25 More Tips for Saving Money

It is a tough economic time for many people these days. Here's more ways to save your cold, hard cash:

1. See if you can get a cheaper cell phone plan. For example, Virgin Mobile has a $25 per month plan that features unlimited text and web, and includes 400 talk minutes.
2. Go to free events in your community. Check out the online version of your newspaper (#3) or local blogs to find out what's happening each weekend.
3. Cancel newspaper/magazine subscriptions and read their online sites instead.
4. Cancel your home internet if possible (sometimes it isn't) and use free internet at the local library or at your school/office. Even our local Home Depot has free internet which you can access from their parking lot.
5. Cook at home instead of eating out. It will save you LOTS of money.
6. Build your menus around the loss leader sale items at local stores.
7. Forage for free food. This month there are plenty of blackberries and apples in our area that are ready for picking.
8. If you need clothes try: garage sales, thrift stores, friends who are cleaning out their closets, and the clearance racks of discount stores such as Walmart, Target, and Ross. There is no reason to pay full retail for clothes that will be bargain-basement priced within a few months.
9. Make your own treats. It is simple to make everything from milkshakes, to potato chips, to cakes and more, for a whole lot less than what you would pay in a store or restaurant.
10. Think preventive medical care: exercise daily, eat nutritious food, use home remedies for non-life threatening illnesses, etc.
11. Set up your own blog and include ads. This can be a great way to express your creative side, help others with the information you provide, and make some extra money.
12. Consider some free activities you can do with the family: camping, hiking, Parkour, playing at the playground, starting a neighborhood baseball game, etc.
13. Stay out of legal trouble (this can save more money than all 25 tips combined!).
14. Consider becoming a one car--or even no car--family.
15. Consider cancelling cable and hooking up a digital antenna to your TV. You can also watch shows via your computer hooked up to your TV.
16. Have a garage sale. It will cut down on the amount of stuff you need to take care of and make you some extra money.
17. Do free stuff for your spouse: bring flowers you picked on the way home (for wives), tell the husband to go fishing while you mow the yard, etc. Happy spouse, happy house.
18. Pack your kid's lunch for school each day. And/or, if you qualify, sign your kids up for free or reduced cost lunches at school (a caveat: I recently look at the menu for one of the grandkid's school lunch programs and nearly everything they were serving looked like stuff we don't even eat because of how unhealthy it is so beware).
19. Ask friends and family to help on yard/home projects instead of hiring labor. Of course you should be willing to help them out when needed.
20. Reload your own ammo. If you have a group of friends that want to do so, consider sharing the cost of reloading equipment.
21. Barter for services. Want to take karate classes but don't have the money? Find out what services you should provide the local karate school and trade for lessons.
22. Use CraigsList to your advantage. Sell stuff, buy stuff (at much cheaper than retail prices), check out their "gigs" if you need to make some money, put in an ad for your own services each week, etc.
23. Make your own beverages! If you have a daily Starbucks/Dunkin Donuts habit, this could save you LOTS of money.
24. Make a spare bedroom the "family room" when the temps drop outside; this new family room can be heated with a space heater at a fraction of the cost of heating the entire house.
25. Consider renting out spare rooms in your house. This may give you flashbacks to college, but when times are tight, any extra money helps and it also provides shelter for someone who could use it.

Stay tuned for more money saving tips...