Entries Tagged 'Frugality' ↓

If gas prices have gotten you down, here’s a quick and easy way to ensure you get the maximum fuel efficiency out of your car with only a little extra effort: check your tire’s air pressure every week. This simple act, and ensuring your pressure is up to specification, can improve your fuel efficiency by a few percentage points and thus save you real money for very little extra effort.

To do this, you should get an air pump or find a gas station with free air as well as a good tire gauge. The pencil-type gauges often aren’t the best because they’re inaccurate but you can get a cheap tire gauge at your local auto parts store. Then, check your tire pressure each week and ensure it’s inflated up to the specification on the tire itself. Ignore any other spec (such as in the car’s manual), the tire will tell you what to keep it at.

You can over-inflate the tire by a pound or two (psi) if you want greater fuel mileage but that will reduce the life of the tire and reduce traction, so it’s not advised. The money you save on fuel by overinflation will be offset by the need for new tires.

The allure of cashback on all of your purchases is very tempting, unless you can’t keep track of all of your purchase and find yourself strapped for cash on paydays. One of the easiest and most old fashioned ways to get your spending in check is to always pay in cash. Credit cards, like casino chips, abstract away money and so it makes spending so much easier. A $5 cup of coffee isn’t that expensive if it’s just a swipe of the plastic. The cost hits a little closer to home if you have to pull out Mr. Lincoln and see his smirking little face leave your hands.

Another benefit, beside the immediate pain, is that you probably only carry so much cash on you. You won’t be able to spend $200 in one shot unless you actively plan to spend the $200 beforehand and get the cash. This separates the decision to spend and the decision to withdraw money and that extra step may curb your spending just a little bit.

Lastly, this won’t be some magic anti-spending bullet. You can always withdraw hundreds of dollars and leave it in your wallet, but at least you’ll have to actively make that decision.

Kroger and Sears (and Kmart and Lands’ End) have decided to offer bonuses for customers who bring in their stimulus checks into stores and put it towards gift cards. Unfortunately the closest Krogers is nearly 40 miles away but we do have a Sears right next door, but we don’t shop their often. However, with an automatic 10% discount onto a gift card that never expires!

With Sears, you need to bring in your stimulus check and must purchase the full value of the check. You will get 10% added onto the total value so a $300 check becomes a $330 gift card, a $600 check becomes a $660 gift card, etc. The promotion will last from May 14th to July 19th, 2008.

With Krogers, you bring in your tax refund or stimulus check in and can buy gift cards in $300, $600, and $1200 increments, with the balance of the check returned to the customer as cash. The difference with Krogers is that they will take tax refund checks as well, not just stimulus checks, but they will only do it in the prescribed increments.

FiveCentNickel also notified me that Suburban Wife discovered you don’t even need the physical check since many people opted for direct deposit, you can just go into a Krogers and buy the gift card in those increments with cash, credit card, or personal check. If you use a cashback rewards credit card, you can get an even bigger discount!

I love using services like Kayak.com, Travelocity, or Expedia to search for the best airline rates across various airlines but I’ve found one simple hack that can save you a quick $5 on your airfare. When airlines list their fares on those sites, the sites often add on a $5 surcharge for their own profits, and it’s $5 you can save if you go to the airlines directly!

This trick may not always work because sometimes airlines reserve a pool of tickets specifically for those sites, or external partners, so you may not find the same tickets available on the airline sites themselves. If you do find them, you can usually save yourself that little surcharge!

Buying used is a great way to save money and there are plenty of things I would never purchase brand new simply because there is little difference between new and used in those categories. Prime examples of these are books and movies, a used book is as good as a new book (check for missing pages!) and a used DVD is as good as a new DVD (check for scratches!), but there are plenty of things I would never buy used.

These items fall into three categories:

• Unable to verify quality of used, and,
• Too personal an item, and,
• Not worth the effort.

Unable to verify quality of used

This used to be a problem attributed to used cars and the whole stereotype of a used car salesmen but recently fixed as dealerships have “certified pre-owned” and other verification protocols. I don’t like buying something where the quality and durability can’t be easily verified and this applies to many things but more notably large appliances or electronics. If the cost savings is significant, I’ll still consider it but I generally don’t want to purchase an expensive used item with a history I’m completely ignorant of. Perhaps if I know my friend is an audiophile and very meticulous in upkeep, I’ll buy it from them. If it’s some random person on Craigslist, I’m not going to do it.

Too personal an item

It’s the old mantra of don’t buy used underwear or used mattresses because they’re simply too personal. I also avoid things that are an every-day type of item, I put mattresses and underwear into that category. I think everyone can identify with this category of “can’t be bought used” without further explanation.

Not worth the effort

Time is money! The difference in cost between new and used underwear, if you can even find used underwear, is negligible and the difference between new and used mattresses is simply not worth the effort it takes to find and haul a mattress. Used cars are great because the time expended is worth the amount of money you might save by buying used and used DVDs are great because the time expended is worth the money. Don’t spend hours and hours searching for something just to save a few dollars, spend that time elsewhere.

When it comes to drugs, it’s almost always about the active ingredients. I used to buy Claritin to help combat my allergies until I discovered that the product was essentially Loratadine, an anti-histamine, plus Pseudoephedrine Sulfate, a decongestant. All I needed to do was buy generic Loratadine and an OTC Pseudoephedrine (Sudafed!) product and I was getting the same drugs for a fraction of the cost. There is no evidence that brand name drugs are any better than generics and no evidence that generics have more side effects than brand name drugs, they are essentially identical.

So, save a few dollars by reviewing the active ingredients on your drugs and finding a generic that has the same active ingredients!

A great way to shave a few percentage points off your purchase is to purchase from a store located in a state that charges no sales tax. This is feasible in states that border those that don’t charge sales tax, such as those states bordering Delaware like Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey; but not so feasible for states that don’t (Hawaii, Alaska!). For people in those states, I’d recommend shopping online where sales tax is currently not being collected.

Here is a list of states that don’t charge sales tax:

• Alaska
• Delaware
• Montana - exceptions in some tourist destinations
• New Hampshire
• Oregon

When I was in college and when I had just graduated, I often turned to used furniture as a way of filling up my apartment or home. If you ever walked into a furniture storeroom, you probably were as shocked as I was to find out the prices of many of the items there (then you realized they must have had a huge markup because there’s hardly anyone ever there and about 23049823094 salespersons milling about). A couch set can easily set you back a few thousand, some nice bedroom furniture can run close to 8 grand, and even the simple stuff will be a few hundred bucks. Even with the advent of bargain stores like IKEA, the cost of getting something used always pulls it down into the affordable range. So, here are 5 tips on buying used furniture and saving a few dollars:

1. Never buy a used mattress. First off, it’s unsanitary and many places have laws against the sale of used mattresses! Second, a mattress is something that is used every single day and the chances of it still retaining the same quality years after it’s been purchased is very slim. Lastly, it’s unsanity!
2. The fewer the moving parts, the better it holds up. Bookcases are great to buy used because they have absolutely no moving parts. There are some weight bearing parts, the shelves, that may bend a bit but there are no parts that can break down and potentially break. The opposite of this would be drawers. I know that if I see an IKEA bookcase for sale somewhere, it’ll probably be in reasonably good condition when I see it. If I see a set of drawers, the chances of it being as sturdy is quite slim.
3. Some manufacturers are better than others. IKEA is cheaper for a reason, it’s cheaper because everything is particle board and plastic. Other manufacturers often make more sturdier products that hold up better in transit or under normal wear and tear. Do not be fooled though, just because it “looks” more sturdy doesn’t necessarily make it so.
4. Minimum discount is 50% off. If someone wants something for more than 50% of the original price, negotiate. There’s no reason why someone should get more than half the value of something back unless there is a very good reason (they bought a desk that won’t fit but they can’t return it).
5. Try to get it for free! If someone is selling something and it’s something you’d like but you don’t 100% love, shoot them an email saying you’ll offer to take it off their hands for free. For larger and bulkier items, the seller may decide that selling it is too much of a pain and will give it to you if you’re willing to haul it. This may not work too often though because the person could always donate it and the Salvation Army will pick it up too.

This tip comes by way of Fred from One Project Closer, in a guest post on Blueprint for Financial Prosperity that will appear in a few weeks, and its a suggestion to wrap your water heater in an insulating material to help save on electricity costs. See, a water heater is actually more than a water heater. Most of the time, it’s just a big energy sucking water holding tank and one that radiates heat into the air. So, to save a few dollars on your electricity bill, head over to your local Home Depot or Lowes and pick up some hot water heater insulation wrap and you’ll save an estimated $5-$10 a month at a one-time cost of $20.

With gas prices where they’re at now and most likely never going back down, here are a few quick driving tips to improve the efficiency of your car:

1. Carpool! That’s right, the first tip is for you to drive less by sharing rides with people you know are going your way. Do you work with someone who lives nearby? Consider setting up a carpooling agreement of some kind and you won’t have to drive as much.
2. Don’t speed. While there’s much debate as to the “optimal” speed, going 80 MPH is certainly going to put a damper on your fuel efficiency. Try to stick to the 55 MPH range and you’ll get the most out of each gallon.
3. Proper tire inflation. The air in your tires will slowly but surely leak out and so it’s important for you to keep them properly inflated to maximize both the tire life and the efficiency of your car.
4. Keep your car light and streamlined. Don’t stick flags on your car or unnecessary roof racks (or bike racks), keep your car as streamlined as possible. Also, try not to carry too much extra weight around. While I wouldn’t go as far as to recommend you remove the spare, don’t be lugging around extra junk if you don’t need to.
5. Don’t idle. When you’re idling, you’re burning fuel doing nothing. If you plan on sitting anywhere for a minute or more, shut off the car.