirts. When the sweaters go on sale in a month or so, I'll get them at that time for the winter months.

--We are also paying our mortgage off early. For us, this is the best money saver. Could we invest it somewhere else - probably - but when my DD's go to college we hope to have our home paid for & be able to use that money for college expenses. When they are done, we are planning on using that "mortgage" money to invest in real estate in Florida! (near Disney, of course).

 

[jann1033]

Originally posted by minnie1928
I

Here's some of mine:
1. Cancel your line maintenance on your phone bill, odds are that you will never need it and the phone company knows this!

/B]

this is especially true if your repair man is my alltel repair man who refuses to fix anything he did not install...hello i pay for that service and hello you are not the only repair man alive...we have had lousy phone service since we moved here( 2 yrs of static and hearing other peoples conversations and getting thrown off the net) and he refuses to fix it ( it was wired by the same licensed electrican who wired the rest of the house btw) unfortuantly we always get him ( evidently they have an area and he is our assigned guy) and they will not "force" him to come in and fix it" which sure isn't in the "fine Print' when you sign up for the service...what a joke!!! and a waste of money for sure

vent over... breath deep... relax... think of a happy place

 

[disneysteve]

3 other tips came to mind.

Phone - If you are paying for your home phone to do anything other than ring when someone calls, cancel all the extra stuff. You don't really need caller ID, call waiting, call forwarding, voice messaging, 3-way calling or any other nonsense. Just get basic phone service and pick up a $19.99 answering machine at Target and you're all set.

Long Distance - If you are paying more than 5-cents per minute, change companies. There are plenty of choices out there and it is not tough to find a 3-cent/minute rate.

Cable TV - If you live in an area where there is broadcast TV (near any major city pretty much), ask your cable company about "antenna service." This is the most basic service they offer but they don't generally tell anyone it exists. Around us, Comcast charges $10/month for this service which delivers just the channels you can get with an antenna but the picture is cable-quality. There is no need to be paying $40 or more per month to watch TV. (Personally, we don't have cable at all but I just learned about the $10/month deal and plan to sign up).

 

[Lynn CC]

DisneySteve.... I have to ponder a bit when you say that paying off your mortgage isn't the best route to take, I believe it is at any rate of interest that you are paying.

By Paying off our mortgage in 16 years we saved $97,000+.
We did save in our IRA's as well, I didn't mean this to be in place of that, it's just in addition to normal savings.

Afterall, Everyones main goal should be to be debt free, in all aspects, ie credit card bills, car loans, mortgage or any other type of loan.
It's tough in today's market, I wouldn't want to be just starting out.

 

[MELSMICE]

Originally posted by Lynn CC
DisneySteve.... I have to ponder a bit when you say that paying off your mortgage isn't the best route to take, I believe it is at any rate of interest that you are paying.

By Paying off our mortgage in 16 years we saved $97,000+.
We did save in our IRA's as well, I didn't mean this to be in place of that, it's just in addition to normal savings.

Afterall, Everyones main goal should be to be debt free, in all aspects, ie credit card bills, car loans, mortgage or any other type of loan.
It's tough in today's market, I wouldn't want to be just starting out.

When I posted last night I was tired & couldn't think of a "tactful" way to say that I disagreed with DisneySteve about the mortgage thing - thanks for saying it for me.

We are also still saving in SEP's, children's college accounts, IRA's, & purchasing stocks, along with paying our mortgage off early. We will also save thousands & thousands of $'s by paying the mortgage off early.

 

[PrincessDadx2]

Originally posted by Lynn CC
DisneySteve.... I have to ponder a bit when you say that paying off your mortgage isn't the best route to take, I believe it is at any rate of interest that you are paying.

By Paying off our mortgage in 16 years we saved $97,000+.
We did save in our IRA's as well, I didn't mean this to be in place of that, it's just in addition to normal savings.

Afterall, Everyones main goal should be to be debt free, in all aspects, ie credit card bills, car loans, mortgage or any other type of loan.
It's tough in today's market, I wouldn't want to be just starting out.

Totally depends on the situation. Don't miss the forest for the trees. Many people paid off their 6% mortgage in 1982 when the 30 year T bond was like 14%. They "saved" $97,000, but lost the $200,000 they could have made in the T bond.

In todays low rate environment if you are not a saavy investor I think prepaying is a good idea. I am willing to take the investment risk and I think that I can easily earn 2% more than my current mortgage rate on a tax adjusted basis. 2% compounded for 30 years will make a huge difference in my net worth at the end of the time.

 

[disneysteve]

The "prepay your mortgage" topic is always a hot one. So let me add a few comments.

1. I respect and commend everyone who is doing something to save for the future. Far too many people in this country are living beyond their means and doing little to nothing to prepare for the future. So if you are funding your 401K, 403B, IRA, 529, etc., that's great.

2. Everyone's risk tolerance is different. Some of us are willing to keep a significant percentage of our assets in the stock market in order to get a higher return on our money. Others would never be able to sleep at night if their money wasn't somewhere where it was all but guaranteed.

3. There are a lot of emotional and psychological issues associated with how we handle our money and that has a big impact on our investment decisions.

From a strictly financial standpoint, it doesn't make sense to prepay a 6% mortgage if there are other investments available that would earn you 10 or 12% on your money. Since 1976, Vanguard 500 Index fund has had an average annual return of 12.17%. That's a pretty good track record over nearly 30 years. No guarantee that will continue in the future but I'm willing to risk it. Others may not be and that's fine, too.

The emotional issue is not to be ignored. Since 1993, I have been prepaying my student loans. I absolutely could have earned more on my money elsewhere but I hated having the loans. Had I not prepayed, I would still be paying them when my own child is in college and I just couldn't see doing that. So I knowingly sacrificed the higher earnings to get out of that debt.

Prepaying your mortgage might make sense in certain situations, but in general I think you can do better by investing elsewhere if you are so inclined.

And I'm not sure I agree that everyone's goal should be to be debt free. That is only true IF you have built a large enough nest egg to live comfortably. It would do you no good to have zero savings but a paid off mortgage when you retire. I'd rather have a big investment portfolio and have to write a check each month.

I hope no one took offense at my comments - they certainly weren't meant to criticize. Prepaying your mortgage WILL save you thousands of dollars. I just wanted to point out that other investments may make your gains even higher.

 

[imsayin]

I hope no one took offense at my comments - they certainly weren't meant to criticize. Prepaying your mortgage WILL save you thousands of dollars. I just wanted to point out that other investments may make your gains even higher.

Not that we are picking sides, but I totally agree with Steve's theory.

 

[Muushka]

Instead of using the conventional 'incandescent' lightbulbs, switch to the flourescent ones that fit into your lamps. There are 3 advantages:

1. Saves quite a bit in electricity (not sure how much, but in the 75% range I think)

2. The bulbs last several years (something like 10X longer than incandescent)

3. In the summertime, you will appreciate the 'coolness' of your lighting fixtures!

They can be purchased in bulk at Sams Club and Home Depot. They come in a package of 5 or 6 for $10 to $12. Yes, they are much more expensive than the conventional bulb, but I think the benefits outweigh the extra cost.

They seem to come in 2 wattages. 13 and 26, but they are much brighter in reality. Isn't this fun!!!! Dontcha love to save money!!!