USAinDebt

People often tend to overlook small things, but we have to always remember: the devil is in the details. Little things can change our lives, and it is not necessary that they are complicated. Take a look at this effortless list and pick what you can do to save some money the easy way.

Coffee, or the Starbucks Effect – since when do we need coffee every morning in order to get us going? Price it at least $2 per day, and in one year you can easily spend up to $600. Brewing your coffee, on the other hand will cut that cost in half.

Change your bulbs – 100 Watt regular bulbs burn 10 times more than an energy saving CFL bulb. It is good for your wallet; it is also good for the environment.

Call your banks and ask them to lower you APR’s or waive some fees. Ask to talk with a supervisor.

Save on transportation by riding the bus / subway or carpooling. Even if you do it only once a week, it will save you a lot of money on gas and other car expenses.

Don’t buy bottled water – tap water is perfectly ok to drink. At $2 per 1.5 l bottle, you are throwing away up to $1000 per year on water.

Buy generic products – they are made from the same ingredients but cost less, because you are not paying for the brand (and for their shiny packaging).

Unsubscribe from all those magazines, newspapers and cable TV. Take a walk in the park instead or read a real book.

Brown bag it and stop buying from the vending machine – first of all it is expensive, second its junk food and third one hour later you will be hungry again.

Buy stuff on sale, around the holidays and look for coupons online.

At the end, if you follow the above easy steps, you will probably save at least $3000 per year. Not bad, right?

Tags: save money | frugal living | gas

There are several websites and even programs out there that let you search a zip code for gas stations with lower gas prices. But is it really cost-effective to spend time and gas driving around just to save a questionable amount of money?

Let’s do a quick estimate. Say a gallon of gas costs $4.00 at Gas station 1, and that gas place is 1 mile away. Gas station 2 sells the same gasoline for a lower price, $3.85, and its 3 miles away. For this example, our vehicle will have a 12-gallon fuel tank and it will burn approximately 25 miles per gallon (city driving).

So, after calculating the cost of driving (which is a mix of gasoline cost and vehicle amortization cost) you basically save $1.48 per fill-up. And if you are fueling 4 times a month, 48 times per year, your savings will come to around $70 annually. Now, if you also add the cost of the time you will spend in driving (which has no price) my guess is that you will come up with the right answer to the question, ‘Is it really practical to tinker around for cents?’ all by yourself. For the rest of us, who really hate math – it’s not worth the hassle.

Tags: gas | gasoline | cheap gas | vehicle | car | auto

Companies spend a lot of money on advertising their products to the public and unfortunately that good advertising often works: people tend to buy products that they have seen on TV or read about in the magazines. Sometimes, however, those products are not the best buy. They are expensive because of the brand they are sold under at the same time they are no different that the rest of the products on the shelf. Generic, or otherwise called store brands can often save shoppers lots of green.

A good example is CVS. What does a regular CVS customer buy? Cosmetics, medicine, household supplies. So let’s get two separate carts and shop. Shampoo, toothpaste, face cleanser, pain reliever, cotton swabs.

Cart 1: contains Head & Shoudler’s Dandruff Shampoo, Classic Clean; Crest Vivid White Night Toothpaste; Clean & Clear Oil-Free Daily Pore Cleanser; Advil Ibuprofen Coated Gel Caplets; Q-tips. Total for this cart: $35.00.

Cart2: CVS Dandruff Shampoo 2 In 1, CVS Bright White Whitening Toothpaste, CVS Oil Free Acne Cleanser,Pain Relief Rapid Release Gel Caps Extra Strength, CVS Cotton Swabs Flexible Plastic. Total for this cart: $13.39.

Looking at the above, it is easy to see that the CVS store brands have saved us $21.61, which is a nice piece of change. Worried about the quality of what you are buying? Compare the ingredients and you’ll see that they are 100% identical in most products! Why pay for the brand name when you can have the same for less?

Tags: cvs | save money | store brands | generic

Rent / Mortgage, Vehicle and Food are usually the biggest expenses that we have to deal with every month. And while you can live without a car, food you definitely can’t live without. And since starving is also not an option, let’s see how you can reduce your grocery bill by becoming a smart shopper.

Coupons are a great way to save money. Your Sunday newspapers had a ton of them. Most stores also have free programs that you can join and either receive cash-back or point, which are then translated into valuable discount coupons. Of course, don’t just buy stuff because you have a coupon. You can also look-up coupons online, before you go shopping. Have your list ready, and before visiting the store Google the products that and check for coupons online.

Bulk shopping. Bulk food is always cheaper and it also save you gas and time, since you don’t need to drive to the store often to buy it. Try to concentrate on non-perishable items. A good idea is to repack bulk foods into smaller packages when you get home. If you are buying perishables, freeze them.

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We use more and more energy as days go by. One hundred years ago there were no computers, videogames or DVDs and VCRs to plug-in, no cell phones, PDAs or laptops to charge. The new electronic devices & appliances era has brought up the consumer’s energy consumption to unseen levels. And the higher the demand, the higher the cost of that energy. And it is not just about your bills, it is what it costs to our environment what matters as well.

You have most likely seen the Energy Star symbol already, and although many people are familiar with it, they actually don’t know what it means. As per Energy Star’s website, “ENERGY STAR is a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy helping us all save money and protect the environment through energy efficient products and practices.” This program awards different products with the Energy Star badge, which indicates that those appliances, office equipment or electronics help you save money and the environment by consuming less energy than ordinary products. The Energy Star website also has a whole section with great tips on how to save energy by learning to do simple things such as turning off the lights while we are not in the room, changing the air filters regularly, replacing high-wattage bulbs with Energy Star ones and many more. An excerpt from Energy Star’s website shows how important those energy-saving practices are: “If every American home replaced their 5 most frequently used light fixtures or the bulbs in them with ones that have earned the ENERGY STAR, we would save close to $8 billion each year in energy costs, and together we would prevent the greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions from nearly 10 million cars.” That’s a lot of money, isn’t it?

So, if you are looking into saving some cash on your bills, why not take a couple of minutes to review Energy Star’s website? Remember, you are not only saving green on your monthly bills. You are saving the environment for yourself and for your children.

Tags: energy star | save money on bills | energy | environment

Driving around in a car really costs more and more these days. Besides the high gasoline and maintenance prices, vehicle insurances also can take a solid bite out of your pocket. Your insurance companies charge well, but thankfully there are some ways in which you can help lower your auto insurance premium.

Your insurance premium is computed on the basis of many factors, such as the year, make and model of your vehicle, your driving experience and record, your place of residence, driving habits and even your credit score.

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$1.59 was the price per gallon of gasoline back in 1970s. This year however, this precious liquid approached and quickly surpassed the $3 per-gal mark.

What causes gasoline prices to soar? There are multiple reasons for that. Typically, rising costs are common for the summer, because a lot of people are going on vacation and more driving is involved. Holidays, such as Thanksgiving are also a precondition for a higher demand and respectively higher price. Major disasters, such as hurricanes can also be “helpful” (for example, when hurricane Katrina hit, refineries went out of order, causing a spike in prices due to higher demand and lower supply). The cost of crude oil, refinery processing costs, marketing and distribution costs, and taxes are directly reflecting on what the consumers pay at the pump. Some states such as California and Chicago require clean-burning fuel which can only be supplied from certain refineries, once again resulting in elevated prices.

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