Keep Your Money :: Tip 4-How much am I paying?!

It is time to take a close look at your monthly bills and cut back.  Trust me, you are probably paying more than you need to.

Paying bills is so easy and convenient for us these days with online billing and automatic withdrawal that sometimes we don't take the time to look at our bills and see what we are actually paying for.  We just let the transaction go through and don't think anything of it just to save some time.  Don't get me wrong, I am all about saving time, but you might end up keeping a lot more of your money if you take the time to check out your bills once every quarter or even once a year.

This is where J and I really started to keep a lot more of our money in just a few months...

Look at your monthly bills and REALLY find out how much you are paying and WHAT you are paying for.  It might be something you don't use, need or even want.

J and I decided that we could cut out our land line because the only people that ever seemed to call us were telemarketers.  We ended up keeping much more money than we thought we would.  When we went to look at our bill (which is "conveniently" bundled with our internet and cable) we realized that we were also paying for some movie channels that we never even watched.  How the heck did this happen?  Have you ever signed up for something during a promotion before?  That is what we did and when the promotion ended they started charging us for these other channels and because our bills were paid automatically we didn't catch it for a long time.

Because we took the time to check out our bill we are now keeping almost $70 a month more now than we were before!!  That is 1-2 weeks of groceries or $840 a year!!  The nice thing about this cut back is that it isn't affecting our lifestyle one bit.

So, what are some other bills you can look at to keep more of your money...?

- Gas/Electric Bill: This is more about being more responsible with turning lights and other electronics of in your house and less about canceling something because there isn't, unfortunately, a lot we can do about how much we are charged.  We are keeping about $5 a month with this bill.

- Cell Phone Bill:  Do you have unlimited minutes/texts?  Look at your last year of bills and see how many minutes you are using and how many texts?  Do you really need unlimited?  Do you have a family plan?  Switching to a family plan helped us keep about $20 a month

- Insurance Bills:  This can be car, home owners, life, health.  You may not be able to do a whole lot here, but maybe sit down with your agent and figure out if there is a way you can cut back at all and keep more of your money.  We now keep around $60 more a month.

What bills do you pay on a monthly basis?  Have you done anything like this before?  If so, how much more money are you keeping every month?

Keep Your Money :: Tip 3+

Quit throwing Your money in the trash!

This is piggy-backing on my last post about coupons AND is two-fold.  We all go grocery shopping multiple times a month so this is really a great place to look for keeping more of your money.  When looking for ways to keep more of your money, first look at places that you spend money most frequently.

The first thing you need to do is go through your pantry and throw out what is bad and donate what you know you will most likely not use by the expiration date and then you won't be throwing away money; you will be helping those in need.  This will give you a fresh place to start and give you more room in your pantry and refrigerator.

Tip 3: Limit yourself to grocery shopping once a week.
Tip +: Buy food for 1 week not for a month or year.

How many of you have gone grocery shopping only to go back a few days later because you need something for dinner later in the week or you get invited somewhere and need a dish to pass?  I know I used to do it quite often (or I would send J to "quick" pick up something on his way home from work).

So some of you might be thinking...how is this helping me keep more of my money?

First, you will not be spending as much money on gas because you will be only going to the store once instead of 2, 3 or even 4 times a week.  Second, you will also be saving your time, which to some people is even more important that saving money.

In doing this, you should also focus on buying just enough food for a week and only buy what you are going to eat.  We used to throw away quite a bit of fresh produce.  Are you one of those people?  And that is why so many people think buying fresh produce is "so expensive".  If you are eating it all and not throwing it away then it is not expensive.

To accomplish all of this, it really does take some planning.  Figure out what you plan to eat for the week so you know exactly what to buy and how much.  Sometimes I have to buy more produce than I want for one meal.  When that happens, I make sure to incorporate it into the a different meal.  Usually, at the end of the week I will just see what is left in the fridge and figure out something to make with whatever is left.

My cart is typically 80% Fresh Produce, 10% Protein, 10% Misc.  For J and I to get 1 week of groceries it is usually between $45 and $60 a week.  Not bad, considering I almost always make my own lunch and J makes lunch 3-4 times a week and we usually eat 4-6 dinners a week at home.

Doing these things will save you some gas money AND prevent you from throwing your money away in the form of bad or expired food.

What do you do to be efficient in your grocery shopping?

Keep Your Money :: Tip 2-Coupons are Bad

Keep Your Money :: Tip 2-Coupons are Bad

So this might sound contradicting, but hear me out and you will see what I mean.

Have you ever watched the TV Show "Extreme Couponing"?  I have; and after watching a few episodes I decided that I wasn't going to be extreme, but just start using coupons because it is free money, right...?

It seemed to be a good idea at the time because I am pretty much in charge of all of the groceries and the finances in my marriage, so why not try it.  This is what ended up happening:  I went grocery shopping like normal (with the coupons) for about 3-4 weeks and at first I was so excited because at the bottom of every receipt it says You Saved: (fill in $).  I was pretty excited for the first couple of weeks because I went from saving around $10 to saving close to $20 each trip.  So, like most of you, I was feeling pretty good about myself.  Then it came time to actually enter my checks into my Quicken software.  This is when the real light bulb came on.

As I was entering my checks on the computer I realized that the amounts I was writing the checks for were more than in the past.  So, what happened?

I was focusing on the wrong section of the receipt.  The section I needed to focus on was the actual total not the amount I saved.  And even with using coupons and going on Wednesday's to get them doubled, I was spending more because I ended up buying things that I don't normally buy like chips, canned soup, and even more random stuff that I rationalized in my head that I would use eventually or thought I needed.  As soon as I stopped using the coupons, I started spending less.

It's kinda like going to Kohl's...And all you ladies that love Kohl's can relate to this.  When you check out and they had you your receipt, what do they do...?  "You saved..." and then they circle the amount you save making you feel good about how much you saved.  But really, it doesn't matter how much you "saved", it matters how much you spent.

The moral of this story is don't get sucked in by sales and deals if you don't need what they are offering you.  Trust me, I AM a bargain shopper, I AM always looking for sales, but now when I do it, I look for sales and deals on what I know I am going to buy anyway.  Leave the Couponing to the professionals ;)

How many sales have sucked you in and then you had buyer's remorse when you got home?  Please share!

Keep Your Money :: Tip 1

Keep Your Money :: Tip 1-Walk if off

You may be asking yourself, how does walking save me money? Well, as I said in my first post was that J and I not only saved money, but we are also healthier and have lost weight...think of it as a bonus :)

The most obvious way to have walking save you money is to walk places instead of driving because, of course, gas prices never seem to get any lower.  This tip is one that most of us have probably heard before is to walk to the store, gym, work, a friend's house...

Now if you are one of those people that doesn't live in town or close to where you work, you may just toss this tip to the side and just say, Next Tip Please! Remember, I asked you to commit to these tips.  So let's get creative and figure out how we can use this tip in a way that works for you.

Most of probably try to run multiple errands during one outing, so when you are out and about are there any places you stop that are close to each other?  For instance, if you live in Madison and you are planning on going shopping at Kohl's and the Mall on the West side.  Try parking at the end of the lot so that you are in the middle of both buildings and walk back and forth from each building.  You will definitely be getting more exercise and you will be saving that little bit of gas money.  And really, if you think about it, this probably won't even take any longer because you are going to spend time getting in the car, driving to the next store and looking for a new stall.

Another way you can use this tip if walking is really difficult for you is to find a carpool buddy and take turns driving one another to run errands (assuming you are going to the same stores or ones that are close to each other).

One more version of this tip that can be more time conscious than walking is instead of walking, try biking.  :)

This is just the first tip for you and although this by itself will probably not save you a significant amount of money right away, it will in the long term and this along with the future tips can really make a difference.

One important thing to remember that easily gets lost in this day of the internet and instant gratification is that you really need to think about how what you do today will affect you tomorrow because in the end it will whether you want it to or not.

Have you ever walked somewhere instead of driving?  Where will you start walking to now?  Please comment and share!