It became a habit on this blog that whenever I contribute to the blog community of authors and writers I give the “save money for investment” advice. Let’s face it, if you make a million bucks a year and spend 2 millions your not rich, but you’re in debt. It’s not all about how much money you make, it’s also about how much money you put to work for you to make you money without your interference.
So I decided to write an article just about saving tips that anyone can implement on day to day activities. Any money you can put aside for investment is going to make a difference in your financial future. So let’s get to it.
1. Don’t Buy Lunch.
In your lunch hour it’s less stressful to take your lunch bag with you to work than standing in the line to buy a meal from the nearby coffee shop or restaurant. You just take it out of your bag, warm it up and start eating. The whole process could take you a few minutes and you have the rest of the lunch hour for yourself. You can relax, play a game, chat with your wife on the phone or facebook, or even take a nap.
This habit can save you on average $5 a day. In a typical month that’s $5 x 22 = $110. Invest that money in stocks or precious metals if you will, or even spend it on a vacation at the end of the year!
2. Divorce Vending Machines:
A can of soft drink costs on average $1 from the vending machine. Have you been to a whole sale store like Sam’s Club before? You can get that same drink for pennies if you buy it in a box! The same for chocolate bars and potato chips.
And don’t get me started with water bottles. Get a filter from Walmart for like $20 bucks and refill a glass bottle of water. It’s healthier for your body, greener if you happen to care about mother Earth, and will save you a bundle.
3. Chase Away the Flier Boy:
Do you get excited every time you hear a bout a sale in the nearby grocery store? Don’t. Buy everything in bulk and forget about those fliers you get in the mail. First of all, grocery stores reduce items when they are about to expire, or if they have had them for a long time and they want to liquidate them. Sometimes it’s a marketing approach by some manufacturers, but most of the time it’s a liquidation attempt.
But it doesn’t stop here. The main reason these stores are giving special offers on some items is to drag you to the store. If you do your math right you’ll want to buy everything in one trip to save on gas, which reminds me with number 4 below. This means that you’ll have to do all of your grocery shopping with them and forget about the bulk buying process described above for the soft drinks, and I hope you got the signal that it’s what you’re supposed to do with all items.
Buy in bulk. This is how to save money and get all what you want at the same time.
4. Save on Gas:
Ok this is going to sound pitchy but believe me it’s not. There are companies that install a water splitter on most cars. These water splitters cost around $300 and their job is to split water into hydrogen and oxygen atoms (not molecules). This atomic hydrogen-oxygen mixture helps gasoline combustion inside the engine chambers.
Now bear up with me until I explain where am I going with this. In normal cases the gasoline combustion is not complete. The result is carbon monoxide (neuro-toxin and a pollutant) and less energy to run your vehicle. By installing the water splitter in your vehicle you are helping gasoline reach a near-complete burning, which means more energy to run your car and less pollution.
Usually the producing companies promise as much as 50% saving on gas. Honestly, I’d never seen anyone who saved more than 10% with this device, which is still not bad. 10% less gas over one year is something significant. Don’t you think?
5. Go VoIP:
If you are reading this at home then you already have an Internet line. If it is a high speed Internet line then it makes sense to get rid of the land phone line and switch to a VoIP one. Do you Skype? I do. I have a separate phone number on skype for my business with an unlimited long distance plan to North America and it costs me less than a $100/YEAR!. And don’t worry about the quality, I don’t see any difference. On the contrary, sometimes the voice quality on Skype over performs my home land line.
Now let’s do the math: A phone number + unlimited long distance to North America (if this is where you live:-)) costs $100/year (actually it’s less than that, but let’s round it up for the simplification). And it comes with some cool features like voice mail and caller ID.
A typical phone line without a long distance plan costs more than $30/month. That’s $30 x 12 = $360 basic line.
We are saving at least $160/year on the phone services and getting extra cool stuff just by switching to Skype!
>>> Click here to get your unique SkypeIn number
I hope these tips will help you save some money in 2011. If you need more tips come back later and I am sure I’ll remember some more cool stuff to share with you on this website.
If you have money saving tips of your own please use the form below to share it with the DOS Club community.