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ARTICLES: EIGHT TIPS FOR SAVING YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY
My wife, Betsy, and I recently had our first child. During Betsy's pregnancy, and certainly now that we have an
infant, we tended to go out less than we used to. We like to entertain and our friends, none of whom have children,
and they are great about coming over for dinner rather than going out; so we are not shut-ins. Still though, we
spend more nights at home as a family than we did a year ago. Now, on the weekends, we frequently rent a movie;
okay, we rent two movies. Three or four weekends a month, on my way home from work, I would be on my cell phone
speaking to Betsy, standing in front of the new releases in Blockbuster. We would hold heavy negotiations over
the phone, each making concessions and compromises. In the end I'd be leaving Blockbuster with a romantic comedy
and an action flick, with just over $8 less in my wallet. We did this for a few months until I realized we were
paying somewhere between $25 and $35 per month for movies. Since we probably were not going to go out much more,
I switched to NetFlix and now spend $14.99 per month on unlimited movies per month. We can have 2 movies out at
a time and don't even need to drive to the store. I can also log onto our account and move all of my romantic
comedy picks ahead of my wife's action movies in the queue. Without making any changes to our habit, we saved
between $10 and $17 per month.
My premise for saving $100 per month is this: things that take planning are harder to do and less likely to be
done than those things that take no planning. If you want to save money, find expenses you can eliminate without
thinking or planning.
I read an article about a guy who spent $150 per month on food (about 1/3 of what I spend on food for myself).
He never ate out; he clipped coupons throughout the week and went grocery shopping every Sunday morning right
when the sales started. He would plan his "menu" based on what he had in his house and what was on sale.
Great! More power to him, but I am not going to spend time clipping coupons and researching what meals I can make
with what ingredients are on sale. I don't have time, and I do not want to spend my relaxation time analyzing
if Ralph's is selling Top Romin for less than Von's this week.
In most cases, I am not going to spend my extra time planning to save money. What I can do is identify expenses
in my life to eliminate that take no time. By canceling a subscription, not stopping for coffee in the morning,
or changing how we rent movies, I do not have to plan. It requires no time out of my schedule; it actually saves
time and saves money. If you clip coupons and like the "challenge" of only buying what is on sale at
your grocery store, great, but if you are still trying to save money, try some of these tips.
1. Go out for dinner one less
time per month. If you are
like Betsy and me, this will save between $25 and $50 per month easily. If you are looking just to get out, try
going to a book signing, frozen yogurt, or a power walk down the beach.
2. Do you eat out for lunch?
This is a recommendation
that cuts against my "no planning" somewhat, but don't eat out for lunch! Eating lunch takes no time,
but if you eat out, you need to drive to and from lunch. If there is no good business reason to eat out (if there
is, your company probably covers it anyways), brown bag it. You can buy a box of Hot Pockets for about $1 per
sandwich. If your company has free drinks (water at least), you could be spending $1 to $2 on lunch versus $5
every day. If you are willing to make your own lunch the night before (or has a spouse that really likes you and
wants you to eat healthy) your sandwich and fruit or cookie could easily be under $3 and be very satisfying. By
not eating out, you should save at least $2 per day. If you were eating out 3 times a week that is about $25 per
month.
3. I rarely eat out. Still, it seems like it is beneficial to eat out,
strictly for business reasons, one or two times per week. Have you seen what restaurants charge for beverages
these days? It is close to $2 for a coffee or a soda now! These beverages cost next to nothing if you buy them
from the grocery store or drink the free supply at work. If you have a good reason to eat out, drink water when you go and save the coffee and soda
for work or home. This could
save you anywhere from $8 to $20 per month.
4. Are you addicted? Can you not wake up without your Tall, Non-Fat Latte?
Make your Starbucks coffee a Friday treat rather than a daily habit. Do you stop at the drive through on the
way to work? Stop! Save your time and money and go straight to work, do not pass Go, do not waste $3. Coffee
is free at work (yes, it does not taste great, but tell all of your co-workers to "suggest" to management
that better coffee would improve employee moral and see what happens. In the meantime, look forward to Friday).
Assuming you had Starbucks 3 times per week and were eliminating 2 of them, you'll save $25 to $30 per month.
5. Subscriptions. Does your copy of the LA Times on the front porch
make you the most informed person on your block? I am sure your knowledge of the Lakers is very impressive but
are you reading the entire thing every day? Maybe you are, but guess what, the content is online for free. The
only thing I cannot find on the LA Times website is the comics, which are online elsewhere. Stop paying $20 per
month for the newspaper when you can read the news on any number of websites. The only exception is the Wall Street
Journal; the online subscription is $39 per YEAR (last time I checked). Buy it if you cannot get your company
to pay for a paper subscription on your behalf. Evaluate all of your magazine and related subscriptions as well.
This will save you at least $20 per month.
6. For you single guys, how
frequently do you go to the bars?
My bar hoping days are well behind me, but the idea of paying $4 per beer makes my neck-hair stand on end. I
went on a business trip to beautiful Orlando, Florida with a co-worker who happened to be a "single guy."
We went out after work, and he was the life of the party. He looked great, paid for drinks, was funny and the
ladies loved him. His total bar tab for the night, $200 plus. Single people, if you want to meet people, join
a gym or enroll at a night course at community college and try to eliminate just one big spending night per month,
I don't even want to guess at your savings.
7. Okay, I play adult, rec league softball, so I drink a beer every now and again,
and frequently after a game, my teammates end up at my place (apparently they don't like paying $4 per beer either).
I love it; I am with my family and my friends and in my home. If I buy a 6-pack, it costs me $6 per week or $30
per month. I could probably help my own work out schedule and weight goals if I purchased one less 6-pack per
beer and there would still be enough for the team (some guys even buy beer and bring it for the other guys). Why
don't we set the grocery beer (substitute you favorite drink here) budget at $20 per month? This saves $10 per
month.
8. I hate to write this, it
makes me shudder even to suggest it. I
do not want to take away any joy from your life and understand this may be like saying good-bye to a friend. It
is extreme, next I'll suggest moving to a compound in Idaho, but bear with me. Cancel your cable subscription. Okay, grab a brown paper bag and stop hyperventilating. I wrote at the beginning
of these suggestions that the premise would be things that actually take no planning, save you time and money.
If you cancel your cable and go with an antenna, you can still be a couch potato. You'll grow to love the characters
on free TV as much as those on cable over time. I know, there is no Sports Center on free TV, but I've been ESPN
free for three years and my body still produces testosterone. For most cable subscribers, canceling cable will
save you at least $50 per month.
We would all like more money in our account at the end of the month. These are a few tips that will hopefully
help. If you want other ideas, look at your last 3 bank statements. Look for some names of stores, shops, cafes
or restaurants that reoccur. Do they all provide products or services you cannot live without? Is the money you
are spending at these locations necessary? Ponder these things and find ways that you can cancel those expenses.
It will likely be easier than getting your grocery bill down to $150 per month. |
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