Just a regular joe that loves to save money where ever I can. The bills can add up each month and without learning how to save a little money at the end of the week things can be tough. These are some of my saving money tips and articles on frugal living that I find online.An interesting video that gives some important tips on how to cut down on your weekly grocery bill. Lets face it groceries is the once expense that we incur often so why not try and cut down on it. There are many helpful hints in the video below such as comparing unit prices, buying brand names, staying away from end of the aisle displays and much more. Try a few of these and watch your expenses go down.
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I got caught this week not following my own advice. I was away for a business meeting and we decided to eat at a Keg restaurant. We have a few drinks and a nice meal. What I didn't have was the extra $10 Vodka Caesar the waiter tagged me for. Mistakes happen but what should have happened was me checking my bill before I paid for it. That mistake is clearly on me. I can't believe I let me guard down and got stiffed for an extra ten. My guard is back up and every time I see one of those symbol barcode scanner machines come out at a store or get my bill I am going through it from top to bottom.
When you are dealing with your bills and receipts do yourself a favor and check them every time you get them. Don't get complacent like I allowed myself to become. It will cost you money every single time.
Back in high school I used to play a little guitar with a group of guys. I never really had the time or even the money to take up playing an instrument full time. I recently ran into one of the guys that I used to play with and he is still playing. This got me into shopping for a new guitar.
I have the time now to play a lot more but who has the money these days. That is until I found a guitar called the Epiphone Les Paul Traditional Pro Electric Guitar. This is a little power house of a guitar that features all of the craftsmanship of a Les Paul and it looks great. Every review I read about this guitar was the same, great.
Now I have an axe in mind that I want. Let's see if I can find it at my favourite price: On Sale. I could search it out used or buy a knock off but I want the real thing and I want it new so I can enjoy it fresh so I know where it has been. You know me. I love the thrill of finding a deal and when I pick up my guitar it's going to be for the best price.
Last week my other half was going to throw out all of the coupons that came in the mail to the recycle bin. I grabbed them and noticed that there was a really set of coupons for dish detergent, soap, laundry detergent and a few other cleaning supplies. She was going to throw them out because we were fully stocked at the time. I just shook my head and snapped them back and put them on the counter. Those things don't go bad you know. We can afford to stock pile some cleaning supplies for a couple of months.
Off I went to today to the old steel building around the corner, Costco. I used those coupons and saved some really good money on what can otherwise be expensive items. Now they are stockpiled and we won't need to buy any for quite awhile. Don't throw your coupons out because you don't think that you need them. You can always stock pile non-perishable items like I did today.
It is a well documented fact that the price of motoring is on the increase, contributed to by increases in insurance premiums, raised tax and of course the ever escalating price of fuel. The average cost of running a car has increase by more than 20% since April last year.
The internet has opened the consumer’s eyes to the opportunity to shop around when it comes to pretty much any commodity. With increased smart phones adoption and internet connectivity, it now means you are no longer at the mercy of the services closest to your current location. Apps now make it quick and easy to cut costs spontaneously while on the move. Here are 3 great apps which can help assist reducing the cost of motoring.
This app allows you to locate the cheapest fuel around. Using geo-location technology you can search for the petrol station closest to you, so you can make your pennies go that little bit further.
The app, which is based upon the price sharing by its users, has already build up a wealthy source of prices at 50,000 petrol stations. It is a continuously growing database, where you are able to easily enter the prices for the petrol stations you know to assist fellow drivers.
The app has geo-location so you can locate those petrol stations closest to you. The interface is really easy to use, the map shows you the petrol stations which are nearby and you simply tap on a petrol station on the map and the petrol price is detailed.
It includes all major brands including Supermarkets such as Sainsburys, Tesco and ASDA. If you are a regular driver or clock up lots of miles on the way to work it provides a handy tool which is totally free and could save you a fair bit of cash in the long run.
Carpooling.co.uk (price: free)
Whether you use your car to commute to work, drive it at the weekends or just to visit friends and family during the holidays this app could save you money.
It allows drivers to locate people who would like to take the spare seat/s in their car instead of taking public transport. It means you can effectively pay for the cost of your petrol depending on how many free spaces you have in the car.
The app guides a user through registration (which is very easy if you already have a facebook account), and how to add a lift.
You simply enter the details for the journey you are making, the price of the seat which is then added to the database for potential passengers to search.
The database, which contains National and International lifts has at least 650,000 lifts at any one time and, with an average review of 4.8 out of 5, it is clear that it has a popular user group.
The app allows you to be fairly specific about the route you are taking, with via points and you can specify whether your car is smoking or non smoking which means you can still be in control in your car.
AA Parking app (price: £1.99)
When driving in unfamiliar places it can be really difficult to not pay through the nose for car parking spaces because you just don’t have the local knowledge of where to park cheaply.
This app means you no longer have to be at the mercy of over-priced car parks. The AA brings to you a rich database of carparks for the UK and Ireland.
The app allows you to both use Geo-location search (for when you are lost) or also to search for the cheapest car park at your destination before you arrive. It also allows you to filter by type of parking space such as park and ride, secure, street or covered parking.
If you have chosen not to use the carpooling app to find a passenger and need someone to navigate you to the car park the app is also happy to deliver.
They have a 24/7 on hand customer services team if you come across any issues on the road.
It is true that all of the data is available on the Parkopedia website, however the app means that you can use the content on the move and the £1.99 charge could easily be made back by locating the first cheaper parking space!
With the cost of filling up the average car rising by £18 to more than £96 over the past two years a larger percentage of the family income is now allocated to motoring costs. With a plethora of apps on the market to make the price comparison option at home available on the road, it makes it simple and easy to make efficiencies while on the go. Why not give them a try ?
It is that time of the season that I have to replace my furnace filter. Last year I updated my furnace and it is no surprise that the furnace filter for my model is not a cheap one. It is rather expensive when compared to my last furnace. I used to use a reuseable furnace filter that I could clean but I don't have that option any longer. It is another big expense but one that is worth it when considering the benefits of having a decent air filtering system in place. Some thing you just can't cheap out on.
Never being one to like spending large amounts of money when I don't have to do I started to look into the benefits of air filters and I was a little shocked at some of the things I found. This article is a little technical but it spells out some of the dangers of not property filtering the air in your house. http://www.pnas.org/content/105/2/605.full
Now that I have decided to buy a higher end filter I have set my sites on doing HEPA filters comparison shopping online. There are a wide range of prices and products available and I of course like to get the best price for my money. I love to read reviews on everything I purchase and compare prices before I buy.
I also found a little tip to extending the life your furnace filter when doing my comparison shopping. If you want to make your furnace filter last a little longer and save money of your heating bill make sure you clean it on a regular basis over it's expected shelf life. I take my filter out every couple of weeks and vacuum it out. Sounds odd vacuuming your furnace filter but it works. Vacuuming it keeps the air flowing more efficiently so your furnace doesn't have to work as hard. This will save your money on your heating bill and extend the life of your filter.
There is an old saying that says don't throw out the baby with the bath water and it still holds true today. Never so much so when it comes to saving money and cutting down on your expenses.
I will give you a case in point. A friend of mine recently had his Xbox break down on him. Instead of just getting his xbox hard drive fixed, he went out and bought a new one. He said it was old and needed to be replaced. It didn't need to be replaced, it just need to be fixed which would have been half the price or replacing the whole console. So many times I see people replace things that just need to be fixed or have some maintenance done on them. When something breaks it would be wiser to look into the costs of having it fixed rather than rushing out and buying something new.
Sometimes the costs of repair can exceed the replacement costs, especially with technology today. For example, I had a tv breakdown and the costs of replacement parts and repair hardly made it worth my while to fix it compared with the cheap costs of today's tv sets.
Are you a webmaster that has more work to do on your websites then you care to think about? I am in that same boat myself. I have recently launched a new website and find myself with a million tasks to take care of and quite frankly I need some help. I have to look after the web hosting, design, software installation and content. It can be quite overwhelming for one person to look after but it doesn’t have to be. I found a great website where you can hire helpers to assist in the tasks that you need to build your website but just don’t have time for.
At SEOClerks you can find individuals to help you with anything you need to build your website. You can get help with seo optimization, forum posting, article writing and even social networking. Affordable SEO is important to building a successful website and being able to hire professionals at decent rates that are reliable is where the advantage lies.
The great thing about this website is that you can read reviews before you hire a person to do a job for you. The worst part about finding people to hire on webmaster forums is that you have no idea who they are or if they are legitimate or scammers. I love being able to read ratings and feedback on individuals before hiring them. Several times I have just thrown my money away hiring people from webmaster forums. With this website I know who I am hiring and that makes it worry free for me.
