Need an extra $100 this month?

Who couldn't use an extra $100? Right? I think just about everyone has the ability to "find" that extra cash this month. Yes, I bet even you can!  I'm going to attempt to help you with this challenge.  For the next couple of weeks try a couple of the following tips to save money. These are pretty painless ways to start living more frugally. Keep track of what you save and then pat yourself on the back when you realize that you've got that extra $100!


1.  If you normally buy a soda/coffee every morning, try skipping a couple days a week. (Okay, skipping the caffiene could be too extreme!)  So, maybe just trying making your coffee at home to take with you to work. If soda is your thing, do like I do. I buy soda on sale and fill up my own 32 oz. cup at home to take with me. Of course, if you happen to have another "habit" that costs lots of money, just try cutting back to see how much you can save.
Savings: about $2/week or if you practice this every day - savings about $25/month

2.  Charge you phone, ipod, DS, etc. in the car.  I read somewhere that this could save about $20/month. I charge my phone in the car and when I first started I did notice a decrease in the watts used on our electric bill.
Savings:  about $20/month

3.  Decrease the number of times you hit the fastfood places for lunch.  Try to cut the visits in half.  If you eat out 4 times a week, try just twice a week. I know, we have to ease into this stuff!  Packing a lunch really isn't that difficult!
Savings:  this could save bunches!  let's say you normally eat lunch at a hamburger joint twice a week that costs $7 each time - by cutting your trips in half this month - you save $28! 

4. While we're on the subject of eating.  If your family dines out or orders pizza a couple of times a week, try cutting that in half as well.  Depending on the size of your family, this could actually save over $100!
Savings:  again, big savings!  if you're a "twice a week" family @ about $30/each meal and you cut the visits in half - you save $120!!! (that's almost $1500/year!)

5.  To save on gas, plan your trips. This is a big one for me. We live 15 miles from town, so a roundtrip to town and back takes almost 1 1/2 gallons of gas! With gas at $2.90/gallon $3.77/gallon, it costs me $4.35 $5.66! Yikes! I noticed the other day that to drive from one side of town to the other was about 4 miles. Something to think about.
Savings:  hmm, a lot!  for me, if I cut out 1 trip to town a week - I would save about  over $20/month! (I need to cut out several trips)

6.  Decrease you home phone services.  Do you really need caller id, call-waiting, call-forwarding, etc.?  We cancelled all that stuff over two years ago and haven't missed it!  I'd like to cancel the entire landline phone service and just use the cell phones, but we barely get electricity much less cell phone service out here! 
Savings:  about $30/month

7.  Decrease your cable/satelitte package. For a month, I kept track of what channels our family was watching on a regular basis.  Turns out, we were only watching about 5 of the 50000 channels we were paying for!  We've had the very basic package for two years now and we've all survived! 
Savings:  about $50/month (that's $600/year!)

For now, let's just try a couple of these ideas to see what happens!  There's more tips to follow that will focus on certain areas.  For example, I'll devote an entire post on ways to save on electricity. (Click HERE to read that post). Other areas will include grocery and household. (HERE to find that post). I have to warn you, I tend to get really excited and a little extreme when it comes to saving money!

Delightfully yours,
Debbie

(This post has been linked to Living Well Wednesdays at  Women Living Well)