A great deal at the consignment store

Today my wife got a phone call from a friend who just visited the local children’s consignment store. She informed her that they were having an end of summer clearance sale on all their summer clothes. Since we have two small girls my wife decided it would be a good idea to at least go take a look and try to scout out some leftover deals.

The consignment store was offering a deal where you could stuff a bag full of clothes and only pay $15. I thought it would be a pretty good deal if the bag was a decent size. I’m all about saving money so I gladly watched the children while she went to scope things out.

About an hour and 20 minutes later she returned with her bag full of clothes. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the bag was a decent sized bag. She actually crammed exactly 40 articles of clothing into the bag. All of the clothing was name brand clothing and looked new. So she bought the clothes for about $0.38 each. The best part is that everything she bought was something she would have probably purchased anyway. Sure it’s mostly for next summer but you just can’t beat a sale like this!

If you really want to save some money in the clothing budget check out consignment stores. Most of them only buy back clothing that looks new so there is still plenty of wear left in the clothes. Most of the clothes are also top name brand clothes, so you can be stylish and still save a lot of cash!

Eat Out, and still save a little

Everyone knows how expensive eating at a sit down restaurant can be, especially if you have a large family. I’m sometimes amazed at how much money we spending eating out in a month. We always try to reduce our monthly spending, but because of time and schedules we almost always spend more then we plan. It’s just quicker to grab fast food or even easier to go somewhere nice and have someone else cook and clean up. Do you feel like you spend too much eating out in a week? If so, here are some tips to help you save a little money, but still keep the convenience.

Bring fast food home. If you’ve had a busy day at work and just don’t feel like coming home, cooking a full meal and then cleaning everything up fast food is a great alternative. It’s usually cheap and it’s always easy to clean up. However, instead of getting the family together and making a trip to your favorite burger joint, grab it on your way home. How can this help save you money? Most fast food places offer $1 and under menus. A burger and fry will only cost about $2. Skip the drinks you’ve already got drinks at home. Drinks even at fast food places can cost a family of 4 as much $6. A family of 4 can actually eat dinner out for less than $10.

Want some “better than fast food” for dinner? My wife and I have recently started ordering take out food and bringing it home. You can save $4 – $5 on the tip since you have no waitress or waiter. You also don’t need to buy those crazy overpriced drinks from the sit down restaurant. Sodas at sit down restaurants now cost over $2 in some places. You can also have a cheap appetizer at home such as chips and salsa for 1/2 the cost. Another thing we’ve discovered is our kids prefer the mac and cheese from home over the fancy sit down mac and cheese. Since the microwave will fix mac and cheese and peas in less than 5 minutes that means even more money saved.

Not only do we save money by using these tricks we also don’t have to find entertainment for our children while we are at the restaurant. Once they finish their meals they can be excused to play in the comfort of their own home.

High-Yield interest checking account – A Smart Choice

If you are a saver, they you know that interest rates on savings accounts have plummeted lately. I remember just a couple of  years ago, many online banks offered savings accounts with interest rates at or above 5%. Now, my ING Direct savings accounts yields about 1.6%.

Even money market accounts, which typically yield higher than savings account rates are now less than 0.5%. Also, a quick glance at bankrate will show you the horrible rates offered from CD’s. A 6 month CD is about 1.7% while locking your money down for 1 year will only give you 2.3%.

With all the bad rates where can the savers turn to, to increase their savings rates? High-yield online checking accounts may be a solution. Some high-yield interest rate checking accounts are offering slightly over 6% interest rates on your money!

There are some requirements from these great checking accounts, but nothing that is impossible to meet. Most require the use of a debit card a certain number of times per month, at least one automatic direct deposit, and/or use of online banking at least once per month. If you don’t meet the requirements for that period your interest rate will be significantly reduced. Even if you don’t meet the requirements for a given month you are still earning some interest on your money.

Some people may still be concerned about the security of online banks and online banking. With so many hackers out there trying to get your hard earned money how do you know that an online bank is a safe place to put your money? I’m no expert on Internet security, but I would be willing to bet that online banks are more secure than your hometown bank. There are more security measures in place to protect your money than the security guard at the bank.

You can increase the security by increasing your knowledge of how the Internet works. Online banks or any other financial institution will never ask for personal information or passwords via email. Always disregard these emails or report them to the proper authorities. Also never give you passwords to anyone! Never click links in emails to go to your banks website, always type the address in the web address bar. There are many spoof or fake emails trying to get your personal information. Follow these simple rules and your online high-yield checking account will help earn you some money, even in this bad economy.

Buy Brand Name and Save

Alright, I have to take back what I said in a previous post. I wrote an article a while back about how you can save a lot of money buying generic brand foods. I wrote that article before I truly understood the power of coupons.

Recently my sister-in-law introduced my family to a group of extreme savers who used the power of coupons to save hundreds of dollars per month on their grocery bill. At first I was a little skeptical because from previous experience coupons only brought name brand foods down to a price that was almost as cheap as the generic brands. However, after doing some research and some hands on experiements I am now a believer.

The key to the savings is to stockpile a lot of coupons and only use them when something is on sale, as well as combining paper or printed coupons with other incentives. For example there are some websites that allow you to load manufacturers coupons to you Kroger plus card as well as use a paper coupon for the same item. Sometimes you can get items for free or very close to free. My last weeks trip to Kroger yeilded almost a 50% savings in the gorcery bill!

I’m now somewhat addicted to coupon clipping and deal shopping so stay tuned for more information about this money saving topic!

A $400 to $800 credit for many taxpayers

One of the provisions of the new stimulus package includes a payroll tax credit of somewhere between $400 and $800 for most taxpayers. For the average worker this will equate to an increase of about $8 per paycheck. I’m not here to bash the stimulus package because I really hope it works, but I’m not sure how much $8 a week is going to stimulate the economy. I realize something has to be done I’m just not sure this was a great solution.

With that being said what will you do with your $8 per week pay increase? Again this isn’t going to be much of an economy stimulator but wouldn’t it be a great time to start an automatic savings plan? Technology and banks have made it so easy to save money these days there is really no excuse not to start.

Most employers offer you the opportunity to divert money into different accounts. If you already have your check direct deposited then more than likely you can divide the money into different accounts. Just ask your company accountant or your payroll person to help you with this. Since you will be getting $8 per week extra you won’t miss the money if you set this up before it starts.

Another option it to setup an automatic savings plan with your bank or credit union. Most banks allow you to set this up with just a few clicks of the mouse. Again this is money you aren’t used to getting so why not start the automatic savings plan today? By saving $8 per week at a 2% interest rate (yes you can get this with online banks) for 10 years you will accumulate over $4,200!

Save some money, skip a week at the grocery store.

I know you are going to think this is insane but could you actually make it without going to the grocery store for a week? After reviewing our budget a few weeks ago I realized we spend almost $600 per month in groceries! I know that might sound insane for some people but we are at a strange stage in our life right now. We have two little girls, one four and one 9 months old. The 9 month old eats baby food, still needs formula as well as diapers and wipes. This can make for some costly trips to the grocery store. I know there are some thing you just absolutely have to have from the grocery store but for the most part I bet most of us could go a week without a trip to the grocery store.

How does one go about skipping a week from the grocery store? First, start by taking a look through the pantry at things you purchased months ago but never got around to fixing. I’m sure you will find some canned food and boxed items to fix a few nights for dinner. Next, move to the freezer where you will probably find some frozen vegetables, pizzas, or other convenient foods that can be fixed for dinner or lunch.

You’re probably going to need some drinks for the week but remember you really only need water to drink. Actually, depending on several factors you can live without eating any food and only drinking water for up to 4 to 6 weeks. I don’t really recommend this but it’s been done. All that information to tell you it doesn’t constitute and emergency trip to the grocery store if you run out of soda.

After you search through all your food supply sit down and make a menu for the week. You may have to get a little creative but remember you can live on water alone and it’s not necessary to have meat at every meal.

You may even experience a few added bonuses from this experience. For example not eating meat at every meal may help you lose a few extra pounds. Using some of the food you haven’t seen in months will help you clean out the fridge, freezer and pantry.

Taking on this challenge may reward you with over $100 in savings. Keep a little of the money as a reward and pay off some debt or save the rest!

Saving to pay off debt

A few days ago I stumbled on an article that talked about an interesting way of paying off debt. It’s actually something that I’ve been doing but never thought about writing an article about it. The basic principal is to keep putting money in savings until you have enough saved to pay off an entire debt.

Why is this method of paying of debt effective? Almost every financial plan you will find involves saving an emergency fund before you start paying off debt. By saving money in a savings account until you have enough to pay off an entire debt you are also keeping an emergency fund in case something major comes up during this time. I would suggest saving enough money to pay off the debt as well as some extra before paying off the debt.

For example, we owed about $10,000 on our car. We kept putting money in our savings account until we had about $13,000. We paid off the entire balance on the car loan and still had over $3,000 in savings. If at any time during this period an emergency came up we could have paid for it with cash and then continued to save.

I’m not saying this is the best way of paying debt from a maximum amount of money saved, but I think it’s effective. Paying down large interest rate debt month by month may allow for increased money saved, but might not be as effective for some. It’s just another method to  consider for yourself.

Unplug appliances and save on electric bill

How many appliances and electronic devices actually need to be plugged in all day long? How many of those appliances that are always plugged in do you actually use everyday? When you start thinking about it there are probably a lot of appliances and electronic devices draining energy that you rarely use.

One of the biggest energy drainers is that extra refrigerator in the garage or basement. Do you really have so much food that you need an extra refrigerator just for drinks? Couldn’t you find a little extra space in your fridge to put a 12 pack of soda or beer?

Other ideas include small kitchen appliances. Your toaster, coffee pot, can opener, blender, etc. all drain small amounts of energy throughout the day and night. How often do you really use the blender or can opener? Most of us actually don’t even use any of these appliances on a regular basis. Leave them unplugged until you actually use them and the pull the plug when you are done.

More electric drainers in the family room include the DVD player, CD changer, and surround sound, tivo or DVR, cable boxes, and even the television. Even though they only drain a small amount of electricity these electric devices start to add up quick. It’s easier to plug them into a power strip and simply unplug the strip during the day. It takes about 3 seconds to unplug it and then plug it back in when you need them.

Moving on to the next room the home office. Most computer users keep their computer plugged in and powered on all day and night. Hook up everything involved with your computer to a power strip and pull the plug before you go to bed. Items related to your computer include a printer, scanner, modem, router, and monitor. That’s a big list of energy drainers.

According to the government’s energy star program, 40% of the electricity that home electronics use is consumed while the products are turned off. The impact of this on your energy bill will depend on your particular situation–one Berkely study suggests the savings would be 6 to 26% off your total power bill.

It may not sound like a lot of savings but if you are one of the major power users who has a lot of appliances plugged in all day everyday you could save 25%. If your energy bill is about $120 per month that’s about $360 per year to keep those little red lights burning. If you are a penny pincher this is a great money saving idea!

Extreme method of saving money – Automatic Savings Account

You know you need to start saving for the future but it’s never a good time. You keep telling yourself you need to transfer some money into your savings account or even set up an account but never get around to following through. How can this be prevented? It’s more simple than it sounds. Make saving automatic!

Almost every bank these days offers some type of automatic savings plan. You can easily modify the amount you want transferred and also setup how often you want it transferred. I personally use ING Direct to manage my savings and it’s very simple and easy. With just a few clicks ING Direct allows me to setup an automatic savings plan for multiple accounts.

Currently I have 3 different accounts setup at ING. The first is our family savings account. I have a small amount automatically withdrawn from our checking account each week and deposited into this account. I also have two other accounts setup for our two girls. I have a small amount withdrawn from our checking account each month from our checking account and placed in separate ING accounts. Since it always comes out I don’t have this money in our budget to spend.

The best way to save is make it a habit and there is no better way than with an automatic savings plan. ING Direct is just one of them many great banks that offer these programs. If you don’t already have an account with them take a look. They also offer very competative savings rates to help with your savings plan!

Extreme method of saving money – Line Dry Clothes

How much does it cost to dry a load of clothes? It costs an average of about $0.30 – $0.40 per load to dry a load of clothes with an electric dryer. If you have a gas dryer then you will spend about $0.15 to $0.20 per load. It may sounds a little old fashioned but for those extreme money savers this is a great option.

Just because I say line dry doesn’t mean you have to put up an old fashioned clothes line in the back yard. They make in home clothes drying systems that allow you to hang your clothes up to dry in the laundry room instead of using the dryer for every load.

Use this method to dry items such as t-shirts, and other thin material clothing. These items usually don’t require excessive drying anyway so hanging them up to dry won’t take forever. If you do a load of laundry every day try to line dry 2 of those per week. You’ll save about $1100 over the course of your 30 year mortgage. Line dry all your clothes and you’ll save a small fortune.

With the current condition of our economy many people are looking for any way they can to save money. Please keep reading our blog to learn more great extreme ways to save money!