PersonalTuesday, 15 August 2006 07:13 pm
Easy ways to save money everyday
I submitted my previous post, “Your credit card can earn you money” to Darren Rowse’s latest group writing project over at Problogger.net. On the list of submissions there were also similar “ways-to-save-money” type of posts. Three of them are:
- Free Money Finance: The 10 Best Money Moves You Can Make
- Mighty Bargain Hunter » Fifteen easy ways to save fifteen bucks
- 10 Ways to Immediately Start Saving Money » The Making It Big Blog
A lot of them are pretty much common sense and what I am going to list here will overlap with those in the posts above. So here’s how I save money everyday …
- Cut back on the takeaway coffees and donuts. I used to have this every work day and now I don’t. Money saved, and empty calories avoided.
- Combine several car trips into one and achieve more with each trip.
- Maintain my car at regular intervals, thus ensuring if there’s a problem it doesn’t become a bigger problem. Plus the car is more efficient with new oil in the engine.
- Drive smoothly and don’t speed. Save fuel and avoid speeding tickets.
- I pay for parking instead of driving round and round looking for free parking.
- Do I really read all those magazines? Hmm, not really.
- When an item is on sale at the supermarkets, buy more of it. Especially non-perishables like dog food, toothpaste, laundry detergents etc.
- Eat at home more. Cook more of items that keep well - pasta, curries, and fried rice, so that I can …
- Take the leftovers to lunch at work.
- I don’t binge drink at the pubs and clubs. I drink to enjoy it and not to get wasted.
- I get medical and car insurance. Accidents happen.
- This is kind of a recursive thing but I save money by spending within my means and not overspending. Incurring debt means incurring interest.
- I think twice if I have to borrow money to buy it or if I have to take on an installment purchase plan, even if I can afford the repayments. Do I really need it, or do I just want it?
- There’s no shame in wearing underwear from K-Mart or Target.
- No shame in using coupons either.
- I call out with my mobile phone during off-peak hours, and SMS other times unless urgent.
How do you save money on a daily basis?
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12 Responses to “Easy ways to save money everyday”
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1. Cook at home, bring leftover for lunch
2. Buy groceries on large quantity for large discounts. E.g. 10 kg rice instead of 2L, a whole box of Mee Goreng, Biggest cereal box u can buy.
3. Ride bicycle
4. When buying meat, look at per Kg value. E.g. Sometimes, in Coles, the meat in Deli is cheaper than the packed ones.
10. seems impossible. I always start from ordering slowly in glasses. At the end, I end up with bottles.
1. Recycle Old Furnitures. I’d turn a cabinet into a coffee table if the wood is still in good condition, then repaint it or laminate with formica. Or I’d saw an old coffee table top into half and mount it into the walls to make shelves.
2. All that furniture DIYing requires some strength, I can take it as a form of exercise and save the trip & money to the gym.
3. Make use of the wool from some old pillows, transform it into sofa cushions with covers sewn using old curtains. Give the cushions a good sunning and it will not smell. The sunshine is FOC too.
4. Buy books during Annual Book Fair, most of them are selling at minimum 50% cheaper than normal retail price.
5. Newspapers are good for wiping glasses and mirrors. It’s as effective as cleaning detergents. A bottle of detergent cost at least $3, newspapers cost only 80cents per copy.
6. Drink plenty of plain water instead of soda, coffee, tea etc… it’s the cheapest drink, healthiest and gives our skin enough collagen to slow down aging. That saves me lotsa money from buying beauty product and going to the spa.
herman: good tips, especially the one about the meat.
YC: ain’t that always the case? Get high and happy already and the money just starts flowing out too. Heh.
DarkHarf: Fantastic ideas! Thanks!
may i add another one for you marcus?
17. feather the throttle, not slam it… *grin*
Good post. I was reading an article recently in some magazine about the same topic; saving money. They followed a woman around for a week, observing her spending habits. in the end, they told her she could be saving an extra few hundred dollars at least per week if she just changed her spending habits. it was just little things like not buying three coffees a day, eating out less, not buying a $5 juice when she could make something similar home, returning her DVDs on time, etc. etc. but in the end, it all adds up. she changed her spending habits and ended up saving over a grand a month! just goes to show, it IS the little things that all add up. do you really need ANOTHER pair of shoes/jumper/cup of coffee??
This is good stuff! I’ll pay more attention to my daily expenditures then, since I need to save money to buy a car (which I probably believe would cause me to spend more in the future!) But it is nonetheless a necessity in Australia.
How do I save me money on daily basis hmm…
1) Bring water bottle to school
2) Check wallet everyday at home (after coming back from school) for 20c, 50c and $1.00 coins, proceed to “deposit” in koala coin bank. -> Can save at least $100 every month
3) Eat home-cooked meals instead of gorging outside, limit to eating-out once a month.
4) Buy clothes at kedai-nyonya-jual-baju-dari-Hong-Kong instead of departmental stores. Sometimes 3 for $10 tshirts are better than 1 for $10! If want better quality clothes, wait for seasonal sale, up to 70% of original price!
5) Avoid sweets, chocolates, candies and other junk snacks. Can more coins and cut down on a lot of calories.
6) *Not sure about this one being done by many, but I know I do wash myself after the big or small business. Hehehehe.. So…
Use towel instead of toilet paper roll. Save paper and money!
Ok, tak boleh fikir lagi.
damion: I already mentioned that!
girlstar7: it’s the little things that add up, definitely. And yes, a good question to always ask yourself is, “Do I really need it?”
ian: don’t be a scrooge but there are ways to scrimp and save that’s for sure.
Kynne: good tips especially with the loose change. As for your #6, I think it’s more of a cultural thing.
YC: Start off with bottles,that way you’ll save more! I must admit its hard to fanthom RM20 for a glass when a bottle’s RM300 with many many glasses..
What I do to save money…hmm.
Now, keep this a secret, but grocery stores (esp those with a bakery) sells their expiring-today foodstuff very dirt cheap towards the end of the day.Check out the closing times, and go half an hour before that.They rather sell it to you cheaply than throw it away. I have gotten freshly baked pies (baked earlier that morning) for £0.05,wheras if I were to go 2 hours earlier,that same pie is retailling for £1.20
With 24-hours grocery chains, there is a certain time when they send staff around reducing things,and this is usually I find around dinner time,when most people had just finished their grocery and gone back for dinner,therefore the expiring today items are not going to go like hot cakes.
We used to stalk Sainsbury around 7.30pm, cause that is when a whole roast chicken retailing for £2.99 shoots down to £1.
Call me a cheapo,but I dont care..:)
spendthrift drunkard: great tips! Going to the grocers and bakeries around closing time is definitely an excellent idea. And you are not a cheapo.
Interesting article!
I’d save money trying to keep to a daily budget.
Basically i have a spreadsheet that tells me how much I can spend each day after calculating off my expenses and savings. I try to keep to that budget or less.
Anyone interested feel free to download from my site http://cashflowdiscipline.com