How do you save money?

decides2dream

81 wrote:

don't have pets...they can be expensive...

pay down debt faster. all i have any more is my house mortage. i increase my monthly payment so that in essence, i've doubled by principal portion. i don't have the numbers in front of me, but it will save a ton over the life of the loan as well as pay off the house some 10 years or so faster. that's the current plan at least

the nice thing about being poor, you don't seem to worry about money as much.

it is great only having a mortgage debt, isn't it?
idk how people can handle the big debt loads....would make me mad with anxiety. what you're doing with your mortgage payments IS a great thing! i'd eventually like to do that, but right now, we want to build up a bigger cash nest egg/emergency fund. that's my/our big goal for 2010. and just to build even better financial habits.

i find cutting back does make me happier.
i always watched certain expenses so we could splurge elsewhere....but i have found even cutting back on many of the splurges makes them that much more enjoyable.
:thumbup:

Thoughts_Arrive wrote:

I'm gonna save you fucker, not gonna SPEND youuuu!

well done!



and everyone speaking of brown-bagging.....hell yes!
when i was teaching, really didn't have much choice; not a lot of time for lunch, and very few food options close-by. now in my current line of work and location, plenty of options...but i still prefer bringing my little lunch box in daily. i eat soooo well for so little. i cannot imagine throwing away money on lunch. same thing with coffee, etc. everything is from home, or on the firm. IF i am going to splurge on a meal or coffeee out, i far rather do it on MY time, outside of the workday, with friends, my husband or family...

chime

I signed up about a month ago with a website that if you click through them to other sites to make purchases they give you the commission/cash back earned for the click through on your purchases (they take the first £5 (about $7.50) each year as a membership fee) and as long as you use it only to purchase things you would have otherwise is a good way to save some cash. It can take a couple of months for the cash to come through but so far been good for me.

Brony

prfctlefts wrote:

You should check out Ny times best seller "Financial Peace" by Dave Ramsey
It's a simple yet life changing guide that will show you how to:
1.Get out of debt and stay out
2.Use the principle of contentment guide to finacial
decision making
3.Build your own emergrncy fund
4.Communicate about money with your spouse
5.Instill good money habits in your children
6.How to deal with debt after a divorce or the death of a spouse
7.Manage your money as a single or a single parent
8.Get on a budget and stay on it ( The envelope method works great)

All in all it's a really good book and it's an easy read. He also has a sydicated talk show. He was also at one time in his 20's and 1.2 million in debt and got out of it by using the principals he teaches. you can catch him on the Fox business network also.

all my uncle talks to me about is this guy.....especially for someone in "my situation" (just married, renter, both with solid jobs)

ps- havent started following anything yet

mdigenakis

Avoid Ebay.

81

decides2dream wrote:

it is great only having a mortgage debt, isn't it?
idk how people can handle the big debt loads....would make me mad with anxiety. what you're doing with your mortgage payments IS a great thing! i'd eventually like to do that, but right now, we want to build up a bigger cash nest egg/emergency fund. that's my/our big goal for 2010. and just to build even better financial habits.

.

just dug up the numbers in my magical net worth excel file with loan amortization calculations....if i contine paying the amount i'm paying now, it will knock 100 months off the back end of the loan and reduce intrest by 30.6% over the life of the loan. i guess i should up the payment a little more. anouther $100 per month would knock off 122 months, thus reduing to the loan term to just udner 20 years and the resulting intrest savings would increase to 36.7%.

i just need to start a car fund account someplace.

pandora

give it to husband- he's thifty
then ask him to help out when needed

decides2dream

81 wrote:

decides2dream wrote:

it is great only having a mortgage debt, isn't it?
idk how people can handle the big debt loads....would make me mad with anxiety. what you're doing with your mortgage payments IS a great thing! i'd eventually like to do that, but right now, we want to build up a bigger cash nest egg/emergency fund. that's my/our big goal for 2010. and just to build even better financial habits.

.

just dug up the numbers in my magical net worth excel file with loan amortization calculations....if i contine paying the amount i'm paying now, it will knock 100 months off the back end of the loan and reduce intrest by 30.6% over the life of the loan. i guess i should up the payment a little more. anouther $100 per month would knock off 122 months, thus reduing to the loan term to just udner 20 years and the resulting intrest savings would increase to 36.7%.

i just need to start a car fund account someplace.

yea, well i am not that handy with the numbers as you. :P i use excel but at a much more novice level. however, i read a lot about personal finance, and have read/heard of the massive savings by doing just this. also, got a couple of accountants in the family. it definitely is AMAZING how MUCH you can save...in both money and pay-off time, but following such a practice. hubby and i have discussed it a few times over. right now, it just doesn't fit with our budget, we have other goals to meet first, but it is definitely on the agenda.

kudos to you!

blackredyellow

decides2dream wrote:

and everyone speaking of brown-bagging.....hell yes!
when i was teaching, really didn't have much choice; not a lot of time for lunch, and very few food options close-by. now in my current line of work and location, plenty of options...but i still prefer bringing my little lunch box in daily. i eat soooo well for so little. i cannot imagine throwing away money on lunch. same thing with coffee, etc. everything is from home, or on the firm. IF i am going to splurge on a meal or coffeee out, i far rather do it on MY time, outside of the workday, with friends, my husband or family...

I want to smack people that I work with... most of them are younger (early-mid 20's), and they all complain about money. But, most of them eat out every day... and not just a couple slices of pizza, it's like a $8-$10 meal. And they come in every morning with coffee that they bought. It's gotta be an easy $250 a month on lunch and coffee for them.

I usually bring lunch, once a week maybe go get soup or pizza or something cheap (under $5), and maybe once a month actually go out for a sit down lunch or splurge on something.

weekapaug19

chime wrote:

I signed up about a month ago with a website that if you click through them to other sites to make purchases they give you the commission/cash back earned for the click through on your purchases (they take the first £5 (about $7.50) each year as a membership fee) and as long as you use it only to purchase things you would have otherwise is a good way to save some cash. It can take a couple of months for the cash to come through but so far been good for me.

ebates? if anybody does go on there, pm me and I'll send you a invite, and we both get $5

81

weekapaug19 wrote:

ebates

that sounds dirty