Keep More Income

If you’re interested in saving lots of money, limiting how often you eat out will pay you in strides. You’ve heard it before, and I’m going to reiterate it for you right now.

I’m shocked when I observe how much my friends and family spend to eat out. Many of my coworkers, for example, buy their lunch at work every day. Where I work, this will set them back a minimum of $5 a day, and at an average of probably about $7 a day. On the low end, they’re dropping $25 every work week for just lunch alone — or $100/month.

I, on the other hand, have my lunch prepared ahead of time every day. My lunches average a maximum of about $2 a meal, and are frequently less than that. At my maximum cost, I’m spending $40/month.

A lot of people I know scoff at the idea of saving just $60/month. But the trickle down effect results in so much more in savings than that.

After one month of practicing something, it generally becomes a habit. Once preparing your food ahead of time rather than eating out becomes a habit, you will find yourself eating out less and less. You won’t be heading out to eat dinner — you’ll just eat what you have prepared yourself. The $60 you save on monthly lunches will turn into an extra $40 that you save on dinners. That $40 you save on dinners will slowly turn into an extra $20 you save on snacks throughout the day. You get the idea.

Having food prepared saves you when you have to meet friends for food, too. I hate that our society equates “hanging out with friends” to “going out for food,” but such is life. Since I always have my meals prepared ahead of time, I can eat a quick snack and go into restaurants without being starved and just order a small side dish, rather than a full entree. I save money, and I save the embarrassment of not having anything to eat.

I’m shocked when I read reports of people spending upwards of $200/month eating out. Wouldn’t you rather cut that food spending down to $40/month, and pocket the extra $160? Combined with other tips and techniques I provide, this will add a hefty chunk of change to your monthly savings.

Stay tuned tomorrow for tips on how to prepare your food efficiently.

A lot of us do small transactions with cash every day. I know that if you’re anything like me, at the end of the day, your pockets are rattling with change.

I used to ignore the build-up of small coins, usually either letting them sink into couch cushions or just simply losing it all around the house or in the outside world. Growing up, my parents even had a bucket of loose pennies they collected. They never deposited it, but I would guess there was at least $50 in pennies in there!

Now I know better. At the end of every day, I have a small cup that I dump my change into. At the end of the month, I take that change to the bank and have them deposit it into my account. Most banks have automated change-counting machines — no need to run to a CoinStar.

Now, I’ll be honest. I am a very frugal person and don’t buy things very often when I’m out. But, even so, I net a solid $20 to $40 at the end of every month, just from the pocket change I would have otherwise ignored.

$20 to $40 a month, just from emptying the change from your pockets every day into a cup or two? Sounds good to me.

I am a huge advocate of buying online. Most items I want, I can find online at the best price. Sometimes I can even find the best prices in my local stores, but through deals I find online.

I had a dark period a number of years ago, though, where I found so many great deals online that I was just wasting money. I was buying things I didn’t need and, even though I was saving on those items, in the long run I was throwing money away at extravagances, all in the name of a “great deal.”

I now have a very specific system that helps me save money on the items I buy, and without the temptation to buy other goods. It’s a very simple process, actually.

I stick with one or two deal forums, and whenever I am looking for an item, I simply go to those two forums and search for the item or service I’m looking for.

For example, I recently needed to get an HDMI cable for my DVD player. A basic HDMI cable in all the local stores were anywhere from $30 to $100.

I ended up heading over to my favorite forum, Fatwallet, and simply searched for “hdmi cable.” That resulted in a forum listing for monoprice.com, which had the exact cable I was looking for for $5. The store and cable both had rave reviews, and I have been happy with the purchase since.

What’s important, though, is that you just search for the item you want, find the deal, and leave. Do not stick around and read other deals, because I can guarantee you will get tempted to buy something you don’t need.

I do not recommend going to web sites that list deals daily, but instead relying on forums like these. The reason for this is that many deals come and go quickly, and sites that list deals daily often miss out or cannot provide follow-ups on whether or not a deal is still alive. The forums, however, are kept up-to-the-minute and are regularly updated by active users.

By the way, the forums I search on are (in order of preference):

• Fatwallet Hot Deals Forum
• Slickdeals

Bars and clubs are interesting places to me. Most people have no problems paying $10 or more just to get inside, and then they throw away another $20 minimum on drinks.

Being young and social, I am no stranger to bars and clubs. I am definitely not a regular at any particular bar or club, but a while back I learned a little trick that helped me get into places with cover fees either free or half price.

I was going to meet some friends at a bar one night, but found myself there early — about an hour early, in fact. The bar was nearly dead, but the bouncer was outside, bracing himself for the night.

Being bored with the lifeless crowd inside, I stepped outside to where the bouncer was. I made a little bit of small chat and then popped the question:

“Hey, you want a drink?”

Now, I am not a drinker. I have maybe a beer or two every couple of weeks. This doesn’t mean I can’t treat others to drinks, though.

The bouncer obliged, told me his drink of choice, and I got it for him. He asked for a fairly expensive beer — set me back about $14 — but I saw it as an investment. We talked a bit more, exchanged names, and then I headed back inside to meet up with my friends, who were slowly trickling in.

Since that night, I get into that particular bar for free any time there is a cover and that bouncer is there. Mentioning that I am that bouncer’s buddy when he isn’t there usually results in me getting in for half price, minimum. A lot of my friends get in for free or half price, too, just for showing up with me. A lot of times we can cut long lines, too.

Show up to a bar early — before the crowds — and buy the bouncer a drink. That $14 drink and the few minutes of chatting time have saved me tons in cover fees, and have helped me in my social life too.

I save a ton of money every year by calling my utility providers to get lower rates.  For example, I do not pay full price for my cable Internet or my cell phone.

I’m shocked by how many people don’t bother calling their utility providers to get lower rates.  In fact, I’m shocked by how many people don’t even know they can do this.

My cable Internet regularly costs $44.95/month, but there are “new customer” promotions running all the time for around $15 or $20 less per month.  I always get the “new customer” rates, even though I’ve been with my provider over a year and am definitely not a new customer.

How do I do this?  Simple — I simply call up, threaten to switch to DSL, and ask what can be done to keep my business.  Framing is very important in this situation — don’t give the customer service representative a chance to shoot you down.  If I were to ask, “Is there anything you can do to keep my business?” they can easily tell me no.  If I give them the opportunity to take me back and frame the question as though I expect something in return (”what can you do to keep my business?”) I am more likely to get an offer back.

Here’s the most important part of this: If your offer to switch to a competitor’s service falls on deaf ears, simply hang up, call back, and speak to a different customer service representative.  Do the same thing until you get someone who offers you the promotional rate.

Whenever my promotional period runs up, I simply call back and start the whole process over.

NOTE: it helps to know competitor’s rates.  Use a deal web site, like the Fatwallet Forums, to know competitor prices.

Another way to try and save money is simply to call your utility providers and ask if you are eligible for any kind of corporate or membership discount.  They will ask you questions and there is a chance you are like me and ended up being eligible for a 20% monthly job-related discount.  Others will find out they can get a discount simply because they are a member of a specific service, like AAA.

I even had a friend once call his cell phone provider and simply ask what promotional offers were available and end up with free text messaging!

Don’t be afraid to call up your cable, cell phone, and other providers and wring out whatever kind of deals you can.

I work in the technical support field, and I have to tell you, I see so much money thrown away in the form of broken computers.

The average person has zero use for a computer that doesn’t work, no matter what the ailment is.  One of the most common questions I get when I diagnose a computer that’s dead and expensive to fix is, “How do I get rid of it?”

A lot of people automatically opt for recycling programs.  I, on the other hand, get paid to recycle my dead electronics on craigslist.org.

There is a huge market for broken computers on craigslist simply because, when a computer dies, usually it is only one or two components that are bad.  All the other parts are just fine.  This includes any kind of casing on computer or any other small parts internally.  People with computer repair businesses can easily pull parts and make lots of money back on their investment in repair costs.

I am a Mac enthusiast.  I had two dead computers laying around in my closet.  One was a completely dead iBook laptop from 2001.  It hadn’t been touched in about four years and I had dropped it.  It didn’t turn on at all and had a few dead components.  But, because the screen, keyboard, and more were salvageable on it, I was able to sell it for $80.

A dead iMac of mine from 2002 went for $100.  Same deal — wouldn’t boot up, but had plenty of salvageable parts that dealers could use for other repairs.

Both of these were sold in the same one week period.  $180 and I cleared up some space in my closets.

Next time you have a dead computer, don’t let it sit around in your closet.  Try listing it on craigslist.org and get some money for it.