Become a saver

How do you become a saver? It is hard at first, and can feel not very fun when you're starting. Once you start, though, it feels good. Less stress, less worry, more dignity, more calm. As you watch your balance grow, it becomes a little addictive and you'll want to keep going!!

Any stories you can share on this?

Boost it

How can you boost your savings?

• When you get a raise, try to save more. Aim for half!! (This is what Mary Hunt advises, though right now, with all of our costs going up, this is hard!!)
• Save the payment. When you finish paying something off, like a car loan, keep paying yourself into savings. A $330 payment saved for 5 years and invested at 6% turns into $23,470 in five years - cash for a new car!!
• Do something big. Once you start savings, do something big. Get rid of a car. Downgrade your house. Save big!

Easy Things to Do Today

1. Sell out. Go through your drawers and closets. If you're not using it, sell it on eBay or have a garage sale.
2. Give it up. If you give up a daily coffee, candy bar, cigarettes, or for me, fountain soda, it can add up. Saving $5 a day gives you $1,825 a year!
3. Think hard about driving. Cutting out 20 miles a week of driving will save about $5, or $260 a year.
4. Buy used. Check out Craig's list or even giveaway sites like Freecycle.org. It takes a little time, but can save a ton.
5. Cut the cards. It is a lot easier to spend too much money when you are using plastic (credit cards)

Watch it grow

It is said that Albert Einstein called compound interest "the eighth wonder of the world." Even in today's volatile stock market, you're better off to stash your money in some sort of interest bearing account than not. Mary Hunt gives this example: If you save $25 a week in a savings account earning 3.5% interest, and you do this faithfully through your working years from age 35, you will have $69,000.00 in your savings account when you retire at 65, even though you only deposited $39,000 of your money. If you up it to $50 a week at 6% interest you'll have $219,000 at retirement!! Wow! Even the first, conservative account, earns you $30,000 for doing nothing but not touching your money!! Makes sense - now let's do it!

Jump in and save!

A few weeks back I started sharing some of Mary Hunt's tips for saving, and I lost track of myself... Right now we can certainly use all of the help that we can get, so here we go again!

Jump in and pay yourself first. Before you pay any bills, buy groceries, do anything, put something into savings. I'd actually modify this to pay God first by tithing, then save next, but you get the idea. Even if it's less than you hoped to do, save something. Baby steps count!

Free Starbucks Coffee!!

Starbucks Offers Free Coffee for Homeschool Parents
This coming Monday, September 29, homeschool parents will be able to pick up a complimentary tall size (12 fl. oz.) cup of Pike Place Roast from Starbucks. Read more >>

Some easy ways to put money in your pocket

I found a great article in Women's Day by Mary Hunt about ways to put money in your pocket. Sounds good, right? Here are the eleven ideas, in short form:

1. Entertain the family for free. If you've got a Bank of America card you can go to a bunch of museums for free through April 2009 on the first weekend of each month. Check out http://bankofamerica.com/museums.
2. Get a good rewards credit card, and then pay your balance in full each month.
3. Gather your books and list on cash4books.net - get cash and pay no shipping fees!!
4. Start a blog for free (try blogger.com), and place ads on it for a small income, depending on the amount of readers
5. Do it yourself. Pick something that you pay someone else to do, learn how to do it, and just do it.
6. Take advantage of online rebates
7. Shop your life insurance.
8. Refinance your car loan
9. Tap into H2O - switch from bottled to tap water and save a bunch!
10. Ask for lower interest on your credit cards (just call the customer service, tell them you're receiving offers to transfer the balance but you'd like to stay if they can match the offers).
11. Save on children's clothes. Try consignment shops.

Why not give a few of these a try and slip a few dollars back into your pocket?

A.C. Moore Coupon

Unfortunately this is only good for the rest of today, but maybe someone will be able to scooch over and grab a great deal!!!

Eating healthy and spending less

I found this list of tips on a blog that I visited lately, makingmommyhot.com . Some great tips to help make eating healthier a little bit easier on your wallet.

So if you’re committed to healthy eating, here are a few tips to accomplish that without stretching your budget to its breaking point:

Shop in season. Most of the fruits and vegetables at your local supermarket have traveled an average of 1,500 miles. With the recent rise in fuel prices, that trip not only hurts the environment but your wallet as well. By tailoring your tastes to produce that is seasonally and locally in vogue, you’ll reduce your carbon footprint and your grocery bill, as well as enjoy fresh and tasty food.

Invest a little to save a lot. Living healthier may require a bit more when it comes to time, effort, and money, but the payoff is huge. And if you play it smart, you can minimize the necessary investment on many fronts, each of which is entwined with the other. For example, you can save money by prepping your own produce or making your own juice. And by spending some cash on quality appliances-juicer, mandoline slicer, specialized peelers-you can turn these tedious chores into fun, easy activities that you’re more likely to set aside time to do.

Grow your own. If you’ve got a yard, what are you waiting for? Start a garden. Pick a plot in your yard that gets a sufficient amount of sunlight (at least six hours a day), and if you’re a first-timer, start small-a 10-foot-by-10-foot square is a great beginning. Head to a local nursery or home center (they’ll advise on which fruits and vegetables thrive in your area) to get the supplies you’ll need: plants, seeds, soil, hoe, rototiller, and more. And even if you don’t have a yard, you can still grow carrots, lettuce, herbs, tomatoes, and peppers in containers on a patio or at a windowsill that gets lots of sunlight.

Buy frozen and canned fruits and vegetables. Many experts agree that the process of freezing and canning fruits and vegetables doesn’t diminish the nutritional value of these foods. If you’re concerned about taste, you can boost flavor by adding a variety of spices. Many recipes allow for the substitution of fresh vegetables with canned or frozen ones; in fact, by using canned tomatoes in a sauce or a soup, you can save as much as 70 cents per pound.

Source

How to save money when you don't have any

I so much realize how important it is to save money, but how do I do it when we are stretched so thin? I found this article that had some great tidbits in it...


Not having an emergency fund is the first step into the deep hole of debt.

With the economy forcing people to take a hard look at their finances, more people are realizing that they need to create an emergency fund, but how do you find the money to begin an emergency fund when you are just making ends meet?

Here are seven simple ways to find money to begin an emergency fund, which will allow you to create that all-important buffer for your finances.

Rearrange Your Current Costs

The least painful way to create an emergency fund is to rearrange the way you currently spend your money without actually giving up anything.

Chances are that you are paying much more than you need to be for a lot of the services you currently subscribe to such as cable TV, Internet access and phone service.

Calling these services with a competing offer in hand and asking for a better deal will often reduce the amount you are paying while keeping the exact same services you currently get.

The same can be done with home and car insurance as well. It usually costs companies much more money to find a new customer than it does to give you a discount, so they are often willing to give discounts to keep you from going to the competition.

You can then take the money you save to begin your emergency fund.

Play Saving Games

There are a number of saving games that you can play to get your emergency fund started. The most common of these is creating a money jar where you empty all your loose change at the end of each day, and collect the money at the end of the month to use for your emergency fund.

A wide variety of money games like this can serve the same purpose.

Increase Your Income

If you have already tapped all the ways that you know how to save money, another option is to make some extra money.

There are a number of ways that you can accomplish this, including finding a part-time job, doing freelance work or starting your own side business.

You can begin a number of jobs that cost very little money to create, and the extra money gained can become your emergency fund.

Sell Stuff

In all likelihood, you have way more stuff in your home than you need. A simple walk around you home looking into the closets, garage and other storage spaces should readily confirm this.

If you haven't used it in the past year, you probably don't need it. Instead of keeping it in storage and letting it gather dust, have a garage sale, put it up for sale on Craigslist or list it as an auction on eBay.

Set aside any money earned to initiate your emergency fund.

Pay Yourself

The reason that the IRS takes money out of people's paycheck each month is because if they didn't, they know that most people wouldn't have the money to pay their tax bill come April 15. They want to make sure they get their money, so they take it upfront.

You should have the same attitude with your emergency fund and pay yourself first when your paycheck arrives. Have a set amount taken out of each paycheck before you pay any other bills that gets transferred into your emergency fund.

Another way to accomplish the same goal is to finish paying off a recurring bill such as a credit card or car payment. Instead of using this newly freed up money to buy new things, keep paying it, but this time to yourself earmarked for your emergency fund.

Set Up an Account

When setting up an emergency fund, you will want to open up a separate account so that the emergency fund money isn't mixed in with your regular spending money since mixing makes it much easier to spend the emergency fund money on nonemergency things.

Online banks often offer money promotions for opening accounts, which can get your emergency fund started just for setting it up.

Pay Yourself for Things You Use

One of the easiest ways to always have an emergency fund available is to learn to pay yourself to use things you already own.

Getting into this habit ensures you have a mini emergency fund for all the things you use on a regular basis and puts you in a position of never having to buy things on credit again.

Embrace one of the above ways to begin the emergency fund, and give yourself a bit of breathing room.

by Jeffrey Strain