How To Save Money
Money Saving Tips - How To Save Money In 2009
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The Great Recession of 2008-2009 is affecting millions of households across the United States (and other parts of the world). We all know a few ways to save money. Sharing these ideas in a time of challenge will help make us all stronger economically. But more importantly, once you learn these principles, you'll find more ways to save money without having to search the Internet for money saving tips and articles on how to save money in 2009.
Let's get started!
Tip 1: Form a Shopping Club
Call it a Shopping Club, a Shopping Group, a Shopping Circle, or whatever you wish. The idea is to organize a small group of reliable friends, neighbors, and relatives to pool shopping time, savings, and plans. Here is how it works:
- Each week, hold a planning meeting where your group reviews upcoming sales and new store openings.
- Choose a chair person to keep the meeting running smoothly.
- Choose a secretary/treasurer to handle money and lists.
- Every member contributes cash (no checks, no credit cards, no debit cards) to a pool.
- Write up a list of stores with special deals.
- Assign 1 or 2 stores to each member of the group with a list of the specials they'll purchase.
- Divide the pool of cash so that every member with assigned stores has enough money to make purchases.
- The secretary/treasurer should keep a master list showing who was supposed to buy what each week.
- Set the time and place where everyone will bring their purchases together and swap items.
- Keep a running record of which stores had the best deals, which stores had enough merchandise, and how much time was spent getting to the stores and back.
Time is money and part of the cost of shopping is the time you spend traveling from store to store. Another cost of shopping is how much gas you use up in your vehicles. It would be a good idea to use the most fuel-efficient vehicles in the group to travel to the farthest stores, but remember to be fair and reasonable in assigning trips. Work with members to save money without being a miser.
Limit your shopping club purchases to necessary items: food, non-alcoholic beverages, over-the-counter medicines, etc. Leave the self-indulgences such as tobacco products, alcohol, and other mature items for your own personal budget. Better yet, use the recession to bolster your resolve to quit your tobacco addiction. If you spend $25 a week on tobacco, you'll save $1300 a year if you can quit. That's a lot of money.
If you and your friends earn shopping rewards, try to work out purchase deals where you can continue to earn rewards (maybe even at a faster rate).
Tip 2: Eat out every night and save money
You must think I'm crazy to suggest you can save money by eating out every night, but here is how you can do it and save money, too. Do you like hamburgers and fries? Do you like fried chicken and mashed potatoes? Do you like Mexican food like tacos, burritos, and nachos? Do you like stir-fried Asian foods? Do you like fried fish, baked fish, rice, and hush puppies?
If you have four friends who each know how to cook at least one of those meals, the five of you can save money by inviting each other to dinner one night a week. Monday will be Mexican Night at your house. Tuesday will be Chicken and Mashed Potatoes Night at your best friend's house. If you formed a shopping club, you can plan ahead and save money by buying what you need in bulk (although buying in bulk doesn't always save you money, so be sure to look for the best deals).
You don't have to eat at a fast food restaurant in order to enjoy low-cost meals five nights a week. Sharing dinner with your friends and relatives can be fun, save money, and help you stay in good spirits by keeping your social life active. When money is scarce, people do struggle with depression and low self-esteem. But when you work together with friends and relatives to get through hard times, you feel better about yourself and stay on track to save money.
If you want to eat in a real restaurant, many restaurants with bars offer Happy Hour menus where you can buy full entrees for as little a$2-3. You'll be expected to buy a drink but soft drinks are usually okay. Limitations usually include: you must eat in or near the bar, you cannot take food home, and Happy Hour may be over by 7:00 PM. Microbreweries may also offer happy hour menus. Call around and make a list of great places to eat out for less than $10 per person.
