Today's' Economy Demands that We Find Ways to Save Money

I know we are hearing more and more about how bad the economy is, and it is true. Gas, food and utility prices are soaring way too high for the average person. So we have to look for ways to save money and some areas where we may be wasting money and not even realize it.

Let me start with a huge pet peeve of mine. A lot of people stop on the way home and buy a bottle of soda. OK you are thirsty buy your ten minutes from home and there are lots of things to drink right in the fridge. You will pay at least $1.29 for it. Thats as much or usually more than a whole two liter that was bought in the supermarket costs. Then when you go to clean out your car there are lots of half empty plastic soda bottles that are going in the trash. What a waste. If you do this everyday that is about $10.00 including taxes a week that you could keep in your pocket. So I say suck it up and wait until you get home.

There are ways to save at the supermarket too of course. I know that we have all grown up with certain brands so we automatically buy them even if they cost way more. The truth is that sometimes it matters and sometimes it doesn't. For instance of course generic or store brand peanut butter or mayonnaise tastes different, maybe you can deal with it and maybe not. But there are somethings that make absolutely no difference whether you buy name brand or generic. Just some that I can think of right off hand are flour, sugar, salt, spices, milk, eggs, and meat. There is absolutely no difference in those products, generic or name brand. There are other things you can experiment with for yourself and see if they are just as good. For example try the store brand pickles. They cost a dollar less and taste just as good. So next time you go shopping take a look around at the cheaper products, you just might find lots of changes that you can live with very easily. Also if you take a few minutes to go through your kitchen and make a list of what you need for the week for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for your family and stick to that list once you get to the store you will save a lot. If you just go in with a few vague ideas of things you need you will end up grabbing twice as much stuff than you would if you had a specific list.

I used to be a paper plate user. About a pack a week would do my family, and a big pack cost about $4.00. Before I got a dishwasher they were a necessity, because I did not have all day to stand in front of the sink doing dishes. Most of us do have dishwashers now though and plenty of room to put the plates in with the load. As for savings on other paper products I still use paper napkins, I just try not to use as many. I use a kitchen towel or wash cloth to clean up counters or messes instead of grabbing a hand full of paper towels.

Everybody that has kids home knows about the lights staying on in all the rooms all the time! It's not just kids, adults automatically reach for the light switch every time we go into a room also. Try this for keeping the lights off during the day when we don't even really need them anyway. First open your curtains or blinds so that you can see well. You might not be able to do this as much during the summer especially during the hours when the sun is really hot as this might drive your air conditioning use higher. Alot of the time though we can use natural light instead of the light switch. To keep yourself from automatically flipping the switch every time you walk into a room put a piece of tape that is easily removable over the switch in the off position. I did this to stop myself and my kids from flipping on all the time. If I'm walking into the room for ten seconds to put something up or get something, I don't need to turn it on, it was just automatic thing. If you use the "tape method" every day for one month and then check your power bill I guarantee you will see the difference. Those energy efficient light bulbs really work too. Not only will you not have to worry about changing a bulb every time you turn around, they use less energy also thus adding to you savings on your bill. You can find them at any store, they are easy to spot because they are shaped different and usually very clearly marked energy efficient.

Other bills that we can save on are our house phone and cell phone. Let's start with the house phone. I know that we all cannot live without our caller ID, but what about call waiting? Most of us don't use our house phones as much as we used to anyway because we have cell phones. If you are paying an extra fee every month for call waiting you can take that off your bill and save the money. What is the worst that can happen? If someone gets a busy signal, they will call back later or if it is an emergency they will just call your cell. There were lots of other things on my home phone bill that I found I did not need or use, such as call forwarding, call block, automatic call back, etc... so check your bill and see what is actually on there, once you see all the little things you are paying extra for I'll bet you will find that you can do without them. Now on to the cell phones, the one single thing that you must get everyone in the family to agree on is trying whenever humanly possible, is to use the free cell to cell feature. Instead of trying someone at home or at the office try their cell phone number first. Adults are worser than teenagers at this. Teenagers are so used to everyone having a cell phone that they always call their friends cell phone.

The bottom line is that there are savings everywhere, you just have to open you eyes and look for them. You have to make a conscious effort and stick to it once you have decided to start saving.