8 ways to save money
Saving money is not as hard as it looks, although it's easier said than done. If that's not enough to confuse you, here are 10 ways you can start saving money.
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- Take a look at your closet and your home and clean it out. Its time to sell off the old college books that are collecting dust and the new skirt all the way in the back of your closet that you promised yourself you would fit 6 months ago. Make a nice big pile of all the things you can do without and start listing them on Ebay.com or have a big garage sell. With all the junk laying around your home, you'd be impressed to see how much money is just lying around and collecting dust. Once you get the money from all your stuff, invest it in your retirement account or use it to pay down your debts. A smart idea is to take 10 percent and place it in the savings account and use the rest to pay off your credit card.
- Another way you can save money is to put yourself on a cash-only budget. When you are walking around with credit cards, it is easier to charge up a fortune and assume that you will pay it back. If you don't have the money to pay for a purchase at the time of the sell, wait until you actually have the money. By that time you may find that you don't even need the items anymore.
- Cut-up your credit cards and start paying off your debt. If you pay $50 a month in interest, you will pay over $600 towards interest on just one credit card. This money should be going to your savings account, not lost on interest to widen the pocket of the credit card company. If you are addicted to your credit cards, now is the time to cut them up, shred them, burn them, freeze them, and do what you need to stop yourself from using them. Using your credit cards will only increase your debt and this will make it much harder for you to save money.
- Its time to give up lifestyle habits that are costing you money. Smoking can cost you thousands of dollars a year and that doesn't even include the extra money you pay in health insurance and health care costs. If you are obese, you need to go on a diet to reduce your medical bills and to reduce your grocery bill.
- Start walking to close destinations. If you can use public transportation to get to work, use it. The price of a bus pass for one month is normally much cheaper than the price you will pay to fill up your car with gas once or twice a week. Set-up a carpool with your co-workers, this will provide everyone with the opportunity to save money.
- Stop going out to see movies. The cost to go to a movie is over $20 for 2 people. If you are dying to watch the new releases, sign-up for Netflix. For $5 or less, you can get unlimited viewing of movies.
- Bring lunch to work with you. A great way to save money is to buy a loaf of bread and all the things you need to make a healthy sandwich. This is a lot cheaper than going out to lunch each day and you can use the bread throughout the entire week.
- Another way to save money is to start buying things used. Do you really need to have a brand-new video game? If someone has already played it and they are selling it for half the price of the brand new one, does it really matter? Try to buy a lot of things used because you can save a ton of money.
