Category — Personal

Do we need a soothsayer  to tell us that savings are to be saved? Many people do not have savings today because they never tag their savings as savings. My message to you today is: Do not spend it, it is called savings, Duh!

Saving for a reason

Why will you save money if you do not have a reason to? When we find reasons to save, we should tag that money and name it with that. That will help us stay within the plan. If you are saving for that exotic wedding anniversary holiday,  you do not want to use the money for the impromptu trip to Las Vegas!

Tag your savings

The simple way to do this is to tag your savings. Most online savings accounts are free to open. Some people tag any money in their accounts for a specific purpose. Other accounts like ING Direct have the capability of creating multiple sub-accounts, so all you have to do is create a sub-account for your purpose. Like “Wedding Anniversary”,  “Down Payment” , “Camping Trip” or “Christmas 2012″.

Self Discipline

Having done all these, one essential thing we all have to do is self-discipline. If you are not disciplined, you may still dip into the money earmarked for that trip and use it for something else. That is a no no. Saving and actually letting what you saved stay safe is one of the key ways to enjoy life in a financially comfortable manner. That is because rather than having to squeeze money out from you paycheck for that occasional expense, you can guiltlessly access the money you have been saving for it. As is sometimes said, if we fail to plan, then we have planned to fail.

The take home message here is : Leave those savings alone!

Online Banking and Billpay

Online billpay is one of the coolest moneysavers of the 21st Century. It still amazes me when people spend the time and energy walking to brick-and-mortar banks to carry out banking transactions which they can execute from the comforts of their homes or offices. It is even so cool now that every other smart phone can do it.

Online Banking is so cool, even a smartphone can do it

Everytime we struggle to pay our bills, or cut back to meet one obligation or the other, it is important that we look withing us and almost always, we can find some obscure leak that saves 10, 20 or even 50 dollars for us. Skipping the post office, the stamp, the envelope and the walk can save you money, believe me.

Home Lighting

Another leak that we often are too preoccupied to acknowledge is low watt energy-saving lightbulbs. When I was renting, on moving into the apartment, I switched all the regular lightbulbs to energyefficient lights. I must have removed up to 60 lightbulbs. I safely tucked them away for my Landlord. The low watt bulbs cost me under 100 dollars, but in the long run over a two year period it probably saved me $700 to $1200 in electricity bills.

In the same light, we should know when Christmas is over and pull the plugs on our dearly beloved Christmas lights (pun intended). We all do not want the holidays to be over, but honey, wake up it is over. Getting those lights down in time can save you some more money on electric bills.

Intelligent Driving

Intelligent driving is to drive with concentration.  Driving intelligently requires you to think as you drive and not to let your driving fall fully into the control of the sub-concious. At least do this until you have learned a new way of driving.

The three don’ts of driving:

• Don’t accelerate to a red light
• Don’t race the amber light
• Don’t race the green light

These three rules are some of the commonsense ones that I see people breaking everyday.

If you accelerate to a stop, you have to spend even more energy to brake, wasting gas as you do that. If you accelerate to beat a red light by going through amber, you also end up burning more gas than you would ordinarily burn with regular driving. Third, if you race green light because you have been waiting at a red light for a while, or because you do not want it to change on you, you have done the same dumb thing,burned more gas than is needed. Accelerating as sparingly as possible is one sure-fire way of saving on gas and the bucks add up. You save on so many other things like tire wear and tear as well as the risk of getting a ticket, hitting someone or looking like a jerk!

There are many other tips and you can find these ten economical driving tips here.

Free Samples

When I was a kid, my Dad used to get free samples of many canned foods and products.  He used them for marketing the products, so they almost never got to our kitchen before they were off! I still remember some that were so long off that the cans would start swelling and soon start leaking stuff and then we will have to discard it.

These days, free samples are given away as a means of advertisement. They could really help you save on those groceries or other home supplies. It is also an easy way to try out a new product. The popular “try before you buy” cliche is resounding, isn’t it. One of the websites where you can find most free sample coupons is Common Sense With Money. The free coupons section has tons of coupons for you to take advantage of. This is certainly a stopping point for anyone who wants to stop a leak.

It may seem like this is not a leak, but when you think about it why pay for it if it is being given away for free?

While doing my lazy Saturday skimming of blogs that I read, I came across this wildly rich post on Heyitsfree blog. It has one of the most comprehensive lists of free and coupon websites, blogs and sources that I have seen recently.

This post is gonna be short ‘cos am rushing off to go check them out. I will update you as I make my reviews!