5 Easy Tips to Save Lots of Money

My bank account has been bleeding money for the past couple of months. I’m not a compulsive shopper, I don’t buy gadgets unless I really need (crave) them, I don’t like going shopping for clothes, I don’t gamble and I’m not a party animal (any more).

On the other hand I do spend too much on fast food and I smoke, so that adds a couple extra bucks to my expenditures. Still, It’s not enough to significantly drain my wallet; but for some reason, I have been losing a couple hundred dollars per month that I can’t account for.

I’m sure that I’m not the only one who has this problem, that’s why I’m sharing this practices that I’ve started to stick to, to stop this bleed out and maximize saving capability.

Use Mint.com to track your expenses, budget efficiently and manage your money

Check your bank accounts  for unauthorized charges

Cell phone usage

For smokers only: save up to $2000 a year

Fast food / Breakfast out / Ordering lunch from work

Use Mint.com to track your expenses, budget efficiently and manage your money

I was talking about this problem I’m having with a friend and he referred me to Mint.com. It was the best advice. Ever. After a quick set-up process, you’ll have a clear picture of all your assets and debts. You don’t need to worry about routing or account numbers, just enter your online banking credentials and you are good to go. Checking, savings, investment accounts, loans and credit cards are aggregated and available at a glance. Moreover, Mint provides a great budgeting tool where you can assign budgets to categories such as Utilities, Groceries, Service Fees, Restaurants, Gas, etc. You set a monthly maximum and you’ll receive alerts when you are reaching your limit.

Another great feature is that Mint keeps a record of your transactions and automatically sorts them out. When I dinner out in Appleby’s, Mint categorizes it as a Restaurant expenditure. When I gas up in Sunoco, Mint detects where the charge came from and plugs the numbers into my gas budget.

Mint also has a very neat application, available for Android. Bottom line, I ditched Pageonce Personal Assistant and I’m all into Mint.

Check your bank accounts  for unauthorized charges

Scan your bank statements regularly for charges you don’t recognize. There’s a pretty fair chance that if you don’t know what it is, then you probably didn’t authorize that charge.

Mint can also simplify your life on this one. There were a couple of purchases that didn’t fit in any of the usual categories. So I listed my Uncategorized items and found that I’ve been spending about $70 a month on stuff I’ve never used. I’ve ordered flowers a couple of times with Proflowers. Easy Saver Rewards, connected to Proflowers, has been charging me $14.95 every month for who knows what. I did some research and apparently this scam is well known across the internet. I’m taking care of that today.

I also found unauthorized charges ($10) from a similar program tied to Fandango and a few other companies I’ve never heard of. Mint provides you with the phone number of those companies so you can call and cancel those recurring charges. Before, I had to call my bank and ask for them.

Cell phone usage

Going over your alloted minutes can turn into a big headache, just like the one I had when I checked my bill this month. I have  a $45 plan (450 minutes) with Verizon. My last bill was $420. Yeap. How did that happen? I’m still wondering (and waiting for a detailed statement of my calls), since I’m not very keen on talking on the phone for extended periods of time. Even if you have to pay $30 more bucks to beef up your plan it’s worth it compared to what you have to pay for every minute after your allowance.

For smokers only: save up to $2000 per year

I’m not a heavy smoker. I smoke 10 cigs a day, or 1 pack every 2. In Pennsylvania you can get Marlboros for around $5 a pack. Go to New Jersey and they will hurt more than $6 a pack. According to the Office for National Statistics (UK) these are some of the nation’s smoking habits:

• 17 per cent of smokers said they lit up within five minutes of waking. Heavy smokers are more likely to light up immediately and 35 per cent of those smoking 20 or more a day do so, compared with 3 per cent of those smoking fewer than 10 a day
• Heavier smokers are less likely to want to give up. The proportion wanting to give up in 2007 was highest among those smoking, on average, fewer than 20 cigarettes a day.

Instead of buying cigarette packs, roll your own. You can get 40 grams (1.41 oz) of tobacco for as cheap as $2.5, which would last between 1 or 3 weeks, depending on how heavily you smoke. So assuming you smoke 1 pack a day, rolling your own cigarettes would bring your tobacco expenditures from around $2000 to $120 per year. It’s simple math.

Smoking doesn’t have the glam it used to have. Actually, it feels like in the coming years the legal smoking substance will be Marihuana with Tobacco becoming the illegal one. Still, in some cultures, there are some social situations where having a DIY-cig is not appropriate. Keep a backup pack of cigarettes for those occasions.

Fast food / Breakfast out / ordering lunch from work

This one’s a biggie. I’m usually lazy to go to the supermarket. It takes took much time. Instead, I turn to McDonald’s, Burger King, Wawa and Turkey Hill for many of my daily meals. At the end of the week, I can end up spending up to $100.  Spending time in your grocery store will spare you from spending hundreds on coffee and donuts during the morning. Cooking the night before (or preparing a week worth of  lunches in advance) will save you an extra $7 a day.

Total estimated savings at year’s end: $6000

Tweet with me @ftarnogol

Image credit, Treehugger.com

Article by Fernando

This is my blog - I write about careers, talent management and organizational development. I've been featured at Monster.com, Alltop, WeBlogBetter and BloggingPro among others. I hope you leave this blog with more than you arrived and I look forward to discussing your ideas and projects with you. See you in the comments section.

Fernando has written 230 awesome articles for us at Fernando Tarnogol – Careers Blog

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