Passive Family Income » ways to save money

4 Easy Ways to Save Money and the Environment

Miss T (Former Staff Writer) — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 10:57:44 +0000

Are you trying to find easy ways to save money? Going green is a prudent move because it helps to save the environment around you. You can reduce the amount of pollution and waste that is produced on a day to day basis. It is also a wise decision because it often a lot cheaper than a lot of the alternative choices. Anyone would feel great to know that they are helping to make the world a better place and saving the world at the same time.

Let’s take a look at 4 easy ways that you can save money and the environment.

1 – Make your own detergent

It may sound incredibly old fashioned but it is very practical to make your own detergent. Making your own detergent is quick, easy, and incredibly inexpensive. All that is required is some soap, Borax, and washing soda. You can pick these items up at your local grocery store or use your own homemade soap. Mix in two parts of the Borax and washing soda with one part of the soap and you have instant detergent. This could easily save you hundreds of dollars annually in detergent savings.

2 – Drink Tap Water

Bottled water may seem like a good deal to you but it really isn’t when you factor in the costs and the effect on the environment. Drinking bottled water is no better for you than drinking normal tap water. It may actually be worse. Bottled water does not contain fluoride which helps to keep teeth strong. Bottled water is expensive as well. You could easily save $50 to $100 a month just by not drinking bottled water. Don’t forget the fact that bottled water bottles account for lots of leftover plastic waste which is very harmful to the environment. So, do yourself a favor and skip the plastic.

3 – Use Vinegar to Remove Stains

Brands like Tide and Sunlight are incredibly popular product because of their ability to remove stains quickly and efficiently. While these products may be effective, you can get the same results using a homemade remedy. Vinegar is a great stain remover. Vinegar can remove sweat stains, grass stains, grease stains, food stains, and liquid stains. Vinegar will last a lot longer than most stain removers and can be purchased at a much cheaper price. Plus it’s eco-freindly.

4 – Read Online

Everything that you need to stay informed can be found online. Sites like CNN, ABC, NBC, and CBS all offer breaking news delivered right to your computer screen via the Internet. Your hometown newspaper probably has an online site where you can catch up on all of the local news. You can save yourself from having to pay for costly newspaper and magazine subscriptions by getting your news online. You are saving the trees by not reading papers and your bank account as well.

By following these 4 simple steps you will help mother nature and increase the savings to your wallet.

Any other green living remedies to share? What have you tried that works great?

This post was written by staff writer Miss T.

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5 Ways to Save Money on Gas

Miss T (Former Staff Writer) — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 11:28:06 +0000

Oil prices have been going through the roof recently and drivers are feeling pain at the pump. Crude oil is over $100 a barrel and gas prices are creeping near $4 a gallon. Drivers everywhere are looking for ways to save money. You may not be able to control the price of gas but you can control how often you pull into the gas station to fuel up. Let’s take a look at a few ways that you can do this.

1 – Buy a hybrid

Hybrids used to be known as incredibly fuel efficient cars whose pricing did not make them a practical option for most people. Hybrids were often $10,000 to $20,000 more expensive than a regular automobile. Only celebrities could afford them. This is no longer the case. Newer hybrids like the Honda Fit and the Toyota Prius are so affordable that anyone can buy them. They are fashionable and fuel efficient. If you buy a hybrid, you will spend a lot less time pulling into the gas station and more time on the road.

2 – Use regular gas

Lots of people put premium gas in their car just because they think that it will make their cars run better. It rarely does. The truth is the majority of cars on the road will run just fine with regular gas. Premium gas is way more expensive than regular gas. Unless you car specifically states premium fuel only, you should save yourself some money and opt for regular. Your car will not be able to tell the difference.

3 – Keep your car’s tank off empty

It is a proven fact that cars run better when you consistently keep a half tank of gas or more in your car. Never let your gas tank drop down to empty. Riding on empty will cost you a lot more on gas station fill-ups and on car repairs. This is because dirt and sediment from gasoline settles at the bottom of your gas tank. Your car uses the dirtiest gas in the fuel tank when you let your car get down to empty. Dirt will proceed to get into your fuel line and could severely damage your engine. You will have to dole out a lot of cash on repairs if you do this regularly.

4 – Keep your engine tuned up

The importance of tune ups is often taken for granted. Lots of people drive 100,000 miles or more without ever getting a tune up. They may not think they need one until they have trouble with their spark plugs. Tune ups are incredibly important to the fuel economy that you will get from your car. A properly tuned automobile can improve your fuel efficiency dramatically. Some car owners have seen their car’s performance increase by as much as 40%.

5 – Drive at a consistent smooth pace

Have you ever been driving on a street and quickly weaved in and out of a traffic? There are people who consistently do this at each traffic light. All of this quick starting and stopping is absolutely terrible for your car’s fuel economy. Your car will quickly burn up gas and start to show the effects of all the wear and tear. If you want to get better gas mileage, drive smoother. Avoid peeling out and coming to abrupt stops. You will have to refuel less and your brakes will last longer.

All of these ways to save money on gas will help you to maximize the fuel in your tank and minimize your fill ups. Plus they also make you greener since you will be using fuel more efficiently.

So, how have you been saving money on gas? Any tips to share?

This post was written by staff writer Miss T.

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Effective Ways to Save

Guest Poster — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 11:26:59 +0000

Saving money can be one of the hardest things to do, however there are some key ways to budget and save money that people fail to take advantage of. Saving money isn’t rocket science, it’s just being disciplined enough to know when to spend and when to save. People think that if you’re trying to save money, you have to abandon your social life and all of life’s luxuries but this simply isn’t true. Here are some simple effective ways to save money.

Choose the right savings account for you

When you decide to start saving money, you must have the right savings account in order to maximize the potential in the money you put aside. In the US, the LSA or Lifetime Savings Account is a great example of an account that can do just that. Your income is not tax-deductible, but whatever returns you earn from your LSA are tax-free. To find the right account for you, go to your bank and ask, but more importantly, do your research online and check what options are available to you.

Identify how much you can afford to save

Before you can start saving, you need to work out how much you can realistically afford to save; to do this you should create a budget. A budget, when used correctly, can be the most effective of financial tools. To do this quickly and easily, simply work out your monthly outgoings for the month ahead, be thorough and honest and include all of your expenditure.

Set up automatic payments

Once you have decided on the right savings account for you, and you have decided what amount of money you’re willing to save each month, the best way to ensure you stick to your savings plan is to set up an automatic payment from your account. I do this every month based on my budget, and a small portion goes straight into my savings account whenever I receive my salary. This is so effective because you simply do not miss the money that you never see, once it goes into your savings account just forget about it, let it build and go back when you need it.

Always set yourself a goal

When trying to save money it’s so important that you remain motivated, the way that I motivate myself is that I set a series of objectives that I wish to accomplish. I’ve set myself monthly and yearly targets for my savings account and it does help to keep me going, even when times are hard.

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Cutting out Snacks to Save Money

John S. — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 11:32:55 +0000

Virtually every personal finance article that you read about saving money will point out the cost benefits of bringing your lunch to work. Packing your lunch is one of the quickest and simplest ways to save money, and is the reason it shows up on many of these published lists. A person spending $5 to $10 per day on lunch can quickly realize they are blowing over a hundred dollars every month just from eating lunch.

It doesn’t take a genius to realize that the annual savings just from cutting this expense can run in the thousands of dollars. Add in a spouse who may eat out for lunch from time to time and there is the potential for a family to save several thousand dollars every year just from cutting back on this expense.

Even if you already brown bag it, there may be other ways to save money on expenses while at work or in commute. How much does that morning coffee run you on the way to work? Even if it only costs $1, it is still much cheaper to brew your own. How about that afternoon snack or soft drink from the vending machine? Again, even spending a $1 every day can really add up overtime.

Why I Bring My Lunch to Work

I have always recognized the cost savings and health benefits of bringing my own lunch to work. In the past, I would occasionally go out to eat with my colleagues and witness just how much money a person typically spends on lunch. I would estimate my coworkers spend $8 to $12 per day on lunch.

Using a conservative calculation, I figure I could easily spend $1,600 per year if I joined them every day. While there are several benefits of going out to eat with your colleagues, the cost savings to me are more significant. This is just one of the ways that my family can live comfortably on a single income.

Saving Money at the Vending Machine

Even though I have always been diligent about not spending money going out to eat for lunch, there was always one expense I could never seem to shake while at work. For many years I had a bad habit of visiting the vending machine each afternoon for a small snack or soft drink. For some reason I felt that spending a dollar or two everyday on snacks seemed okay, as long as I wasn’t spending $10 on lunch.

It wasn’t until I started revisiting our family budget a few weeks ago that I truly realized how much I was spending each month at the vending machine. On average, I spent about $40 to $50 a month on afternoon snacks and beverages so I could get through the rest of the day at work. That is around $500 per year in wasted expenses that were helping to hold us back from becoming financially independent.

Final Thoughts

I have been snack free at work now for two months and am going strong. At first it was a little difficult fighting off the afternoon cravings for a diet soft drink from the vending machines, but after awhile I got use to not having one. As I look back, I think it was more of a behavioral issue than anything. As each day went by, I became less and less tempted to head down the hallway to pick up a snack.

Estimated Monthly Savings – $40 (conservative)

Cutting out expenses like eating out for lunch, morning coffee, and vending machine trips takes a little self sacrifice, but is not very difficult. As my wife and I try to save 10% of our income, I welcome that we could immediately save at least $40 per month just from cutting out snacks from the budget. This expense was quick and mostly painless and will help our overall goals of saving more of our income.

What examples can you provide as ways to save money that are quick and painless?

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Balancing your time vs. Saving Money

John S. — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 11:36:17 +0000

I came across an article the other day in a magazine that shared tips on how to save money on groceries. Most of the tips are ones that my family already practices like using coupons, shopping the weekly deals, making use of triple or double coupons, etc. But there was one tip that I had never heard of in the past that I found very interesting. The article said that when shopping for groceries, you should use the 80/20 rule. Basically, this rule says that you should purchase 80% of your grocery items in their natural state and the other 20% of your products in a prepared form. What does this mean? Examples of prepared items included: prepackaged carrots, shredded lettuce, boneless chicken breasts, etc. The equivalent natural state of those same products would include: whole carrots that need to be cleaned and cut, a head of lettuce, and whole chickens. The article went on to say that there is such a markup on prepared and prepackaged items, that you can save a lot of money by purchasing these products in their natural state.

While I have always understood there was a markup on prepackaged items, I never really thought about the premium charged for them. Look at a recent example of carrots that I priced out at Aldi last week.

1 lb. Baby Carrots – $1.19
2 lbs. Whole Carrots – $.99

Our local Aldi was selling a 1 lb. bag of baby carrots for $1.19. We buy 3 bags of these baby carrots each week. They are convenient, already washed and cut, and are easy to use for snacks and packing lunches. On the flip side, they sell their 2 lbs. bags of whole carrots for $.20 less than 1 lb. bag of prepared carrots. Comparing equivalent weights of both products, we are paying a $.70 premium per pound to have someone else prepare our carrots. If you spread that out over the course of 3 lbs. of carrots per week for 1 month, that is over $8.00 in premium we are paying per month just for carrots!

Unfortunately, buying 80% of your grocery items in a natural state can come at a price. The price you pay for purchasing groceries in their natural state is your time. In my opinion, a person’s time is one of their most valuable resources. I value my free time and enjoy spending it with my two children and wife. Take the carrot example – If it takes me 15 minutes (just an estimation) to clean and cut 3 lbs. of carrots each week, then that is 1 hour spent over the course of one month. That 1 hour spent translates into $8.00 of savings each month. So is my time spent worth $8 per hour? That doesn’t really seem worth it when you look at the numbers.

In the end, I think balancing my time vs. saving money first depends on the amount of money saved. A few weeks ago, I spent $40 to rent an aerator for my lawn which took me 4 hours to complete. It would have cost me over $150 to have a company come in and do the same thing. This was an example of when I felt it was worth spending the 4 hours to save a lot of money. Secondly, I think the choice also depends on what you would be doing with that time instead of using it to save money. If I was using that 15 minutes per week watching television instead of cutting up carrots, I could justify saving the money. On the other hand, if I was spending that extra 15 minutes with my children, then it is not worth saving the money.

My wife and I have actually decided to start buying the 2 lbs. bags of unwashed carrots and spending the time cutting and cleaning them. We are going to do this for the money savings, but also actually enjoy the taste of the carrots over the 1 lb. bag of baby carrots.

How do you balance your time vs. saving money?

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