Saving money doesn’t have to have a negative connotation to it. You also don’t have to be extremely frugal or cheap to save or want to save money. Really, it’s a concept of getting the biggest bang for your buck while still keeping your pockets (bank account) fat. Wanting save money could be a desire to spend less on one thing and having enough money to spend on another thing.
Saving Money on Entertainment
- Movies: With movies going for approximately $14 per ticket, Movie Pass allows for buyers to purchase a membership for $9.99 a month and go to as many movies as they want with that subscription. Within two weeks of signing up, you get your Movie Pass card. You can then go to a participating movie theater, find what move you want, “pay” for the movie and then pick up your movie ticket at the theater. (https://www.moviepass.com/)
- Television: I dumped cable (Comcast/Xfinity) a long time ago because paying almost $200 a month (yes, internet was included) was insane. Right now I spend $12.99 for Netflix for me and my daughter, $99 an annual Amazon Prime Membership, and $20 a month for SET TV (https://www.setvnow.com/)
- Free Movie Night: There are lots of cities and towns that have free movie night on various days during the week in the summer. While the movies are not the ones in the theater at the time it can be a great experience just to go out and get some entertainment. I’ve gone to see The Wiz while living in Philadelphia and while I am an adult and my daughter was in high school we went to see Frozen for free.
- Cable TV: If you do still have cable and you want to save money you can always negotiate your rate(s) at the end of your contracts. Sometimes you can do it before. Threatening to leave is a great way to get a discount or advising the company of a competitors prices may get the job done, too.
Saving Money on Cars
- Purchasing cars can be costly but there are things that you can do to reduce your overall costs when it comes to purchasing. One thing to do is to buy pre-owned versus new. A certified pre-owned vehicle has been carefully inspected. I purchased a year old pre-owned Toyota Camry years ago. New Camry’s were going for $28,000 but my year old, Camry with 13,000 miles on it was only $17,000.
- Look for the best interest rate. Don’t walk into a dealership with no plan on how you will finance it. If you don’t have that great credit your interest rate on a car will not be that great. If you are unsure of what your credit score is then you should sign up for Credit Karma and you will be provided a credit score. It may vary from the one the dealership will have but you will at least have some idea of where you stand.
- There are many expenses associated with owning a car (getting the oil changed, tires, and just overall maintenance). There is nothing wrong with getting or searching for coupons that will give you deals on certain things you may have to buy for your car or get done to your car.
Saving Money on Cell Phones
- Cell phones along with the monthly charges can be very expensive. However, there are deals out there. You should annually look to see if there are any companies that provide better and cheaper service than your current cell phone provider. https://www.consumerreports.org/u-s-cell-phone-carriers/best-cell-phone-plans-save-money/
Saving Money on Clothes
- Shopping in the Clearance Racks
Shopping clearance is the best! You look for the red/yellow label that is on top of the price tag!!!!
2. Shopping in Thrift/Consignment Stores
There are plenty of shopaholics out there who buy things and then decide they no longer need an item. I am guilty of being one of those people will buy an item, never wear it and then drop if off to sell it at a consignment store.
3. Online Clothing Stores: Thredup (https://www.thredup.com/) is a GREAT online shopping store. It is billed as the largest online thrift store and consignment store. You can sell items on this site as well as buy items. They also have sales and other discounts on items being sold.
Saving Money on Furniture:
- Shop thrift stores and consignment stores. There is NOTHING like finding a great deal on a great piece of furniture or other household item. I LOVE shopping at thrift stores and consignment stores (especially) for items for my home. I’ve currently have a very unique mirror that I got from a consignment store and purchased some original 1970’s bar stools for my home. I had the chairs for about 15 years and never could figure out what to do with them so I ended up having a yard sale, posted several items on Facebook, and those chairs were one of the first things to go. I honestly still have no idea what I should have done with those but they were a great conversation piece.
- Clearance Section of Furniture Store: Most furniture stores have a clearance section. When I was living in Massachusetts I would often frequent this store called Jordan’s Furniture. After you walked through the main floor you could go to their clearance section. One day I spotted this really nice couch for sale on the main floor but I couldn’t find it. I know that in a lot of furniture stores some of the items make it to the clearance section. One day this couch which had been selling for about $800 was in the clearance section for $300. I paid for the item after jumping for joy and asked my best friend who had a Cadillac Escalade at the time if he could help move it for me which he did.
- Yard Sales: After I graduated from college a high school friend of mine got our first apartment. We both had bedroom furniture but no living room furniture. My parents lived in a wealthy town and I people who were moving because of downsizing or other reasons sold their furniture. My roommate and I got a GREAT sofa for $75. We had it cleaned and we thought we were the big deal. LOL.
- Buying the Floor Model Version: I’ve had more couches/sofas than I have had cars so YES this is another story about a couch. I saw a couch I wanted for my almost empty new home. I made the mistake of buying something that was too big for me (a five bedroom house) and was intent on furnishing each part of the house. I went to a furniture store and the sofa I wanted wasn’t going to be ready for several weeks so I asked if I could buy the floor model and was told yes. I got a substantial discount on the floor model and it was delivered to my house within days.
Saving Money on Travel:
- Although I don’t like purchasing things on credit I do use PayPal Credit (https://www.paypalcredit.com/index.html )to purchase airline tickets. PayPal Credit used to be a program called “Bill Me Now.” Under PayPal Credit there are a number of vendors you can buy from. The way it works is you pay for the item and as long as you pay off your bill within six months, you do not have to pay for any interest. This is great if you don’t want to drop several hundred dollars on an airline ticket. So let’s say that you found a round trip ticket for $300. If you purchased it through PayPal Credit, you’d only pay $50 per month interest free.
- Create a Vacation Fund/Account: Similar to saving for your retirement, have a vacation fund/account where you have money automatically deducted from your salary into a separate savings account specifically for travel. Having a vacation fund/account will help you not to add to your credit card debt.
- Travel with Friends if You Can: Travel with a group of friends and split the cost of the hotel. When I went to Dubai I traveled with my sister and our girlfriend. We had a decent sized room for the three of us and split the costs of cabs when we went to different places in the city.
- Become a Licensed Travel Agent: I have a friend who became a licensed travel agent just to discounted trips. Through her, my flight to Dubai only cost the taxes on the ticket. In another situation, we were able to split the cost of a hotel ($500) for a week long stay in Mexico.
- Look for Travel Deals on Groupon: Groupon has some great travel deals but read the fine print always.
- My favorite way to reserve a hotel is on Booking.Com. I like Booking.com because when I make reservations I use the option to not have any cancellation fees should I change my mind about the hotel and they have some GREAT deals on hotels. I plan out my trips a year in advance and I am always searching for the best deals on hotels, etc. (https://www.booking.com/).
- Look at discount airline companies such as Southwest and Jet Blue, etc. I use Southwest all the time for my trip mainly because they are the best from where I am, their rates are very reasonable (and if you find a cheaper rate they will give you credit), and I earn rewards for my travel. I have been able to take a few trips just based on my points alone. One time I had enough points that I could travel to Washington, DC and only paid $90 for the trip.
This list is not an exclusive list. I am sure if I sat her for much longer the list would be much longer. What this list to me represents is that you can live (frugally) and still be able to LIVE. Let me know what you think and other ways you save!!!