Save It Somewhere

This is a guest post from Tracie over at Penny Pinchin’ Mom. To check out more of her posts, go here. Thanks Tracie!

TELEPHONE

The next time you get your telephone bill, take a look at the services you are paying for vs. what you are using.  If you pay for items such as call forwarding, voice mail, 3 way calling, analyze if you are using them or not.  If not, cut that from your bill.  Many times, these services are already included in your basic, plan, but some companies still charge extra.

You can also eliminate your telephone bill by shutting down your land line.  This is becoming more and more common place for families.  You are already paying for the cell phone service, so why pay for two different phone numbers?  This may not be an option for your and your family, but one you might want to seriously consider if you need to shave some money out of your budget.

AIR CONDITIONING / ELECTRICITY

As summer is knocking on our doors (and actually already here for many), the air conditioning units are going to get a work-out.  There are a few ways to save on your energy bill this summer.

Did you know that appliances still draw electricity when they are not in use?  If you unplug that lamp or TV when you are not using them you can cut down on your utility bill.  We actually have a power strip that shuts down our TV, satellite dish and Bly-ray player when the TV is off.  So none of those draws juice when not in use.   Something as simple as leaving the television on when you are not in the room is wasting you (and the environment) precious electricity, which equals money.  Just get into the habit of shutting everything of when you leave the room, you can begin to save money.

Adjust your thermostat.  When you are not home, turn your thermostat up.  The easiest way to do this is through a through the use of a programmable thermostat.  These can be set to increase the temperature inside of your home during the day and then can be lowered around the time you will be getting home at night.  In addition, when your thermostat is adjusted so it is not requiring as much electricity, your other appliances do not work as hard to get the juice they need in order to run.  Be sure to start your unit’s cool down earlier in the afternoon so as to not compete with others around 5:00 p.m., which is when usage is normally hitting it’s peak.

HEATING

I realize that it is nearly summer, but you can save on your heating bill this coming winter.

Once again, adjust your thermostat.  Just as we do in the summertime, lowering your thermostat to be 5 – 10 degrees cooler at night can save as much as 5 – 10% off of your utility bill.  Once again, a programmable thermostat can help you easily accomplish this.  Just change your settings once  fall/winter comes.  Oh – and to keep warm -  throw on a sweater or toss an extra blanket on the bed to help keep yourself nice and warm.

WATER

It is amazing how much money can be lost through the use of water.  There are some easy ways you can save here as well.

When summer brings it’s sweltering heat, we all see our plants and yard suffering.  While having a gorgeous green lawn is wonderful (I love mine too), a little brown won’t hurt.  So, don’t spend hours watering your yard.  If you have a sprinkler system, be sure that it first of all has a rain sensor and doesn’t kick on when you’ve recently received moisture.  Secondly, be sure you do not water more than once or twice  week and for a short period of time – if not at all.

The most important thing to keep in mind about watering is do NOT water in the heat of the sun.  Water in the very early morning (5:00 am if you can) as your precious water will not evaporate away.   I’ll admit that by mid-July, a lot of my plants start to look a little wilted, so I will put some water on them from time to time, but it is certainly NOT a daily occurrence.

Turn off the water when not in use.  This may sound simple, but do you leave the water running when you brush your teeth?  Why not shut it off when you are brushing and not actually rinsing?  Do you need to spend 10 minutes taking a shower?  Why not try to shave off 5 minutes from your shower time and see how much water you can save.

Be sure to check for any leaky faucets or toilets in your home.  It may not seem like much water loss, but it doesn’t take much to create a gallon of wasted water, which is money your are pouring down your drain (literally).  The cost for a new faucet will outweigh the cost of your wasted water.

CABLE / SATTELLITE

It is really good to compare your current plant to a competitor’s plan.  Many times,  you can get some great sign-on rebates when you switch, which is nice.  However, you need to take a look at company reviews and the plans they offer.

Sure, it would be great to have every channel the company offers or most of your channels in Hi-def — but check the prices. Do you watch enough of those channels to warrant the additional cost?  One way to check this is to see if you could rent the movie through on-demand or another rental service vs. the cost of what you pay/watch.  Just by dropping to a lower tier of television channels, you can knock some money off of your bill.  Does watching the evening news in Hi-Def really matter?  Maybe you can live without Hi-Def broadcasting as well, which can save you cash as well.

I am absolutely not advising everyone to follow every step I listed here.  Just take a look through this list and make the changes that work for your family.  If there isn’t anything I can’t stand it is the rising cost of utilities, so I just do what I need to do, in order to try to stay ahead of the game.

Thanks Tracie!

This is a guest post from Staying Lean In Oakland County. To check out more of her posts, go here. Thanks!

Tashena Lynette Gonzales is the author of  http://stayingleaninoaklandcounty.blogspot.com/ and is a Bilingual Supply Chain Specialist by day and frugal blogger at night.  She uses her education in the field of marketing, her experience as a consumer and the plethora of frugal experts already on the web to try to bring tips on frugal living to those in her area of metro Detroit, while still looking for on-line deals that other readers can enjoy nationally.

This is a guest post from Courtney over at My Dallas Mommy. To check out more of her posts, go here. Thanks Courtney!

That pretty much sums up what I do here and most likely what you think when you read this blog. How can you possibly find the time to get all those coupons, do all those deals and still have a life? The answer: you don’t.

I decide what deals to post and what ones to do myself. I do not do every deal that I post. We don’t need all of that. I could make a full time job of just doing deals and buying stuff.

You need to make the decision for what is best for your situation. Today, I challenge you to sit down and think about your reasons, your goals and your plan for saving money.

Reason might be easy. Job loss, desire to get out of debt, stay out of debt, change in family status and so many other reasons. My reason is for fun. (No, not just for the love of the deal, but that helps.) Before I started really getting into the deals, we weren’t having any fun. We were working to pay the bills and not enjoying ourselves. You can read more about How I Got Started “Dealing”.

Goal might be harder to pinpoint. If you are cutting back because you need to, an end goal might not be so easy to see. At first, all you see is the reason, you NEED to save because you don’t have money to spend. I encourage to you create a goal. How much do you need to save? Having any goal is better than none, and knowing why you set that goal helps you stay on track. If you don’t know what you are aiming for, how do you ever plan on hitting it?

Plan how you are going to get there. Sure, grocery and drug store sales will help you get there, but sometimes cutting back in other areas will make as big a difference. I also suggest you write your plan down and review it often. It will help you keep your eye on the big picture when you want to break from the plan.

In the end, decide what is right for your situation. We enjoy several weekend trips away every year and do lots of bowling, movies and events with our kids. Without coupons and deals, we would not be able to do this without furthering our debt. We pay down more debt than we accumulate. This is what works for us. I’m sure that if we wanted to, we could spend the next 1-2 years only doing free stuff and pay off most of our debt, but it’s our choice not too. As long as we are getting ahead and not behind, we are happy.

Don’t feel guilty or feel that you need to justify your decisions to people outside your family. (Unless someone else is paying your bills, if it’s their money I feel that you need to have accountability to them. My opinion.) I make no apologies for our decisions. I’ve seen as many advertisements for a debt free life as you have. There’s a fine line between total financial freedom and being a slave to money. I don’t have the first and am not the second!

Two things prompted me to write this post.

One, I had a great conversation the other day in which the lady I was talking to was “amazed” when I mentioned packing our own food for a hotel. We were talking about spring break plans and I told her about a nice price I found on a place we had been wanting to go. I then mentioned that we were packing most of our own food for the trip. We got into a discussion about the types of things I prepare and how we keep it healthy.

Two, I overheard some other ladies talking about their spring break plans and how “eating out is necessary when you’re travelling”. I want to let you know that it is NOT! The amount of eating out you do is a direct result of your desire and effort.

We take several small vacations a year. Part of what makes it more affordable is packing our own food. We will spend some money on snacks and a meal or two out over the course of three days. Our hotel does not provide breakfast, but our room will have a microwave, mini fridge and coffee pot. We will pack one cooler and an additional bag or two of food.

My cooler will contain a gallon of milk, some juice/juice pouches, slices of french toast from my freezer, margarine, lunchmeat, cheese, condiments, frozen veggies, fresh fruits/veggies, and meats/main dishes.

I am planning nachos for one night in the hotel! We will simply warm the already prepared taco meat in the microwave, put it over chips, add cheese/veggies/sour cream/salsa and enjoy. Our other hotel dinner this time around is planned as ham that we will warm in the microwave with water, instant mashed potatoes and Green Giant Steamers Corn (all prepared in the microwave).

One bag that we take will be packed with snacks. I like to load it with granola bars, fruit bars, chips, crackers and cookies. These make good snacks on the road and in the hotel between meals and running around!

Another bag will be bread, cereal, canned fruits/veggies, larger bags of chips/snacks, styrofoam plates/bowls and plastic cutlery/cups.

It’s all about planning in my book. We’ve taken Family Size Banquet Entrees in the past. We’ve also done individual microwave pizzas, pizza rolls and bagel bites when we have had them in the freezer from a good sale. We even took a crockpot and did a roast in a waterpark hotel once. We were in and out of the room every couple hours at the most that day and were able to keep an eye on it.

I would love to hear what you have done to save money on food when travelling. Please share your ideas in the comments. I would love to be inspired!