Dough Defender » Money

10 Easy Ways to Save Money Today

LinearChaos — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:26:09 +0000

Today’s post is a guest post from Hannah at Debt Advisors Direct.

There is simply no better time to be thinking about saving money and it’s something we all should be striving to do, but what are the best ways to save money?

Don’t Buy ‘Designer Clothes’
Although the celebrities endorse them, try not to buy too many designer clothes. You may only wear the outfit once, which means that the $150 you spent has been more or less wasted. You would get better value for money buying a $30 outfit and if you only wear it once, its not such a big deal.

Create A Shopping List
By creating your own shopping list, you will be able to save yourself a lot of money over the course of the year.

Go through your cupboards before you go shopping and write down exactly what you need – and nothing more. Keep your list with you when you’re shopping, and stick by it. By buying exactly what you need, you will avoid wasting things and overspending.

Shop at Your Local Market
Supermarkets may be convenient and have a lot of choice, but did you know that your local market is probably cheaper for fresh produce? Buying your fruit and vegetables from your local market could save you hundreds of pounds – and you’ll be supporting a local business.

Sell Your Old Things on The Internet
If your house is cluttered and you no longer need your old stuff, then sell it online! Even if you make just a few dollars on each item, it’s better than making nothing by throwing it away. Remember – one mans junk is another mans treasure.

Switch Your Gas/Electricity Supplier
By switching your gas/electricity supplier, you could save hundreds a year. There a plenty of switching sites available online, and many of them operate for free and take a small commission off the supplier when someone switches via them.

Say ‘No’
Learn to say ‘no’. This is one of the hardest things to do, especially when you really want something. For example, if you are looking for a new TV and see one you really like, but it costs $1500 – and you only have $600 in the bank, then just walk away. Don’t be tempted to put it on the credit card, as the interest could cost you a lot of money.

Walk to Work
Something as simple as walking to work could save you hundreds of dollars a year. If you work too far away to walk – ask if anyone would be interested in sharing lifts with you.

Cancel Your Gym Membership
Your gym membership is a luxury that you may not even use. Why not run around the block? Or run round the local park? Join a free sports club…there are so many ways to keep fit for free. If you feel you need to use the gym occasionally most will let you pay per session anyway.

Pay off Your Outstanding Unsecured Debts
If you have outstanding unsecured debts, try to pay these off as soon as possible. The sooner you clear them, the less interest they can gather and the cheaper they will be to clear! (For more debt information visit http://www.debtadvisersdirect.co.uk/)

Create a Strict Budget
Create a strict budget and stick to it! This should help you keep in control of your finances. You may be able to highlight areas where you are ‘overspending’ – in other words, areas where you can cut back and save money.

There is no hiding the fact that to save a little bit of money you will need to put in some effort and stay on top of you finances. The benefits are substantial though, not only does saving money help your cash flow, being in control gives you a nice feel good factor.

10 Easy Ways to Save Money Today is a post from: Dough Defender

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The Week in Links 05/09/09

LinearChaos — Sun, 10 May 2009 22:48:21 +0000

This week was a good one in the land of personal finance. Lots of good stuff to keep you defending that dough and growing that wealth!

Blogosphere

Trent over at The Simple Dollar taught us how to take advantage of The Neighborhood Cooperative.

Not Made of Money helped us to Adjust our Withholding for Next Year.

David at My Two Dollars helped us Drastically Reduce our Expenses. There are a few great money saving tips in here that I had never thought of like hauling your own trash to the landfill. Thanks David!

Great post on Eating Out on a Budget by Green Panda Treehouse, this one is a great read for anyone dying to eat out and not waste all those meals at home by spending too much.

Carnivals

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The Week in Links 04/25/09

LinearChaos — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 02:56:00 +0000

This week was a great weak for informative finance posts around the bloggosphere. I was able to squeeze in quite a bit of time to check them out thanks to a me day stuck in the middle of the week. Sometimes you just work too hard and need to take a day. I took a day. Here’s what I found.

Blogosphere

Trent, over at the simple dollar gave us a great list of free software he uses regularly. I’m a huge fan of the open source software movement and coincidentally many of the open source programs come with a $0.00 price tag. This is a great post, thanks Trent!

Congratulations to Tricia over at Blogging Away Debt who proclaimed, “we’re credit card debt free!” this week. She was able to pay off over $37,000 in 38 months, good for you Tricia!

J. Money at Budgets are Sexy reported on the horror of the SlumDog Millionaire child being sold for $300,000. What an awful thing for a parent to do!

Five Cent Nickel taught us about 529 plans, for those of you looking to pay for school or avoiding continued education due to the rising costs, this information may be very helpful. Check it out!

Flexo at Consumer Commentary has some great advice for making your money make money for you.

Green Panda Treehouse gave us some great excel spreadsheets for managing finances.

Carnivals

Carnival of Personal Finance #201 – hosted by Mighty Bargain Hunter.

Carnival of Twenty Something Finances – “Baseball by The Numbers” ed. by Stretchy Dollar.

Money Hacks Carnival – “Earth Day” ed. hosted by The Personal Finance Playbook.

Carnival of Debt Reduction – hosted by Simply Forties.

Carnival of Pecuniary Delights #4 – “Living Green & Saving Green” ed. by Living Well on Less.

Festival of Frugality #174 – “I May be in Incredible Pain, But at Least I’m Living Frugal” ed. by My Life ROI.

Did you find something great this week in the world of money? Share it in the comments!

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The Week in Links 04/10/09

LinearChaos — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 18:05:30 +0000

This week has been short for me, as I’ve been dying of allergies. I did manage to do some surfing through the benedryl haze, here are some of the cool links I found this week.

Looking to save money is not always easy, but with the internet at our disposal, it’s getting a lot easier. Metafilter has a list of things that have been replaced by free or cheap applications on the internet, the list is a bunch of statements like “I used to ___ and now I use ___.” Check it out, there are tons of great ideas!

Gocomics.com had a funny comic about saving money…er, saving to spend money. I thought it was funny, check it out.

Over at Get Rich Slowly, J.D. has a great review of a new personal finance book. This time it’s an older book from 1988, but by the sound of J.D.’s review it sounds like a personal experience blog in a book to me. I think I may pick up a copy of this one.

Great post on how to make money from a blog over at Christian Personal Finance. The best post on this subject I’ve seen in a while. The post is long and quite detailed, check it out if you are looking to bring in a few extra bucks blogging in your spare time!

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Have We Hit the Bottom of the Recession?

LinearChaos — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 15:58:31 +0000

The current economic standing is now officially negatively affecting Google. In it’s first ever layoffs, Google has dismissed 100 recruiters. These are the first ever layoffs for Google, but if you recall in late 2008, Google dismissed a bunch of contractors.The layoffs make sense, who needs recruiters when the unemployment rate is 7.2% and climbing! While these layoffs come at no surprise, they are definitely a strong indicator of just how bad things have become.

In a blog post on the move, VP People Operations Laszlo Bock wrote, “Given the state of the economy, we recognized that we needed fewer people focused on hiring.”

He expressed regret that the people who “helped build this company” are the first to get the axe. “We are enormously grateful for everything they have done,” he said.

Thus far there are no further plans for layoffs, but some sources say the economy will continue to get worse before it gets better. Other sources claim this to be the bottom of the recession and expect the economy to hold here and then begin to climb.

What do you think? Post your thoughts in the comments.

You can track any layoff activity at Google on ClickZ’s layoff tracker.

Photo: Google

Have We Hit the Bottom of the Recession? is a post from: Dough Defender

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Ebook: Conserving Your Assets

LinearChaos — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 03:31:01 +0000

I was checking out A Full Cup the other day and I ran across a really great e-book written by Carin Dowling. She effectively demystifies the art of couponing. Describes each type of coupon, how to use them, where to find them, how to organize them, and how to get the maximum savings.

Dowling tackles the topics of price matching, rebates, and many rewards programs and includes detailed examples of how to effectively stack or combine sales and discounts.

Check out Conserving Your Assets and you’ll be an expert in no time with a HUGE pile of loot and a FAT wallet.

Ebook: Conserving Your Assets is a post from: Dough Defender

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I Will Teach You to Be Rich

LinearChaos — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 18:03:29 +0000

Do you know Ramit Sethi? He’s the author of a really cool personal finance blog called I will Teach You to be Rich.

I read his blog on a regular basis and he just recently taught me how to save $25,000.00 in 2009.

Read for yourself and add your reviews in the comments.

I Will Teach You to Be Rich is a post from: Dough Defender

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