Save serious money. Easy once you start

[The Man]

Hello everyone,

I do not know about the rest of you, but I use to spend $20 dollars or more a day, on eating out at restaurants. 5 days a week and that's $100 dollars a week, or $400 dollars a month, or more. To spend $400 dollars a month in Canada anyway, you need to earn $800 dollars.

Half your pay check, gets taken right away, by the government. For government programs that don't last very long (unemployment insurance) or are hard to get on, or not enough, to live on. It only gets worst and worst, as time goes by. They take more, and offer less, in return.

So buying a really good thermos bottle or two, to hold some lunch, and supper in, if need be, can save you lots of $$$ money $$$ in the long run.

Eat one day a week this way and you save $80 dollars a month or more.
Eat two days a week this way and you save $160 dollars a month or more.
Etc up to 5 days a week and save $400 dollars a month or more.

What's this in years and decades.

So you can see, a really good thermos bottle is not a expend, but a investment. One of the best investments you can make, that pays for itself, in maybe less than a month, and you start getting a return on your investment, in a really big way, and right away.

Preheat the thermos bottle in the morning, with hot water from the tap. Heat up the leftover food from yesterday, and put it into the thermos bottle. Should stay warm all day this way. You are really helping the environment too, and helping the electrical grid, at the same time. Oh yea, helping your own pocket book to. Everybody wins.

To be young again. Oh well.

One more thing, that can save you even more money, and just as fast. If you have lots of teenagers especially. You need to remind people like your spouse and teenagers, to do this repeatedly, and maybe reward them for doing this. The carrot and the stick approach. Some extra money for them.

Buy power bars that have a lighted on/off switch. To make it easy to see, when the power bar is on, or off.

Many women, and teenagers, use curling irons, and hair dryers, and such. I have noticed, they like to leave these heavy power using devices turned on, the low power setting. Which still uses huge amounts of power. Maybe 400 or 500 watts of power each still, on the low power setting.

So 2 of them, use 800 to 1000 watts of power just sitting there. All day, every day, 365 days a year.

What they need to do is, keep them turned on the low power, or warm setting, but turn off the power bar, so the lighted switch is off. When they get up in the mourning, they can turn it on, just before they have a shower. When, they come out of the shower, it will be warmed up for them. Then, they can turn it on full power, for usage.

After they are done using the hair dryer, or whatever, they can set it to low power, as they usually do, and turn off the lighted (power) switch, on the power bar, to have it turned off. So no power usage.

You should see a huge decrease in your power usage, and hence power bill, by the end of the month.

Sometimes power meter readers (employees) just (average) your power reading for your bill. Make sure they are not doing this. Call them yourself and ask. Complain to other people, your neighbors, to your local newspapers(s). Ask, how to check for power usage yourself, using there power meter. Better yet, have the local newspaper(s) demand an answer for the paper, explaining how to do this, for everyone to know. It's in writing then.

If you have a older meter where a disk spins. Check before hand. It should spin much slower, after doing this, for at lease 23 out of 24 hours a day. 365 days a year.

Hope this helps. Really good return on investments, if you look at it that way.

Laptops use less power then desktops. Probably cheaper to keep laptops on all night, then desktops for downloads, off the internet. Probably save enough every year or two, to buy new laptops for everyone, this way. Cheaper anyway, if something must stay on, all the time. With a external hard drive if needed.

George Collins

 

[jimLE]

I rarely eat out. Even then, it'll most n likely be mC Donald's drive thru. But yet, I'll treat myself to something nicer. I keep peanut butter cookies from dollar tree in the console. I always take a 32oz bottle of water with me, when I'll be out for 2hr's or more.the thormes is a great idea. Especially during the winter.i use rechargeable batteries,instead of non-rechargable. It cost less then 1 cent per month to have good batteries in my flashlights,if I figure right. .i live 6 miles from town. So I always make sure my trips to town,are worth it. I love to bake what ever meat I'm cooking. So I bake enough for a few days. Just heat n eat. I always plan my trips to town. This way I do the least amount of driving. And still get home with what I need and want. Maybe with a couple of extra items.

 

[Brent S]

I am a big believer in saving. If you don't, you're doomed to always be poor. The tips mentioned above are good, but there are loads of ways to save money. First off, live within your means. If you can't afford to pay three quarters of the car your driving in cash then you can't afford that car. Cars are one of the top ways Americans go into debt they can't afford. Second, don't use credit cards, period. That being said, I do use cards, but NEVER leave a balance on them. I haven't paid a cent in interest in years. Eating out is in my top five ways to piss away your money, but I believe staying out of debt is at the top of the list. Back to the topic of saving, just do it. Have a small portion of your pay go directly into a savings account. It is easier when you don't see it, and before long it starts to build up. Life is always going to have unexpected things pop up, from car repairs to whatever. Knowing this, it's nuts not to be prepared for them financially too. I hear many say they don't make enough to save anything. Anyone can save a little by cutting out a little of something they do.

 

[Maverick]

A lot of the light switches I have here are not switches per-say but 60 minute mechanical timers in some areas 30 minute mechanical timers.

I use thermos bottles (all 9 from the 70s) everyday plus my old 60s hotpot though coffee and hot water are made and heated by gas or wood stove. I've converted all my lighting over to LEDs including the night lights. About the only power usage is the fridges, freezers (electric/gas) plus the battery misers for all the equipment not run everyday and the well pumps as needed. I have no electric heat, I have AC but very very seldom used, water heater is on demand gas, stove and range is gas but not used that much in the winter since we cook on the wood stove. Our electric usage is at a minimum, all other energy usage is paid in advance (propane and wood) We can easily go off grid but I'm not the only one living on the property (kids like the conveniences) plus my Wife has certain work items in her lab that requires electricity.

 

[Gazrok]

My tips.

1. Light Bulbs. Gradually replace all of your existing old school light bulbs to LED ones. They use way less energy (and last much longer), and have really come down in price lately.

2. Put a timer on your water heater. This is a huge one.

3. Get a thermostat with a timer for your AC. No need to keep the house cool when you aren't home (set it to come on an hour before you get home).

4. Check windows and doors for a good seal. Now many will say to replace them, etc. with more efficient ones...Sure, if your last name is Rockefeller, but it's relatively cheap to make a tighter seal for these instead.

5. Eating out every day? No. Just make a little extra dinner, and take leftovers for lunch the next day. If you can't cook meals costing (on average) $5 a person or less, then you are doing something really wrong. If a given meal goes over this, that's fine, kind of a luxury thing, but on average, that's my goal.

6. Motion and solar sensor outdoor lights. So you don't leave them on during the day, and for security reasons.

7. Sales and couponing. Take a little of your time and compare sales at different grocery stores (for example, the main two I go to, change sales every Wed/Thur respectively). Big difference between spending $5 and change for a 12pk of soda vs. $3 for the same, if on sale at the other store. BOGO (buy one, get one free) items are also something to watch for. Can't tell you how much I save each week on these. Most stores even have digitial coupons, and often, you can stack both a manufacturer, AND store coupon. (and most accept coupons from competitors). If you are in an area that allows double or even triple coupons, you're an idiot not to use them.

8. Discount Grocery Stores. Save-A-Lot, Aldi, and the like can be great (for some things). You can't do ALL of your shopping in these, but if you hit them FIRST, you may save a lot of dough on your groceries, on those items that ARE good to get here. You'll have to kind of feel these out by exploring them a bit. Generally, you save here most on meat (most have a surprisingly high quality meat section) , dairy, and frozen goods. (be sure to bring your own canvas grocery bags though, as that's one of the ways they save).

9. Warehouse stores. I'd only recommend this if feeding about 4 or more people. Otherwise, large containers are simply too much to use at one time. Unless of course, you have ways handy to repackage smaller amounts.

10. Plastic Food Sealer. Buy the family packs of meat for the cheaper price, then split it up for meals and repack it in sealed bags. Same thing for leftovers, make your own microwave diner for work tomorrow. (I like to get those plastic containers that have 2 or 3 divided areas, for a main and sides). This thing is just a godsend tool. And no more freezer burn.

11. Standing Freezer. I picked up mine off Craigslist for $60. That way, you can take advantage of sales, and stock up. I like the standing one, as it's easy to see what I have, so I don't buy things I already have.

12. An organized pantry. How many times have you bought something only to find you already had it at the house?

13. Pets. Stop buying canned pet food. You can easily make your own in a crock pot (get the crock pot bags for easy cleanup), and then store for the week in a large plastic container in the fridge. Cheap meats (chicken livers, gizzards, on sale meat (nothing over $3 a pound), dinner scraps, rice, etc. (plenty of recipes on the web), and doing so is way cheaper (and healthier) than the cans. We do this for both dogs and cats, and it saves SO much money each week. For dry food, buy BIG bags (and store in a large sealed container).

14. Shop using the PER UNIT method. Often, it's not easy to see if one size/option is actually cheaper than another. Each store tag typically has a "per oz" price, or similar. Compare THIS price when looking to see if buying a bigger package actually works out cheaper.

15. Store brand items. Often, these are made by name brand companies, for the stores, but just save on the advertising. Of course, this is hit or miss, but you'd be surprised. For example, Publix (a southeast grocer chain) wins a lot of awards for its ice cream (which I believe is made by Breyers).

Hope these help.

 

[Brent S]

I will say too, it's not how much you make but how wisely you handle what you do make. Money is just a tool, use it to your advantage.