Found Money
Posted on January 7th, 2008 – 1:48 PMBy Kara McGuire
Many people this time of year try to shave off a few extra pounds. I try to shave extra money off of bills.
After all, prices are rising and salaries– at least in my household– aren’t keeping up.
Last year we got rid of
13 Responses to "Found Money"
1. See if your company has discount agreements with cell carriers.
2. Drop collision and comp coverage on the beater (self-insure).
3. Sit down with your agent, face to face, and go through every policy to see where you can save money. Takes
We found a service that compiles grocery store specials to maximize sales and coupons. We’ll save a few hundred per month.
And Brian, what is that service? 
More ideas…
1. Drop the home phone line and go completely cellular…some phone companies will let you keep your home phone number and send the call to your cell phone (saves ~$30/mo)
2. Do a family cellular plan with combined (and rollover) minutes…consider adding Grandma & Grandpa to he plan…consider dropping/reducing text messaging or internet via the phone (unless required for work, do you really use/need it?)
3. Once the security system is installed, do you need the monitoring service (for a monthly fee)?
4. Consider buying gas at Costco…pay a $50.00/yr membership for $0.05/gal to $0.30/gal savings (depends on how close you are to Costco) can save $50-75/yr (and that’s after the $50/yr membership fee)
5. Try going to BASIC cable…or drop cable/satelitte completely (purchase an old TV antenna to pick up HDTV signals over the air)
6. Stop (or reduce) the coffee drinks(Starbucks, Caribou, etc.)
7. Wash your car yourself
8. Drop the temp in the house down a degree or two
9. Purchase a programmable thermostat (saves winter & summer)
10. Do a NetFlix plan vs. renting at BlockBuster (or try the $0.99/night movie rentals at McDonalds/Cub Foods)
11. stuff sells on ebay…hey, $5 for an old VCR is $5 you didn’t have
12. music lovers should look at the Rhapsody/Napster “to-go” plan where the $15/mo fee (equal to one purchased CD) allows access to 2+ million songs on up to 5-MP3 players (basically each family member under one plan)…never need to purchase a song or CD again
13. consider taking the light rail downtown…$3/person + free parking (excellent for Metrodome events)
14. install dimmer switches
15. drop the daily paper (sorry StarTribune)…pick up the weekend paper (coupons galore)
16. pack a lunch…or bring your own salad dressing (don’t pay the by/ounce on dressing)
17. bottle water…refill with tap water (for most people, it’s really the convenience of the screw on cap)
Some simple…some may not be
I also called the cable company and asked if I am getting the best deal possible, and was going to drop HBO too, but got into a package deal that they offer new customers that saves me 40.00 a month for 1 year. I still get to keep all the channels I have. My van needs MAJOR repair, is still financed, so I put storage insurance on it to keep the financing comany happy, and lowered my insurance. I compare all the grocery ads, and do make a master list of what we need and then seperate them into what stores have it on sale. I print coupons from the internet, and target even has coupons you can print from them. I make the family’s pj’s and anything else that I can. I am a avid garage saler, and do resell what I can on E bay. I save all my change (it really does add up) and use that to go to a family fun day somewhere. I took a hard look at what I can do to save money, and it wasn’t that hard to cut the unnecessary items.
Brian~
Care to share what this service is??
The Grocery Game. Costs about $1.25 per week. We used to spend $500 per month on groceries and $400 eating out. We’ve reduced eating out to $100, which increases the amount of groceries we need, but the grocery spending has reduced to $400 with the game.
A free alternative is couponmom.com. But I have not used that site, so can’t comment.
About a year ago I found out I was getting gouged on auto insurance.
We we
Thanks Tucker for some awesome suggestions! I am going to try some of them this year!
A few years ago, I decided not to pay ATM fees anymore. I sat down and figured out how much cash I actually go through, and started getting that much cash from the free ATM at my credit union once a week. I think I saved $100 that year and, better yet - didn’t pay that $100 to TCF or Wells Fargo.
Tucker
Save $100 a month by cancelling your home phone and your cell phone. Great advice.
Moved to state without state income tax.
