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Today’s guest post comes to us from Eliza with HappySimpleLiving.com. Enjoy!
I’m honored to be guest posting today for Jacob and My Personal Finance Journey. This blog and mine, Happy Simple Living.com, are both members of the Yakezie Network. Yakezie is one of the world’s largest networks of personal finance and lifestyle blogs, and community members are encouraged to collaborate and support each other’s efforts.
This month, select Yakezie participants were paired up to exchange guest posts on each other’s sites, and the topic is, “What is your best day-to-day money saving tip?”I enjoyed writing about this topic, and hope you’ll check out Jacob’s posting, “Saving Money on Food and Drinks,” on my blog.
~Eliza Cross
7 Painless Ways to Save Money
Reap All of the Gain, with None of the Pain
From Loose Change to Assets
I always pay for purchases with paper money instead of counting out the change. Each night, I empty the coins from my wallet into a jar in my office. When the jar gets full we take it to the credit union and deposit it in my son’s savings account. After five years of small but regular deposits, he was recently able to purchase his first $500 Certificate of Deposit – small steps, to be sure, but every little bit helps! For the highest yield, find a bank that accepts loose coins (a child with big brown eyes and a piggy bank helps) and avoid those grocery store machines that take a percentage of your coinage.
High Five
I heard this tip from a friend of mine and loved it: every time a five dollar bill ends up in your wallet, remove it and put it aside in a safe place. When you accumulate a few bills, make a deposit to your investment or savings account. Five dollar bills can add up quickly!
Look Down and Smile
Keep your eyes open, and you may be pleasantly surprised to find some cash – especially in busy parking lots. Twice I’ve found $20 bills, and now that we’ve started actively looking we’re always finding pennies and other change on the ground. My daughter once found five already-scratched- off lottery tickets on the sidewalk. She inspected them closely and discovered that one of them was a $10 winner! My son makes a habit of checking the change box in vending machines, and he often finds coins inside. Laundromats, movie theatres and fast food restaurant drive-through windows are all reported to be great places to find loose change. Some people just throw pennies on the ground and don’t think they’re worth the trouble, but consider this: the highest APR rate for a one-year CD is currently 1.36 percent. Let’s say you find $10 in miscellaneous change this month; you’d need to invest $735 for 12 months to earn that same $10 in interest.
Make Savings Automatic
The easiest way to save money is to have your company automatically deduct savings from your pay check. If you’re self employed or if your company doesn’t offer this service, the second-easiest way is to set up an automatic withdrawal from your checking account each month. Even $25 a month will add up quickly; just get started!
Go On a Money Diet
A short-term fiscal fast can be a great way to save big. Happy Simple Living sponsors the annual January Money Diet with a 31-day break from spending, but you don’t need to wait until January to chalk up some significant savings. Simply set a specific timeframe (two weeks to a month is ideal) and eliminate every single nonessential spending transaction. Stay away from the mall. Don’t even think about online shopping. Prepare meals at home. Take a break from spending for a little while, and you may decide it’s not so difficult to continue long-term. Be sure to do something significant with the savings (pay down debt, contribute to your retirement plan or make a meaningful charitable contribution) that supports your financial goals.
Turn Class Action Into Cash Action
Who knows, a company may have wronged you and as a result, you’re due some cash. TopClassActions.com provides updated listings of class action lawsuits.
Find Some Long Lost Funds
The NAUPA (National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators) is a nonprofit organization that estimates that about one out of every eight Americans is entitled to unclaimed assets, with the average claim being about $1,000. NAUPA endorses unclaimed.org and MissingMoney.com for finding unclaimed funds and other property held by the states from sources like forgotten bank accounts and inheritances, utility bill refunds, or security deposits. It certainly doesn’t hurt to check and see if you’re that lucky one in eight!
How about you all? Do you have any effective, or even quirky/creative ways that you save money?
Share your experiences by commenting below!
Jacob’s Thoughts – Below are some of my random thoughts as I was reading this great post!
- I love the idea of using your loose change to get your son interested, and more importantly, started, in saving and investing.
- One thing I might do differently is to use the opportunity to teach him about the miracle of compound interest by investing the loose change in low-fee index mutual funds. The return and risk are higher, but due to his long-term investment horizon (because he is so young), he would have potential to have more money in the long run.
- I thought I was the only one that had so much fun picking up random loose change on the sidewalk and in parking lots!
- One good place to find loose change “gems” is at a laundromat! You’d be surprised how many people drop coins at that type of place!
- It’s interesting to hear you mention finding unclaimed assets! I actually just read about how David Back recommends doing that as well in the book, Debt Free For Life
. Pick up a cheap, used copy of this book from Amazon if you all haven’t done so yet! It’s well worth the read.
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What Is Your Best Day-to-Day Money Saving Tip? – My Personal Finance Journey Guest Post Today at Happy Simple Living
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My parents always told me to spend bills and put my coins into savings, because it's painless and you barely notice them. It served me well for years and I got into the habit of never spending my change.
My husband, though, insists on paying exact change for everything and puts every bill that he can into the bank. Whenever he finds a stash of coins that I've been saving, he cashes them in.
Between the two of us, it's amazing we ever manage to spend anything.
Thanks for reading Canadian Doomer! I subscribed via email RSS feed to your blog this morning! Very interesting stuff!
I used to save all of my change in a jar, but with the advent of credit cards being used so frequently (and offering cash back bonuses to do so), I hardly use cash anymore.
My recent post Petsmart vs Petco – Which Is More Affordable – Guest Post Live Today At Budgeting In The Fun Stuff
Awesome! I look forward to reading your comments.
We're almost entirely cash-only, which makes us an anomaly.
My recent post A Few Notes About Collapse