Penny pinchers thread

[clamchucker]

6. Skip the Bottled Water
If you don't like the water that comes out of the tap, buy a water filter. The per-gallon cost is significantly less than the cost of bottled water - and without all the plastic bottles to discard, it's a lot easier on the environment.


I'm from the generation when we pulled a glass of water from the tap, still do. We put water in quart containers if going out for the day, or froze it and drank it as it defrosted on the jobsite. I cannot see spending money on bottles water, except when we bring the grandkids somewhere. Then we will bring bottles water in a cooler, and that's what they drink instead of filling up on expensive soda.

[seamonkey]

If we go out to dinner we skip dessert. Saves extra dollars and the homemade cake is always better.

[albiealert]

If we go out to dinner we skip dessert. Saves extra dollars and the homemade cake is always better.

Skip dessert, and order water instead of soda. Good one.

[williehookem]

Go to Walmart and get the $4 prescriptions.

[buckethead]

I go to WAWA for coffee not starbucks. It's cheaper and tastes better.

[surferman]

Five simple ways to save money

Kelsey Hubbard - Money Watch

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- We are a country of spenders who must learn the hard way to practice what our grandparents have always known: A penny saved is a penny earned.
Consider that about 43% of Americans spend more than they earn, according to estimates from the federal government, and the average household carries some $8,000 to $10,000 in credit-card debt.
To make matters worse, the average American no longer saves money. That's tumbled from a 10.8% average savings rate in 1984 into negative territory today. It's no wonder that many of us have been living way above our means for some time.
But that is getting harder and harder to do. Available credit for people to finance their lifestyles has shrunk if not dried up altogether and many Americans are standing by in shock watching their mortgage payments surge while the value of their 401(k)s drop.
It's clear Americans need to start spending less and saving more. That may sound easier said than it's done. The key is to be aware of your where your money is going and take steps to stop the leaks. Here are five simple tips that could save you hundreds of dollars a month:

1. Cash back at the pump

In the past five months gasoline prices have dropped 56%, from an average price of $4.11 to $1.80 a gallon. Somehow, households found the money to pay the higher price and survive so now people should take that excess money they are saving and bank it.
Jean Chatzky, author and personal finance expert suggests using the money you were spending on gasoline to build up that rainy day fund or to pay some your holiday expenses instead of racking up more debt.

2. Supper savings

Another great way Americans can cut costs each month is to eat at home, says Jonathan and David Murray, twin brothers who are financial advisers.
According to a recent Zagat survey, Americans will spend an average of $34 this year every time they go out to eat dinner, that's for one dinner, drink and gratuity; $76.00 if they live in one of the 20 most expensive cities. If a couple does that four times in a month the expense is close to $300 in low-cost areas and $600 in higher-cost regions, and if you have more than one drink or are treating family or friends, costs can add up quickly.
Plan a dinner or party at home and ask guests to bring a dish. If you're big on getting together with friends, family and work associates, this could save you hundreds of dollars a month.

3. Renegotiate bills

You may not be able to negotiate with the gas company or the electric company, but you can with credit cards, cable and phone services, among others. Do the homework and find out what competing cable companies, for example, are offering and ask your provider to renegotiate your bill. You may have to get through to a manager but Chatzky said she recently did this and got her monthly bill reduced by $50.

4. Smart shopping

Retailers are poised to have one of the worst holiday shopping seasons in decades and are offering deep discounts to move merchandise. But smart shoppers can save even more money by hunting down coupons. Before ordering online or going to a store, go to sites like Couponcabin.com and Ultimatecoupons.com or Google the name of a store and often you'll get a coupon code to enter at checkout. You can save 10% to 20% or more on the total order or maybe get free shipping.
There are also coupons to print out and take to the store for deeper discounts. And don't be afraid to pit one retailer against another by asking for a price match on sale items.

5. Keep the receipt

It is important to hang on to all your store receipts and keep track of sales. Savvy shoppers can possibly save even more on purchases by checking back to see if the retailers lower prices even further. If that happens within two weeks of your purchase, most stores will credit you the difference.

[captnemo]

Taking Control of Your Electricity Bill: How to cut your electricity use in half or more


I had a revelation a few years back, when I asked a solar engineer to price a solar electric system for my home.
Why, he said, did I want to install solar power when my electricity consumption was so high?

What, I thought? My family's consumption was about half that of the typical family in my area. I'd already switched many incandescent lights to compact lights, bought ENERGY STAR replacements for my fridge, washer, dryer, and torn out the energy-wasting baseboard heaters in my poorly insulated kitchen extension after adding decent insulation.

He told me I ought to be able to cut my electricity use in half again. Down to a quarter of what my neighbors use, I asked? Why not, he said? And he told me how to do it.
First, he talked me into buying a little device - the Kill A Watt meter - which is a home energy monitor. You plug the Kill A Watt meter into a wall outlet, then you plug a device (fridge, coffee maker,whatever) into the meter. The meter tells you how many watts of electricity the device consumes, and, over time, how many kilowatt hours an appliance like a refrigerator uses.

Then he told me to measure everything in my house. Since I'm a numbers guy, the idea of measuring appealed to me; I measured everything I could. Fridge, freezer, toaster, stereo, computer, cable modem, clock radio, plug-in carbon monoxide detector, you name it. I measured devices that couldn't be plugged into the meter (such as dishwasher, where the plug is buried, and stove, which runs on 220 volts) by watching the electricity meter outside my home. Then I estimated what was left, which mainly consisted of lights (the wattage is printed on the bulb; multiply by hours of use per day and divide by 1,000 to get kwh per day). I used an Excel spreadsheet to calculate how much electricity our house used each month, and, to my surprise, when I checked my utility bill, my estimate was bang on.


The revelation was how much electricity my stuff used that I really didn't benefit from. For example:

• My coffee maker was plugged in all day with its little LED clock. 2 watts of continuous power doesn't sound like much, but that adds up to 17 kilowatt hours per year. That was more than one day's worth of my family's energy consumption just to avoid having to unplug and plug in the coffee maker.
• I always hibernate my computer when I'm not using it, but I was leaving the cable modem and wireless router on. Between them, they were using 30 watts continuously - 262 kilowatt hours a year.
• That carbon monoxide detector was drawing 5 watts. What incentive does the manufacturer have to make it as energy efficient as possible, when I'm the one paying the bill? Why not use a battery-powered CO detector instead?
• The television and DVD player combined were using another 30 watts even when turned off. Why? Because both were sitting there waiting for me to power them on via remote control (There are actually home energy saving devices known as standby savers, that you can use that save most of this power.)
• The fridge was using more than it was supposed to. So I checked that with a thermometer, and discovered one of my kids had accidentally bumped the temperature dial on the freezer compartment (ours is a bottom freezer) and set it way colder than it needed to be. Fixing that saved nearly 1 kwh a day right there!

Most of these things sound insignificant on their own - especially when you just look at the watts consumed or the amount of power per day. But when you consider that they're all running continuously, it really does add up - in our case, cutting this kind of waste did almost exactly what the solar engineer said it would - it cut our energy bills nearly in half again!
That's right - we were only using about 16 kilowatt hours per day of electricity before I started toying with solar energy, and the local average in my area for a house of 4 people is about 33 kwh per day. By the time I was done with my Kill A Watt meter, we had our consumption down to 8 kwh per day.
Once you get your consumption down to that level, a solar electric system starts to make sense (especially with all the financial incentives for installing solar power). But in the end, what did I do?
Just kept track of electricity usage and made sure we kept it down. The net impact is that we now save more energy through these conservation measures, than we would have generated if we'd installed a solar power system and not made any changes in our behavior.
I'd recommend a Kill A Watt meter - or any similar home electricity monitoring tool - to anyone seriously interested in cutting their electricity use. I paid $60 for mine, and it paid for itself in only three months. Nowadays you can buy them for about $20, so the payback period could be down to a month. And if you didn't have the head-start I had - if your home is in the 30+ kwh per day range to start with - you'll save even more.
As far as electricity consumption goes, what you don't know can't help you!

[stormchaser]

Tax Credits Worth Pursuing This Year

by AnnaMaria Andriotis
Thursday, January 29, 2009

The very factors that have many consumers worried about affording this year's tax bill could actually work in their favor this tax season.
Taxpayers whose wages were slashed in 2008 -- or worse, who were laid off -- may be eligible for tax credits that weren't within their reach in previous years. In addition, first-time home buyers and parents of children under age 17 may also be able to save a little money on their tax bill thanks to some new credits and thresholds.

“These overlooked credits are relevant in the current economy and could mean the difference in hundreds or even thousands of dollars in your tax refund,” says John Evans, Northeast tax director at BDO Seidman.
Here are four credits that can help boost your refund.

Recovery Rebate Credit
Feel like you got shortchanged last year when the government doled out its Economic Stimulus Act rebate checks? Well, if you didn't qualify for the rebate before or didn't receive the full amount ($600 per taxpayer and $1,200 if married and filing jointly) because your income was too high (or too low), you may now be able to collect.

The rebate checks that were sent out last year were based on information on your 1040 for 2007. This second chance to collect will be based on your 2008 1040. So if your income took a hit last year, it may be worth a shot. You can also qualify for this credit if you had a child in 2008, among other reasons.

First-Time Homeowner Credit
For those who bought a home last year or want to in the months ahead, Uncle Sam has a little present for you. This tax credit, essentially a temporary, no-interest loan, is being offered to those who bought -- or will buy -- a home between April 9, 2008, and June 30, 2009, and who didn't own a home during the three years preceding the purchase.

The maximum amount of the credit equals either 10% of the home’s price or $7,500 ($3,750 if you are married, but filing separately), whichever is less. One hitch: Homeowners will have to repay the credit over 15 years by either owing more in taxes or receiving a smaller refund. So, if you claim the credit on your 2008 tax return, you’ll have to start repaying it when you file your taxes for 2009. (The 2009 tax return will include an extra line for this credit.)

Child Tax Credit
Many parents will be eligible to receive a tax credit of up to $1,000 per child this year as long as that child was under the age of 17 at the end of 2008. (This credit is in addition to the regular $3,500 exemption that you can claim for each dependent.)


The child tax credit begins phasing out for filers whose modified adjusted gross income is above $110,000 if they are married and filing jointly, above $75,000 for single filers, or more than $55,000 for married filing separately. In addition, the child (who can also be the filer’s sibling, stepchild, grandchild, niece or nephew) must have not provided more than half of his or her own support and, in most cases, must have lived with the filer for more than half of 2008.
The one catch: The amount you receive from the child tax credit is partly based on your income so you may not receive the full amount -- or possibly anything. If you don't qualify for any or all of the $1,000 child tax credit you're still in luck. Try applying for the additional child tax credit, which also offers up to $1,000 per qualifying child. (Taxpayers who qualify for parts of both credits can only receive a maximum of $1,000 per eligible child.) Typically, this credit is reserved for low-income taxpayers, but a recent change in the way the IRS computes eligibility for this credit, will allow more middle-income taxpayers to qualify this year, says Eric Smith, a spokesman for the IRS.

Earned Income Tax Credit
This credit is typically geared toward low-income taxpayers, but given the rise in the unemployment rate and wage cuts, more people are likely to qualify for it this year, says Evans. (According to the IRS, one in six taxpayers currently can claim this credit.)
To qualify, families with two or more children must have made less than $41,646 in 2008, and those with one child must have earned less than $36,995. Also, individuals without children who make less than $15,880 are eligible.

The maximum credit for each of these groups is $4,824, $2,917 and $438, respectively.

Taxpayers who qualify to claim this credit on their federal income tax return may also be eligible for a similar credit on their state or local income tax return. Twenty-two states, including New York, Maryland and Iowa, offer residents an earned income tax credit.

http://finance.yahoo.com/taxes/artic...uing-This-Year

[katiefishes]

7 Things You're Wasting Money On

by Kelli B. Grant
Friday, March 20, 2009 provided by money saver.

These days, keeping your budget in line isn’t measured by the amount you spend, but by how much you save.
Before you blame your daily jaunt to Starbucks or weekly trip to the movies for breaking your budget, take a good hard look at how much you’re paying for less obvious but much more expensive money wasters like overdraft fees and auto insurance.

Cut back on these seven items and you could save roughly $1,000 a year.

1) Bottled Water
Getting your recommended eight glasses of water a day by bottle instead of tap is a huge waste of cash, says Phil Lempert, founder of Supermarket Guru. That buck-a-bottle water you down on a regular basis can really add up. (Even more so now that cities like Chicago collect an additional tax of five cents per bottle.)
Potential Savings: Spend $37 to buy a 40-ounce Brita pitcher and filter ($13 at Bed, Bath and Beyond), plus a four-pack of replacement filters ($24), and you'll be able to filter 200 gallons of water. Buy that much water in 24-packs of 16.9-ounce Aquafina bottles at Shop Rite instead, and you’d spend $283.50. Your total savings: $246.50.

2) Extended Warranties

Think twice before you shell out $10 a month for a two-year protection plan on your pricey new BlackBerry. New products tend to malfunction within the manufacturer’s initial warranty period, or well after any extended warranty has expired, says Michael Gartenberg, vice president of strategy and analysis for Interpret LLC, a market researcher. (Most extended warranties exclude accidental damage, too, so you’d still be out of luck if you drop that Blackberry and crack the screen.) To protect yourself, pay with the right credit card. Many credit cards -- including most American Express and MasterCard cards -- double the manufacturer’s warranty on purchases, adding up to another year of free protection.

Potential Savings: Someone buying a 40-inch Samsung flat panel high-def television at Best Buy for $800 has the option to add a four-year protection plan for another $150. Skip it, and pocket the cash instead. (The set already has a one-year manufacturer’s warranty.)

3) Gym Memberships
The cost of a gym membership can really rack up over the course of a year (an average of $775, according to the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association). So make sure you're tapping into all of the discounts available to you. Check with your employer, health insurer and other membership groups like your union or alma mater to see if they offer discounts on gym and fitness club memberships, says Bob Nelson, president of Nelson Motivation, a benefits consulting firm.
Potential Savings: On your own, you’d pay $54.99 per month, plus a $49 enrollment fee, for a national access plan at Bally’s Total Fitness. Through discounter GlobalFit.com, which offers special rates for members of partner companies, you’d pay $37.80 per month plus a $29 enrollment fee for the same Bally’s membership. Over a yearlong membership, that’s $226.28 saved.

4) Overdraft Fees
Overdraft fees can run as high as $35 apiece and banks have a host of sneaky tricks that can cause even the most diligent consumer to overdraw on an account. For example, they may approve debit purchases that would put you in the red, or re-order transactions so that the biggest purchases go through first -- and deposits get processed last. To protect yourself, sign up for overdraft protection, which can cost as little as $5 to $10 a year (and is often free with high-level checking accounts), and can save you hundreds of dollars.
Potential Savings: Pay $5 annually for a connected line of credit at Citibank. It kicks in only when you overspend, helping you to avoid the $30 fee per overdraft. Mess up just four times within a year and you've saved $115.

5) Organic Produce
Sure, buying organic makes you feel like you’re doing the right thing, but it isn't always the best choice for your wallet. Fruits and vegetables like kiwis, sweet corn and broccoli require very little pesticide to grow. Others -- like avocados, onions and pineapples -- have thick or peelable skins that reduce your exposure to harmful chemicals. “Any pesticide that remains is not getting through,” says Lempert. For a handy reminder as you shop, download the Environmental Working Group’s wallet-sized organic produce guide.
Potential Savings: Organic broccoli costs $2.99 per pound at online grocer FreshDirect, which also offers conventional broccoli for $1.49. A pound of navel oranges is $4 for the organic and $2 for conventional. Someone buying a pound of each item weekly could save $182 over the course of a year.

6) Auto Insurance
“[Auto insurers] often give discounts for consumers who don’t drive long distances,” says Sam Belden, a spokesman for Insurance.com. If your driving habits have changed in recent months -- say, you’ve switched jobs or cut out pricey trips to the mall – call your insurer to ask if you now qualify for a better rate.
Potential Savings: A driver who cuts back to fewer than 7,500 miles a year could shave 5% to 15% off his premiums, depending on his insurer. Considering that the average driver shells out $817 a year on auto insurance, according to the Insurance Information Institute, that saves $40.85 to $122.55.

7) Music Downloads
For the longest time, Apple iPod and iPhone owners were stuck downloading their music from iTunes, while consumers with other MP3 players couldn’t put the service’s content on their devices. But now, most online music purveyors (including Apple as of March) offer content in a DRM-free format -- meaning you can listen to it on any MP3 player. That frees iTunes users to pursue cheaper music from sites like Wal-Mart and Amazon.com. Music fans with other MP3 players may benefit from Apple going DRM-free, too. The company plans to revamp its fees in April, charging 69 cents to $1.29 per song instead of the current flat fee of 99 cents. Bottom line: Check prices on several sites before you download.

Potential Savings: “Hot N Cold” by Katy Perry costs 99 cents at iTunes, but just 74 cents at Wal-Mart and 79 cents at Amazon.com. Someone buying a song a week could save $10.40 to $13 annually by shopping around.





http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home...sting-Money-On