Best Money Saving Tips

Money Saving Tips To Help You Get The Most Out Of Each Dollar: Part 1

These money saving tips come from different sources. Some that I realized myself from, being a stay at home dad for the last 5 years. Some from a book by Stacy Johnson called Life or Debt and some from a course about financial freedom I took a few years ago. I hope they help you.

The most important thing to remember is that all of the money saving tips in the world will not do you any good if you are not willing to change your attitude about your money.

Instead of thinking that it is something to get you through to the next paycheck, this week, or this month, start thinking about it as something that you have to try keep as much of as possible, so it will be there to take care of you when you can no longer work.

Start thinking about it as something that you have to nurture and make grow so that you and your family can have the type of future that you want. To you stay at home moms, spouses or partners that feel they don't earn enough money, there are things you can do to help. Pay attention to the next few paragraphs before the list even starts they are my choice for: ... and the best thing about it, is that they are free. You can do these things for yourself. If you start doing credit repair, switching to lower interest rates on some of your credit cards, pay down your debt faster, since the interest rates will be lower, your credit score will go up as your balances go down.

In that case it would make sense for you to refinance. If your credit score enables you to get a better interest rate and the fees involved will enable you to put a couple of extra hundred dollars each month back into your budget, why not do it? Especially if it's not going to eat up all of your equity. Our mortgage payment is lower now than it was when we first bought our home 6 years ago. I wrote letters to credit bureaus to get rid of inaccurate information on our credit reports, once that was taken care of I shopped around for lower interest charge cards and transferred balances and closed out the high interest cards.

Once the cards were down to a more manageable level, due to lower interest rates, I shopped around for a better rate on our mortgage. None of that would have been possible if we hadn't checked our credit reports first.

Even with consolidating what was left of our credit card debt, our mortgage payment is a few hundred dollars a month less than it was.

Once those major things were done I set out to work on our utilities, I did manage to lower the oil, our cablevision bill and our phone bill. You can make a difference, if you want to make the time to do it and put forth the effort to do it.

You do have to want to take the time to shop around. Ask questions, compare terms and prices. Check and discuss closing fees. These companies are going to take as much money from you as you allow them to.

These mortgage brokers and companies are not doing you a favor; they are going to make money off of you. Immediately, if they sell your loan to someone else, or for 15 to 30 years if they don't. Negotiate with them.

You need to shop around and ask questions of banks, credit card companies, utility companies, and mortgage companies just as you would if you are buying a new car or an appliance for your home.

Most of us don't usually walk into a car showroom and pick the first car we see, no matter what the terms are. You need to be even more vigilant with these companies than you are when you are buying a car or a washing machine. If you don't, you are not making your money go as far for you as it can.

Safeguard your credit score. Order your reports and make any corrections once a year. A good credit score gives you and your family many more options in the event of an emergency. You have many more possibilities with a good score than you do with a low one.

My wife’s good credit rating helped us get through the loss of her job a few years ago. I was a stay at home dad, so without an income my score didn't help much at the time. Because I have firsthand knowledge that this can help you save money, to me this is the most important money saving tip of all. As I said before though, money saving tips are not going to help you if you have the attitude that there is nowhere to cut because you don't go out much and you don't buy yourself many clothes anymore, etc.

I thought so too once, but I was wrong. Most people have at least some money that they are not spending wisely, lunch out every day or most days, coffee out at least once a day, fast food (which is not cheap anymore). We all do it or have done it. I know I have. In twenty five years of retail store management I shudder to think how much money I spent on coffee each day. My staff knew they had better ask me if I wanted a cup of coffee if they went out on a break.

You tell yourself you work hard and deserve it. But it really does add up. Most of us can cut back somewhere if we decide it's important enough for us to do so.

I do hope you follow the few tips that I just covered first because the majority of our money goes to housing, utilities and debt.

Also make an effort to follow Tip #1. It can really help to plug up some leaks. While we track our checking accounts and credit cards, we don't always track the cash in our pockets except for an errant thought that it's gone sooner than we expected

As one of my old store managers used to say (during his weekly, WAY TOO LONG meeting) “I just want to educate you.”

If I can educate and inspire just one of you to face and take control of their finances, I will be successful. Now on to the important stuff. Here are some more money saving tips:

• Money Saving Tip #1. Keep track of what you're spending. Use a notebook and write down what you are spending as you are spending it. It might help you to pinpoint some areas where you could be overspending. It also might stop you from making unnecessary purchases. If you are taking the time to write it down, you might also think twice about it. Make a point of asking yourself if it's a need or a want.
• Money Saving Tip #2. Set goals and make a budget. Stop living just for this week or this month, plan ahead. Treat your household like a business. Successful businesses plan for today and tomorrow.
• Money Saving Tip #3. Make your budget a family affair. Make sure your spouse and your children know the financial situation. Many times as parents we don't like to say no to our children because we want them to have a better life than we had.
  We don't always give our children enough credit. Explaining to them that you have to make some temporary cutbacks and that you can't afford to buy them as many things as you used to, could prevent many of the fights and tantrums there would be if things changed without any explanations.
• Money Saving Tip #4. Check the prices on your banking services and then shop around. With so much competition, many banks have done away with per check fees and minimum balance requirements.
  If you use your ATM card frequently, make sure that the bank has plenty of ATMS available, and find out about all of the fees involved. Call around to credit unions and see if they will accept you, they usually offer lower rates on loans and higher rates on savings.
• Money Saving Tip #5. Make your shopping list ahead of time. Whether you are going to the supermarket or the hardware store, it will cut down on impulse buys, especially if you make a conscious decision to stick to your lists.
• Money Saving Tip #6. Use coupons. Sunday's newspapers are full of coupons and many major supermarket chains have coupons that you can print online. Just enter coupons or free coupons into your favorite search engine and you should be able to get coupons for most of your shopping needs.
• Money Saving Tip #7. Don't go to the supermarket hungry. You usually spend more when you do. Try to shop only once a week, more trips to the supermarket provide more chances for impulse spending.
• Money Saving Tip #8. Pay attention while the cashier is checking you out. Those scanners are not perfect, sometimes not all of the sale items ring up for the prices they should.
  If you are busy packing your order when the cashier is checking you out, check your receipt when you get home and make notes on the items that are wrong. Get your refund the next time you go back if there were errors.
• Money Saving Tip #9. If it's possible try to get a babysitter and leave the kids home when you shop. If will prevent you from making impulse buys the the kids might cajole you into. My son is so quick sometimes that I don't even realize how many extra things he put in my cart until I'm checking out.
• Money Saving Tip #10. Join a warehouse club with a friend or relative. Split the cost of membership. Get together once a month and go shopping there. I know from experience that many of the items come in quantities that are more than most people need, but the price is so good it's hard to pass up. So figure out your bulk shopping needs together, split the bill then go home and split up the packages.

All money saving tips above are the ones that have worked best for me. I hope they work for you too. Try them, you have nothing to lose, and much to gain. Why not keep more of your money if you can. All it takes is the right attitude, a conscious decision to pay more attention to how you are spending. It works, try it.